32 results for "Biography"

Right here on our stage tonight! Ed Sullivan's America

Nachman, Gerald
Before the advent of cable and its hundreds of channels, before iPods and the Internet, three television networks ruled America's evenings. And for twenty-three years, Ed Sullivan, the Broadway gossip columnist turned awkward emcee, ruled Sunday nights. It was Sullivan's genius to take a worn-out stage genre-vaudeville-and transform it into the TV variety show, a format that was to dominate for decades. Right Here on Our Stage Tonight! tells the complete saga of The Ed Sullivan Show and, through the voices of some 60 stars interviewed for the book, brings to life the most beloved, diverse, multi-cultural, and influential variety hour ever to air. Gerald Nachman takes us through those years, from the earliest dog acts and jugglers to Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and beyond. Sullivan was the first TV impresario to feature black performers on a regular basis-including Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey, James Brown, and Richard Pryor-challenging his conservative audience and his own traditional tastes, and changing the face of American popular culture along the way. No other TV show ever cut such a broad swath through our national life or cast such a long shadow, nor has there ever been another show like it. Nachman's compulsively readable history, illustrated with classic photographs and chocked with colorful anecdotes, reanimates The Ed Sullivan Show for a new generation.
University of California Press 2009 455 pages

Confessions of a good girl

McLean, Andrea
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 'Loose Women's' Andrea McLean is much loved for her bubbly, warm personality. But her life has seen its share of heartache, as well as love and happiness, and now she's finally ready to tell the full story. She takes us from a childhood spent constantly on the move, leaving her feeling like an outsider, to landing a dream job as a weathergirl on GMTV. She describes the tough lessons she had to learn to survive in TV and her hilarious - and sometimes disastrous - encounters with celebrities as a showbiz reporter. She reveals how she pushed herself to be the perfect daughter, the perfect wife and mother - so when she had an affair that ended her first marriage, the guilt and self-loathing drove her shockingly close to a breakdown.
Sidgwick & Jackson 2012 308 pages

Between the lines: my story uncut

Donovan, Jason
The ultimate Eighties heart-throb Jason Donovan came close to destroying his body, mind, soul and career with drugs. Never one to shy away from the truth, Jason writes candidly about Kylie and winning the battle with his demons in the paperback of his bestselling bombshell autobiography. Jason Donovan burst onto our TVs in the 80s as Scott Robinson from Neighbours, one half of TV couple Scott and Charlene with Kylie Minogue. Kylie and Jason became the celebrity couple of the eighties and released the number one Stock, Aitken and Waterman hit Especially For You in 1988. But behind the squeaky-clean popstar image was a man increasingly addicted to recreational drugs and on a spiralling downwards path until the love of a good woman pulled him through. His pop career launched, Jason went on to sell over 30 million records worldwide and appeared in West End musicals such as Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat and, more recently, The Rocky Horror Show. But just as Jason reached the pinnacle of his career, everything collapsed around him. When Jason sued style magazine The Face for calling him gay, the press tore him apart. Years of binge drug taking and partying to excess followed. In his frank and honest account of his life, Jason talks candidly about the drugs that nearly saw the end of his career, about his relationship with the princess of pop, Kylie Minogue, and how he finally got his own very happy ending with the woman who saved him, his partner Angela and their two children.
HarperCollins 2008-07 292 pages

Freud ego

Freud, Clement
Sir Clement Freud, renowned raconteur and wit, grandson of Sigmund Freud, writes frankly of his extraordinarily rich life as a member of one of Britain's most illustrious families. When Clement arrived in England, he was dispatched to a notorious "progressive" school, where he spent more time drinking than attending lessons. After an eccentric childhood and a spell as an apprentice chef at the Dorchester Hotel, things went downhill as he became a soldier, night-club owner, journalist, television personality and Liberal MP.
ISIS 2003 326 pages

I thought he was dead: a spiritual memoir

Benmergui, Ralph
"When Ralph Benmergui discovered he was literally hours away from a deadly heart attack he realized his life had changed. He was entering the autumn of his life, as he saw it, and he was being dragged into it by his heels. What follows this awakening is a funny, profound and generous look at where he has come from - from his childhood as the youngest son of Moroccan immigrants, to his experiences during the early years of YukYuks, to his long and storied career at CBC, along with much more - to where he is now, with stents in his arteries, having survived two bouts of cancer, hosting a much-loved podcast and a with practice in Hashpa'ah, Jewish Spiritual Direction. Along the way Benmergui looks critically at what it means to grow old in our society and challenges the reader to push against the stereotypes, to find a new purpose, and to claim the title and role of elder in a society that demands we strive to stay 'forever young.'"--
James Street North Books 2021 289 pages

Funny, peculiar: the true story of Benny Hill

Lewisohn, Mark
Benny Hill`s saucy smirks at underdressed women are relished the world over. Yet the comedian cut an unlikely figure of global admiration: unmarried and emotionally enfeebled in his few relationships, he was a deeply private individual uninterested in the trappings of success, a frugal man content to live in his humble childhood home flooded, freezing and burgled while his building society account bulged with millions of pounds he didn`t use and hadn`t wanted to earn. Funny, Peculiar is the first objective and full account of Benny Hill`s life and work. Tenaciously researched and yet sensitively reported, it charts the highs, lows and many paradoxes of a man whose professional strengths-observation, impression and mime-bought him unimagined success, and whose weakness, especially an inability to change, fashioned his ultimate downfall. - First in-depth biography since Benny`s death in April 1992. - A return to favour with audiences who are jaded with `alternative comedy`. - Existing biographies are unreliable, lightweight and out of date. - Benny has been screened in 109 countries, and enjoyed for over 50 years
Pan 2003 528 pages

The sunny side of Winters: a variety of memories

Winters, Mike
‘Why did we get into showbiz? One reason may have been the thought of working with beautiful show girls and meeting glamorous actresses'Mike Winters has been fortunate enough to have lived and worked part of his life in the same circles as a lot of famous people. But this was a far cry from when he was growing up in Tottenham, when his dream was to play rugby for England. Instead, Mike, with his brother Bernie, topped the bill at the London Palladium, and most of the major theatres in the UK. They had their own highly-successful TV series, running for 15 years, and were honoured with a Command Performance in front of the Queen and Prince Phillip. Little did Mike know that he'd later get to know her son. And Mike's view of this? ‘Stuff just happens.' In this fascinating, unpretentious account, Mike shares his precious memories and stories. They cover many years and involve an eclectic mix of stars and characters: Sean Connery, Cary Grant, Helen Mirren, Dusty Springfield, Jack Benny, mobster Meyer Lansky, Jimmy Tarbuck and The Beatles (who appeared on their show three times!), as well as sports personalities such as Don Revie, Matt Busby and Malcolm Allison, to name but a few. These were different days, when entertainers at all levels mixed together. Mike sung, danced, duetted, joked around with, did impressions of, or simply shot the breeze with, many talented men and woman in Variety and Television. Funny, charming and revealing, The Sunny Side of Winters is a heartfelt celebration of life, celebrity and brotherhood.Mike Winters has written four book, two novels, the authobiography of Angelo Dundee (with Angelo Dundee), and Axis of Greatness about Dundee, Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard (published by JR Books). He lives in Florida.
JR 2010-06-25 246 pages