- Hardcover
- Publisher: Random House (January 1969)
- ISBN-10: 0394438728
- ISBN-13: 978-0394438726
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.3 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 930 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"A book-length love letter. To open it is to enter a life, to participate in a sensibility and, perhaps most important, to laugh. Uproariously." -- Stefan Kanfer, Life
"Endlessly fascinating, excellent. . . . A work of literature, a work of history, a subtle psychological study." -- Richard Schickel, Harper's Magazine
"This is a biography of the late Bert Lahr, that clown-comedian who played everything from burlesque to Aristophanes and Shakespeare, by his son, who is one of that rare species, an authentic theater critic. . . . John Lahr is frank and objective about his father. He sees that Bert was wildly funny on the stage and unhappy off. He was a haphazard father, a selfish lover, a thoughtless husband (his wife cherished him), a hypochondriac and a ruthless 'professional.' The past becomes present in this biography, so that we come to know and understand the actor as clearly as the man. The book abounds in anecdotes that smack of the footlight world and its fascinating fauna. John Lahr is an honorable as well as a talented writer on the theater." -- Harold Clurman, New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"Endlessly fascinating, excellent. . . . A work of literature, a work of history, a subtle psychological study." -- Richard Schickel, Harper's Magazine
"This is a biography of the late Bert Lahr, that clown-comedian who played everything from burlesque to Aristophanes and Shakespeare, by his son, who is one of that rare species, an authentic theater critic. . . . John Lahr is frank and objective about his father. He sees that Bert was wildly funny on the stage and unhappy off. He was a haphazard father, a selfish lover, a thoughtless husband (his wife cherished him), a hypochondriac and a ruthless 'professional.' The past becomes present in this biography, so that we come to know and understand the actor as clearly as the man. The book abounds in anecdotes that smack of the footlight world and its fascinating fauna. John Lahr is an honorable as well as a talented writer on the theater." -- Harold Clurman, New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
With a New Preface by the Author
First published in 1969, Notes on a Cowardly Lion has established itself as one of the best-ever show business biographies. Drawing on his father's recollections and on the memories of those who worked with him, John Lahr brilliantly examines the history of modern American show business through the long and glorious career of his father--the raucous low-comic star of burlesque, vaudeville, the Broadway revue and musical, Hollywood movies, and the legitimate stage. Here in rich detail is Lahr evolving from low--dialect comic to Ziegfeld Follies sophisticate, hamming it up with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman on the set of The Wizard of Oz, and debuting Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in America, which Kenneth Tynan called "one of the most noble performances I have ever seen." In the examination of Bert Lahr's chronic insecurity and self-absorption, the breakdown of his first marriage, and the affectionate arm's length he kept between himself and his adoring second family, John Lahr's book also brings the reader closer than any other theater biography to the private torment of a great funny man.
This edition of the book includes the award-winning essay "The Lion and Me," John Lahr's intimate reflections on family life with his distant, brooding, but lovable father. A first-class stylist, John Lahr takes the reader beyond the magic of show business to a dazzling examination of how a performing self is constructed and staged before the paying customers. Both as theater history and biography, Lahr's book is superb. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
First published in 1969, Notes on a Cowardly Lion has established itself as one of the best-ever show business biographies. Drawing on his father's recollections and on the memories of those who worked with him, John Lahr brilliantly examines the history of modern American show business through the long and glorious career of his father--the raucous low-comic star of burlesque, vaudeville, the Broadway revue and musical, Hollywood movies, and the legitimate stage. Here in rich detail is Lahr evolving from low--dialect comic to Ziegfeld Follies sophisticate, hamming it up with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman on the set of The Wizard of Oz, and debuting Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in America, which Kenneth Tynan called "one of the most noble performances I have ever seen." In the examination of Bert Lahr's chronic insecurity and self-absorption, the breakdown of his first marriage, and the affectionate arm's length he kept between himself and his adoring second family, John Lahr's book also brings the reader closer than any other theater biography to the private torment of a great funny man.
