Here's another book about the Broadway Stage: Show & Tell: the New Book of Broadway Anecdotes, by Ken Bloom. Talk about people behaving badly! Good grief! From actors to writers, producers and so on, sometimes it's a wonder the show really does go on! There was lots of fun stuff, too, such as when Ben Hur was produced on the stage (!) and it came time for the chariot race? The horses were galloping on treadmills. One run of Sound of Music lasted long enough for some of the boys voices to change! A fun read.

If you haven't had enough about the Broadway stage yet, move on to Showstoppers! The Surprising Backstage Stories of Broadway's Most Remarkable Songs, by Gerald Nachman. Some of these songs were consider 'throwaway' songs, imagine! Many would become firmly linked with the performer, others with the show. And, the author mentioned something I've long believed ... the movie versions of Broadway musicals are dreadful (with very few exceptions, The Music Man being one, it was fairly close to the stage play). 'Names' are used in the main roles, whether or not the person can actually sing (and then, at an extra cost, the voice is dubbed). Songs are dropped, their order is changed .... sometimes the story is even changed. This is a nice history of how the musical has changed, too.

Normally I use picture books on my Thursday post, but this fit so well here I just had to use it! Balloons Over Broadway: the True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade, written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Tony Sarg designed puppets with such amazing movements that Macy's hired him to design their holiday windows, which lead to floats in their parade. Then, when Tony realized not all people could see the floats, his creations started to go up ... and up ... eventually becoming what you see in the parade today. He worked with an assistant named Bill Baird ... he designed the puppet show seen in the movie version of The Sound of Music. Mr. Baird had an apprentice, someone who would also do amazing things with puppets: Jim Henson!

Reading Hermit With Dog