Name: The Chicago Music Scene
Brand: Dean Milano
SKU: 9780738577296
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Dean Milano

The Chicago Music Scene

9780738577296

$24.99

This is the story of Chicago's vibrant music scene in the 1960s and 1970s.

The 1960s and 1970s was a time when jazz, rock and roll, country and western, folk, blues, and R & B flowed through the streets of Chicagoland. Much has been written about the national and international talent of that time, but not enough has been written regarding local music scenes. This story focuses on the city of Chicago (along with its suburban club scene) and the homegrown performers who made the 1960s and 1970s one of the most electrifying and memorable periods in music history. Some of those players went all the way to the big time, while others made their mark and disappeared. But they all made a difference in their own way, and for those who were there, it is a time they will never forget.

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Leo B. Early

The Grande Ballroom

9781626197817

$24.99

In the 1920s, a jewel of Detroit entertainment arose on the Westside—the Grande Ballroom. The venue flourished under the ownership of infamous gambler Harry Weitzman and management of dance scion Paul Strasburg. The advent of rock 'n' roll pushed the ballroom into hard times, but in 1966, local schoolteacher and disc jockey Russ Gibb resurrected it with the promise of live rock music. The new psychedelic ballroom style attracted scores of suburban baby boomers and helped launch the careers of local legends like the MC5, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent. Soon the ballroom's prestige attracted international acts like Cream, the Who and the Jeff Beck Group. Detroit music history expert Leo Early celebrates this beloved venue.

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Ms. Deanna R. Adams

Cleveland's Rock and Roll Roots

9780738577869

$24.99

Rock and roll has been as much a part of the north coast city of Cleveland as the lake that hugs it.

Ever since Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed first called the records he was playing rock and roll, northeast Ohio has been a driving force in this musical phenomenon. From the disc jockeys who spun the music to the musicians who played it, the clubs that welcomed it and fans who encouraged it, rock and roll has been as much a part of this north coast as the lake that hugs it. It was those early years, from the 1950s on, that led Cleveland to becoming the Rock and Roll Capital of the World and ultimately home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. While the city spawned several widely recognized names, such as the James Gang (with Joe Walsh), the Raspberries (with Eric Carmen), and Bobby Womack, it is the music itself that will keep this town rocking on the shores of Lake Erie, and beyond, for a long time to come.

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David Balaban

The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz

9780738539867

$24.99

The Balaban and Katz Theater Corporationperfected the movie palaceconcept in Chicago, creating an extremely popular pastime that contributed greatly to Chicago's cultural identity.

The Balabans started in the movie theater business in 1908 by leasing the 100-seat Kedzie Nickelodeonon Kedzie Avenue. Balaban brothers Barney and A. J. dreamed of operating 5,000-seat movie palaces, so in 1916, they joined family friends Sam and Morris Katz to form the Balaban and Katz Theater Corporation. Their mission was to offer an unrivaled theater-going experience with the finest live performances and service. They built ornate theaters, such as the Chicago, the Uptown, and the Congress Theaters, filling them with fine furnishings, antiques, and artwork.Balaban and Katzproduced live stage shows between the movies with the likes of Bob Hope, Louis Armstrong, and Benny Goodman. Sadly, only a few of these gorgeous theaters still stand today.

Author David Balaban is named after his grandfather, one of the seven Balaban brothers who ran Balaban and Katz. Join him as he shares the stories and images of grandfather and great-uncles movie theaters.

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Steven J. Rolfes

Cincinnati Theaters

9781467115247

$24.99

Theaters have always been the places where memories are made. There, on Saturday afternoons, children could escape the pressures of growing up to live for two hours in a fantasy world of daring heroes, dastardly villains, and dazzling magic. They were the places where awkward teenage boys could nervously, and often clumsily, put their arms around equally nervous girls. In years past, every neighborhood had its own local theater. Downtown was home to the great movie palaces, ornate portals to a world of motion picture thrills. For a unique experience, nothing could beat a hot summer night at the drive-in. Today, in the era of the corporate multiplex, the great movie palaces are just memories. Some neighborhood cinemas are now churches or venues for meetings, wedding receptions, and small concerts. Images of America: Cincinnati Theaters looks back at these marvelous old theaters and the days when they were in their prime.

