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Greasepaint Puritan : Boston to 42nd Street in the queer backstage novels of Bradford Ropes / Maya Cantu.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Cantu, Maya, 1982- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Ropes, Bradford--Criticism and interpretation.
- Ropes, Bradford.
- Ropes, Bradford. 42nd Street.
- Gay men in literature.
- Gay men and musicals.
- Screenwriters--United States--Biography.
- Screenwriters.
- Actors--United States--Biography.
- Actors.
- Genre:
- Electronic books.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (xiii, 306 pages) : illustrations
- Place of Publication:
- Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, 2024.
- Summary:
- Greasepaint Puritan details the life and work of Bradford Ropes, author of the bawdy 1932 novel 42nd Street, on which the classic film and its stage adaptation are based. Each of Ropes's long-forgotten novels was inspired by his own experiences as a performer, and focused on the lives of gay men in show business, offering rare glimpses into backstage Broadway. But why did Ropes's body of work, and consequently his biographical footsteps, disappear into such obscurity? Greasepaint Puritan aims to find out and reclaim his story. Descended from Mayflower Pilgrims, Ropes rebelled against the "Proper Bostonian" life, in a career that touched upon the Jazz Age, American vaudeville, and theater censorship. We follow Ropes's successful career as both a performer and the author of the trilogy of backstage novels: 42nd Street, Stage Mother, and Go Into Your Dance. Populated by scheming stage mothers, precocious stage children, grandiose bit players, and tart-tongued chorines, these novels centered on the lives and relationships of gay men on Broadway during the Jazz Age and Prohibition era. Rigorously researched, Greasepaint Puritan chronicles Ropes's career as a successful screenwriter in 1930s and '40s Hollywood, where he continued to be a part of a dynamic gay subculture within the movie industry before returning to obscurity in the 1950s. His legacy lives on in the Hollywood and Broadway incarnations of 42nd Street--but Greasepaint Puritan restores the "forgotten melody" of the man who first envisioned its colorful characters.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-306) and index.
- Description based on information from the publisher.
- ISBN:
- 9780472221431
- 0472221434
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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