Charlotte Greenwood: The Life and Career of the Comic Star of Vaudeville, Radio and Film

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McFarland, 2 maj 2007 - 266

Charlotte Greenwood never intended to become a comedienne, but she was unfashionably tall at 5' 10" and her early aspirations to become a great dramatic actress eventually led her to the field of comedy. Greenwood, whose early life had taught her nothing if not how to be optimistic, stifled her disappointment and used her considerable skill to become one of the greatest comedic actresses of the early twentieth century.

Based on Greenwood's unpublished memoirs, this biography presents a personal, detailed look at her colorful life. Beginning with her early years in Philadelphia, Boston and Norfolk, it relates her struggles with ill health, her social difficulties caused by her then unusual height and her realization of her ambition to become an actress. The main focus of the work is her career, which spanned more than 50 years and ranged from vaudeville to the dramatic stage and, finally, to films (during the World War II years she starred in Twentieth Century Fox musicals with Cesar Romero, Betty Grable, Edward Everett Horton, Jack Haley, Don Ameche, and Carmen Miranda). Her roles in a variety of works including The Passing Show of 1912, So Long Letty (both stage and film), and I Remember Mama are also discussed. Special emphasis is placed on her career-defining (and best-known) role as Aunt Eller Murphy in the 1955 film adaptation of Oklahoma! Charlotte Greenwood's performance history, a list of her known recordings, and a filmography for her husband Martin Broones are also included, along with a collection of rare photographs and memorabilia.

 

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Spis treści

Foreword by Brian Kellow
1
Preface
3
Introduction
5
Part One
11
I come from a long line of Philadelphia barbers
13
Illness and Abandonment
19
Near Death in Boston New Life in Virginia
23
Show people were my people
28
To London on the Santa Fe Express
109
7 Wild Violets
119
9 Charlotte Greenwood the actress
127
2 Gay Deceivers
137
To the Antipodes and back
150
Zanuck and Stardust
160
Down Argentine Way
166
The Stars at War
174

The White Cat
35
A Wayburn Girl
40
Two Girls and a Piano
47
The Passing Show of 92
57
The Birth of Letty
59
Love and War
67
Trotting Tintypes and the Music Box Revue
74
My darling
82
Mrs Martin Broones
91
Back to Hollywood
99
Life is just a circus
103
Home in Indiana
183
Mrs Eddy
192
3 Out of This World
200
Oklahoma
211
She knew what she had and she knew who she was
217
Farewell Performance
223
Afterword by William Luce
231
Known Vocal Recordings of Greenwood
238
Bibliography
249
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Biographer Grant Hayter-Menzies lives in British Columbia. His works include biographies of Charlotte Greenwood, Princess Der Ling, Sarah Pike Conger, Pauline Benton, and Lillian Carter, along with the life of a dog, military mascot Rags of the First Division in World War I. He is the literary executor of playwright William Luce.

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