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Marilyn Bond

The Birth of the Detroit Sound

9780738520339

$24.99

From the 1940s through the early 1960s, a new form of popular music was born in the United States-one that would take the world by storm. Detroit disc jockey Alan Freed, among the very first to play and promote new music, christened it "Rock 'n Roll" from an old blues lyric. Detroit, like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Memphis, contributed its own distinctive regional character to the music and became a hub of industry activity. An epicenter of American music by the mid-1950s, Detroit built its reputation upon a wealth of talented singers and musicians, the vast amount of clubs and theaters available to them, and a multitude of enthusiastic industry professionals who helped bring their unique sound to the world. Many record labels, including Fortune and Fox, also thrived in the metro Detroit area in the days before Berry Gordy's Motown Records gained international recognition. This book documents the extraordinary style of music that took shape in Detroit well before Motown was a gleam in Gordy's eye. The Birth of the Detroit Sound chronicles great talents like John Lee Hooker, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Jackie Wilson, Jack Scott, Andre Williams, and Nolan Strong. Featuring a rare collection of vintage photographs, the book also spotlights record industry personalities, deejays, and long-forgotten venues where the giants of Detroit music once performed.

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Larry Widen

Milwaukee Movie Theaters

9780738584454

$24.99

Prior to World War II, there were 90 single-screen movie theaters in Milwaukee. By 1960, that number had been reduced by half. With the arrival of television for the home market, the golden age of the movie theater in Milwaukee was dead. Yet their ghosts continue to haunt the old neighborhoods. Churches, warehouses, stores, nightspots, and other businesses now occupy the former Tivoli, Paris, Roosevelt, and Savoy Buildings. Others are simply vacant hulks, decaying from the inside out. The Elite, Regent, Lincoln, and Warner are but a few of the many silent sentinels from the days when Milwaukee was in love with the movies.

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Larry Widen

Milwaukee Rock and Roll

9781467112505

$24.99

The history of rock music in Milwaukee began at an age when some musicians played in a segregated part of the city. At the same time, a young singer named Buddy Holly kicked off a tour that ended with a plane crash in Iowa 11 days later. The following years brought the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the rest of the British Invasion. In the late 1960s came acid rock, civil unrest, and Summerfest, a music festival that continues to this day. Milwaukee has had its moments in the spotlight: Bob Dylan left the stage after two songs in 1964, Bruce Springsteen's 1975 concert was delayed for hours while police searched for a bomb in the theater, hundreds of Black Sabbath fans rioted after a 1980 show, and the Plasmatics' Wendy O. Williams was beaten by police in 1981. And then there was the helicopter crash in which blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn perished.

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Jon Milan

Detroit

9780738561134

$24.99

Detroit has always been at the forefront of American popular music development, and the ragtime years and jazz age are no exception.

The city's long history of diversity has served the region well, providing a fertile environment for creating and nurturing some of America's most distinctly indigenous music. With a focus on the people and places that made Detroit a major contributor to America's rich musical heritage, Detroit: Ragtime and the Jazz Age provides a unique photo journal of a period stretching from the Civil War to the diminishing years of the big bands in the early 1940s.

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Harry Skrdla

Michigan's Drive-In Theaters

9781467112338

$24.99

Few American phenomena are more evocative of time, place, and culture than the drive-in theater. From its origins in the Great Depression, through its peak in the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately its slow demise in the 1980s, the drive-in holds a unique place in the country's collective past. Michigan's drive-ins were a reflection of this time and place, ranging from tiny rural 200-car ozoners to sprawling 2,500-car behemoths that were masterpieces of showmanship, boasting not only movies and food, but playgrounds, pony rides, merry-go-rounds, and even roving window washers.

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Jeffrey L. Stein

The Floppy Show

9781467126045

$24.99

In 1957, WHO-TV asked staff performer Duane Ellett to come up with an idea to help teach children how to better care for their pets. Ellett created Floppy, a high-voiced beagle dog puppet that became his sidekick for the next 30 years. Together, the iconic duo made 200 personal appearances every year at community festivals and events. The Floppy Show aired weekday afternoons in part of four decades, featuring a live studio audience of children telling Floppy riddles, beeping his nose for luck, and watching cartoons. On weekends, the duo appeared in a variety of programs over time, from the S.S. Popeye in earlier years to The Floppytown Gazette in the 1980s, featuring Floppy and other puppets Ellett created. Thousands of Iowans outside of Des Moines discovered the duo from their performances at the Iowa State Fair. Even now, 30 years after their last television appearance, Duane and Floppy still hold a warm place in the hearts of baby boomers across America.

