A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries

A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries
Author: Julie Coleman
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 515
Release: 2008-10-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0191563587

This book continues Julie Coleman's acclaimed history of dictionaries of English slang and cant. It describes the increasingly systematic and scholarly way in which such terms were recorded and classified in the UK, the USA, Australia, and elsewhere, and the huge growth in the publication of and public appetite for dictionaries, glossaries, and guides to the distinctive vocabularies of different social groups, classes, districts, regions, and nations. Dr Coleman describes the origins of words and phrases and explores their history. By copious example she shows how they cast light on everyday life across the globe - from settlers in Canada and Australia and cockneys in London to gang-members in New York and soldiers fighting in the Boer and First World Wars - as well as on the operations of the narcotics trade and the entertainment business and the lives of those attending American colleges and British public schools. The slang lexicographers were a colourful bunch. Those featured in this book include spiritualists, aristocrats, socialists, journalists, psychiatrists, school-boys, criminals, hoboes, police officers, and a serial bigamist. One provided the inspiration for Robert Lewis Stevenson's Long John Silver. Another was allegedly killed by a pork pie. Julie Coleman's account will interest historians of language, crime, poverty, sexuality, and the criminal underworld.

On the Edge of America

On the Edge of America
Author: Paul J. Karlstrom
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780520088504

"The past quarter century has witnessed the emergence of a scholarly appreciation of American art in California. Yet assessments of the early modern (pre-1950) have been haphazard. Now in one bold volume, these scholars have remedied that deficiency. Thanks to the rich essays of this wonderful book, the art history of California--and the nation!--is graced with further light."--Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California "The authors of these essays illuminate a diverse and compelling history, one in which what happened at the geographic edges sheds new light on the European points of original. A lively and valuable contribution, not just to regional history, but to the making and transmission of modernism."--Whitney Chadwick, Professor of Art History, San Francisco State University "A welcome and overdue evaluation of the distinctive history of modernism in California, these essays sensitively explore a cultural terrain at once familiar and strange, surveying memorable achievements from painting to photography to architecture and film. The authors provocatively suggest the centrality of 'edges'--wherever they are found--to the national tale, and demonstrate it through significant developments on our western margin. A must for any serious student of American art and culture."--Charles C. Eldredge, The University of Kansas "An engrossing examination of modernist practices in California before the Abstract Expressionists and beatniks came to town. It includes art scenes peopled by Mexican muralists, European artists in exile, third-generation Californians, idealist photographers, and immigrant artisans."--Wanda Corn, Professor of Art History, Stanford University "These fascinating essays do much more than fill a major gap in our understanding of American regionalism. Their scope is superb because of the inclusive range of their definition of 'art, ' the varied ethnicities of the artists discussed, and the distinctive impact of environment, light, and culture on California art. A dazzling treasure, as pleasing to the eye as it is to the mind."--Michael Kammen, Professor of History, Cornell University

Gotcha Good!

Gotcha Good!
Author: Kathleen A. Baxter
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2008-07-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1591588464

This fifth Gotcha! book, aimed at public and school librarians and teachers, discusses well-reviewed and kid-tested nonfiction titles for third through eighth grade readers published in 2005-2007 with a few extra oldies but goodies added in. Chapters are built around the high- interest topics kids love. Irresistible book descriptions and book talks guide librarians and teachers to nonfiction books kids want to read. New features include numerous booklists to copy and save (similar to the bookmarks in Gotcha for Guys!) and profiles and interviews of some innovative authors such as Sally Walker, Kathleen Krull, Catherine Thimmesh, Steve Jenkins, Ken Mochizuki, and others. Grades 3-8. This fifth Gotcha! book, aimed at public and school librarians, as well as elementary and middle school teachers, discusses well-reviewed and kid-tested nonfiction titles for third through eighth grade readers published in 2005-2007 with a few extra oldies but goodies added in. Chapters are built around the high-interest topics kids love as the authors provide irresistible book descriptions to guide librarians and teachers to nonfiction books kids will want to read. Features include numerous booklists that can be copied and saved (similar to the bookmarks in the authors' Gotcha for Guys!), as well as profiles and interviews of some innovative nonfiction authors such as Sally Walker, Kathleen Krull, Catherine Thimmesh, Steve Jenkins, Ken Mochizuki, and others. Grades 3-8.

