From Hank Williams to Slim Whitman to Johnny Cash to the one and only Elvis, this recollection of country music greats is a real foot-stompin— treat. For nearly ten years, beginning in 1948, Horace “Hoss” Logan produced the Louisiana Hayride, a live, weekly country music show broadcast nationally on the CBS radio network. Logan did it all, auditioning the various performers, putting together the program, even emceeing. While talent is rarely “discovered” by just one person, he and the Hayride were responsible for giving numerous major country stars their first big break. This was the show’s edge, its competitive niche, as it labored in the shadow of that great granddaddy of country music, the Nashville-based Grand Ole Opry: “Never once in its long, glorious career has the Opry ever created a single star or launched a single career that I know of. The Hayride, on the other hand, created dozens of stars and launched hundreds of careers.” The Opry of the 1950s was a hidebound, though highly successful organization. Nontraditional instruments, such as electric guitars, were verboten, and only “classical” country music was acceptable. No wonder that they brusquely rejected the young Elvis Presley. But like so many others, he found a welcoming home on the Hayride. After just a year of appearances, he was on the way to genre-shattering stardom. Ably assisted by Sloan, a former editor of Country Rambler magazine, Logan has put together an appealing and revealing and’since this is country music’sometimes sorrowing collection of anecdotes. He seems to have known just about everyone who was anyone. Soon after Logan left the Hayride to pursue other radio opportunities, the show collapsed, but in terms of how it has shaped country music, its legacy remains vibrant and vital, though perhaps underappreciated. Serious country-music fans will love it. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: July 10, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-18573-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1998
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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