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IRVING BERLIN

Name: IRVING BERLIN
Author: Mary Ellin Barrett
ISBN: 0-671-72533-5

A DAUGHTER'S MEMOIR

by Mary Ellin Barrett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1994

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Life with father, glossing over the bad times and trumpeting the good. Although billed as a memoir of her father, this is really Barrett's story, a recreation of a protected world of family, and friends, and small, youthful follies. Irving Berlin (18881989) was nearly 40 and already a successful songwriter when he eloped with the 23-year-old society belle Ellin MacKay. The story was widely covered because of the disparity in their backgrounds: he, a Lower East Side Jewish immigrant who worked in the lowly field of ``entertainment''; she, the daughter of wealth and privilege, whose Catholic father cut her out of his will when he learned of her marriage. Their first daughter, Mary Ellin, was born 11 months later, in 1926, and this memoir-autobiography primarily covers the period from her childhood to her marriage. Thus, she misses the dramatic story of Berlin's rise to the top as a Broadway composer; indeed, the coverage of Berlin the musician is slight, limited mostly to memories of opening night jitters and faint tinklings coming from the pianist's study. Barrett touches upon her father's early Hollywood years in the late '20s and early '30s, including his famous scores for the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers vehicles Follow the Fleet and Top Hat, his prewar Broadway triumphs, particularly the hit As Thousands Cheer, a detailed account of his World War IIera labor-of-love production of This Is the Army, taking him to the battlefields of Italy and the South Pacific as performer/promoter/songwriter, his postwar hits, including the classic Annie Get Your Gun, and his final slide into retirement. There are glimpses of Berlin's business dealings, but only as distant rumbles that sometimes disturbed domestic life. Berlin is portrayed as an intensely private, troubled man, either manically creative or deeply depressed, suffering from chronic insomnia, who had only a scanty relationship with his daughter. This memoir succeeds on a small scale, as a daughter's reach across time to recapture her childhood and make a final attempt to connect with her father. (b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-671-72533-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994

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.