The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 37, Ed. 1 Sunday, December 14, 1997 Page: 41 of 79
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THE BAYTOWN SUN Sunday, December 14,1997 3-F
Show biz books as glitzy as show biz itself
If show biz books are on your
holiday gift list, consider giving
Santa a gift, too. A forklift
Like the industry they celebrate,
these books are bigger than life —
as well as loud, brash and bold.
Recent titles cover every manner
of glitter from the birth of the
Muppets to the death of soul.
Among them is an oversized
biography of the diminutive King
of Musicals, Sir Andrew Lloyd
Webber. Author Michael Walsh
offers a readable, if not hummable,
updated version of “Andrew
Lloyd Webber: His Life and
Works” (Abrams, $49.50).
Beneath the schlock and the
glitz, a more human Llcyd Web-
ber appears, thanks to the inclu-
sion of long-lost letters, behind-
the-scenes production sketches
and 125 color photographs. Even
if “Cats” gives you hairballs,
there’s something here for every
budding theatrical titan.
What might be the only Broad-
way hit musical not inspired by
Lloyd Webber takes a bow in
Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” (Weis-
bach, $38), a superb companion
volume for all Rent-heads.
Culled from journalist Evelyn
McDonnell’s many interviews
with the cast and crew, this is
more an oral history than straight
narrative — accompanied by can-
did rehearsal photos, casting
sheets, set design sketches and
various other fascinating scrawls.
And, in case you’re in the shower
fumbling for the lyrics, there’s a
complete libretto.
Just a hop, skip and a tap away
is the tale of how a seven-minute
dance ditty created to fill the gap
between songs at the 1994 Eurovi-
sion Song Contest became an
international runaway hit musical.
“Riverdance: The Story”
(Trafalgar, $29.95) by Sam Smyth
whisks you from die show’s hum-
’ ble beginnings to a behind-the-
curtain look at the hi-jinks and
real-life foot-stomping of the Irish
troupe on its way to global domi-
nation.
From tap dancing to toe tapping,
two hefty musical histories are
sure to get the holidays rockin’
and rollin’.
If your teenybopper is clueless
about the Big Bopper, check out
“Heart & Soul: A Celebration
of Black Music Style in Ameri-
ca, 1930-1975” (Stewart, Tabori
& Chang, $40). Authors Bob
Merlis and Davin Seay sift
through the pencil-thin mustaches,
Zoot suits and pompadours to
chronicle a golden age of music
that shook, rattled and rolled the
world.
It’s been said that writing about
music makes as much sense as
dancing about architecture. Per-
haps, but “Heart & Soul,” which is
bursting with 400 photographs of
album covers and artifacts, makes
it a hard to not hum a James
Brown song while flipping
through its pages.
Humming isn’t a problem with
“The Rock Pack” (Universe,
$40): This 3-D music history talks
back to you via an hour-long CD.
Conceived by James Henke as a
laptop Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, this is less a book than an
experience — thanks to 18 pop-
ups, 47 interactive pieces with
flaps, booklets, timelines and col-
orwheels. Reading almost takes a
back seat to these eye-popping
interactive gimmicks.
For more intellectual stimula-
tion, new compendiums of big-
screen movie magic are perfect
stocking stuffers.
In “Our Movie Heritage”
(Rutgers University Press, $45),
authors Tom McGreevey and
Joanne L. Yeck review film
preservation efforts and make an
urgent plea for further action. By
their account, nearly 90 percent of
America’s silent films have been
lost. The enemy? Apathy, neglect
and cellulose nitrate.
There’s cellulose aplenty in
“Chronicle of the Cinema” (DK,
$59.95), which covers more than
100 years of film history. Expand-
ed to include a staggering 4,000
illustrations, photos and ads, this •
massive, 900-page tome is the per-
fect gift for any movie addict.
Why does it seem that Helena
Bonham Carter always appears in
a corset? Find out in “The Films
of Merchant Ivory” (Abrams,
$49.50) by Robert Emmet Long.
This lush, well-documented
chronicle of the Merchant Ivory
Jhabvala — spans 38 cerebral
films across three critically
acclaimed decades.
Updated to include background
information on “Howard’s End”
“The Remains of the Day” “Jeffer-
son in Paris” and “Surviving
Picasso,” the book’s best feature is
Ivory’s and Merchant’s extended
marginal notes —- some flatly con-
tradicting the author’s interpreta-
tions.
Shatter your kids’illusions —
and maybe your own— with “No
Strings Attached: The Inside
Story of Jim Henson’s Creature
Shop” (Macmillian, $35) by Matt
Bacon.
Packed with trade secrets, pho-
tos of dismembered pig parts from
“Babe” and various puppet tricks,
this fully illustrated manual on
how to make movie magic will
pull you — perhaps kicking and
screaming — into the post-Kermit
filmmaking trio—James Ivory,
Ismail Merchant and Ruth Prawer
world.
Poinsettia makes great gift
The Christmas season abounds
with shades of red and green.
And that’s just one more reason
togiveapoin-
settia this holi-
Indigenous to
Mexico and
JkJL^ Central Ameri-
Ww ca, where they .
flourishin the
■ ' - highlands,
wrote Matthew Holm in an arti-
cle in the current issue of Coun-
try Living, these warm-weather-
ioving plants, which favor moist,
well-drained soil and indirect but
plentiful sunlight, are most often
found in wooded ravines or
rocky hillsides.
Poinsettias have ordinary
leaves as well as modified leaves
called bracts that turn from green
to crimson in response to the
lengthening nights that accompa-
ny the approach of winter. At the
center of the radiating brachts lie
tiny golden blossoms, the plants’
true flowers.
Wild poinsettias are much leg-
gier, larger than their potted
cousins and grow as tall as 16
feet. They also have longer, nar-
rower leaves and brachts than
commercial varieties, whose
foliage tends to be oak-leaf
shaped.
The name poinsettia comes
from Joel R. Poinsett a United
States statesman and amateur
botanist who, among other
things, helped found the National
Institute for the Useful Arts, a
forerunner of the Smithsonian •
Institution.
During the 1820s, Poinsett
served as a diplomat and then as
the very first U.S. minister to
Mexico, where he came upon the
vibrant red-and-green plant.
When he returned to his home in
South Carolina in 1829, Poinsett
brought with him samples of the
plant to which he lent his name
and grew them in his greenhous-
es and casually distributed them
among friends and colleagues.
The fragile, temperamental
poinsettia was little more than a
curiosity in the East and a simple
fresh flower in the West until 90
years later, when Los Angeles
farmer Paul Ecke began develop-
ing a poinsettia cultivar that
could survive as a potted indoor
plant.
In 1923, the Ecke family
moved its operations south from
Hollywood to Encinitas, Calif.,
in order to escape the increasing
crowding of Los Angeles and
also to be close to good water
supply and a railroad siding.
Here, Paul Ecke faced a new
challenge: He had created a plant
that could survive transport out-
side the Southwest.
The millions of cuttings that
Ecke ships each year are the
beginning of poinsettias across
the United States and in more
than 50 other countries — a total
of 80 percent of all flowering
poinsettias in the world.
“MlMBtH ruiC
MERRY
CHRISTMAS
Have a Safe and
Happy Holiday
From Your Friends at
LET US HELP YOU WITH YOUR
CHRISTMAS LIST
281-428-LOAN
24 HOURS A DAY
•SUBJECT TO LOAN APPROVAL PROCESS
.Baytown, Texas (281)427-5771
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 37, Ed. 1 Sunday, December 14, 1997, newspaper, December 14, 1997; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1176501/m1/41/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.