Her father and her uncle were U.S. congressmen. Her grandfather was a U. S. senator. Although born to privilege in Alabama and groomed in a convent school, Tallulah Bankhead resolved not to be just another Southern belle.
Quickly she rose to the top and became an acclaimed actress of London's West End and on the Broadway stage. Her performances in many plays of the 1920s brought her to the notice of Hollywood. She starred in such Paramount films as My Sin, Faithless, The Devil and the Deep, and Thunder Below. Even though she won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for her leading role in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), she never achieved the prominence in movies that she enjoyed in the theater and on radio. On the New York stage she originated the starring roles of Regina Giddens in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes and of Sabina in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth.
Tallulah, like Eudora, Flannery, and Coretta, was a southern woman identifiable by her first name. Her flamboyant public personality may be the most fully realized and memorable character Bankhead ever played. She became famous for her snappy repartee, candid quotes, and scandalous lifestyle. She was disposed to remove her clothes and chat in the nude. Overfond of Kentucky bourbon and wild parties, she was a lady baritone who called everybody "Dahling."
In Tallulah, first published in 1952 and a New York Times bestseller for twenty-six weeks, Bankhead's literary voice is as lively and forthright as her public persona. She details her childhood and adolescence, discusses her dedication to the theater, and presents amusing anecdotes about her life in Hollywood, New York, and London. Along with a searing defense of her lifestyle and rambunctious habits, she provides a fiercely opinionated, wildly funny account of American stage at a time when the movies were beginning to cast theater into eclipse. This is not only a memoir of an independent woman but also an insider look at American entertainment during a golden age.
Club44 Records has released Jim Caruso’s The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition – the urbane baritone’s smart and sophisticated romp through the Great American Songbook. Listen here!
Theater star and Nashville recording artist RACHEL POTTER – best known for appearances on Fox TV’s “The X Factor” and the Broadway musicals The Addams Family and Evita – has released her new album Stages. Listen here!
Club44 Records will release of Jim Caruso’s The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition. BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to 'One More Minute' here! Learn more about the album.
Get an exclusive first listen to Rachel Potter singing a Waitress Medley from her upcoming album Stages! Learn more about the album and see how to download and stream.
The Drama Book Shop will present, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications, author events designed to entertain and enlighten. Learn more and see how to attend.
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS will release Legally Blonde: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording) on vinyl for the first time. Learn more and see how to purchase and stream the album!
Drama Book Shop will present a conversation with author Julie Gilbert about her acclaimed book, 'Giant Love,' (Pantheon) the compelling story of the writing of Edna Ferber's celebrated novel 'Giant'. Learn more!
Yusuf/Cat Stevens has announced his long-awaited memoir, Cat On The Road To Findout. Coming later this year, the new autobiography is an extraordinary soul-baring journey through the triumphs, trials, and transcendental quest of one of music’s most enigmatic figures of our time.
Cabaret Classics will release Toast of the Town, Volume 1, the new big band album from Boston-based vocalist Brian De Lorenzo, on CD and streaming and digital platforms in June. Learn more about the album here!
Following Jill Sobule's tragic passing last week, a new music video from her autobiographical musical F*ck 7th Grade has been shared by her representatives. Watch it here.
Jeffrey Seller has made the theatre that has changed my life. I will always remember being twelve years old and being obsessed with all that is Rent. This show changed the face of theatre. He did it again with Hamilton and In The Heights as well. His artistic blueprint is all over the DNA of Broadway. His new memoir 'Theatre Kid' is out and it is a must read for theatre fans and artists alike. Watch in this video!
Center Stage Records and Yellow Sound Label has released The 12 – A New Musical (Original Cast Recording). You can now learn more about the musical, and listen here!
The original cast recording of Broadway's Hamilton has become the first original cast album to hit 500 weeks on the Billboard 200. The album was originally released in September of 2015.
The Blues Brothers universe is returning, beginning with a brand new original graphic novel: The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake. Written by Stella Aykroyd, Luke Pisano, and James Werner, the graphic novel serves as a sequel to the 1980 film.
After announcing a robust new 16-LP box set in 2024, Harry Potter: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Rhino now shares four individual Motion Picture Soundtrack LPs from the Harry Potter franchise.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a newly restored and remastered version of the movie will be unleashed in breathtaking 4K Ultra HD.
On December 2, 2025, Penguin Workshop will publish DOLLY PARTON’S BILLY THE KID DANCES HIS HEART OUT, the third standalone children’s picture book in Parton’s bestselling series featuring French bulldog, her god-dog, Billy the Kid.
In celebration of DRAG: The Musical’s dynamite Off-Broadway run at New World Stages, DRAG: The Musical LIVE (The Cast Recording) is now available. Listen to it here!
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS has released the new EP from Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee Lena Hall, Songs from Your Friends & Neighbors. Listen here!
Gypsy: 2024 Broadway Cast Recording – starring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald – will be released. BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to “All I Need Is the Girl” performed by Kevin Csolak here!
Craft Latino will release the first-ever vinyl reissue of Strikes Back, the GRAMMY®-nominated 10th solo album from legendary singer Héctor “El Cantante” Lavoe.
Cynthia Erivo, who stars as Elphaba in the two-part movie adaptation of the Wicked musical, is set to narrate a new audiobook edition of the original 1995 novel.
Omnivore Recordings has announced that Vince Guaraldi’s Oh, Good Grief! will be getting a reissue released on CD and yellow vinyl on May 30. The album was originally released in May of 1968.
Theater star and Nashville recording artist RACHEL POTTER – best known for appearances on Fox TV’s “The X Factor” and the Broadway musicals The Addams Family and Evita – has released “The Animazement Trio.' Listen here!
Jeffrey Seller, the Tony Award-winning producer behind Hamilton, Rent, Avenue Q, and In the Heights is releasing his new memoir Theater Kid—and he's taking it on the road. Learn more about upcoming events.
Dolly Parton has announced the release of her upcoming book, STAR OF THE SHOW: My Life on Stage. A celebration of Dolly Parton’s iconic career as a performer, the book features entertaining personal stories alongside 350 full-color photographs.
In celebration of DRAG: The Musical’s dynamite off-Broadway run at New World Stages, the team behind the show will release ‘DRAG: The Musical LIVE (The Cast Recording)’ on April 25th.
The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is set to release the world premiere recording of composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang’s moving and timely opera An American Soldier digitally via Platoon on Friday, May 23, 2025.
Theatre Communications Group will publish Stereophonic by David Adjmi, featuring original songs by Will Butler of Arcade Fire. Learn more about Stereophonic here!
To celebrate Record Store Day 2025, multi-platinum artist and songwriter Sam Smith will release a very special recording of their acclaimed BBC Proms performance from London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall on 2xLP vinyl on April 12th.