Description
W. H. Allen [Published date: NO date listed - circa 1951]. Hard cover, 282 p. No other printings listed.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
17
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In acceptable condition / NO dust jacket. Red cloth covered boards have light bumping and scuffing to edges and corners with some nicking and fraying to corner tips and top and bottom of spine. Spine and edges are heavily faded with writing on spine virtually undetectable. Light overall soiling covers as well. Spine is thinly cracked along front endpapers, but binding is still intact. Previous owner's gift inscription in ink on front free end paper dated Christmas 1952. Otherwise pages are lightly aged but unmarked. NOT Ex-library. NO remainder marks. Black and white photo reproductions. Overall a good reading copy [Excerpts from Introduction] This is the story of C. B. Cochran, the little boy from Brighton who became the world's greatest showman. His whole life was a fairy tale with a full complement of Prince Charmings, ogres, lovely ladies, spangles, witches and castles in the air. . . Throughout his life he was completely disdainful of money. . . Immensely generous to his actors, actresses, authors and composers, he had no mercy on his backers or himself. Only the best in the theatre was good enough for him and sometimes the best was so expensive that a financial loss was inevitable before the curtain ever went up on the first night. At the age of 7 when he saw his first pantomime he was determined to enter show business and finally ran away to America to do so. Pink-cheeked, hazel-eyed, cocky, brusque and alert he starved and acted, starved and sold fountain pens, starved and sold patent medicines, acted, starved, produced, promoted, presented revues, prize fights, circuses, roller skating and wrestling, but only one pantomime. . . His oldest friend was Hackenschmidt, the last person to whom he spoke on his death bed; he dined with Mistinguett, he collaborated with Reinhardt, he argued with Bernard Shaw and he went to school with Aubrey Beardsley; he discovered Delysia, he adulated the Dolly Sisters; with Elsie Apru he made Noel Coward. His was a world of sables and jewels, oysters and pink champagne, bankruptcy courts and moneylenders, gold plate and caviar. He never swore, never backed horses and lost his temper only twice in his life. His actors and actresses, particularly his Young Ladies, all adored him. Suave, dapper and debonair he made a great impression on me when, as theatre critic of the "the Evening News," I first met him at the Garrick during the run of The Man in Dress Clothes in 1922. This was the start of a long friendship during which I attended most, if not all, of his first-nights. . .