Product Description

With 240 carefully selected photographs and memorabilia from the New York Public Library's acclaimed Billy Rose Theatre Collection Historic Photos of Broadway: New York Theater 1850 1970 celebrates the Great White Way, the undisputed pinnacle of success and achievement on the American stage. This beautiful coffee table book begins before the Civil War Historic Photos conjures up a time when Times Square was farmland when New York's theater district crisscrossed lower Manhattan. The volume is packed with photographs of truly incandescent actors: from the great Sarah Bernhardt and Broadway's indomitable cheerleader, George M. Cohan to the Barrymores and Zero Mostel. In addition to unusual streetscapes, and interior and exterior portraits of many of the most beautiful Broadway houses over the years, dynamic performers of the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s are represented. Also represented are the plays of Eugene O'Neill and George Bernard Shaw, and the musicals of George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and the tres chic Cole Porter. Historic Photos of Broadway: New York Theater 1850 1970 is booming with the plays of Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams whose Streetcar Named Desire brought Marlon Brando to world attention and theatergoers to their feet. Finally, the American musical theater reaches its zenith with Oklahoma!; Carousel; Guys and Dolls; Wonderful Town; West Side Story; Hello, Dolly!; Fiddler on the Roof; and many more. This marvelous book will delight theatergoers of all ages.

2008 ForeWord Book of the Year Finalist for Photography

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #281049 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 254 pages

Review
Leonard Jacobs should be given a preservation and presentation award for this beautiful and moving book. I was touched by these photos, and the corresponding text of Broadway in a bygone era and glad someone cared enough to bring that spirit back to life. Historic Photos is more, though, than a sentimental journey in a gorgeous coffee table book. And it's more than a history of some of Broadway's first century. It captures the soul of so many people who went before us, many whose performances are no longer even a memory to anyone living. Here they are frozen in time, yet brought forth into a new century in a way that makes them seem not so far removed. This book will be a blessing to all the theatre lovers on your holiday shopping list. I highly recommend it. --Retta Blaney, uponthescaredstage.blogspot.com

There's something unbeatably alluring about great black and white photos. If you don't believe me, take a look at Turner Publishing Company's handsome new illustrated history of the New York Theater from 1850 to 1970. Here's one book you can safely judge by its cover. Make that plural, for both its front and back cover feature images from the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts. And in between those covers, there's a feast of handsomely reproduced photographs of great theatrical venues (too many of them gone from our the cityscape), along with the plays and musicals seen on their stages, and the thespians bringing them to life. With each season bringing its share of revivals of classic plays, theater buffs will be especially interested in seeing the original cast members of shows such as Waiting for Godot, Man for All Seasons, South Pacific and Pal Joey. And while most readers will have to jump to at least the 1960s for their Oh, yea, I saw that production moments, with this volume they can at least take an armchair journey back to the times they missed. -- Elyse Sommer, A Curtain Up Review



Beginning with a portrait of Junius Brutus Booth and his young son Edwin and ending with a shot of the naked cast from the original production of Hair, this book is filled with rarely seen photos, all drawn from the Billy Rose collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The one of a young and very sexy Arthur Miller suggests that Marilyn Monroe was turned on by more than just his mind and is, all by itself, worth the price of the volume. -- broadwayandme.blogspot

The new book boasts 240 photographs culled by Jacobs — who also penned the text of the hardback — from the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Expect images of the Booths, the Barrymores, the Lunts, Ethel Merman, Marlon Brando, Carol Channing and such theatres as the Lyceum, the Winter Garden and the Music Box. Leonard Jacobs was formerly the National Theatre Editor of Back Stage and is currently the first-string critic for the New York Press and author of the blog The Clyde Fitch Report. He is a Tony voter and a member of the Drama Desk and American Theatre Critics Association, chairs the New York Innovative Theatre Awards, adjudicates scripts for the New York International Fringe Festival and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and teaches at the National Critics Institute at the O’Neill. --Playbill

I’m sure that anyone connected with the theatre will have similar responses to many of the stories and images shown in this amazing, remarkable and hard-to-put-down book. To quote Mr. Jacobs - “It’s ogle-worthy!” --Talk Entertainment, Oscar E. Moore

About the Author
Leonard Jacobs has been a theater practitioner, critic, and journalist since 1990. He is the National Theatre Editor of Back Stage, the trade publication for American actors, and chief critic for Back Stage and the New York Press; he was also the founding editor of Theatermania.com. As an arts and culture writer and editor, he has contributed to American Theatre, the Hollywood Reporter, the Village Voice, Kirkus Reviews, the Sondheim Review, and Roundabout Theatre Company's Front & Center, and is represented as a contributor and assistant to the editor for the 2007 Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. The author of 10 plays and director of 40, he is a Tony voter and a member of the Drama Desk and American Theatre Critics Association; chairs the New York Innovative Theatre Awards; adjudicates new scripts for the New York International Fringe Festival and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center; teaches yearly as part of the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill; and has guest lectured at Princeton and Yale. A specialist in late-nineteenth and early twentieth century American theater, he graduated from New York University in the twentieth century and will earn his M.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York, in the twenty-first.

