Jim Tully : American writer, Irish rover, Hollywood brawler / Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak ; foreword by Ken Burns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bauer, Paul, 1956-

Contributor:

Dawidziak, Mark, 1956-

Burns, Ken, 1953-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tully, Jim.

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

Irish Americans--Biography.

Tramps--United States--Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (376 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, [2011]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The first biography of the vagabond, hard-boiled writer who rocked Hollywood during the Roaring Twenties The son of an Irish ditch-digger, Jim Tully (1886-1947) left his hometown of St. Marys, Ohio, in 1901, spending most of his teenage years in the company of hoboes. Drifting across the country as a "road kid," he spent those years scrambling into boxcars, sleeping in hobo jungles, avoiding railroad cops, begging meals from back doors, and haunting public libraries. After six years on the road, he jumped off a railroad car in Kent, Ohio, with wild aspirations of becoming a writer. While chasing his dream, Tully worked as a chain maker, boxer, newspaper reporter, and tree surgeon. All the while he was crafting his memories of the road into a dark and astonishing chronicle of the American underclass. After moving to Hollywood and working for Charlie Chaplin, Tully began to write a stream of critically acclaimed books mostly about his road years, including Beggars of Life, Circus Parade, Blood on the Moon, Shadows of Men, and Shanty Irish. He quickly established himself as a major American author and used his status to launch a parallel career as a Hollywood journalist. Much as his gritty books shocked the country, his magazine articles on movies shocked Hollywood. Along the way, he picked up such close friends as W. C. Fields, Jack Dempsey, Damon Runyon, Lon Chaney, Frank Capra, and Erich von Stroheim. He also memorably crossed paths with Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, and Langston Hughes. The definitive biography of a remarkable writer, Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler compellingly describes the hardscrabble life of an Irish American storyteller, from his immigrant roots, rural upbringing, and life as a hobo riding the rails to the emergent dream factory of early and Golden Age Hollywood and the fall of his fortunes during the Great Depression. Many saw the dark side of the American dream, but none wrote about it like Jim Tully.

Contents:

Coins for a dead woman's eyes

Six years of imprisonment

Hearts ignorant of homes

Big rock candy mountain

The end of the road

The fire and the ring

Troubled in heart

Write or starve

Emmett Lawler

Hollywood writer

The road-kid and the little tramp

Beggars of life

One more illusion

Jarnegan

Circus parade

Shanty Irish

Shadows of men

Beggars abroad

Blood on the moon

Laughter in hell

Ladies in the parlor

Return to the ring

The bruiser

Biddy Brogan's boy

The last division

Epilogue.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-61277-891-7

OCLC:

922995384