John Herbert Gleason was an American comedian, actor, writer, composer and conductor. Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his bus driver Ralph Kramden character in the television series The Honeymooners. By filming the episodes with Electronicams, Gleason was later able to release the series in syndication, which increased its popularity over the years with new audiences. He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show, which maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. After originating in New York City, filming moved to Miami, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there.
Strips beneath the glitz, glamour, fame, and power of jackie Gleason's life to reveal an enormously talented, yet deeply private and angry man who was often lonely and depressed. (Biography).
An all-star lineup of rock-n-rollers relay the uproariously wild, sentimental, and unexpected pre-stardom stories behind their favorite records. Rock Stars on the Record is a collection of first-hand tales by artists of all ages, backgrounds, and musical influences, remembering the meaning behind the records that mattered most to them. From Laura Jane Grace to Ian MacKaye, Don McLean to Cherie Currie, Alice Bag to Mac DeMarco, Perry Farrell to Suzi Quatro and Verdine White, and many more, bestselling author Eric Spitznagel talks to rock stars across the sonic spectrum about the albums that changed them in ways only music can change someone. Everyone’s most cherished childhood record―be it a battered piece of vinyl, torn cassette tape, or scratched CD―has a story, and those stories can be more revealing about their owners than you might expect. Read about how “Weird Al” Yankovic refined his accordion skills by playing along to Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or how Fishbone’s Angelo Moore saved his life with a boombox and a Bad Brains album. Or about how Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman of Prince’s longtime band, The Revolution, fell in love while trading mixtapes. Each profile is more emotional, fascinating, and hilarious than the last. So place that needle in the groove, and prepare to hear something revelatory from your favorite rockers past and present. “Absolutely fascinating. It’s hard to believe that no one has done this before, but now that I’ve read it, it seems totally obvious―except that most journalists wouldn’t be able to get people to talk so openly and compellingly about something that, to an artist, may feel very private. I know these great musicians and their music better now. Thank you, Eric.” —Daniel J. Levitin, bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music, professor of Neuroscience and Music at McGill University in Montreal “In asking a slew of rock stars about the record that changed their lives, Eric Spitznagel also ferrets out fascinating backstories and unexpected anecdotes. Who knew that Tommy Roe’s granddaughter calls him ‘the Justin Bieber of the ‘60s’? Or that Perry Farrell entertained his older siblings’ friends’ by dancing the Hully Gully at their parties? Rock Stars on the Record is so much fun, and more illuminating that you’d expect.” —Caroline Sullivan, author of Bye Bye Baby: My Tragic Love Affair with the Bay City Rollers
A 1950s matinee screen idol speaks about the scandals, successes, and sacrifices he experienced as the pin-up boy for millions of teenage girls and how he dealt with the reality of hiding his homosexuality. Reprint.
Historian Sara Eskridge examines television’s rural comedy boom in the 1960s and the political, social, and economic factors that made these shows a perfect fit for CBS. The network, nicknamed the Communist Broadcasting System during the Red Scare of the 1940s, saw its image hurt again in the 1950s with the quiz show scandals and a campaign against violence in westerns. When a rival network introduced rural-themed programs to cater to the growing southern market, CBS latched onto the trend and soon reestablished itself as the Country Broadcasting System. Its rural comedies dominated the ratings throughout the decade, attracting viewers from all parts of the country. With fascinating discussions of The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and other shows, Eskridge reveals how the southern image was used to both entertain and reassure Americans in the turbulent 1960s.
This enchanting tale is at once a beautifully rendered narrative of childhood loss and a powerfully simple fable about the necessity of imagination. Pobby and Dingan are Kellyanne Williamson’s best friends, maybe her only friends, and only she can see them. Kellyanne’s brother, Ashmol, can’t see them and doesn’t believe they exist anywhere but in Kellyanne’s immature imagination. Only when Pobby and Dingan disappear and Kellyanne becomes heartsick over their loss does Ashmol realize that not only must he believe in Pobby and Dingan, he must convince others to believe in them, too.
This book shows the reader how to take timeless storytelling structures and make them immediate, now, for fiction that's universal in how it speaks to the reader's heart and contemporary in detail and impact.Each chapter includes brief excerpts and descriptions of fiction from many times, many genres - myth and fairy tale, genre and mainstream fiction, film plots of all types, short story and novel.Find 20 fundamental plots that recur through all fiction - with analysis and examples - that outline benefits and warnings, for writers to adapt and elaborate in their own fiction.Ronald B. Tobias has spent his career as a writer moving from genre to genre, first as a short story writer, then as an author of fiction and nonfiction books and finally as a writer and producer of documentaries for public television. He is currently a professor in the Department of Media and Theatre Arts at Montana State University and the author of the Insider's Guide to Writing for Screen and Television. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.
A love story and a journey through music. The exquisite and perfectly pitched new novel from the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. It's 1988. The CD has arrived. Sales of the shiny new disks are soaring on high streets in cities across the England. Meanwhile, down a dead-end street, Frank's music shop stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind. It attracts the lonely, the sleepless, the adrift. There is room for everyone. Frank has a gift for finding his customers the music they need. Into this shop arrives Ilse Brauchmann--practical, brave, well-heeled. Frank falls for this curious woman who always dresses in green. But Ilse's reasons for visiting the shop are not what they seem. Frank's passion for Ilse seems as misguided as his determination to save vinyl. How can a man so in tune with other people's needs be so incapable of helping himself? And what will it take to show he loves her? The Music Shop is a story about good, ordinary people who take on forces too big for them. It's about falling in love and how hard it can be. And it's about music--how it can bring us together when we are divided and save us when all seems lost.
