Nils Thor Granlund

Nils T. Granlund (1882–1957) created the first movie preview, filmed the first commercial, was the first to broadcast a live sports event, and, as a popular radio personality, introduced the Jazz Age to America via his broadcasts from Harlem’s Cotton Club. He is also acknowledged as the creator of the modern nightclub, introducing the high-kicking chorus line to the stages of Las Vegas. But though he was among the highest-grossing entertainers of the World War II era—famous enough to star as “himself” in several Hollywood films—he died virtually penniless, and today is all but forgotten.
This work is a comprehensive biography of the man known as NTG, from his herding reindeer in Sweden to shepherding the most beautiful chorus girls on Broadway.

Larry J. Hoefling is a former newspaper reporter who has received journalism awards from Columbia University and the Scripps-Howard Journalism Foundation. He lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Larry Hoefling
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 243
Bibliographic Info: 34 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4849-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5599-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
A Note on Illustrations      viii
Preface      1
Prologue      5

1. Sweden to America      9
2. Touring with Hanky Panky      20
3. The Early Loew Years      33
4. Radio and the Jazz Age      46
5. Speakeasies and Prohibition      64
6. The Wenzel Sisters      84
7. Movies and Mobsters      103
8. Prosperity at the Paradise      121
9. The Touring Season and the Sun      137
10. Ending a New York Era      156
11. Boom and Bust at the Gardens      172
12. The Brink of a Return      187

Chapter Notes      211
Bibliography      225
Index      229