Reviews (2)

review from his neice
havent read all of it yet; but ive read her, the authors first book which is pretty accurate; my uncle was an amazing, dynamic and brilliant innovator in many fields; not only in theatre which he dedicated his life to; but sensitive to all people; because of him homeless people are being given food now; progams he started when he was alive; my whole family have the papp blood; myself as a teacher, linguist, dancer, singer,etc; sister artist;;;this was given to us by my grandfather an immigrant from poland who loved music, yiddish theatre, was an actor, comedian,;;etc. may my uncle, Joseph Papp who has given my mother, and family, never be forgetten; looking forward to getting the book and will follow with unbiased critique

A dense, informative bit of theater history
The story of Joe Papp is the story of a precious stage ofAmerican theater history -- an intensely productive period forAmerican playwrights and New York theater -- and as such, this book is satisfying. The author is a Papp fan, so it's to her credit that this reader found Papp complex and industrious, but not terribly likable or insightful about the theatrical art or craft. As a visionary, his successes are a matter of record -- though no one would want producers to emulate his thoughtless, irresponsible, "raging bull" approach to developing the artistic and financial security of an organization. Yet the man was a force of nature, and his interaction with his community -- documented here in detail -- is of genuine historical interest. ... Read more

Book Description

A colorful, historically accurate biography of William B. Gill, a famous musical-comedy playwright and comedy performer of the late-19th-century who is now mostly forgotten, but who changed the course of American musical theater.Gill began his career as a comedic actor in the coalfields of Australia, then performed in India and England, before finally coming to the U.S.Achieving fame as one of the most popular playwrights of his days, Gill's works appeared for years on Broadway and in the repertories of touring troupes.For years, theater historians have wondered about the facts behind his life; now master theater maven Kurt Ganzl has uncovered a wealth of new information about this influential and colorful character.A must-read for all fans of the musical theater. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

In his last years, America's leading playwright,Tennessee Williams, often threatened to publish a 'black book' describing the darker side of show business as he experienced it. Knowing he would not have time to complete it in his lifetime, he asked author Bruce Smith to write his personal memoirs of his years as Mr. Williams media and personal manager. That book is COSTLY PERFORMANCES/ Tennessee Williams: The Last Stage. It is now scheduled as a major motion picture release in 2005, starring Derek Jacobi as Tennessee Williams and Kevin Anderson as the author. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This is a valuable theatrical memoir
I am a young actor living in London where the plays of Tennesssee Williams are experiencing a great deal of interest within the entire theatre community: schools and universities; theatre companies; theatre media. All fans of his work are turning to background material on Williams and one of the most discussed -- and admired -- is Costly Performances/Tennessee Williams: The Last Stage by Bruce Smith. Mr Smith has, since writing this memoir, become actively involved in London's theatre world, saying he learned "at the master's hand" many enduring and valuable lessons re dramaturgy, play production and, more importantly, playwriting. His play 'Papal Gore' is scheduled for a West End staging. As well, his book about Mr. Williams is now being made into a major motion picture here in England. Real theatre people understand the sensitivity Mr. Smith brought to his portrayal of Mr Williams in his last, very difficult years and value it as a real contribution to 20th Century theatre history. It is highly literate but -- above all -- a very good read. This book, with Lyle Leverich's
The Unknown Tennessee Williams and the gossipy The Kindness of Strangers by Donald Spoto provide an indepth look at the author's life and times.

An Important Account of Tennessee Williams' Last Years
If you want to get the feel of the end years of Tennessee Williams' life...be sure to read Bruce Smith's "Costly Performances". I know because I was Tennessee's personal assistant for about six months ending right after the main stage opening of "A House Not Meant to Stand". Some of Bruce's "facts" are clearly incorrect. He has Tennessee and I meeting in Vancouver (I am referred to as "Saskatch".) and later travelling to Sicily. Neither of us was in either place while I was in Tennessee's employ. There are other errors too but they are minor compared to the importance of the dynamics of Tennessee and the other people in his life at that time...and Bruce captures this quite well.