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Michael Hauser

Detroit's Downtown Movie Palaces

9780738541020

$24.99

The spokelike grid of wide grand avenues radiating out from downtown Detroit allowed for a concentration of theaters initially along Monroe Street near Campus Martius and, after the second decade of the 20th century, clustered around Grand Circus Park, all easily accessible by a vast network of streetcars. In its heyday, Grand Circus Park boasted a dozen palatial movie palaces containing an astonishing total of 26,000 seats. Of these theaters, five remain today, fully restored and operational for live entertainment. Detroit, more so than any other North American city, illustrates how demographic and economic forces dramatically changed the landscape of film exhibition in an urban setting.

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Randy McNutt

The Cincinnati Sound

9780738550763

$24.99

From 1940 to 1970, Cincinnati overflowed with musical opportunities. Hank Williams recorded his hit Lovesick Blues. Andy Williams, Rosemary and
Betty Clooney, and Doris Day appeared regularly on WLW Radio, which also broadcast Boone County Jamboree. Then came the network television show
Midwestern Hayride and stardom for Kenny Price. Meanwhile, King and Fraternity Records released hundreds of hits for James Brown, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Cowboy Copas, Lonnie Mack, and the Casinos. In the late 1960s, the Lemon Pipers sang Green Tambourine, and rock bands ruled Coney Island's Moonlite Gardens. It was a wild, incredible ride while it lasted, and it left such an indelible impression that today Cincinnati is remembered as one of America's top music capitals.

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Patricia M. Mote

Cleveland's Playhouse Square

9780738540139

$24.99

Cleveland's Playhouse Square documents the fascinating history of the five theatres which boomed, beginning in the 1920s.

In the early 1920s, five opulent theaters—the Allen, the Ohio, the State, the Palace, and the Hanna—opened on a stretch of Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. They offered legitimate theater, vaudeville, name bands and entertainers, and films for the affluent and hardworking citizens of this booming industrial city. Unfortunately, the introduction of television and the flight to the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s turned the theaters into ghost palaces destined for the wrecking ball. In 1970, a bold group of planners led by Raymond K. Shepardson formed the Playhouse Square Association, a nonprofit group dedicated to saving the theaters. A 25-year restoration endeavor emerged that raised $53 million, culminating in the largest theater restoration project in the world. Today Playhouse Square Center ranks second only to New York's Lincoln Center as North America's largest performing arts complex.

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Scott L. Hoffman

Theatre History of Marion, Ohio, A

9781626199507

$21.99

One of the last remaining atmospheric theatres in the nation, elegant Marion Palace Theatre holds a storied history behind its curtains. From the Wigwam, the Grand Opera House and Germania Park Pavilion to nickelodeons, vaudeville houses and movie theatres, performance has been an essential part of Marion's history, and the Palace is the city's jewel. Designed by renowned theatre architect John Eberson, the Palace opened its doors in 1928 to packed audiences of over three thousand patrons. Author Scott L. Hoffman delves into the life and work of John Eberson and the forgotten stories of the Palace that include a police gambling raid, the construction of the theatre and the stars who performed for dazzled audiences there.

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Vince Vieceli

Stand-Up Comedy in Chicago

9781467111843

$24.99

Ten years after Chicago saw its first full-time comedy club open, the landscape was decidedly different. Stand-up comedy has exploded in the last couple of years, a club owner told the Chicago Tribune in 1985, that's the only way to describe it: exploded. It was truly a comedy boom, with as many as 16 clubs operating at once, and it lasted nearly a decade before fading, taking with it some of Chicago's oldest comedy stages, including the Comedy Cottage, Comedy Womb, and Who's on First. Still, stalwarts like Barrel of Laughs (south) and Zanies (north) persevered. That part of the story is known; overlooked is the fact there was a comedy boom, period. To hear the story, it is as if stand-up comedy innately morphed from a dated nightclub scene to what one Chicago Sun-Times writer called Chicago's atomic comedy blast.

