George Burns - Hardcover
Synopsis
Examines the person behind the persona of George Burns through his friendships with such contemporaries as Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, and Milton Berle, as well as his relationship with wife Gracie Allen. 50,000 first printing.
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From Publishers Weekly
Actor-comedian George Burns will be 100 in January, and this touching, breezy biography is peppered with indelible glimpses of an emotionally guarded man who turned his pain into oblique, self-effacing comedy. Born Nathan Birnbaum on New York's Lower East Side, the ninth of 12 children, to Orthodox Jewish parents who had migrated from eastern Europe, Burns quit school after fourth grade and by his mid-20s was a second-rate song-and-dance man. His transformation into vaudeville headliner, movie star and TV personality was galvanized by his collaboration with Gracie Allen, the Irish Catholic actress from San Francisco whom he married in 1926. Her death from a heart attack in 1964 traumatized Burns, but he reinvented himself, first as a solo comedian, then in a string of movie hits. Ex-New York Post drama critic Gottfried, biographer of Danny Kaye, interviewed Burns, his family, friends and colleagues. Here he candidly discusses the entertainer's infidelities, his sterility (he and Allen adopted two children) and his marriage in a star-studded biography stuffed with cameos of Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Groucho Marx, Dean Martin and Carol Channing, among others.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This tribute to one of the longest-running careers in show business history by veteran show biz biographer Gottfried (Nobody's Fool: The Lives of Danny Kaye, S. & S., 1994; Stephen Sondheim, Abrams, 1993) is being published to coincide with the celebration of George Burns's 100th birthday. From vaudeville to video, George Burns has worked in just about every medium and venue, including radio, television, nightclubs, and movies. Although his golden days were undeniably the years he spent as part of the Burns and Allen team, he was to enjoy a movie career (Sunshine Boys, Oh God) at an age when most vaudevillians would be long retired. Unfortunately, his long-standing date to play Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas on his centennial has been canceled due to his declining health in the last year. This interesting account of American entertainment through the life of one of its living legends is recommended for all general collections.
Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0684814838
- ISBN 13 9780684814834
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages336
- Rating
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