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Sign up todaySome Enchanted Evenings
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Learn moreA fascinating new biography of Mary Martin, the girl whose heart belonged to daddy, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Janet Gaynor, and Peter Pan.
Mary Martin was one of the greatest stars of her day. Growing up in Texas, she was married early to Benjamin Hagman and gave birth to her first child, Larry Hagman. She was divorced even more quickly. Martin left little Larry with her parents and took off for Hollywood.
She didn’t make a dent in the movie industry and was lured to New York where she found herself auditioning for Cole Porter and his new show Leave It to Me! After she sang the bawdy “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”, she ended up on the cover of Life magazine. Six years later, she became the toast of Broadway when she starred in South Pacific. After that, she flew as Peter Pan, yodeled in The Sound of Music, took Hello, Dolly! on the road, and shared a four-poster with Robert Preston in I Do! I Do!
Her personal life was just as interesting: in NYC, she met and married Richard Halliday, a closeted upper-class homosexual who adored her, Broadway, and interior decorating (though probably not in that order). They were a powerful twosome. There were rumors about Martin, too, being in a lesbian relationship with both Janet Gaynor and Jean Arthur.
Peopled with legends like Ethel Merman, Ezio Pinza, Noël Coward, and a starry cast of thousands, David Kaufman’s Some Enchanted Evenings is the delectable story of the one and only Mary Martin, a self-described chicken farmer from Texas who became Peter Pan and capture America’s heart.
David Kaufman is the bestselling author of Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door as well as a longtime theater critic and contributor to the New York Times, Nation, and Vanity Fair. He lives in New York City.
Bernadette Dunne is the winner of more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.
Reviews
“Detailing Martin’s work with entertaining, illuminating anecdotes, Kaufman comes up with a solid, valuable portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most memorable actresses.”
“Arguably the most exhaustively researched treatise ever compiled regarding Broadway and Hollywood legend Mary Martin…Insights into the changing nature of Broadway over the course of Martin’s lengthy career make this an intriguing read for those interested in charting such histories, and Martin stands as an essential touchstone for those who came after.”
“As he did with his biography of Doris Day, theater critic Kaufman excels in providing revelatory contrasts between public and private personas…Glittering is the operative word. Martin was a thoroughly captivating performer for her entire lengthy career and Kaufman’s work does right by her.”
“The Great White Way…was where Martin shone, a success that eclipsed the failures in her personal life…Kaufman’s treatment of Martin is evenhanded as he exposes her weaknesses and strengths to shed important new light on one of American musical theater’s most revered stars.”
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