Regarded by his contemporaries as one of television's premier comedy creators, Nat Hiken was the driving creative force behind the classic 1950s and 1960s series Sgt. Bilko and the hilarius Car 54, Where Are You?

King of the Half Hour, the first biography of Hiken, draws extensively on exclusive first-hand interviews with some of the well-known TV personalities who worked with him, such as Carol Burnett, Fred Gwynne, Alan King, Al Lewis, and Herbert Ross. The book focuses on Hiken's immense talent and remarkable career, from his early days in radio as Fred Allen's head writer to his multiple Emmy-winning years as writer-producer-director on television.

In addition to re-establishing Hiken's place in broadcast history, biographer, David Everitt places him in the larger story of early New York broadcasting. Hiken's career paralleled the rise and fall of television's Golden Age. He embodied the era's best qualities -- craftsmanship, a commitment to excellence and a distinctive, uproariously funny and quirky sense of humor. At the same time, his uncompromising independence prevented him from surviving the changes in the industry that brought the Golden Age to an end in the 1960s. His experiences bring a flesh and until now unknown perspective to the medium's most extraordinary period.

In the minds of today's audiences, George Burns was a solo act. But in the history of show business, he will long be remembered for his work with Gracie Allen. Few performers have enjoyed so much popular and critical acclaim. Together they enjoyed phenomenal success in vaudeville, radio, television, and film. Although they were celebrities, the two performers enjoyed a life remarkably free of scandal. After the death of Allen in 1964, Burns made commercials, a music video, and an exercise video. He wrote books and won numerous awards, and his nightclub and convention appearances did not stop until shortly before his death.

Through a thoughtful biography and detailed entries, this book serves as a comprehensive reference to the careers of Burns and Allen together and individually. The biography summarizes their rise as vaudeville performers, their work in a range of media, and Burns' continued achievements after Allen's death. Sections of the book cover their work on the stage, on radio, on television, and in films. Each section provides detailed entries for their performances, including cast and credit information, plot synoposes, and review excerpts. Appendices list their awards, personal appearances, and archives; and an extensive annotated bibliography cites and discusses sources of additional information.

Allen Sapp's multifaceted career as a gifted composer, influential teacher, and innovative administrator is presented in this first book-length study of his life and works. The biography chronicles his studies with Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, and Nadia Boulanger; his service as Chief Cryptanalyst for the U.S. Army in Europe at the close of WWII; his early career on the faculty at Harvard; his formation of a highly influential center for avant-garde music at Buffalo in the 1960s; and his dramatic explosion of creativity in the 1980s. Musical examples from the biography are supplemented by corresponding sound files available via the World Wide Web (http://muslib.lib.ohio-state.edu/sapp/index.htm). Following the biography is a listing of Sapp's works and performances, featuring excerpts from performance reviews. This is followed by a Discography/Webography, which lists all commercially produced recordings as well as all known noncommercial recordings available in libraries, archives, or on the World Wide Web. The final two sections of the book present an annotated bibliography of writings by and about Allen Sapp. The book is supplemented by appendices providing a listing of academic and nonacademic positions held by Sapp, and chronological and alphabetical listings of his compositions.

One of the most significant contributors to the early years of the motion picture industry, Harold Lloyd was also a shrewd businessman and became the wealthiest man in Hollywood at the peak of his career. Perhaps more than any other major star of the silent era, his characters mirrored his times and captivated his contemporaries. His experiments with camera placement and motion were vital to the evolution of filmmaking techniques. This book includes a short biography of Lloyd and detailed information about all of his performances. The biography overviews his childhood, his adolescent stage career, his work in silent and talking pictures, his family life, and the work of his major contemporaries. A chapter on his film work includes entries for all of his shorts and features, including cameo roles and newsreels. Other chapters describe Lloyd's radio and television work, sheet music and recordings inspired by his films, and his many awards and honors. An annotated bibliography cites books, magazines, newspapers, oral histories, and interviews. Eleven photographs illustrate his work.

90-plus interviews with celebrities, including Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley, Jack Lemmon, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Ingrid Bergman, Barbara Walters, Gore Vidal, William Buckley, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Bill Cosby, Judy Garland, Merv Griffin, Peter O'Toole, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, David Frost, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Bernstein, et al. The interviews were conducted in many cities and countries and in such places as St. Patrick's Cathedral, Central Park and in television and movie studios in New York and Hollywood, in planes and trains as well as the homes of stars.