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Larry Widen

Entertainment in Early Milwaukee

9780738550992

$24.99

What did early Milwaukeeans do to have fun and relax? This book answers that question, covering pop culture from the mid-1800s up to 1950, from the earliest tavern stages hosting traditional German plays and musicals, to the large traveling circus acts that arrived via the railroad, to the beer gardens, nickelodeons, and old grand cinemas that dominated the city's landscape during the first half of the 20th century. In its heyday, Milwaukee had several classic amusement parks with roller coasters, fun houses, water rides, and more. The first movie was shown in Milwaukee in 1896, and by 1920, there were nearly 100 buildings dedicated to motion pictures. And it was two Milwaukee businessmen who discovered the great Charlie Chaplin and also produced the 1915 epic Birth of a Nation.

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Wilbert Jones

Chicago Blues

9781467112208

$24.99

Blues was once described as the devil's music. It eventually became some of the most beloved American music that was embraced by a global audience. Originating in African American communities in the South in the late 1800s, it was inspired by gospel and spiritual music sung by field hands and sharecroppers who worked on plantations. During the Great Migration from the early 1900s to the mid-1970s, many African Americans moved north for a better quality of life. Chicago was one of America's leading industrialized cites, and manufacturing jobs were plentiful and provided better wages than sharecropping. Many blues musicians who worked as field hands and sharecroppers moved to Chicago not only for those jobs, but also to pursue their love of music. Greats such as Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Muddy Waters, Jimmy and Estelle Yancey, Robert Nighthawk, Elmore James, Willie Dixon, Earl Hooker, Koko Taylor, Sly Johnson, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Eddie Burns, Zora Young, Junior Wells, and a host of others came with their own styles and gave birth to Chicago blues.

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Alan F. Dutka

Historic Movie Theaters of Downtown Cleveland

9781467136464

$24.99

The first movie theaters in Cleveland consisted of converted storefronts with sawed-off telephone poles substituting for chairs and bedsheets acting as screens. In 1905, Clevelanders marveled at moving images at Rafferty's Monkey House while dodging real monkeys and raccoons that wandered freely through the bar. By the early 1920s, a collection of marvelous movie palaces like the Stillman Theater lined Euclid Avenue, but they survived for just two generations. Clevelanders united to save the State, Ohio and Allen Theaters, among others, as wrecking balls converged for demolition. Those that remain compose one of the nation's largest performing arts centers. Alan F. Dutka shares the remarkable histories of Cleveland's downtown movie theaters and their reemergence as community landmarks.

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Christine Renner

The Scarab Club

9780738541099

$24.99

From its humble beginning as the Hopkin Club to its current status in the 21st century, the Scarab Club in Detroit focuses on fine, performing, and technical arts and is still housed in its original 1928 building.

On the cusp of its centennial anniversary, the Scarab Club (founded in 1907) weaves itself into the city of Detroit's and the state of Michigan's artistic cultural heritage, a historic local, state, and national landmark. The club's exhibitions, programs, and costumed balls, the prominent visitors' and members' signatures on the second-floor beams, and the architectural decor of the clubhouse combine for its unique distinction. From its inception, the Scarab Club's mission has been to educate and enlighten its members and the community in the arts. The organization maintains a clubhouse for the exhibition of arts, provides facilities for artists for the advancement of their craft, and for other activities directed toward the education in the arts.

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Allen J. Singer

Stepping out in Cincinnati

9780738534329

$24.99

Long before folks had a television set and radio in every room, they sought entertainment by stepping out for a night on the town. The choices around Cincinnati were nearly limitless: live theater at the Cox; spectacular musicals at the Shubert; hotels featuring fine dining and dance orchestras; talking pictures at everyone's favorite movie palace—the Albee; burlesque and vaudeville shows at the Empress Theater on Vine Street; and gambling casinos were just a short drive across the river in Newport. All of the major entertainment venues in the Queen City during the first half of the 20th century are explored in Stepping out in Cincinnati. From saloons to ornate movie palaces and from the Cotton Club to the Capitol, you join those pleasure seekers, getting a real sense of what they saw: wonderful events and their countless images—the things of which fond memories were made. Today, those memories have faded and virtually all of the once-glittering showplaces have been bulldozed into history. But within these pages, we get to experience first hand what it was like to be there. Unique among the many photographs featuring unforgettable movie houses and nightclub orchestras are never-before-published images of actual live vaudeville performances onstage at the Shubert, plus rare, clandestine pictures snapped inside the casinos in Newport. Also revealed are the locations of the better-known speakeasies during Prohibition; where the best halls to dance to live orchestras were; what the earliest movie houses were like; and what black Cincinnatians did for entertainment.