From Traveling Show to Vaudeville

From Traveling Show to Vaudeville
Author: Robert M. Lewis
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2003-11-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801870873

Before phonographs and moving pictures, live performances dominated American popular entertainment. Carnivals, circuses, dioramas, magicians, mechanical marvels, musicians, and theatrical troupes—all visited rural fairgrounds, small-town opera houses, and big-city palaces around the country, giving millions of people an escape from their everyday lives for a dime or a quarter. In From Traveling Show to Vaudeville, Robert M. Lewis has assembled a remarkable collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century primary sources that document America's age of theatrical spectacle. In eight parts, Lewis explores, in turn, dime museums, minstrelsy, circuses, melodramas, burlesque shows, Wild West shows, amusement parks, and vaudeville. Included in this compendium are biographies, programs, ephemera produced by theatrical entrepreneurs to lure audiences to their shows, photographs, scripts, and song lyrics as well as newspaper accounts, reviews, and interviews with such figures as P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody. Lewis also gives us reminiscences about and reactions to various shows by members of audiences, including such prominent writers as Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, O. Henry, and Maxim Gorky. Each section also includes a concise introduction that places the genre of spectacle into its historical and cultural context and suggests major interpretive themes. The book closes with a bibliographic essay that identifies relevant scholarly works. Many of the pieces collected here have not been published since their first appearance, making From Traveling Show to Vaudeville an indispensable resource for historians of popular culture, theater, and nineteenth-century American society.

Jimmy Durante

Jimmy Durante
Author: David Bakish
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2007-03-07
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0786430222

From his humble beginnings as a Coney Island piano player, Jimmy Durante was one of America's best-loved entertainers for nearly seven decades. Known for his distinctive "schnozzle" and raspy voice, the multitalented performer became a stage, screen and recording star. Every aspect of Jimmy Durante's career is covered here: his early vaudeville and Broadway days; the 38 movies he made; his radio appearances; the mixture of new and old material he brought to television in the late 1950s; and his work as a singer and composer.

Through the Screen Door

Through the Screen Door
Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2004
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780810850187

This book is about the transition that musicals went through when they traveled from the stage to the screen. While the approach is critical, the style is readable and yields fascinating knowledge on the many things that did and didn't happen as theatre and film have merged throughout the past century.Hischak'sanalysis covers productions from The Desert Song (1927), to Chicago (2002).

Charles Walters

Charles Walters
Author: Brent McCullough-Phillips
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0813147239

From the trolley scene in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's last dance on the silver screen (The Barkleys of Broadway, 1949) to Judy Garland's timeless, tuxedo-clad performance of "Get Happy" (Summer Stock, 1950), Charles Walters staged the iconic musical sequences of Hollywood's golden age. During his career, this Academy Award–nominated director and choreographer showcased the talents of stars such as Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and Frank Sinatra. However, despite his many critical and commercial triumphs, Walters's name often goes unrecognized today. In the first full-length biography of Walters, Brent Phillips chronicles the artist's career, from his days as a featured Broadway performer and protégé of theater legend Robert Alton to his successes at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He takes readers behind the scenes of many of the studio's most beloved musicals, including Easter Parade (1948), Lili (1953), High Society (1956), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). In addition, Phillips recounts Walters's associations with Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford, and Gloria Swanson, examines the director's uncredited work on several films, including the blockbuster Gigi (1958), and discusses his contributions to musical theater and American popular culture. This revealing book also considers Walters's personal life and explores how he navigated the industry as an openly gay man. Drawing on unpublished oral histories, correspondence, and new interviews, this biography offers an entertaining and important new look at an exciting era in Hollywood history.

The Unrivalled Spangles

The Unrivalled Spangles
Author: Karen Wallace
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2006
Genre: Circus
ISBN: 1416915036

Longing to give up the nineteenth-century English circus life she was born into, sixteen-year-old Ellen Spangle secretly prepares to be a governess and is courted by a wealthy young man until two tragedies lead her to reevaluate her plans.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia
Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2007-06-30
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1567206840

Still the most influential and popular songwriting team in the history of the American Musical Theatre, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein represent Broadway musicals at their finest. The team revolutionized the musical play with Oklahoma! in 1943 and then went on to explore territory never put on the musical stage before in such beloved shows as Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. The team also worked in film, as with State Fair, and in the new medium of television, with Cinderella. For the first time, the lives, careers, works, songs, and themes of Rodgers and Hammerstein have been gathered together in an encyclopedia that covers the many talents of these men. In addition to their plays and films together, every work that each man did with other collaborators is also discussed. Hundreds of their songs are described, and there are entries on the many actors, directors, and other creative artists who they worked with. A complete list of awards, recordings, and books about the team are included, as well as a chronology of everything either man wrote. But The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia is not just about facts. It explains their work, explores themes in their musicals, and illustrates why they remain a driving force in the American Theatre. This is the first encyclpoedia to look specifically at the careers and works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, covering all their musicals together for stage, screen and televsion, but also everything they wrote with others. The purpose is to create a comprehensive guide to the American Musical Theatres foremost collaboration. The encyclopedia is (1) comprehensve, describing the works, the people involved in those works, and many of their famous songs; ( 2) up-to-date, including the most recent revivals of their works and new recordings of their scores; and (3) easy to use, being alphabetically arranged with cross-reference listings, chronological lists, lists of awards and recordings, and bibliographic information for further reading.