As Bruce points out, Tennessee was largely abandoned in his last years by the mainstream and in their place came a cast of characters all seeking to gain something from him...money, drugs, fame...but the biggest was to be seen as his savior, either professional or personal. This drama plays out in Bruce's book and to a certain extent continues to play out AS Bruce's book. Bruce accurately skewers such characters as Gary Tucker and Schuyler Wyatt, and in great detail, but also minimizes the "good guys" such as Vasilis Voglis (referred to simply as "Voglis".) and Kate Schweppe, AKA Texas Kate.

Thus, in his book, Bruce is left alone on the stage, all others having been dismissed. But as even Bruce points out, Tennessee was always pitting people against each other, encouraging their rivalry and watching as the drama played out. He encouraged both sides of this drama, both constructive and destructive. This was his life and as he grew weaker from age and from the toll of the way he lived, he maintained this ongoing drama even at the expense of his commercial life. This is what we see unfolding in Bruce's book. If you want to know what those days were like...you will find it here. ... Read more

Book Description

The life if Richard Wilson,the lugubrious actor best known from the series "One Foot In The Grave",whose on-screen incredulity is invariably marked by the droll if exasperated phrase "I dont believe it" only became an actor at the age of 30.Born the son of a Clyside shipyard timekeeper,he became a hospital lab technician,but after ten years gained a place at Londons celebrated RADA drama school as a mature student. ... Read more

Book Description

Sarah Bernhardt, possibly the greatest actress of the late nineteenth century, was a symbol of French Romantic theatre at its height and of the melodramatic excesses that led to its demise. The theatre of Bernhardt's time was changing rapidly, and Salmon depicts this change as it was reflected in her roles, temperament, and approach to acting. This book reexamines Sarah Bernhardt, not solely as an individual, but in comparison with other contemporary thespians and their styles and approaches to theatrical performance. The romantic vision of Bernhardt and her contemporaries in time produced the emotionalism, vulgarity, sensationalism, and empty spectacle that typified Romanticism in decline, and pushed it into the deeper channels of fin-de-siecle naturalism. This study explores the complex relationship between art and craft, between art and its creator, between celebrity or notoriety and real achievement, and between Romantic Theatre a la Bernhardt and other theatrical expressions of Romanticism. ... Read more

Book Description

Highly acclaimed when it was first published in 1967, Frederic Ewen's monumental biographical study of Bertolt Brecht has long been out of print. In response to national demand, Citadel Press is proud to reissue this complete and unabridged text.

Of "Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art, His Times, the critics wrote:

"The finest critical study of Brecht to date. This book is at least a worthy appreciation of a towering, poetic and dramatic genius." -Los Angeles Times

"What is particularly striking about Frederic Ewen's biography is that it conveys the excitement, the turmoil and triumph of Brecht's career." -The New York Times

"The great thing about Frederic Ewen's luminous biography is that it gently frees Brecht from the bear hugs of the bigots and restores him to us as a whole man, his youth contained in his age." -The Nation ... Read more

Reviews (1)

BERTOLT BRECHT BY EVEN IN SPANISH
I am peruvian and I read the book in Spanish, thanks to a friend who bought it in Buenos Aires.
I am a Bertolt Brecht's researching friend. This is the way I considered him: like a living one working for the theater.
I found the book nearly excellent...but too much condescending at the "human valorization" of our beloved friend. Ewen looks throught his appreciations too much "innocent" in that respect.
And I have a big question. Ewen says that Brecht "got a Medicin degree".
I do not know if this are translation problems but it is the first time (and I search about living Brecht since 1968)I heard about it.... ... Read more

