Behind the Curtains of the Broadway Beauty Trust [*SIGNED*]

Page, Will A.

Published by The Edward A. Miller Publishing Co., New York, 1927

About this Item

(blue cloth with pictorial paper label on front cover; no dust jacket) [modestly shelfworn, front hinge weak, rear hinge cracked and showing evidence of previous failed repair (glue residue), spine cloth faded, a few little scrape marks and light stains on front cover]. (B&W photographic plates) INSCRIBED fulsomely and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "To the greatest artist / of this generation - / Mrs. Leslie Carter - / with the sincere admiration / of one who has seen and / loved her in everything / she has done since / 'The Heart of Maryland' -- / from the author / Will A. Page." A theatrical memoir by "a Broadway Bocaccio" (as Jack Lait calls the author in his preface), whose particular bailiwick was the "girl show," i.e. those lavish extravaganzas whose primary aesthetic involved the display of as many beautiful females (and as much of their naked flesh) as the impresarios could cram onto a stage; as Lait notes, "eight stupendous revues, and scores of lesser ones, blaze anew on Broadway every autumn." It was this part of the showbiz world that the author dubbed the Beauty Trust, "so called because the keystone of the colossus is feminine beauty." The author's bona fides include having worked as "press agent, counsellor and confidant of 'Flo' Ziegfeld and Morris Gest, [and] as the present representative of Charles Dillingham, [and] as the associate of every other kingpin of the past two decades on the Great White Way," during which time "he has shared their secrets and those of their stars, show girls, chorus cuties, matinee idols, operatic divas, and other bright figures that have glittered, and still glitter, in the Beauty Trust's firmament." (I can't see the word "firmament" without hearing in my head the wonderful Jean Hagen in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, describing herself as "a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament.") The book is illustrated with numerous photographs of theatrical luminaries of the era, about evenly divided between the producers and impresarios (Ziegfeld, Otto H. Kahn, George White, Edward F. Albee, David Belasco, etc.) and the aforementioned show girls and chorus cuties. Of the latter group, very few will ring even the faintest memory bell these days, with the notable exception of Marion Davies, or maybe Ina Claire. But Beryl Halley? Anastasia Reilly? Wyn Richmond? How about Shirley Vernon, "former Ziegfeld beauty who acquired fame overnight by playing 'Strip-golf'" (a publicity stunt to which an entire chapter is devoted)? At the end of the book is an "Addenda," in which the author prints four letters he had received, years earlier, from George Bernard Shaw, during the course of his correspondence with the playwright about the prospect of presenting some of his plays on Broadway. Finally: it's kind of charming and not a little ironic that this copy was presented to Mrs. Leslie Carter, a celebrated actress of an even earlier era, known as "the American Sarah Bernhardt," who couldn't have been farther away in style from the showgirls of the 1920s. (The play the author cites in his inscription, "The Heart of Maryland," was her first big hit, in the Broadway season of 1895/96.) Signed by Author.

Seller Inventory # 30134

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Behind the Curtains of the Broadway Beauty Trust [*SIGNED*]
• Publisher: The Edward A. Miller Publishing Co., New York
• Publication Date: 1927
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Fair
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)