Publisher's Synopsis
The Jewish entertainer has a huge role in the story of show business - right from the times of a group of entertainers who dominated their world and must now be remembered as the Incredible Generation. Names like Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Jack Benny, George Burns and, towering above them all, the man who called himself - and was never contradicted - the world's greatest entertainer - Al Jolson. And then came a phenomenon called Danny Kaye, and the music makers like Gershwin, Berlin, Kern, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. This book is the story of this phenomenon - the Jewish contribution to show business. It contains twenty-five pen portraits of artists whom Michael Freedland regards as some of the most important. Try this list for size: Al Jolson, the Marx Brothers, Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor, Edward G Robinson, Jack Benny, Irving Berlin, George Burns, George Jessel, Fanny Brice, Danny Kaye, Sammy Cahn, Walter Matthau, Barbra Streisand, Joel Grey, Larry Adler, Ron Moody, Frankie Vaughan, Bud Flanagan, Steven Spielberg, Zero Mostel, Mel Brooks, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen - and Topol, who has illustrated this book.
