Cole
: A Biographical Essay by
Cole Porter, Robert Kimball (Editor), Brendan Gill
The merry and sad nights and days of the
greatest lyricist-composer of them all suffuse the pages of this
adoring tribute to Cole Porter . . . just when Kiss Me Kate
has reconquered Broadway. Overlook’s re-publication of Cole,
very much in demand by Cole fans and musical theater buffs alike,
marks the return to print of a classic chronicle of a life, a
personality, and an era.
The lyrics of nearly two hundred songs, among
them such favorites as “Love for Sale,” “I Love Paris,”
and “Begin the Beguine,” featured alongside music sheets,
private letters, examples of works in progress in Cole’s own
hand, and hundreds of pictures from the private albums of Linda
and Cole Porter, combine in a marvelous tapestry to capture
Cole’s irrepressible spirit. Glimpses of Cole and his friends
dazzling each other and the world at the Palazzo Rezzonico or on
the beach at Antibes, of productions of Gay Divorce, The New
Yorkers, and You Never Know, of Monty, Noël, Elsa,
Tallulah, Gerald, and Sara, and of Ethel Merman, Bert Lahr, Bea
Lillie, Fred Astaire, Gertrude Lawrence, Victor Moore, Rita
Hayworth, and Danny Kaye return us to the decadent days.
A graceful and revealing biographical essay by
the late and incomparable Brendan Gill sets the tone for a book as
stylish, as saucy, as self-confident, and as beguiling as the era
it recreates.
Proust,
Cole Porter, Michelangelo, Marc Almond and Me Writings by Gay Men
on their Lives and Lifestyles By: National
Lesbian and Gay Survey
Drawn from years of archive materials, this
collection portrays the voices and experience of over sixty gay
men from all walks of life. Here are their earliest memories of
what `gay' meant, and how they saw themselves in that
knowledge--how many of them have a clear idea at an early age,
while others make this discovery only later in life. The book goes
on to examine the process of coming out, the diversity of
relationships, and the impact of HIV and AIDS as a medical,
political and social force in the gay community. The contributors
discuss existence in a political climate which even as we approach
the twenty-first century, still seeks to legislate and deny
freedoms to the gay and lesbian community which are taken for
granted by heterosexuals.
Each of the men in this book is his own person. The contradictions
between them, shown in their stories and remembrances, reflect the
diversity of gay men and disputes the monolithic porrtrait
enforced and created from the outside. The material here begins to
answer the need for documentation of the lives and history of gay
men, much as its companion volume, What
A Lesbian Looks Like, does for lesbians.
Sometimes raw, often humorous, and frequently angry, the
collection gives an honest impression of what it is to be a gay
man in the late twentieth century.
Night
And Day: The Cole Porter Songbook
Cole Porter
(Tribute), Various Artists - Jazz - Vocal
Cole Porter's songs have a unique charm. Whether conveying the
bantering, urbane wit of "I Get a Kick out of You" or
the affecting depths of sentiment in "Every Time We Say
Goodbye," his lyrics are matched to his melodies with a
conversational ease. No matter how hard Porter might have worked
at those effects, his efforts are invisible. That seeming
nonchalance is conveyed magnificently here by a complement of
wonderful singers, including Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, and
Shirley Horn. Drawn largely from Verve's immense store of 1950s
and 1960s recordings, the CD presents some ideal matches of singer
and song, from the rhythmic vitality of Louis Armstrong's
"Let's Do It" to the glorious depths of Billy Eckstine's
"In the Still of the Night." --Stuart Broomer (Amazon.com)
![Cole Porter Centennial Gala Concert [LIVE]](../images2/cover_porter12.gif)