The summer of 1938 was a pivotal year for baseball and American history. In that same year, John Jordon "Buck" O'Neil, was a rookie first baseman playing his first season in the Negro American League. Born in Carrabelle, Florida, raised in Sarasota and nicknamed Buck, it had taken five years and five different teams before the Kansas City, Monarchs finally signed O'Neil to a contract. Before he could get the starting assignment, though, O'Neil had to dethrone one of the Negro Leagues' hardest hitting first basemen, Eldridge Mayweather. In 1938, a time when African-American hall of fame ballplayers worth millions could be purchased for pennies on the dollar, times were hard and the baseball was tough. Kansas City's Monarchs were a blend of youth and maturity, and one of the best teams in the Negro American League. Oddly, Kansas City, in spite of winning records against every team in the Negro American League, failed to win the first-half or second-half pennant. For the first time ever John "Buck" O'Neil, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and James "Gabby" Kemp and many others are united together to speak on this celebrated season. With interviews from Monarchs' players Willard "Sonny" Brown, Newt Allen and Byron "Mex" Johnson and many others readers are taken on a road trip around America. Along the way readers, just as the team did in 1938, come in contact with segregation and racism as the book helps everyone to relive the glory days of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Illustrated with over forty historic photographs, John "Buck" O'Neil, the rookie, the man, the lagacy 1938 is a welcome addition to every baseball fans reading list.

The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy. Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub Catch a Rising Star as a twenty-one-year-old student in autumn of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. 'Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas - the big yellow legal pad - I kept it in one of those old-school accordion folders,' Seinfeld writes. 'So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.' For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favourite material, organised decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.

Kojo Baffoe embodies what it is to be a contemporary African man. Of Ghanaian and German heritage, he was raised in Lesotho and moved to South Africa at the age of 27. Forever curious, Kojo has the enviable ability to simultaneously experience moments intimately and engage people (and their views) sincerely, while remaining detached enough to think through his experiences critically. He has earned a reputation as a thinker, someone who lives outside the box and free of the labels that society seeks to place on us.

Listen to Your Footsteps is an honest and, at times, raw collection of essays from a son, a father, a husband, a brother and a man deeply committed to doing the internal work. Kojo reflects on losing his mother as a toddler, being raised by his father, forming an identity, living as an immigrant, his tussles with substance abuse, as well as his experiences of fatherhood, marriage and making a career in a fickle industry. He gives an extended glimpse into the experiences that make boys become men, and the battles that make men discover what they are made of, all the while questioning what it means to be ‘a man’.

Unassuming late guitarist Paul Yandell described his career not as one of celebrity but as sideman, the musician that audiences hear while they're focused on the star. From his humble beginnings as a poor Kentucky farm boy learning to play to taking the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, he ultimately gained the trust and confidence of two of America's finest musicians, Jerry Reed and the incomparable Chet Atkins. Compiled from personal correspondence and interviews, Paul's online posts, and family members, a lifetime in the music business is recounted, from breaking in with the Louvin Brothers in the 1950s to his 25-year association with "Mr. Guitar" Chet Atkins, to his last recording in 2006. Along the way, Paul provides a wealth of information and history about guitar modification, gear and gadgets, and the people and personalities of country music's golden era in the second half of the 20th century.

This book examines the conductor's methods in terms of the realization of expressive potential in a selected body of works. This examination encompasses analytical, technical, and expressive gestural aspects of the art and craft of conducting. The author also discusses the idea of meaning in music and ways, both musical and extramusical, in which meaning arises in performance. In this unique study, the author also considers how the use of physical gestures may have an impact upon the realization of expressive potential in a given work and, in particular, upon those works selected for discussion. Central to this process is the notion that there is something "behind the notes." Text-based modes of analysis do not afford access to music as it is created by the actions of performers and conductors. The author argues that this music often has strong extroversive associations. Inquiry limited to the text neither helps the interpreter to realise fully the expressive or communicative potential of that work, nor does it fully consider the impact of expressive issues on performance. Thus, the conductor acts as a mediator in this process, taking the work and all relevant information surrounding it into account as it is prepared for performance. It is within this context that the author examines John Corigliano's Overture from Gazebo Dances, Karel Husa's Introduction and Fanfare from Music for Prague 1968, Edward Gregson's Celebration, and Morning Music by Richard Rodney Bennett, with regard to their expressive potential and adopts topical analysis in a general way as a point of departure in an attempt to relate this potential to physical gestures, facial expressions, and body language in the artand craft of conducting. In addition, the author considers the applicability of the analytical tools developed in the study to the actual practice of performance with regard to the works discussed, and attempts to show the relationship between the analysis of a given work, the physical manifestation of what that analysis uncovers, and the realisation of expressive potential in performance. This book will help readers better understand the relationship between the conductor's physical gestures, body language and facial expressions, and the expressive potential of selected works for the wind orchestra. As a book that clearly reflects the author's passion, it will be a welcome addition for collections in music.

Jimi Hendrix, Princess Diana and Syria's Asma Al-Assad rub shoulders with Auden, Eliot and Shelley - and with the Trouser Thief Clive met during ten long weeks locked up in a closed psychiatric ward - in this offbeat and affectionate poetic biography. Since 2010, when Clive was told he had three separate life-threatening conditions, he has poured out a stream of fine poems - sometimes light, witty and paradoxical, sometimes sad, heartfelt and regretful. Some, like `Japanese Maple', an instant Internet sensation, have already made it into the anthologies. Others, like his book-length epic, The River in the Sky, are more demanding. All are packed with the unexpected ideas, inventive imagery and breathtaking wordplay that have helped him achieve his avowed ambition of becoming `a fairly major minor poet'.

