Nothing Whatever to Grumble At

by John Reed

'Nothing Whatever To Grumble At'? . well, hardly ever! There are one or two grumbles in John's story, it's true, but the few you'll find pale into insignificance against his joy of performing in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. But this book begins long before John's twenty-eight years with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company; it starts with his happy childhood, and his early days in the theatre. And after the D'Oyly Carte, his amazing second career which spanned a further fourteen years as a freelance performer and director.

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

American journalist John Silas Reed, a correspondent of World War I, recounted an experience in Petrograd during the revolution of October 1917 in Ten Days That Shook the World (1919) and, after returning to the United States, cofounded the Communist labor party in 1919; people buried his body in the Kremlin, the citadel, housing the offices of the Russian government and formerly those of the Soviet government, in Moscow.

This poet and Communist activist first gained prominence as a war correspondent during the Mexican revolution for Metropolitan magazine and during World War I for the magazine The Masses. People best know his coverage.

Reed supported the Soviet takeover of Russia and even briefly took up arms to join the Red guards in 1918. He expected a similar Communist revolution in the United States with the short-lived organization.

He died in Moscow of spotted typhus. At the time of his death, he perhaps soured on the Soviet leadership, but the Soviet Union gave him burial of a hero, one of only three Americans at the Kremlin wall necropolis.

Reviews

[Wilbur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light and frothy. A delightful story.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Reed was with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for 28 years; he was principal commedian for 20 of those years. After he broke away from the company, he spent 14 more years performing or directing--mostly in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Loving G & S as I do, I enjoyed his personal story; his interpretations of the characters he played; the practical jokes the members of the company worked on each other; and his comments about people he worked with or met in his travels. One anecdote that particularly stuck home with me was a meeting in 1988 in Washington with a young tenor who was trying to raise money to re-open an old theatre which was in a "dreadful state." He gave a G and S concert in Salt Lake which helped raise money for this project. He goes on to say, "the restoration venture was apparently a great success, as the theatre is now a large and important venue, able to accommodate major opera and ballet companies--and I find my name is still on the board." That young tenor, Michael Ballam, is the director of the beautifully restored old Capitol theater in Logan where I used to go see movies when I was a kid!