The Strand is one of London's most iconic streets - today the bustling and thriving home of West End theatres and the luxurious Savoy hotel; in the Victorian era, the Strand was a much more seedy and destitute part of the city. Barry Anthony here explores the criminal and socially subversive behaviour which abounded in and around the Victorian Strand. He introduces us to a vast range of personalities - from prostitutes, confidence tricksters, vagrants and cadgers to the actors, comedians and music hall stars who trod the boards of the Strand's early theatres.

"The Strand is one of London's most iconic streets - today the bustling and thriving home of West End theatres and the luxurious Savoy hotel; in the Victorian era, the Strand was a much more seedy and destitute part of the city. Barry Anthony here explores the criminal and socially subversive behaviour which abounded in and around the Victorian Strand. He introduces us to a vast range of personalities - from prostitutes, confidence tricksters, vagrants and cadgers to the actors, comedians and music hall stars who trod the boards of the Strand's early theatres."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

An energetic and exhilarating account of the Victorian entertainment industry, its extraordinary success and enduring impact The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the nineteenth century’s growing industrialized class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their every whim was satisfied by entrepreneurs building new venues for popular amusement. Contrary to their reputation as dour, buttoned-up prudes, the Victorians reveled in these newly created ‘palaces of pleasure’. In this vivid, captivating book, Lee Jackson charts the rise of well-known institutions such as gin palaces, music halls, seaside resorts and football clubs, as well as the more peculiar attractions of the pleasure garden and international exposition, ranging from parachuting monkeys and human zoos to theme park thrill rides. He explores how vibrant mass entertainment came to dominate leisure time and how the attempts of religious groups and secular improvers to curb ‘immorality’ in the pub, variety theater and dance hall faltered in the face of commercial success. The Victorians’ unbounded love of leisure created a nationally significant and influential economic force: the modern entertainment industry.

This funny book takes a piercing look at the gringos living in the central highlands of Mexico. Maybe it is the altitude of 6,500 feet, or maybe it is a privilege of wealthy people, but Americans are pretty independent cusses when they settle in San Miguel de Allende. Jack and Penny Battle live in San Miguel, where he writes pretty poor detective novels and his beautiful wife pas the bills. They solve the murder of an old dear who writes pornography in the first story. Political activists make fools of themselves in the second story, and one of them is killed for political correctness and money. In the third story the Battles make a dangerous political force out of their gardener. Then a promoter of shady subdivisions defrauds the whole American colony, and is pulled up short by Penny Battle who pays no attention to Jack's advice to stay out of it. To know these people is to laugh, as much with them as at them. Pull up a tall drink and enjoy yourself.

The story of how the motion-picture device was developed, and its role in Victorian society and early cinema. The position of the kinetoscope in film history is central and undisputed; indicative of its importance is the detailed attention American scholars have given to examining its history. However, the Kinetoscope’s development in Britain has not been well documented and much current information about it is incomplete and out of date. This book, for the first time, presents a comprehensive account of the unauthorized and often colorful development of British kinetoscopes, using many previously unpublished sources. The commercial and technical backgrounds of the kinetoscope are looked at in detail; the style and content of the earliest British films analyzed; and the device’s place in the wider world of Victorian popular entertainment examined. In addition, a unique legal case is revealed and a number of previously unrecorded film pioneers are identified and discussed.

Richard Fulton's Warrior Generation 1865-1885 fundamentally rethinks the efficacy of an institutional drive among influential middle-class opinion leaders to militarize lower-class boys in Victorian Britain. He contends that instead of engendering the desired cultural militarism, as has been commonly argued, their push had merely contributed to a fast-developing culture of adventure and masculinity. Challenging this popular assumption, Fulton carefully reexamines many of the oft cited touchstones of militaristic influence on lower-class boys, deeply assessing their actual effects on the behaviours and cultural practices of this generation. He explores a range of themes from, among others, the propagation of the military's message in school curricula (and its glorification in students' textbooks), to the military's heroic depiction and ubiquitous presence in lower-class boys' entertainment and popular media.

Setting: New York City, the 1980s, the music business and the underworld. Meet Savannah, the sassy, sexy heroine of Assorted Hits: Music, Murder, Mayhem and the Mob©. A girl who fi nds herself in a bit of trouble after aiming her pearl-handled .22 caliber in the direction of Leonardo Ingrasio Pasquale (better known in the music biz as LIP), owner of AlBea Records and Savannah’s boss of several years. (Once, she would have taken a bullet for LIP. Now she put three in him.) After pulling the trigger, her adventures really begin. Surrounded by a cast of characters that includes the suave and oh-so-manly Jimmy Big Balls (Bs to his friends), who loves Savannah like a daughter and has friends in important (read: connected) places to keep her from harm. The Chuppah Boys, record company types who are so busy kissing ass that they are constantly in need of Chapstick and in danger of missing the next big thing. I.C. Greenfi elds, the lawyer extraordinaire who can work both a courtroom and a press junket at the same time. Through it all Savannah fi nds herself on the ride of her life, dishing out attitude and sex appeal in generous doses. There’s the mystery man, whose involvement in her defense reveals juicy tidbits from LIP’s past. The oldworld parents, who raised Savannah née Shoshanna Sneider in Brooklyn to be a good Orthodox Jewish girl. This is the story of Savannah in all her glory. With street-smart savvy, music business mojo and leopard skin stilettos, she’s the girl behind the gun, behind the scenes and in front of the jury. It’s a story you don’t want to miss, because this is only the beginning.