Book Description

The book is based on a series of unique oral histories and interviews with actors who love the stage first and foremost. Editor Joan Jeffri focuses on the experience of actors in their training and career development, and on their relationships to society, culture, and institutions. Although names like Alan Alda are recognizable from other media, these actors all grew up being nourished by the stage. Their stories show that theatre is everywhere in this country--not only on Broadway, but also in churches, in schools, in regions, and in towns. These interviews and a thorough introduction provide a history of the American theatre for almost a century--the Yiddish theatre, the WPA, the start of regional theatre, off- and off-off-Broadway, and the Great White Way--through the voices of those who lived it. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Richard Sheridan is primarily remembered for three brilliant plays: The Rivals, The School for Scandal, and The Critic. With these elegant comedies of manners, he almost single-handedly revived the comic spirit of the Restoration, deemed too coarse by the more refined society of the latter 18th century. In Sheridan's work, the clichés of traditional melodrama are turned on their heads (The Rivals, for example, features a man who forces his son to marry the woman he himself is in love with), and romantic intrigues become a forum for discussing political issues and the nature of theater itself. Sheridan's major plays were all written by the time he was 28. While melodramas, adaptations, and pantomimes followed, his career as a playwright was just a prelude to a long involvement in other fields, most notably managing London's Drury Lane theater and a political career that eventually led to a seat in the House of Commons. Little has been written about his later political and business life.

There are romantic intrigues, political battles, and dodges from the debt collectors aplenty in Sheridan's later life, though they seem but a lengthy epilogue to the wit and creativity of his early years. O'Toole is wonderfully lucid, however, in explaining the struggles for Irish autonomy in this period (Sheridan would all his life, to the detriment of his social standing, identify himself as Irish), and he offers an in-depth analysis of the elaborate political and social arena of the time. Particularly well drawn are Sheridan's complex romantic relationships with his wives, involving infidelities and duels. But when compared to the brilliance of his early plays, the historical details of his later life seem somewhat lackluster. --John Longenbaugh ... Read more

Reviews (3)

What an excellent book!
It's enough to say that a major artist has met with a superb biographer and this happy marriage has produced a very moving and absorbing account of this great man's life. Thank you Mr O' Toole!

a terrific book
I was familiar with Sheridan from his theatrical comedies, plays that have become standard in the repertoire. I was dimly aware of his service in Parliament. I wasn't aware of his extensive involvement in the great political questions of the day, particularly the Irish questions, nor of his centrality in the great debates of the late 18th century--the American war for independence, the expanding power of the East India Company, and many others.

The book covers all of this, but what elevates this bio from the typical is the author's focus on Sheridan's rhetoric--his use of language. The richness of wordplay, situation, and satire in his plays turns out to be just a special case of a characteristic lifestyle of thought and interaction. It's just splendid to read this sort of thing from an intelligent writer. The book gets you thinking, and there are points at which you may challenge the author's conclusions, but you're not going to find many biographies of this depth, thoroughness, and thoughtfulness. A great read!

a really good biography that could have been much better
Sheridan (1751-1816) is best known for a few plays, superficially comedies of manners and morals, mainly The Rivals and The School for Scandal. O'Toole's work explores beneath the surface of these and other literary works, showing them as the products of Sheridan's personal and political life.

Widely praised in the English and American press, this biography portrays Sheridan as a passionate (and compassionate) politician. He was a major player in a struggle for various complicated and sometimes seemingly contradictory causes and parliamentary power in the era of the American Revolution, King George III's intermittent madness, the French Revolution, and troubles in the British empire.

Sheridan is shown to be a humanitarian, and, less convincingly, an Irish patriot in the guise of an English politician who happened to be Irish by birth at a time when Ireland was at times openly rebellious toward England. The family heritage in Ireland was actually Protestant, but tolerant of Catholicism to the point of having Jacobite tendencies, i.e. favoring the return of the Stuart monarchy that had ended with James II in the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688. Sheridan's father, Thomas, was a man of the theatre, and also a scholar, concerned particularly with propriety in matters of language and spoken discourse. Richard was not his father's favorite and his mother, herself a writer, died while Richard was still a young boy.

