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MAIN STREET AMUSEMENTS

Name: MAIN STREET AMUSEMENTS
Author: Gregory A. Waller
ISBN: 1-56098-504-6

MOVIES AND COMMERCIAL ENTERTAINMENT IN A SOUTHERN CITY, 1896-1930

by Gregory A. Waller ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1995

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Waller (who teaches film and popular culture at the University of Kentucky) uses the movies and their commercial reception in Lexington, Ky., as a lens through which to examine the evolution of the entertainment business in small-city America, and to see how racial divisions affected that development. When movies arrived in 1896, Lexington was a ``small city with little heavy industry, few first-generation immigrants, a substantial African-American community, a preponderance of native Kentuckians, and a sense of itself as being southern.'' That was a time when the mere use of Thomas Edison's name could constitute a selling point, a time of high-diving horse acts and embalmed curiosities. From the start, though, movies were an attraction that crossed class, education, age, race, and gender lines in Lexington. By 1911 the motion picture was the city's most popular form of commercial entertainment. But Waller shows that the price of that ascendancy was controversy, from protests against the showing of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation to repeated assaults on Sunday showings by religious leaders. Taking the history of Lexington's movie-going up to the coming of the sound film, Waller is able to trace how other forms of entertainment competed for an audience and how local exhibitors fended them off. The result is a valuable portrait of how a city and its culture were altered by the forces of technology, as well as an instructive history of early 20th- century culture wars that anticipated our own heated battles of today. Regrettably, Waller tells this fascinating story in academic prose that will probably limit his book's readership. That said, it is a useful work that earns a place on the shelf next to Scribner's superb History of the American Cinema series and the pioneering work of film historian Douglas Gomery. (34 b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: June 1, 1995

ISBN: 1-56098-504-6

Page Count: 320

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.