Touch and go : a memoir / Studs Terkel ; with Sydney Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Terkel, Studs, 1912-2008.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Terkel, Studs, 1912-2008.

Terkel, Studs.

Broadcasters--United States--Biography.

Broadcasters.

United States.

Authors, American--20th century--Biography.

Authors, American.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xviii, 269 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton, 2007.

Summary:

At nearly 95, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. Here he offers a memoir which--embodying the spirit of the man himself--is youthful and vivacious. Terkel begins by taking us back to his childhood, describing the hectic life of a family trying to earn a living in Chicago. He then goes on to his experiences--as a poll watcher charged with stealing votes for the Democratic machine, as a young theatergoer, and eventually as an actor himself in both radio and on the stage--giving us a portrait of the Chicago of the 1920s and 1930s. He tells of his beginnings as a disc jockey after World War II and as an interviewer and oral historian--a craft he would come to perfect. Finally, he discusses his involvement with progressive politics, leading to his travails during the McCarthy period when he was blacklisted.--From publisher description.

Contents:

1 Street Scene 3

2 Bound for Glory 19

3 The Rooming House 29

4 The Convention That Would Never End 39

5 Teachers of the Gilded Age 48

6 The Hotel 52

7 A Good Citizen 68

8 Seeking Work 79

9 The Actor 88

10 Observer to Activist 95

11 A Bouquet from the Colonel 98

12 Ida 103

13 Reveille 110

14 Lucky Breaks I 116

15 American Dreamer 129

16 Are You Now or Have You Ever Been ... 139

17 Blacklist 145

18 Lucky Breaks II 154

19 A Casual Conversation 169

20 The Feeling Tone 181

21 Truth to Power 193

22 Didn't Your Name Used to Be Dave Garroway? 210

23 Two Towns Called Girard 222

24 Evil of Banality 231

25 ... And Nobody Laughed 237

26 Old Gent of the Right 240

27 Einstein and the Rest of Us 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781595580436

1595580433

OCLC:

124074902