Notes on a Cowardly Lion: The Biography of Bert Lahr. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Notes on a Cowardly Lion: The Biography of Bert Lahr

With a New Preface by the Author

First published in 1969, Notes on a Cowardly Lion has established itself as one of the best-ever show business biographies. Drawing on his father's recollections and on the memories of those who worked with him, John Lahr brilliantly examines the history of modern American show business through the long and glorious career of his father--the raucous low-comic star of burlesque, vaudeville, the Broadway revue and musical, Hollywood movies, and the legitimate stage. Here in rich detail is Lahr evolving from low--dialect comic to Ziegfeld Follies sophisticate, hamming it up with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman on the set ofThe Wizard of Oz, and debuting Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in America, which Kenneth Tynan called "one of the most noble performances I have ever seen." In the examination of Bert Lahr's chronic insecurity and self-absorption, the breakdown of his first marriage, and the affectionate arm's length he kept between himself and his adoring second family, John Lahr's book also brings the reader closer than any other theater biography to the private torment of a great funny man.

This edition of the book includes the award-winning essay "The Lion and Me," John Lahr's intimate reflections on family life with his distant, brooding, but lovable father. A first-class stylist, John Lahr takes the reader beyond the magic of show business to a dazzling examination of how a performing self is constructed and staged before the paying customers. Both as theater history and biography, Lahr's book is superb.

Praised by the New York Times Book Review as "probably the most intelligent and insightful writer on the theater today,"John Lahr has twice won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, the last time for his work at theNew Yorker, where he writes about theater and popular culture. Mr. Lahr has written sixteen books, among them the novelsThe Autograph Hound (1973) and Hot to Trot (1974); Light Fantastic: Adventures in Theater (1996), The Orton Diaries (editor, 1986), andPrick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton (1978).