Customer Reviews

Great Photos of Great Theater
This book is fascinating, representing a comprehensive visual account of some of the most important people, shows, and theaters in Broadway history. One of the book's many charms lies in affording us the chance to stare in wistful wonder at the exteriors and interiors of some wonderful old theaters that no longer exist, such as the gorgeous Casino Theater (torn down to accommodate a growing garment district) and the lovely Morosco (razed to make room for the hideous Marriott Marquis and the characterless Marquis Theater).

What makes the book compelling is that, rather than focusing on the well known stars and shows of recent memory, Jacobs skews his coverage toward older and lesser known people, places, and productions. I was especially pleased to see photos from obscure but significant shows that I cover in my Boston Conservatory course, including:

The Black Crook: (1866) What many historians consider to be the first American musical, actually just the first long-running, home-grown hit. A loosely plotted spectacle peppered with irrelevant songs as well as dances from a homeless troupe of French ballet dancers. The theater that the dancers were supposed to have performed in burned down, and the producer of The Black Crook simply added them to the mix, with no connection whatsoever to the show's Faustian plot.

Babes in Toyland: (1903) The first significant show with a score by one person, rather than a collection of previously existing popular songs. Composer Victor Herbert also made the first significant use of underscoring and connecting music.

Very Good Eddie: (1915) The first of the influential, but now largely forgotten, "Princess" musicals, so named because most of the shows played the Princess Theater (demolished in 1955). The production team of Jerome Kern (music), Guy Bolton (book) and P.G. Wodehouse (lyrics) came together to create a new type a musical, one that would attempt to integrate all the elements into a cohesive whole. The "Princess" shows (which also include Oh, Lady! Lady!, Oh, Boy!, and Sitting Pretty) were fluffy, fun, and economical, and greatly influenced such future greats as Richard Rodgers and George Gershwin.

Shuffle Along: (1921) The first successful Broadway musical produced, written, and performed by African Americans. The show broke color barriers on both sides of the footlights: it was also the first time blacks were allowed to sit in the orchestra. It was a separate section of the orchestra, but it represented the beginning of the end of segregation in the theater. The show itself was offensive by modern standards: the actors performed in blackface, and the song titles included "If You Haven't Been Vamped by a Brownskin, You Haven't Been Vamped at All" and "Uncle Tom and Old Black Joe."

Of course, the Jacobs book also features photos of such iconic musical performers as Mary Martin and Ethel Merman, and of such seminal musical works as Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, and Fiddler on the Roof. Plus, it's a great book for people like me: adults with ADD who don't always like to read things cover to cover, but rather just skim and skip around to our hearts' content. As the title suggests, the book comprises photos with captions, albeit in chronological order, but that doesn't mean you have to read the book that way.

A very nice selection of photos with great captions showing the changes on the Great White Way
What a treat this book is! Not only do we get 240 well chosen photos from Broadway from the mid-19th Century through 1970, the text is more extensive than in the other books of historic photos published by Turner. Leonard Jacobs has a keen eye for what is interesting, surprising, informative, and what brings balance between the stars, the shows, the theaters, the writers, composers, and the producers. I found it hard to put the book down. The book also has an index to help you look up the artists and shows you are interested in finding.

The book is organized chronologically into seven chapters: Pre- and Proto-Broadway (1850-1870), The Fin De Siècle Approaches (1870-1910), Tests, Trials, and Transitions (1910-1920), The Roar of the Postwar Greasepaint (1920-1930), Sing Me a Song of Social Studies (1930-1940), A Pax Americana on Your Houses (1940-1950), Golden Era, Post-Broadway, and Beyond (1950-1970).

I found lots of things that were completely new, some fresh looks at things I new a bit about, and some delightful shots that brought back memories from the shows I enjoyed growing up here in the Midwest far away from the Great White Way. Seeing the evolution, the changes in theatrical fashion, and the way tastes in shows evolved helped me understand Broadway in a new way.

Just delightful. Great job!

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

A GLORIOUS and STUNNING photographic theater book!
If you're a theater lover: particularly New York Broadway theater, this gorgeous and brilliantly thought out book is for you! Mr.Leonard Jacobs has put together a vastly eclectic collection of old photos that are not the same predictable choices of many past books on Broadway theater. This book takes you on a journey of a Broadway we have rarely or if ever seen, with each photo of an actor or theater telling a story through Mr. Jacobs commentary and far reaching knowledge. It is clear that he LOVES and respects what he does with humbleness and touch of humor. The productions and actors featured are of the more obscure and unknown than the norm. It's what makes this book all the more enjoyable because you don't get that (seen it, been there) feeling.

Buy this glorious book for yourself and a friend. It's sure to become an instant favorite that you'll go back too (as I have) time and time again.


Thank you Leonard Jacobs, for thinking "outside of the box" when putting together this book and giving these otherwise forgotten theater actors and theater houses a new life in the 21 century!

Enjoy!


M. Ortiz (Jersey City, NJ)