Collects amusing anecdotes about the wives of the Presidents of the United States, from Martha Washington through Nancy Reagan

All the Presidents' Ladies

HAY, PETER

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin??Books

Theatrical anecdotes are almost as old as the theatre itself. For much of its 2,500-year history, the stage has teemed with real characters and real stories as fascinating as any created by a dramatist. Ranging from the age of Aristophanes to the time of Tennessee Williams, this book is a motherlode of tales about backstage rivalries, thespian eccentricity, the parsimony of producers, and indignities suffered on tour. Here we encounter Judith Anderson's unique method of working herself into a frenzy for her first entrance in Medea: deliberately provoking her co-star and arch-enemy Florence Reed. We get Oscar Wilde's own assessment of the first performance of Lady Windermere's Fan ("The play was a great success, but the audience was a total failure"). And we learn of Shakespeare's wild oats and why Moliere's grave had to be dug an extra four feet deep. David Garrick, Sarah Bernhardt, Noel Coward, Donald Wolfit, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Helen Hays, and a cast of hundreds are present in these pages--along with directors, producers, critics, prompters, prop men, designers, and ghosts. Although the book brims with the glittering and the glamourous, Peter Hay does not neglect those legions of near-anonymous players and professionals without whom the stars would not be stars and the theatre could not exist. The ideal gift book for anyone who has ever been stage-struck, Theatrical Anecdotes is both richly entertaining and wonderfully edifying. Organized by topic, it contains hundreds of tips for all theatrical professionals, directs scholars and students to a wealth of historical sources, and treats lovers of theatre to a feast of backstage secrets that will permanently enrich their appreciation of the art.

Theatrical Anecdotes

Oxford University Press

Hollywood, Walter Winchell quipped, is where they shoot too many movies and not enough actors. Always looking for an angle, always, scheming, always the scene of clashing egos, the movie industry is where they place you under contract instead of observation--and if you don't have anything nice to say, write it down. "In 1940, I had my choice between Hitler and Hollywood," French director René Clair recalled, "and I preferred Hollywood--just a little." In Movie Anecdotes, Peter Hay treats us to a delightful ride through the world that has captivated audiences for almost a century, with stories that are often hilarious, sometimes tragic, and always entertaining. He takes us from the rough-and tumble early days (when one studio paid Pancho Villa $25,000 to launch his attacks only in daylight, after a film crew had set up) to the studio era (when Joan Crawford refused to cross the street on the MGM lot except in a chauffeured limousine) to the shenanigans of today's global industry. Here are stories about all the legends: Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Mae West, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Sophia Loren, John Wayne, and, of course, Ronald Reagan. There are the great directors from D.W. Griffith, Hitchcock, and Eisenstein, to Kurosawa, Bergman, Visconti, Huston, Ford, and Woody Allen. And Hay has selected tales of the writers, the wits, and the grand moguls, including perhaps the largest collection of Goldwynisms--both genuine and apocryphal. Along with the laughter, this volume recreates the conflicts that have torn the movie world, from battles over money and contracts, to discrimination, divorces, and scandals. Colorful, incredible, bitter, funny--the stories about moviemaking are as fantastic as the pictures themselves. Now they have been gathered together in an irresistible bouquet that is certain to delight every movie buff and provide fascinating insights for serious students of film.

Movie Anecdotes

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

Hollywood, Walter Winchell quipped, is where they shoot too many movies and not enough actors. Always looking for an angle, always, scheming, always the scene of clashing egos, the movie industry is where they place you under contract instead of observation--and if you don't have anything nice to say, write it down. "In 1940, I had my choice between Hitler and Hollywood," French director René Clair recalled, "and I preferred Hollywood--just a little." In Movie Anecdotes, Peter Hay treats us to a delightful ride through the world that has captivated audiences for almost a century, with stories that are often hilarious, sometimes tragic, and always entertaining. He takes us from the rough-and tumble early days (when one studio paid Pancho Villa $25,000 to launch his attacks only in daylight, after a film crew had set up) to the studio era (when Joan Crawford refused to cross the street on the MGM lot except in a chauffeured limousine) to the shenanigans of today's global industry. Here are stories about all the legends: Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Mae West, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Sophia Loren, John Wayne, and, of course, Ronald Reagan. There are the great directors from D.W. Griffith, Hitchcock, and Eisenstein, to Kurosawa, Bergman, Visconti, Huston, Ford, and Woody Allen. And Hay has selected tales of the writers, the wits, and the grand moguls, including perhaps the largest collection of Goldwynisms--both genuine and apocryphal. Along with the laughter, this volume recreates the conflicts that have torn the movie world, from battles over money and contracts, to discrimination, divorces, and scandals. Colorful, incredible, bitter, funny--the stories about moviemaking are as fantastic as the pictures themselves. Now they have been gathered together in an irresistible bouquet that is certain to delight every movie buff and provide fascinating insights for serious students of film.