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Joseph J. Accardi

Beloit's Club Pop House

9780738552095

$24.99

For baby boomers who grew up in and around Beloit, memories of that era would not be complete without the Pop House. To high school students, this teen nightclub was a weekend music mecca. Friday and Saturday nights were reserved for dancing and listening to live music provided by countless bands and solo acts. Owner George Stankewitz, born and raised in Beloit, became friend, father figure, and even boss to hundreds of area teenagers. From swing to pop to rock, notable acts to take the stage at the Pop House between 1946 and 1973 include such jukebox staples as Bobby Vinton, Johnny Tillotson, and Del Shannon, along with a tidal wave of Beatles-inspired local favorites. Summer softball leagues and championship basketball teams are recalled as well as the annual Turkey Bowl that continues to this day. And who can forget the annual chili festival with the crowning of a chili queen or a menu famous for its specialty sandwiches like the Snead and the Smiley?

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Keith Terry

Kearney's World Theatre

9780738583259

$24.99

The World Theatre in Kearney, Nebraska, opened in 1927 and was welcomed by an excited public. Much more than just a movie house, it soon proved to be a social center, where people of all professions, ages, and income levels would frequently gather, because it was modern and new and there were considered few equally attractive alternatives. Some went because it was a sanctuary or where they earned a living, while others nurtured the seeds of attachments there or sought out temporary distractions such as bits of humor, drama, mystery, or adventure. For still more, it was an important venue for staying informed or even escaping the heat of the day. Slowly over time, the entertainment and economic landscapes in the country changed, affecting The World's profitability as well as others like it.

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David Leander Williams

Indianapolis Rhythm and Blues

9781467129473

$24.99

Indiana Avenue was traditionally the host to some of America's premier, world-renown entertainment icons in various genres. Along this winding, brightly lit thoroughfare were nightclubs, lounges, supper clubs, taverns, juke joints, and holes-in-the-wall that celebrated the best of the best in entertainment that America had to offer, from the 1920s on into the 1970s. On the bandstand at Denver Ferguson's Sunset Terrace Ballroom, the elegantly attired crooner Nat King Cole, in a sparkling blue silk suit, delivered his signature song Mona Lisa. Nearby, B.B. King sang his 1973 down-home blues classic To Know You is to Love You. At Tuffy Mitchell's Pink Poodle nightclub, Moms Mabley made the audience roar with laughter during her sidesplitting comedy routine. Indiana Avenue truly was the place to be for the best in entertainment.

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Jonathan West

Milwaukee's Live Theater

9780738560595

$24.99

Milwaukee's live theater scene is the sum of several exciting parts. For many, Milwaukee live theater means world-class productions done by resident actors at one of the nation's leading regional theaters. For others, it has been defined by the machinations of a respected experimental theater troupe that traveled throughout Europe in the 1980s and was once honored with an Obie Award. There was a time when Milwaukee live theater meant a big top arena where some of the biggest stars of American musical theater frolicked and played for local audiences. Audiences in Milwaukee have enjoyed the classics, new plays, and contemporary hits performed by never-say-die producers who boast personalities larger than the stages their companies play upon. The Milwaukee theater style is not fussy or overblown. It is informed by a thrilling past, buoyant future, unsurpassed community support, and unfailing devotion to solid midwestern work ethics channeled into artistic innovation. Simply put, Milwaukee's live theater scene is the best-kept artistic secret in the United States.

