Intimate Nights

Book excerpt: • Fully revised updated and expanded edition of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award winner that sold more than 10,000 copies • Cultural history plus celebrity anecdotes • Up-to-the-minute look at the current New York cabaret scene Intimate Nightsis the definitive history of cabaret as it evolved in New York City in the years after World War II. But that doesn’t mean it's dry and academic. Good heavens, no! Settle in for racy tales of nightlife, revealed in interviews with dozens of the people who lived it: Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, Mabel Mercer, Bette Midler, and many more. Author James Gavin has tracked down rare, early stories about the legends who came out of New York nightclubs—and that means Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Nichols and May, Johnny Mathis, Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce, among others. Part cultural history, part celebrity gossip,Intimate Nightsoffers an intimate look at the creatures of the nightclubs.