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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Terkel, Studs, 1912-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Terkel, Studs, 1912-.

Terkel, Studs.

Broadcasters--United States--Biography.

Broadcasters.

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

Authors, American.

Physical Description:

xix, 256 p. ; 25 cm.

Edition:

"Advance Reading copy"--p.i

Place of Publication:

New York : New Press, 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:

I: Street scene

Bound for glory

The rooming house

The convention that would never end

Teachers of the Gilded Age

The hotel

A good citizen

II: Seeking work

The actor

Observer to activist

A bouquet from the Colonel

Ida

Reveille

Lucky breaks I

III: American dreamer

Are you now or have you ever been ...

Blacklist

Lucky breaks II

A casual conversation

the feeling tone

IV: Truth to power

Didn't your name used to be Dave Garroway?

Two towns called Girard

Evil of banality

... And nobody laughed

Old gent of the right

Einstein and the rest of us.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC:

232670670