Leaders & Notable People

Broadway Anecdotes

Peter Hay's marvelously entertaining collection of stories leads us down that sparkling thoroughfare known as the Great White Way. Called the Street of the Midnight Sun by Diamond Jim Brady and immortalized by Walter Winchell and Damon Runyon as the Hardened Artery or Main Stem, Broadway embodies the entire history of live entertainment in America, and Broadway Anecdotes captures it in all its diversity. Expertly guided by Peter Hay, we will discover everything that Broadway is known for: the "legitimate" theatre, its stars and famous shows, the musicals, producers, hangouts, nightclubs, columnists, agents, vaudeville, burlesque, off-Broadway, and the road. From the first stage performances in America in the 1660s to the tragic decline of Edwin Booth's acting career, and from the controversy surrounding nude dancing in Oh Calcutta! to the dry wit of Tallulah Bankhead's comment to Tennessee Williams on the film version of Orpheus Descending ("Darling, they've absolutely ruined your perfectly dreadful play"), Broadway Anecdotes throws a unique, theatrical spotlight on American history. Along the way, we encounter countless movie stars, including Marilyn Monroe as she manages to remain anonymous on New York City streets simply by changing her walk, and Mae West as she whiles away her time in jail on an obscenity conviction, and even the young Henry Fonda as he balks at the suggestion of Marlon Brando's mother that he give acting a try, exclaiming "Good God, I don't know how to act." We also meet other kinds of celebrities, such as Alfred Bloomingdale, scion of the department store family, who briefly tried his hand at producing, and after a performance of the musical Allah be Praised! was told by his friend Cy Howard to "close the show and keep the stores open nights." Anyone who has ever been touched by the magic of Broadway will treasure this delightful collection of verbal snapshots of its vibrant world.

History & Criticism

In this marvellously entertaining collection of stories, Peter Hay takes us along that sparkling thoroughfare known as the Great White Way. Called the Street of the Midnight Sun by "Diamond Jim" Brady and immortalized by Walter Winchell and Damon Runyon as the Hardened Artery or Main Stem--Broadway is the embodiment of the history of live entertainment in America, and Peter Hay has captured it in all its dazzling diversity. Everything that Broadway is known for is here: the "legitimate" theatre, its stars and famous shows, the musicals, producers, hangouts, nightclubs, columnists, agents, vaudeville and burlesque, off-Broadway and the road. From the first time Americans took to the stage in the colonies in the 1660s to the tragic decline of the acting career of Edwin Booth (brother of John Wilkes), and from the trouble with nude dancing in Oh Calcutta! to the dry wit of Tallulah Bankhead's comment to Tennessee Williams on the film version of Orpheus Descending ("Darling, they've absolutely ruined your perfectly dreadful play"), Broadway Anecdotes throws a unique, theatrical spotlight on American history. We learn how Marilyn Monroe managed to remain anonymous on New York City streets simply by changing her walk, how Mae West whiled away her time in jail on an obscenity conviction, and that even the incomparable Katharine Hepburn suffered setbacks early in her career (Dorothy Parker wrote of one of her performances: "Miss Hepburn played the gamut from A to B.") A delightful collection of verbal snapshots of this vibrant world, Broadway Anecdotes is packed with the legends and lore, the humor and philosophy of a place where understudies still stand by with dreams of overnight stardom, shows still close before they open, and people keep singing in the rain. Anyone who has ever been touched by the magic of Broadway will treasure it.

