From the Peter Neil Isaacs collection.

With the founding of the Shubert Organization some ninety years ago, the Shubert brothers set the stage for Broadway as we know it today. Indeed, their name has become virtually synonymous with the Great White Way. The heart of Manhattan's theatre district--Forty-forth and Forty-fifth Streets between Broadway and Eighth Avenue--is lined with monuments to their extraordinary careers, including the Imperial, Majestic, Booth, Plymouth, and Broadhurst theatres and, of course, Shubert Alley itself. Legendary for their eccentric behavior and their uncanny ability to turn a profit even during the industry's toughest times, the Shuberts are part and parcel of Broadway's colorful lore. In The Shuberts of Broadway, Brooks McNamara combs the holdings of the newly created Shubert Archive--a remarkable collection of some four million papers, playbills, architectural plans, photographs, press clips, scripts, costume designs, letters, and other Shubert memorabilia--to re-create the lives of Sam, Lee, and J. J. Shubert. In lively prose and more than 200 fully captioned illustrations, McNamara follows the Shuberts from their early years, when the teen-aged Sam became head of the box office at the Wieting Theatre in downtown Syracuse, through the building of their empire and the Broadway boom of the 1920s (when the Shuberts owned or operated 104 theatres and booked nearly a thousand more), and on to their last days, when their producing careers ended amid controversy. We see the often-stormy relations among the frail, charismatic Sam (who died in a train crash in 1905), the aloof Lee (dubbed "The Wooden Indian"), and their mercurial brother J.J., and their collective, continual battle against the Syndicate that dominated the theatre scene. Here we learn the real stories behind the popular entertainment that rolled off their theatrical assembly line and earned them fame: La Belle Paree, which featured Al Jolson at the Winter Garden; The Passing Show, a "girlie" revue that was full of such talents as Ed Wynn, Fred and Adele Astaire, George Jessel, and a chorus girl named Lucille Le Sueur, who later became known as Joan Crawford; Blossom Time, one of operetta's greatest hits; and The Student Prince, a theatrical bonanza composed by the great Sigmund Romberg. Filled with real-life plots, intrigues, and characters that capture the imagination, the story of the Shuberts is every bit as entertaining as the Broadway they helped to create.

From 1905 to the crash of 1929, Sam Shubert (1874-1905) and his brothers Lee (1874-1953) and J. J. (1878-1963), despite poor beginnings and near-illiteracy, created a theater monopoly unrivaled in history. Their ruthless business tactics and showmanship made 42nd Street the heart of American popular theater and won them the most sought-after stars of the day, including Al Jolson, Carmen Miranda, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Mae West, and Fred Astaire.

Mr. Broadway was completed just one month before Gerald Schoenfeld's death in 2008 at the age of 84. Bringing the reader backstage, the long-term chairman of the Shubert Organization shares his triumphs and failures, sings praise, and settles scores. He recounts nightmarish tales of the Shuberts, themselves – the meanness of Lee, the madness of JJ, the turmoil surrounding John's personal life, and the drunken ineptitude of Lawrence Shubert Lawrence, Jr., the man who succeeded them and nearly brought the Shubert legacy to an ignominious end. An active participant in that legacy for over 50 years, Schoenfeld describes how he and his partner, Bernie Jacobs, saved the Shubert Organization, bringing some of Broadway's greatest hits to the stage – from A Chorus Line, Equus, and Amadeus to Pippin, Les Misérables, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Godspell, Ain't Misbehavin', Dreamgirls, Dancin', Sunday in the Park with George, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Heidi Chronicles, The Gin Game, Miss Saigon, and Chess.

The Shubert name has been synonymous with Broadway for almost as long as Broadway entertainment itself. In The Shuberts and Their Passing Shows: The Untold Tale of Ziegfeld's Rivals, author Jonas Westover investigates beyond the Shuberts' business empire into their early revues and the centrifugal role they played in developing American theatre as an art form.

Uncover fascinating, little-known histories of the five boroughs in The Bowery Boys’ official companion to their popular, award-winning podcast. It was 2007. Sitting at a kitchen table and speaking into an old karaoke microphone, Greg Young and Tom Meyers recorded their first podcast. They weren’t history professors or voice actors. They were just two guys living in the Bowery and possessing an unquenchable thirst for the fascinating stories from New York City’s past. Nearly 200 episodes later, The Bowery Boys podcast is a phenomenon, thrilling audiences each month with one amazing story after the next. Now, in their first-ever book, the duo gives you an exclusive personal tour through New York’s old cobblestone streets and gas-lit back alleyways. In their uniquely approachable style, the authors bring to life everything from makeshift forts of the early Dutch years to the opulent mansions of The Gilded Age. They weave tales that will reshape your view of famous sites like Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, and the High Line. Then they go even further to reveal notorious dens of vice, scandalous Jazz Age crime scenes, and park statues with strange pasts. Praise for The Bowery Boys “Among the best city-centric series.” —New York Times “Meyers and Young have become unofficial ambassadors of New York history.” —NPR “Breezy and informative, crowded with the finest grifters, knickerbockers, spiritualists, and city builders to stalk these streets since back when New Amsterdam was just some farms.” —Village Voice “Young and Meyers have an all-consuming curiosity to work out what happened in their city in years past, including the Newsboys Strike of 1899, the history of the Staten Island Ferry, and the real-life sites on which Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl is based.” —The Guardian