O'Toole's biography manages to relate the playwright's works to his family circumstances without indulging in psychological speculation. For example, the memorable character Mrs. Malaprop, in The Rivals, (immortalized by our word "malaprop" or "malapropism") is shown to be in part based on Thomas, who had pedantic tendencies. (Malaprops are best when they come from pretenders to perfection in language. An especially good one appeared a few years ago in The Smithsonian magazine when James J. Kilpatrick, a conservative political commentator and sometimes word policeman, referred to a mistake in diction as a "solipsism" instead of a "solecism".)

The many portrayals of hypocrisy and venality in Sheridan's plays are well explained by reference to the politics and society of the period, but are timeless in their effectiveness. The book is most interesting in describing the realities of theatrical performances, whether the particulars are staging details, audience characteristics, or financial exigencies. But this is a political biography of a character whose political accomplishments and enlightened ideals outshine his well known literary works.

Many of Sheridan's Irish contacts and English partisans in the intrigues within England in the years after 1789 were openly sympathetic to, or even allied with the French revolutionaries. Yet Sheridan was during this time a prominent member of the House of Commons and close to the Prince of Wales, later George IV. Some of his personal and political friends were tried as traitors during the peak of Sheridan's political prominence; he survived primarily because of his political acumen, eloquence, and insight.

To the general reader, not well acquainted with the intricacies of English history, the work will nevertheless be interesting and convincing in portraying Sheridan as a politically adroit and ingenious man, even an Enlightenment figure. Sheridan's speeches and writings were well known to the American revolutionaries, and remained popular even after his death. He eloquently advocated religious toleration, freedom from colonial oppression, even feminism, and opposed slavery so effectively as to influence the young Frederick Douglass.

Sheridan's personal flaws (he was a drunk and an adulterer), theatre life in London, political intrigues, the struggle for religious and political freedom in Ireland, and the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings for mismanagement of affairs in British colonial India, all well explained, make this book accessible and interesting. I offer three points of criticism.

First, and most importantly, characters, terms, or events not known to the general reader or history reader, should be explained briefly. The English reader may know what a "rotten" borough was, and what a "pocket" borough was, in the days before parliamentary reform, but a sentence or two would explain this and give the reader a better understanding of the electoral politics involved.

Second, an attempt at a definitive biography, published by a prestigious house such as Farar, should include illustrations. It is frustrating to read descriptions of presumably extant political cartoons of the day, some involving Sheridan's Drury Lane theatre, or major political figures, and not be able to see reproductions-surely the private collection or library would give permission. (In fact, the New York Review of Books included one cartoon in its review of this book.)

Finally, O'Toole's prose is afflicted with some of the unfortunate mannerisms of academic style. He repeatedly uses the awkward, almost always disruptive "former...latter" construction, and equally often uses the term "context" when referring to real relationships or circumstances-the term should be reserved for relationships between words. These usages may be epidemic in doctoral dissertations or in the "scholarly" journals no one reads, but that does not excuse their appearance in a work like this-the author is the drama critic of the New York Daily News. In the age of word processing, surely an editor at Farar should have caught these irritating errors of style, possibly in preparation of the American edition. Then again, a careful editor might have noticed that at the end of the "Preface to the American Edition" the date is incorrectly listed as May 1988.

If this clever and talented author had made his entertaining book more accessible, he would be open to the charge of "popularizing", anathema in academic and some literary circles. But it is a measure of his success in eliciting the nature of Sheridan that one wishes he had done so. After all, the political and religious difficulties in Ireland persist, and one could as well look beyond the Emerald Isle and argue that we too live in an age of comparably flawed, but ultimately noble political actors and causes, in need of better understanding of their human qualities. ... Read more

Book Description

The critically acclaimed author of On the Narrow and Women of the Pleasure Quarters tells the enthralling true story of the woman who became the most celebrated geisha in Japan and the first to tour the United States and Europe.