Humor & Entertainment

The tradition of telling theatrical anecdotes extends back in time almost as far as the theater itself. For much of its 2,500-year history, the stage has housed real characters and real stories as fascinating as any created by a dramatist. Ranging from the age of Aristophanes to the time of Tennessee Williams, this book offers a motherlode of tales about backstage rivalries, thespian eccentricity, the parsimony of producers, and indignities suffered on tour. We encounter Judith Anderson's unique method of working herself into a frenzy for her first entrance in Medea, deliberately provoking her co-star and arch-enemy, Florence Reed. We come across Oscar Wilde's own assessment of the first performance of Lady Windermere's Fan ("The play was a great success, but the audience was a total failure"). And we learn of Shakespeare's wild oats and why Molière's grave had to be dug an extra four feet deep. These delightfully overflowing pages present David Garrick, Sarah Bernhardt, Noël Coward, Donald Wolfit, Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Helen Hayes, and a cast of hundreds, along with directors, producers, critics, prompters, prop men, designers, and ghosts. Although the book brims with the glittering and the glamorous, Peter Hay does not neglect those legions of near-anonymous players and professionals, without whom the stars would not be stars and the theater could not exist. Organized by topic, this richly entertaining and wonderfully edifying volume contains hundreds of tips for all theatrical professionals, directs scholars and students to a wealth of historical sources, and treats all lovers of theater to a feast of backstage secrets that will permanently enrich their appreciation of the art.

Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, Walter Winchell, Walter Cronkite--the giants of the airwaves, with all their quips, quotes, foibles, and insights, have now been gathered together in one delightful book. Peter Hay, best-selling author of Broadway Anecdotes and Movie Anecdotes, has collected stories of journalists and jokesters, inventors and investors, sportsmen and sponsors, presidents and producers, providing a riotous ride through the whole history of radio and television. By turns hilarious and insightful, these anecdotes offer revealing portraits of the personalities behind the scenes. Here, for instance, is the origin of Jackie Gleason's nickname (Gleason once was reciting Shakespeare on demand for Orson Welles, then switched with ease to Aeschylus, leading Welles to call him "the Great One"). Hay gives us stories from every area of the topsy-turvy world of radio and television. What was the ratings system in the days before Nielsen? One early broadcaster would name individual radio-set owners on the air and ask them to call if they were listening; later, Amos 'n' Andy became so popular that the New York water department noticed a sharp drop in pressure as seemingly the entire city rushed to the bathroom during commercial breaks. There is memorable fan mail: A Frenchwoman once wrote a British announcer, "I am fervent of your emissions"; a little girl wrote to Linda Ellerbee, "When I grow up I want to do exactly what you do. Please do it better." And Hay offers rousing examples of executive courage: The top brass at CBS, for example, congratulated Edward Murrow on his landmark exposé on Senator McCarthy with, "Great Show, Ed. Sorry you did it." Along the way, we see the wild improbabilities of the entertainment world. The title role of Columbo, immortalized by Peter Falk, was first offered to Bing Crosby; and the first TV interview with the victorious Fidel Castro in 1959 was conducted by Tonight Show host Jack Paar: Castro offered to sell him Batista's mansion, but Paar looked at Castro's beard and asked for the Norelco shaving concession instead. And Hay highlights the role of the broadcast media in the great events of our century, from the impact of FDR's "Fireside Chats" to LBJ's reflection that when he lost Walter Cronkite's confidence in the war in Vietnam, he lost Middle America. In Broadway Anecdotes, Theatrical Anecdotes, and Movie Anecdotes, Peter Hay has shown that he has an ear for good stories and a gifted voice for retelling them. In this volume, he gathers the greatest tales of the classic age of radio and television and beyond, from Marconi to Monty Python's Flying Circus, offering endless insight, enjoyment, and laughter.

Canned Laughter: The Best Stories from Radio and Television

Radio

Harrap's Book of Business Quotations

Reference

Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd.

Law, more than any other profession, offers a richly documented history of the wit , wisdom and stupidity of its practiciitioners and victims.Unlike other collections, Harrap's Book of Legal Anecdotes is organised under subject headings, making it an ideal reference book for professionals and laymen.

Harrap's Book of Legal Anecdotes

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by HAY, PETER. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by HAY, PETER

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by HAY, PETER. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

All the Presidents' Ladies

Theatrical Anecdotes

Movie Anecdotes

Movie Anecdotes

Broadway Anecdotes

Broadway Anecdotes

Theatrical Anecdotes

Canned Laughter: The Best Stories from Radio and Television

Harrap's Book of Business Quotations

Harrap's Book of Legal Anecdotes