The theatre had a difficult time establishing itself in Massachusetts. Colonial authorities in Boston were adamantly opposed to theatrical amusements of any kind. In the mid-eighteenth century, even theatricals performed in the homes of private citizens aroused the indignant ire of puritanically minded authorities. In 1750 the General Court of Massachusetts passed an act prohibiting stage plays or any other theatrical entertainment. In 1762, the New Hampshire House of Representatives refused a theatre troupe admission to the town of Portsmouth on the ground that plays had a "peculiar influence on the minds of young people and greatly endangered their morals by giving them a taste for intriguing amusement and pleasure." The first public dramatic performance in Boston was produced at a coffeehouse on State Street by two English actors and some local volunteers. In 1775 General John Burgoyne, himself an actor and playwright, converted Boston's Faneuil Hall into a theatre, where he presented, among other pieces, The Blockade of Boston. After the Revolutionary War, in February 1794, the dramatic history of Boston may be said to have begun with the opening of the Boston Theatre. The history of Boston theatres from the eighteenth century through the present is covered in this well illustrated work. Although the theatre had a somewhat rocky beginning, by 1841 more than 15 theatre houses--including the Boston Theatre, Concert Hall, Merchants Hall, Boylston Hall, the Washington Gardens Amphitheatre, the Tremont Theatre, the Washington Theatre, the American Amphitheatre, the Federal Street Theatre, Mr. Saubert's Theatre, the Lion Theatre, the National Theatre (which boasted gas lighting), and the Howard Athenaeum--were all established. After these first theatres paved the way and puritanical restraint had been overcome, the public's enthusiasm for varied entertainment prevailed and theatres proliferated in the city. This book details the long and storied history of Boston theatre construction, alteration, restoration, and, in many cases, destruction. Information is also provided about building architecture, types of performances, ticket prices and other interesting data about each theatre's history.

The definitive account of Louis Armstrong—his life and legacy—during the most creative period of his career. Nearly 100 years after bursting onto Chicago’s music scene under the tutelage of Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A trumpet virtuoso, seductive crooner, and consummate entertainer, Armstrong laid the foundation for the future of jazz with his stylistic innovations, but his story would be incomplete without examining how he struggled in a society seething with brutally racist ideologies, laws, and practices. Thomas Brothers picks up where he left off with the acclaimed Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, following the story of the great jazz musician into his most creatively fertile years in the 1920s and early 1930s, when Armstrong created not one but two modern musical styles. Brothers wields his own tremendous skill in making the connections between history and music accessible to everyone as Armstrong shucks and jives across the page. Through Brothers's expert ears and eyes we meet an Armstrong whose quickness and sureness, so evident in his performances, served him well in his encounters with racism while his music soared across the airwaves into homes all over America. Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism blends cultural history, musical scholarship, and personal accounts from Armstrong's contemporaries to reveal his enduring contributions to jazz and popular music at a time when he and his bandmates couldn’t count on food or even a friendly face on their travels across the country. Thomas Brothers combines an intimate knowledge of Armstrong's life with the boldness to examine his place in such a racially charged landscape. In vivid prose and with vibrant photographs, Brothers illuminates the life and work of the man many consider to be the greatest American musician of the twentieth century.

The Routledge Guide to Broadway is the second title in our new student reference series. It will introduce the student to the Broadway theater, focusing on key performers, writers, directors, plays, and musicals, along with the theaters themselves, key awards, and the folklore of Broadway. Broadway is the center of American theater, where all the great plays and musicals make their mark. Students across the country in theater history, performance, and direction/production look to Broadway for their inspiration. While there are illustrated coffee table type books on Broadway, there are few that offer a comprehensive look at the key figures and productions of the last two centuries. The Routledge Guide to Broadway offers this information in an easy-to-use, inexpensive format that will appeal to students, professors, and theatrical professionals.

This collection of new essays explores the role played by women practitioners in the arts during the period often referred to as the Belle Epoque, a turn of the century period in which the modern media (audio and film recording, broadcasting, etc.) began to become a reality. Exploring the careers and creative lives of both the famous (Sarah Bernhardt) and the less so (Pauline Townsend) across a remarkable range of artistic activity from composition through oratory to fine art and film directing, these essays attempt to reveal, in some cases for the first time, women's true impact on the arts at the turn of the 19th century.