Annie Get Your Gun
by Berlin, Irving (Music and Lyrics), and Fields, Dorothy (Book), and Fields, Herbert (Book)
- Used
- good
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Good
- Seller
-
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Item Price
$75.00$56.25
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Philadelphia, PA: Philip Trachtman, Theatrical Publications, 1961. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus [presumably for a Summer Stock tour]. Wraps. Good. 12 pages, plus covers. Illustrations (some color inside). This production was staged and directed by Richard Barstow. A rare item of Phyllis McGuire stage and musical career. Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860-1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847-1926). The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)". The principal performers were:Phyllis McGuire, Walter Farrell, Lulu Bates, Ned Wertimer, Edgar Daniels, Robert Bernard, Cherry Davis, Gene Foote, and Daniel Keyes. This program includes The History of the Show. With narratives on the producers, director, choreographer, musical director, and production designer, there is a synopsis of the show. The last page and inside the back cover are photographs of the General Manager, Lighting Director, and a large ensemble cast. This production toured: Valley Forge Music Fair, Devon, Pa; Camden County Music Fair, Haddonfield, NJ; Westbury Music Fair, Westbury, L.I.; Storrowton Music Fair, West Springfield, Mass.; and Painters Mill Music Fair, Owings Mills, Md. Ms. McGuire, with her older sisters Christine and Dorothy, shot to success overnight after winning the televised "Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts" contest in 1952. Over the next 15 years, they were one of the nation's most popular vocal groups, singing on the television variety shows of Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, Andy Williams and Red Skelton, on nightclub circuits across the country and on records that sold millions. The sisters epitomized a 1950s sensibility that held up a standard of unreal perfection, wearing identical coifs, dresses and smiles, moving with synchronized precision and blending voices in wholesome songs for simpler times. Their music, like that of Perry Como, Patti Page and other stars who appealed to white, middle-class audiences, contrasted starkly with the rock 'n' roll craze that was taking the world by storm in the mid-to-late '50s. In 1965, as the trio's popularity began to fade, Phyllis McGuire's image as the honey-blonde girl next door was shattered by published reports linking her romantically with Sam Giancana, a Chicago mobster with reputed ties to the Kennedy administration and a Central Intelligence Agency plot to enlist the Mafia in what proved to be unsuccessful attempts to assassinate the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Mr. Giancana and Ms. McGuire, who had been followed by federal agents for several years, appeared before a grand jury in Chicago. He refused to answer questions and was jailed for contempt. She testified that she had met him in Las Vegas in 1961, traveled with him to Europe, the Caribbean and elsewhere and accepted his gifts in a continuing relationship. She was aware that he was a reputed gangster, she said, but insisted that she knew nothing of his underworld activities. "It makes me look terrible," she told reporters afterward. "It would be different if I were on my own, but I'm not a single — I'm part of a trio. My sisters and my parents — they're brokenhearted about this." The McGuire Sisters retired from public appearances in 1968, Christine and Dorothy to raise families, Phyllis to continue as a soloist. She appeared regularly in Las Vegas, where she lived for the rest of her life in a mansion with a swan moat and a replica of the Eiffel Tower rising through the roof. Ms. McGuire remained unapologetic about her relationship with Mr. Giancana. "Sam was the greatest teacher I ever could have had," she told Dominick Dunne of Vanity Fair in 1989. "He was so wise about so many things. Sam is always depicted as unattractive. He wasn't. He was a very nice-looking man. He wasn't flashy. He didn't drive a pink Cadillac, like they used to say." In 1985, the sisters reunited for a comeback and performed for almost two decades at casinos and clubs in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and elsewhere. They sang their own hits, 1950s pop hits and Broadway show tunes, and Phyllis did impersonations of Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Pearl Bailey and Ethel Merman. In the ensemble cast is Phyllis Ford, believed to later becoming Phyllis Ford Frick, an accomplished performer and sometime associate of Frank Sinatra.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Ground Zero Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 83800
- Title
- Annie Get Your Gun
- Author
- Berlin, Irving (Music and Lyrics), and Fields, Dorothy (Book), and Fields, Herbert (Book)
- Format/Binding
- Wraps
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Presumed First Edition, First printing thus [presumably for a Su
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Philip Trachtman, Theatrical Publications
- Place of Publication
- Philadelphia, PA
- Date Published
- 1961
- Keywords
- Musical Theater, Summer Stock, Touring Show, Richard Barstow, Peter Joseph, Phyllis McGuire, Walter Farrell, Lulu Bates, Edgar Daniels, Ned Wertimer, Cherry Davis, Robert Bernard, Gene Foote, Daniel Keyes
Terms of Sale
Ground Zero Books
Books are offered subject to prior sale. Satisfaction guaranteed. If you notify us within 7 days that you are not satisfied with your purchase, we will refund your purchase price when you return the item in the condition in which it was sold.
About the Seller
Ground Zero Books
Biblio member since 2005
Silver Spring, Maryland
About Ground Zero Books
Founded and operated by trained historians, Ground Zero Books, Ltd., has for over 30 years served scholars, collectors, universities, and all who are interested in military and political history.
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Much of our diverse stock is not yet listed on line. If you can't locate the book or other item that you want, please contact us. We may well have it in stock. We welcome your want lists, and encourage you to send them to us.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Fair
- is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....