Just a century ago Eddie Foy was the consummate stage comedian. A versatile performer, Foy contributed to the development of popular theater from the Civil War to the Roaring Twenties, from poverty-inspired Irish two-acts to lavish musical comedies.
This first-ever biography of Foy tells the story of his indigent childhood in New York’s Bowery and in Chicago, his tough uphill climb as a “variety artist” at Western outposts, his success in vaudeville and Broadway, and his arrival as a national icon with the Seven Little Foys. Foy’s career mirrored the growth of popular theater entertainment in America. Exhaustively researched, this work contains many rare personal photographs from the Foy family archives.

The late Armond Fields was a social historian specializing in American popular theater. The author of numerous books about vaudeville and other early theater figures, he lived in Culver City, California.

Armond Fields
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 268
Bibliographic Info: 46 photos, notes, chronology, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009 [1999]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4328-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Introduction      1

CHAPTER 1      9
CHAPTER 2      21
CHAPTER 3      33
CHAPTER 4      49
CHAPTER 5      59
CHAPTER 6      71
CHAPTER 7      87
CHAPTER 8      101
CHAPTER 9      117
CHAPTER 10      132
CHAPTER 11      146
CHAPTER 12      156
CHAPTER 13      173
CHAPTER 14      194
CHAPTER 15      211
CHAPTER 16      229

Performance Chronology      239
Notes      247
Selected Bibliography and Source Material      251
Index      255

“Fields documents changing theater technologies, practices, and audiences and always relates theater to the larger social context…strongly recommended”—Choice.