Lost Empires: The Phenomenon of Theatres Past, Present & Future

UK: Cassell, 2005. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. h/b 160 pages, condition is very good. Stars, stooges, crooks, idealists, novelty acts, curtain callers, demolition gangs, people who ran away - and people who, in the 21'st century just won't give up, are the cast of this book. Its locations are Empire and Imperial theatres, music halls and cinemas that lit up the cityscapes of the world across a century when global empires rose, and felI. Music hall was the pioneer mass medium. And towns from New Jersey to Queensland, California to Scotland boasted their own Empires or Imperials, delivering glamour and dreams. But two world wars later those slices of paradise on the main street were fighting dry rot - and television. Many lost that battle, some did not. In pictures, narrative and interview Lost Empires tells that story, and the story of the 'stars' who dominated the stages. Some theatres have been saved because activists fought for them. Many went up in smoke, others collapsed into the dust. And then there are the derelict halls still on the high street, ghosts lingering long after the last act walked off. Lost Empires encompasses high art, low life, burlesque, blackface, ragtime, revolution and Hamlet, from Hackney in London to Broadway in NewYork; from Caracas to New Brunswick and points south, east and west. Lost Empires is an age in images and words - and people in the here and now.