Die-hard camp followers will clap furiously; everyone else will be squirming in their seats. (16 pp. b&w photos)
Staggs follows up All About All About Eve (2000) with a similar, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production history of Eve’s frequent companion on revival-house double bills: Sunset Boulevard.
The sink would probably have been in there too if we’d ever caught a glimpse of a kitchen in Billy Wilder’s famously mordant portrait of Old Hollywood meeting and murdering New. Staggs retains his annoying habit of including vast swaths of dubiously relevant material, from three paragraphs on why opera has no true divas anymore (inspired by a list of the Broadway divas who played Norma Desmond in the musical version) to three pages on My Fair Lady (Sunset Boulevard ingénue Nancy Olson was married to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner). Presumably enough movie trivia nuts enjoyed this approach the first time around for Staggs to get a new contract and publish a second title with no attempt made to rein in his excesses. The author’s catty tone is amusing, and he gets in all the famous stories about this poisoned love letter to the movies, from Wilder’s instruction to the art director, “Just make it an everyday funeral for the average Hollywood monkey,” to enraged mogul Louis B. Mayer telling the director after the screening, “You should be kicked out of this country, tarred and feathered.” The author displays proper respect for Gloria Swanson’s ferocious incarnation of silent screen queen Norma Desmond and William Holden’s subtle one of cynical but not heartless screenwriter Joe Gillis; he conveys the virtues of Wilder’s script with longtime collaborator Charles Brackett; he give a sense of the shock the movie gave 1950 audiences, separated from silent films and their stars by only as many years as today’s public is from The Godfather. But it’s all so excessive and obsessive—which is probably the point.
Die-hard camp followers will clap furiously; everyone else will be squirming in their seats. (16 pp. b&w photos)Pub Date: May 3, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-27453-X
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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