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Rob Hubbard

Brave New Workshop

9781626196865

$21.99

In 1958, former circus aerialist Dudley Riggs opened a Minneapolis coffeehouse with a stage for performers and created an American comedic institution. What started as a way to draw customers on slow nights became the Brave New Workshop, a comedy theater sinking its satirical talons deep into the culture of Minneapolis–St. Paul for over half a century. This theater helped launch the careers of many talented performers, including satirist-turned-senator Al Franken and his Saturday Night Live partner in comedy, Tom Davis, as well as comedian Louie Anderson, Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead, screenwriter Pat Proft of the Naked Gun films and many others. Author Rob Hubbard tells the story of the hilarity, irreverence and imagination of the Brave New Workshop—a funhouse mirror to the world around it. If you've lived in Chicago, you know what Second City is. If you've lived in the Twin Cities, you know what the Brave New Workshop is. Founder Dudley Riggs and the Brave New Workshop played a big part in my comedy career. Read the real history of this company and the actors and writers from it who have influenced comedy on television and the big screen for over 50 years. – Louie Anderson

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A'Lelia Bundles

Madam Walker Theatre Center

9781467110877

$24.99

As they watched construction of the block-long flatiron building brick by brick throughout 1927, African American residents of Indianapolis could scarcely contain their pride. This new headquarters of the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, with its terra-cotta trimmed facade, was to be more than corporate offices and a factory for what then was one of America's most successful black businesses. In fact, it was designed as a city within a city, with an African Art Deco theater, ballroom, restaurant, drugstore, beauty salon, beauty school, and medical offices. Generations of African American families met for Sunday dinner at the Coffee Pot, enjoyed first-run movies and live performances in the Walker Theatre, and hosted dances in the Casino. Today, this National Historic Landmark is an arts center anchoring the Indiana Avenue Cultural District.

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David Meyers

Columbus

9780738561530

$24.99

Columbus has long been known for its musicians. Unlike New York, San Francisco, Kansas City, Nashville, or even Cincinnati, however, it has never had a definable scene. Still, some truly remarkable music has been made in this musical crossroads by the many outstanding musicians who have called it home. Since 1900, Columbus has grown from the 28th- to the 15th-largest city in the United States. During this period, it has developed into a musically vibrant community that has nurtured the talents of such artists as Elsie Janis, Ted Lewis, Nancy Wilson, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dwight Yoakam, Bow Wow, and Rascal Flatts. But, in many instances, those who chose to remain at home were as good and, perhaps, even better.

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David A. Lossos

St. Louis Casa Loma Ballroom

9780738533780

$21.99

In 1927, on the northeast corner of Cherokee and Iowa Streets in south St. Louis, a multistory, multipurpose building was erected. Retail shops and a bowling alley occupied the first floor, while upstairs was a place that defied the imagination of someone driving by in their brand new Model T Ford. Today, that upstairs space, with its lofty ceiling, huge maple tongue-in-groove dance floor, and wraparound balcony, is the Casa Loma Ballroom—St. Louis' last grand ballroom. Today, one gets the feeling that the ghosts of the big bands and the vocalists still linger there—and with good reason. Just about everybody who was anybody played there at one time or another. Ol' Blue Eyes himself, before he was the idol of millions, received just a meager Featured Singer, Frank Sinatra note at the bottom of the Casa Loma bill the night he played with the Harry James Orchestra.

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Kimberly A. Kenney

Canton Entertainment

9781467110846

$24.99

Everyone loves to have fun! Over the years, Cantonians have enjoyed a wide variety of amusements, from traveling theatrical shows to community-wide celebrations. Louis Schaefer opened the town's first opera house in 1868, attracting some of the 19th century's biggest stars to Canton. The tradition of first-rate entertainment continued in the 20th century, with stars like Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Guy Lombardo gracing the stage of the Moonlight Ballroom. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Canton enjoyed a cultural renaissance with the development of many arts organizations still cherished today, including the Players' Guild, Canton Symphony Orchestra, and Canton Museum of Art. In 1955, the city celebrated its sesquicentennial with the biggest parade in Canton's history.

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Thomas F. Foxlee

Fifty Years of Meadow Brook Theatre

9781467114202

$24.99

Meadow Brook Theatre (MBT) began in 1966 as part of a strategy to associate professional music and theatre with Oakland University's academic programs. The theater became a reality when John Fernald, an internationally acclaimed director and head of London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, accepted Chancellor D.B. Varner's invitation to establish a resident professional theatre company on the university's campus. In January 1967, the curtain rose; nearly five decades later, MBT remains a key element of Oakland County's cultural fabric. Many famous actors—including William Hurt, Curtis Armstrong, and Cindy Williams—have appeared on its stage.