Blanche Walsh and Me A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood Royalty |
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| Author:
| Bredin, John |
| ISBN: | 978-1-7013-6858-3 |
| Publication Date: | Jan 2020 |
| Publisher: | Independently Published
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $20.00 |
Book Description:
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A little over a century ago, she was the reigning Queen of Broadway. Not to mention the true Mother of Hollywood. Now she's better known as, Blanche Who? This is the amazing story of America's greatest forgotten actress, Blanche Walsh. A woke woman during the first Progressive Era (1895 - 1915), Blanche Walsh was the original advocate of an American National Theater. Her dream of a chain of theaters nationwide, where regular folks can view serious plays at a low cost, might be revived...
More DescriptionA little over a century ago, she was the reigning Queen of Broadway. Not to mention the true Mother of Hollywood. Now she's better known as, Blanche Who? This is the amazing story of America's greatest forgotten actress, Blanche Walsh. A woke woman during the first Progressive Era (1895 - 1915), Blanche Walsh was the original advocate of an American National Theater. Her dream of a chain of theaters nationwide, where regular folks can view serious plays at a low cost, might be revived today as a civic bulwark to save democracy in an age of hyper-polarization. In her one film, "Resurrection" (1912)--based on a Tolstoy novel about love and social justice--she pioneered the idea of a movie star. Arriving three years before the racist "Birth of a Nation" (still mistakenly thought to be the first American feature), "Resurrection" was the birth of cinema as a legitimate art form. Told lovingly by Walsh's descendent John Bredin--an educator, writer, and talk show host--this memoir is itself a complex, magical work of synthesis. Combining elements of teacher narrative, forgotten her-story, real life fairy tale, and the resurrection of lost dreams (personal, artistic, and political), it's one of the most important cultural stories of our time.