This is a one-of-a-kind reference work to the history of vaudeville, performance art, burlesque, revue, and comic opera. Most of these artists are not profiled in other reference books and the author has done deep research, including archival work and personal interviews, to uncover the rich history of this American artform. This will be a must-have for students of theater history and performance art, but it is also essential for anyone insterested in the cultural history of America.

This is a new release of the original 1952 edition.

Frank Cullen & Donald McNeilly, recipients of The Theatre Museum of NYC's 2011 Award for Excellence in the Preservation of Theatre History, have unearthed another Porridge Sisters' adventure. Murder at the Orpheum Theatre, the third of the projected seven Porridge Sisters Mysteries, occurs in 1916 when Americans are divided whether the USA should join the Great War in Europe. Suspicions abound regarding sabotage, spies and foreign nationals. The 'Spanish Flu' is about to become an epidemic; suffragettes are campaigning for the right to vote; discontent is growing within the Boston Police Force; moralists are beating the drum to ban demon rum, and gangsters are waiting in the wings to bootleg booze in defiance of Prohibition. Transcendentalists and bohemians, searching for enlightenment, are turning to alternative philosophies. Portridge Arms has become a success although the popularity of silent motion pictures is challenging vaudeville supremacy. Lavinia is relieved; Florrie is disconsolate-until they, the Porridge Sisters, along with Inspector Brody and the charming and idiosyncratic Castle Street Irregulars, become embroiled in the Murders at the Orpheum Theatre.

Murder at the Old Howard is the Second Porridge Sisters Mystery written by Frank Cullen & Donald McNeilly, winners of the Theatre Museum of New York's 2011 Award for Excellence in the Preservation of Theatre History. Florrie and Lavinia Portridge are well-known among vaudevillians and actors as "The Porridge Sisters" for the vegetarian cuisine they serve at Portridge Arms, a "boardinghouse for theatricals" that offers comfort, cleanliness and a bohemian camaraderie. The projected series of seven Porridge Sisters Mysteries takes place in Boston between 1908 and 1932. The Murder at the Tremont Theatre occurred in 1908. In 1912, straightforward and sensible Lavinia and intuitive but erratic Florrie are drawn into the investigation of a sexual-slavery ring that a local newspaper claims is operating out of the Old Howard burlesque theatre in Boston's infamous Scollay Square. Agnes, their maid, is frantic about the disappearance of her cousin Gracie who has run away with a burlesque troupe. Pony Harris, the reporter who wrote the story about "white slavery" is looking for his missing girlfriend Myra, an Old Howard chorus girl and the source for his story. Tommy, the orphaned newsboy adopted by the Porridge Sisters, is worried about his friend Pony, and Inspector Malachi Brody fears that, once again, the Porridge Sisters are becoming embroiled in a mystery that will lead to Murder at the Old Howard

Murders headline Boston tabloids in 1908, and Inspector Brody knows the prime motives are revenge and jealousy. The slaying of singing star Rosetta Rice seems no exception, and his chief suspect is a disgruntled vaudevillian lodging at Portridge Arms, a theatrical boardinghouse run by the Porridge Sisters (so called for their vegetarian cuisine). Florrie and Lavinia, however, believe Rosetta's murder was an unintended consequence of machinations by theatrical robber barons. Murder at the Tremont Theatre is an historically accurate mystery peopled with a cast of eccentrics.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!