This edition of the book includes the award-winning essay "The Lion and Me," John Lahr's intimate reflections on family life with his distant, brooding, but lovable father. A first-class stylist, John Lahr takes the reader beyond the magic of show business to a dazzling examination of how a performing self is constructed and staged before the paying customers. Both as theater history and biography, Lahr's book is superb. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book on the craft of getting a laugh, Jan 3 2011
By rgoad - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: NOTES ON A COWARDLY LION (Mass Market Paperback)
If you are an actor who has ever wondered why you got a laugh one performance and not on another or if you have directed actors in a scene that should be funny but for some reason it doesn't seem to work, then this is a great book to read. Bert Lahr took his job as a clown very seriously and 'worked' extremely hard at getting each laugh. I dont' think John Lahar is deliberatly writing a book about the craft of getting a laugh, but it sure opened my eyes. No longer do I move or direct actors to move on a "laugh line". I got this book for next to nothing at a garage sale and found it was like finding a Picaso under the black velvet Elvis....I got as much out of this book as I did in reading an Actor Prepares.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sad story of a pitiful man, warts and all, Feb 12 2009
By Donald J. Richardson "Hamlett0722" - Published on Amazon.com
Bert Lahr was a hold over from vaudeville and burlesque who never really accepted the changes he witnessed in show business and entertainment. Successful to a great degree, he was nearly immobilized by insecurity, never really believing that he deserved to be successful and never trusting his own talent. His son, John, here presents a panoramic vista of his challenging life from nascent attempts to his potato chip commercials. While one must admire the research and objectivity of the early and mid parts of the story, one must also criticize young Lahr's lack of objectivity at the end; too many debts have to be paid with some evening of the score along the way with the result that some of the material is embarrassing. I could have done with fewer wards
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Would The Real Pat Rizzuto Please Stand Up?", Mar 25 2012
By Don Reed "Don" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Notes on a Cowardly Lion: The Biography of Bert Lahr, With a New Preface by the Author (Paperback)
Notes On A Cowardly Lion [A Biography of the actor Bert Lahr, 1895-1967], John Lahr; Alfred A. Knopf (1969)On December 5, 2008, to my surprise, I found this book unreviewed in my notes after having witnessed the author's stint as a youthful impersonator of "Pat Rizzuto" (the offspring of Yankee baseball shortstop Phil Rizzuto) on a previously unseen re-run of the 1950s game show, To Tell The Truth.
Lahr gave himself away, to me, immediately (although who he actually was, of course, I had no idea - not knowing what he had looked like at that age, & also not having looked at the photos in Notes in quite a while).
The point of being one of the two liars, in order to attract the panelists' votes, is to strike a balance between not knowing anything (panelist: "He's obviously not the real thing") & appearing too eager to volunteer information ("He's putting on an act..."). And his sin was to indulge in the latter activity.
He might have approached the task with less cramming of facts - if they were facts - cultivating, instead, a "native" New York City accent (hell, John Lahr sounded so unlike a New Yorker, I thought he could have been one of Mickey Mantle's sons, from Oklahoma). But what wasn't his fault was what you'd think would be a program director's prerequisite - having at least somewhat of a resemblance to an Italian-American!
But that eager ability to rattle off facts @ his "father's" life - batting averages, etc. - did fool three of the celebrity panelists: consummate airhead Polly Bergen, blowhard J.C. Swayze, & the mindlessly inquisitive Hildy Parks. Meanwhile the shrewd - & only considerate, polite questioner - Dick Van Dyke went with the real thing: the female (!) high-school baseball athlete, Patricia ("Pat") Rizzuto.
The 3rd & least successful "offspring" was the inexplicably timid son of the relentlessly extroverted MC, Bud Collyer (nee Clayton Heermance, Jr.). One would have more logically assumed that Lahr would have been Collyer's son!
At any rate, Notes was splendid; I recall having derived nothing but pleasure from the experience. His biography of his (real) father was an engrossing story that certainly is overdue for a re-reading, soon... if I only had the courage.
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