At twenty-seven, she captivated the world's stage. The crowned heads of Europe vied for her favors. Picasso sketched her portrait. Puccini based the title character of Madame Butterfly on her and used one of her haunting melodies. Gide, Debussy, Degas, and Rodin were among her devoted fans. She was Sadayakko, Japan's most notorious geisha-and its first international superstar.

In this real-life Memoirs of a Geisha, Lesley Downer, journalist and author of Women of the Pleasure Quarters, hailed as "artfully intelligent... compelling...comprehensive and illuminating" (The Associated Press), re-creates the life and times of this extraordinary woman and cultural icon. Sadayakko's adventures and travels lift the veil on the secretive world of the geisha and are told against the backdrop of the beguiling era when Japan and the West were meeting for the first time.

Drawing from meetings with Sadayakko's family members, including her granddaughter, who granted rare access, and others who knew her intimately, this noted geisha expert chronicles the pivotal moments of Sadayakko's dramatic life. As an exquisite young geisha, her virginity was sold for an exorbitant amount to Japan's most powerful man, the prime minister. She shocked the Tokyo geisha world when she left her lucrative career to become the wife of the rebellious-and penniless-actor and political maverick Otojiro Kawakami. He took her to the United States, where posters and crowds hailed her arrival, and to Europe, where she became the toast of Paris, a muse to writers and artists, and an influence on women's fashion.

Madame Sadayakko tells the story of an unlikely rebel who carved out her own path, and reveals a missing piece of history from the turn of the last century, when Japanese women were wearing bustles and learning the waltz and European women were wearing Sadayakko kimonos. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

interesting history of japan's women
This book was interesting in the fact that it reveals how women were treated in Japan before up-to-date times. infidelity on a husband's part was tolerated and women were not valued in any way. artists and actors were even lower on the scale. sadayakko is, in a way, the first japanese feminist. the author gives excellent explanations of history and thoroughly maps out sada's life without any holes. the language is descriptive and the text is very clear in its use of japanese phrases and words. a good book for those who love the history of the arts from around the world!

An interesting addition to the 'Geisha book' phenomenon
Sada became a trainee Geisha as a very young girl, soon rising to the highest echelons available to her - her Danna (patron) was one of the most important men in the country, and she was as renowned as a woman could be in Japan at the time. She married an actor, and eventually travelled to the West, where she began acting as part of a Japanese acting troupe, touring their mish-mash version of Japanese dance and theatre through America and Europe. Sadayakko was always the star of the show, and was one of the highlights of the Paris Exposition. Sada returned to Japan and founded an acting school for girls.

This is a well-written book, the author being most famous for her book on Geishas. Many readers will probably come to this book searching for another read on Geishas, and if this is the case, they may be a little disappointed - Downer does not write in too much details about this time in Sada's life, choosing to concentrate on her overseas travels. However, this does not detract from the overall story. What does is the fact that Downer states some things as fact when they must be supposition: "He stood watching until she disappeared from view. He could not help noticing her sweetness and pride and the skill with which she handled her horse." I can almost guarantee that there is no written record anywhere that on the exact occasion in question the man who saw Sadayakko was thinking those exact thought. This is a fault of many biographers, and it will probably be overlooked by all but the nitpickers like this reader.

This is a book I would recommend to the growing number of readers interested in Japanese history and culture, and also to anyone interested in the cultural currents of the late 19th Century, as Madame Saddayakko had a far reaching influence in the realms of drama, dance and fashion for the Japan-crazed period.

A bewitching look at the classic Geisha
I picked up Lesley's Downer's "Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West" with great apprehension. Earlier in the month, I had read another geisha biography which failed to bring the geisha culture alive for me. A close look at the author's name should have erased any doubts in my mind.

Much like her "Women of the Pleasure Quarters", Lesley Downer's lastest effort is well-written and a wonderful read. I kept turning from the text to the photos to gaze at the creature who was so enchanting.

