The Entertainer

Movies, Magic, and My Father's Twentieth Century

Biography & Memoir, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Literary
Cover of the book The Entertainer by Margaret Talbot, Penguin Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Margaret Talbot ISBN: 9781101597057
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group Publication: November 8, 2012
Imprint: Riverhead Books Language: English
Author: Margaret Talbot
ISBN: 9781101597057
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication: November 8, 2012
Imprint: Riverhead Books
Language: English

Using the life and career of her father, an early Hollywood actor, New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot tells the thrilling story of the rise of popular culture through a transfixing personal lens. The arc of Lyle Talbot’s career is in fact the story of American entertainment. Born in 1902, Lyle left his home in small-town Nebraska in 1918 to join a traveling carnival. From there he became a magician’s assistant, an actor in a traveling theater troupe, a romantic lead in early talkies, then an actor in major Warner Bros. pictures with stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Carole Lombard, then an actor in cult B movies, and finally a part of the advent of television, with regular roles on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver. Ultimately, his career spanned the entire trajectory of the industry.

In her captivating, impeccably researched narrative—a charmed combination of Hollywood history, social history, and family memoir—Margaret Talbot conjures warmth and nostalgia for those earlier eras of ’10s and ’20s small-town America, ’30s and ’40s Hollywood. She transports us to an alluring time, simpler but also exciting, and illustrates the changing face of her father’s America, all while telling the story of mass entertainment across the first half of the twentieth century.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Using the life and career of her father, an early Hollywood actor, New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot tells the thrilling story of the rise of popular culture through a transfixing personal lens. The arc of Lyle Talbot’s career is in fact the story of American entertainment. Born in 1902, Lyle left his home in small-town Nebraska in 1918 to join a traveling carnival. From there he became a magician’s assistant, an actor in a traveling theater troupe, a romantic lead in early talkies, then an actor in major Warner Bros. pictures with stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Carole Lombard, then an actor in cult B movies, and finally a part of the advent of television, with regular roles on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver. Ultimately, his career spanned the entire trajectory of the industry.

In her captivating, impeccably researched narrative—a charmed combination of Hollywood history, social history, and family memoir—Margaret Talbot conjures warmth and nostalgia for those earlier eras of ’10s and ’20s small-town America, ’30s and ’40s Hollywood. She transports us to an alluring time, simpler but also exciting, and illustrates the changing face of her father’s America, all while telling the story of mass entertainment across the first half of the twentieth century.

More books from Penguin Publishing Group

Cover of the book Devil's Own by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book Quickening Fields by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book Where the Dead Lie by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book Infernal Affairs by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book The Door to December by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book The Book of Ichigo Ichie by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book The Generals by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book The Tesseract by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book Miss Julia Stands Her Ground by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book No Comfort for the Lost by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book Arrest by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book Complete Stories by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book The Granny by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book I Know I'm In There Somewhere by Margaret Talbot
Cover of the book Flashman by Margaret Talbot
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy