FANFARE

The autobiography of a top theatrical press agent (who is also a most literate fellow) is certainly for that audience which likes a lot of greasepaint with its printed word, for his life and times (and work) have brought him many famous employers, companions and friends. From Chinook (Montana) and Seattle and into the theater by way of ushering, Maney's first start in New York City was not pinnacled by success but a later return, ballyhooing plays into longer runs by various means (some of them not too praiseworthy) started him on his way to Broadway fame. From song and dance shows to straight theater, from outraged clients to grudgingly satisfied, from antic releases to serious publicity, his career reveals the knowledge he has of critics, photography, billing, first nights, actors and actresses, playwrights and plays, and the state of the theater in general. Thirty three years in the business provide an enormous amount of intimate associations and a ribald, rather than a reverent, sense of the world in which he moves and the kind of life he leads makes this a most convivial tour of backstage and out front. For the unsatiated as well as the susceptible.