George Henry Newton had a dream. His dream was to get out of Zion, Nevis. The village was poverty stricken. He ventured abroad and entered the United States. He became a soldier and fought in W.W.II. Fortunately, he escaped the ravages of the battle field. During the post war years, he acquired a career, raised his family, made his mark but became victim of a dependency. He died at age fifty four, but his eldest son did not let his legacy die with him.

In March of 1924, D. H. Lawrence, Frieda Lawrence and the Honorable Dorothy Brett went to Taos, New Mexico, to absorb the color and romance of what was to them a mysterious and compelling land. Dorothy Brett recreated those days in this fascinating first-hand account, and also writes of when she was the close friend of Aldous Huxley, Lytton Strachey, Katherine Mansfield, and other important literary and artistic figures. But more importantly, she focused on her relationship with Lawrence and the book was specifically addressed to him as if he were to read it, reminding him personally of her long-standing devotion. Such devotion was not rebuffed by Lawrence, it seems, but it was met differently by the two other women orbiting the famous writer: his wife, Frieda Lawrence, and Mabel Dodge Luhan. They were in turn cross and conciliatory to her. But it seems that she just accepted them as other intense admirers of Lawrence, took it all simply and wrote it all down with a minimum of comment. Dorothy Brett was well-known in her own right. The daughter of Viscount Esher Brett, confidant of Queen Victoria, she spent six years studying at the Slade School of Art in London and was a member of the Bloomsbury set in England, among whose many luminaries Brett moved when a young woman. She was also gaining recognition as an artist even before she arrived in the American Southwest. But it was there that her true artistic talents emerged and her works now hang in major museums as well as in private collections. When this book was first published in 1933, it was praised by critics as well as the general public. Alfred Stieglitz said: "It was a rare spiritual experience--no student of Lawrence can afford to miss this book.. There is an integrity in the book--a sense of the eternal--a sense of Light--which raises it above all the other books I have read about Lawrence." And, interestingly, Mabel Dodge Luhan called it "clearly and explicitly drawn." Here it all is again with additional material added by Dorothy Brett herself when the 1974 edition was first published by Sunstone Press.

When author Steve Burton heard the plan for transforming a relatively untouched bird sanctuary in the Middle Eastern emirate of Abu Dhabi into a complex, global entertainment and premier yachting destination within thirty months, he thought the idea was impossible. The Rulers believed otherwise. It will be done. Burton was tasked with performing at the highest level and not sweating the small stuff like money. No was removed from his vocabulary. Those were the rules. Deadlines were another one. It was no small endeavor. Recognized as one of today s premier marina development specialists, Burton was hired by Abu Dhabi s flagship real estate development company in 2007. In Staying Afloat he narrates an account of cross-cultural encounters, stratospheric expectations, unimaginable obstacles, and hilarious day-to-day experiences faced as an American expatriate living for three years in one of the wealthiest and most culturally diverse countries on the planet in the midst of the world s most politically volatile regions. Staying Afloat conveys a unique blend of cultural insight, candor, and wit while communicating that an open mind, a keen sense of humor, and a supreme level of patience and determination are indispensable for living and working in a foreign country.

This book provides an informal biography of the wunderkind who became one of America's greatest living artists and most well-known architects. Many are familiar with the art and architectural design work of Maya Lin, but the compelling details of her personal background are less well known. This book not only focuses upon Lin's substantial achievements throughout her life, but also presents Maya Lin's "prehistory," describing family events in China that led to her parents' flight to the United States. Author Donald Langmead guides readers through Lin's ancestry and family connections in precommunist China; her childhood and youth in Athens, Ohio; the story behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC; her career after 1982 (by decades); and emphasis on environmental conservation. Written for a young adult and general readership, Maya Lin: A Biography provides an up-to-date description of how she became one of the most famous and respected artists in America. Provides a timeline of Maya Lin's significant life events, artworks, and exhibitions Includes various photographs to accompany the text Contains a bibliography organized by types of sources, including writings by Maya Lin, books, monographs and catalogues, transcripts of interviews, and videos Includes an index of important people and artworks

Born in Wisconsin in 1919, Wladziu Valentino Liberace began his career as a performer at roadhouses, bars, stag parties, afternoon teas, and dances in the Milwaukee area. Television brought him to stardom in 1952, when The Liberace Show was watched by more than 35 million people each week. His television exposure led to one of the most lucrative concert, nightclub, and recording careers in history. His death from AIDS in 1987 continued the perpetual speculation about his personal life. This book charts the always controversial life and career of Liberace, from his birth in America's heartland to his death as one of the most flamboyant entertainers of his generation. A short biography and chronology present his life in capsule form and give full attention to the scandals that plagued his career. The chapters that follow detail his work in film, television, radio, recordings, and concerts. Each entry provides fascinating information about his performances, and an annotated bibliography describes sources for additional information.