With each change of her name, Madame Sadayakko morphed into another creature who managed to survive the blows and upsets life sent her. Her pre-geisha and geisha life is fascinating but what truly captured my attention was her and the troupe's struggles to stay afloat once Japan was far behind.

Madame Sadayakko: An Enchanting Woman
Madame Sadayakko by Lesley Downer is a great read for a sultry day or during some quiet time for those who love biographies and things Japanese.

Ms Downer's book is about a young lady who was very much a pioneer in her days in women's liberation in a Japan still ruled by tradition. The book bridges the 100 years between Sadayakko and us, enthralling us with the excitment of her days.

Sadayakko began her life as a geisha, married a young upstart of an actor, Otojiro and thus began an adventure that brought her and her compatriots traipsing over a good part of the Western world. It would be fair to say that her and husband, made a great contribution to the West's fascination with Japan. Two thirds of the book is on Sadayakko's life as an actress, her change in fortune and the whirlwind that surrounds it. However,the real Sadayakko seems to be a misty figure within these chapters. Sadayakko's character is cleverly captured but not her soul.

The real woman starts emerging only in the later part of the book covering the period upon the death of her husband and Sadayakko's life with her first love, Momosuke. In these last pages, tantalising glimpses of the Sadayakko's personality starts showing through, leaving the reader thirsty for more. Perhaps the private Sadayakko will never be uncovered due to the loss of her diaries and papers but the picture that emerges is one of a woman who was remarkable for her achievements in her time and ours. The graceful smile that enchanted many 100 years ago still has the same effect on us today.

what a story!
Cunningly released a year before the centenary of Madama Butterfly's first performance, this wonderful book is part love story, part adventure and part theatrical memoir. Sada Yakko was the first woman to step onto a Japanese stage in centuries, and also the first Japanese woman to achieve international fame. Painted by Picasso and an inspiration to Puccini, her first lover was the Japanese prime minister, and her husband was a leading light of the New Wave in the Japanese theatre. From early days in penury, when her troupe had to literally sell off some of the younger actors, to the heights of stardom and her finding of true love in later years, this is a wonderful biography from Lesley Downer. It has TV series written all over it. ... Read more

Book Description

Clifford Odets through his plays, which include "Waiting for Lefty" and "Awake" and "Sing!", was the champion of the oppressed, avenger for the poor. He and his plays, as presented by the influential Group Theatre, were the conscience of America during the Depression.Author Margaret Brenman-Gibson, a respected psychoanalyst and close personal friend, penned what is considered the classic biography of Odets. Based on exhaustive research, including access to his personal papers, plus her own insights into the man and his career, it is at last back in prtin.The book is richly annotated, with a thorough bibliography, personal chronology, a list of Odets' works, published and unpublished, and a section of rare photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Correcting a mistake in your summary
Elizabeth Cary lived from 1585-1635 meaning she lived in the 16th and 17th centuries NOT the 18th century. Kind of an important distinction don't you think? ... Read more

Book Description

From the 1920s through the 1950s Maxwell Anderson was one of the most important playwrights in America. His thirty-three produced plays make him a leader among these playwrights of America's most creative era in the theater, and a number of his plays have shown a lasting vitality and importance. What Price Glory (1924) dramatized the disillusionment and horror of World War I. With Elizabeth the Queen (1929), Winterset (1935), and High Tor (1936), Anderson revived poetic drama in the modern theater. His versatility as a playwright was further reflected in the satire Both Your Houses (1933), the historical parable Joan of Lorraine (1946), and the musical play Lost in the Stars (1949).

This edition of Anderson's letters spans his adult life--from 1912, shortly after he graduated from the University of North Dakota, to 1958, just before his death. Arranged chronologically, the letters reveal in full and intimate detail the development of his career, his methods of work, his relationships with theater people, his conceptions of himself as a playwright and of the nature of the theater, and his ideas about his plays, all of which focused on an inner moral struggle. Every aspect of his work and personality emerges in these letters, which serve as an autobiography in the rough. Each letter is fully annotated, permitting the reader to become a party to the correspondence. The editor has provided an informative introduction to the letters and also a substantial chronology of Anderson's life that incorporates the first complete bibliography of his plays, poems, essays, fiction, and screenplays.An appendix includes Anderson's previously unpublished statements about his life and his plays.

