Rare Birds (eBook)

An American Family

Dan Bessie (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
306 Seiten
The University Press of Kentucky (Verlag)
978-0-8131-5384-1 (ISBN)

Infos

What does a writer do when he has a family that includes a blacklisted member of the Hollywood Ten, the brains behind Tony the Tiger and the Marlboro Man, a trio of gay puppeteers, the world's leading birdwatcher, 1960s hippies, a Dutch stowaway who served in an all-black regiment during the American Civil War, and a convicted murderer? He tells their stories and secrets, illuminating 150 years of American life along the way. Dan Bessie begins the journey through his family history with his great-grandfather in the cargo hold of a ship bound for New York on the storm-tossed Atlantic. What follows are stories of his grandfather's various entrepreneurial schemes (including a folding butter box business), a grandmother who was voted "e;New York's prettiest shop girl"e; (and who resisted the recruitment efforts of various city madams), and his uncle Harry's Turnabout Theater in Los Angeles (a renowned puppet theater drawing patrons as diverse as Shirley Temple, Ray Bradbury, and Albert Einstein). An extraordinary strain of creativity runs through the Bessie and Burnett clans, and Rare Birds celebrates the colorful diversity of this remarkable and accomplished family. While their choices and professions run the gamut of the American experience in the twentieth century, the history of the nation can be traced in these people's lives. Bessie's passionate birds of a feather gather to sing their unique song across decades and generations.

Autor

Dan Bessie has been a film writer, director, producer, and animator since apprenticing on Tom and Jerry cartoons at MGM in 1956. The author of Reeling Through Hollywood, he is also a screenwriting coach, book illustrator, and cartoonist.

Inhalt

Stories: Preface to a Family
The Old Gentleman
Odd Birds
Turnabout
Dwell in the Wilderness
Battle of the Century
Alvah: Broadway to Barcelona
Harold
Mary: The Rarest Bird
A Long Way from Ostego
An Ink-Stained Wretch
Birder
Alvah: Curmudgeon on the Left
Love and Posters
The Distinguished Publisher
Gifts

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.11.2021
• Zusatzinfo: 53 b&w illustrations
• Verlagsort: Lexington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Hilfswissenschaften
• Schlagworte: Aldous Huxley • all-black civil war regiment • Alvah Bessie • Anwar Sadat • atheneum press • Biography • Birdwatching • colorful characters • convicted murderer • Depression Era • Edward Albee • Family • family memoir • fillmore auditorium • Genealogy • Hippies • Hollywood Ten • lenz on bridge • leo bessie • Los Angeles • marlboro man • michael bessie • New York • new york's prettiest shop girl • phoebe snetsinger • San Francisco • sidney lenz • stowaway • tony the tiger • turnabout theater • wes wilson
• ISBN-10: 0-8131-5384-0 / 0813153840
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-5384-1 / 9780813153841