Dramatist in America, the first edition of letters by a major American playwright, takes on added importance for its representative quality. It reveals the cultural and theatrical conditions under which a vital generation of playwrights created this country's finest period in the drama. ... Read more

Book Description

Cathy Lee Crosby is an internationally known and multitalented actress, writer, and producer--star of stage, film, and television. Six years ago, however, in spite of her success, four traumatic events left her world in chaos and despair: the death of her grandmother, contracting Epstein-Barr Syndrome, divorcing football star Joe Theisman and declaring bankruptcy after Joe sued her for half of everything.

Let the Magic Begin is the powerful, inspiring story of Cathy Lee's journey back in the realm of what she calls the Bliss Zone. In her totally entertaining, yet heartfelt account of how her life forced her out of the "march" of reality, and into that magical place we all knew as children where pure energy, creativity, and joy abound, and where "coincidences" open up a whole new world of possibility in each and every moment. With grace, humor, and courage, she re-ignites, step-by-step, the magnificence of who we really are.

Let the Magic Begin chronicles Cathy Lee's remarkable adventure back into the "magic" of her life, and her story will passionately compel readers to begin living lives filled with what they had only thought were in their dreams. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

trite spirituality from the "Where is she now?" file
This book is mainly interesting to those who wonder "Whatever became of that star from TV's That's Incredible?"As this autobiography (of sorts) indicates, she hit rock bottom.Bankruptcy, sued by her former lover, career going nowhere.

She then tells us how she recovered through discovering a "spiritual path."Talked to shamans and such.Began eating health food from Trader Joe's.She includes recommended food at the back of the book, including brand names.

She drops lots of celebrity names to let us know how "connected" she is to Hollywood.She dishes no dirt on anyone.Nothing juicy in this book.This is no "tell all," but rather her calling card to get back in the business.

I was a fan of That's Incredible, so I bought the book.Reading it, I ended liking her more, and respecting her less.She seems a nice person, but real flakey.Typical Hollywood personality.

If you enjoyed That's Incredible, and wonder whatever became of its star, you may enjoy this book.

Magic Begins With Perception....
It's been awhile since I've read Cathy Lee Crosby's book, but when I finished it I recommended it to friends "in need" and they loved it, too.I want to recommend it to you.

I've rated "Let the MagicBegin" with five stars because it is an inspiring story of a woman ona magical journey...if I had not believed that the events had happened asmagically as they seemed to, perhaps I would have rated it lower, but Ihave seen the power of "coincidence" in my own life enough toknow that there is no such thing! As Cathy clearly points out in the courseof her story, perception is the key to the magic of life. First you mustbelieve to make the magic work!

Read this book if you feel there issomething undefinable missing in your life.Read it if you want to stopmaking the same mistakes over and over again.Absolutely read it if youfeel you have an insurmountable problem. Read it if you'd like to become ahealthier person...read it if you like people.... But most importantly,when you read it, Believe, and the believing will make it so.

Easy Read -- Deep Work
Cathy Lee's book is beautifully written. Her journey takes every popular"how-to" book in my library at least one step further, farther,faster. I have been buying copies for everyone I know who's forgotten howto have fun!

Inspirational
Cathy Lee's magical journey is an inspiration to all of us. Thak you for sharing your experience with all the other dreamers of the world. Reba McEntir

Help at last.
I've been a suffering Bi-polar most of my adult life and have just come through a five year depressive period. A friend told me about this book and in five weeks I see more and know more about where I'm going and how to get there for the first time in years...if not ever. I love you Cathy Lee for putting down, for us all to read, a way back to the future. Charlie Reinmille ... Read more