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Title: My Father Was Carmen Miranda!
Subtitle: Memoirs of an English Showgirl
Author: Nena Jover Kelty
Narrator: Nena Jover Kelty
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
Language: English
Release date: 05-28-15
Publisher: Joe Bevilacqua, Waterlogg Productions
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs
Publisher's Summary:
Find out what it was like to play the big UK theaters as the bombs fell....
My Father Was Carmen Miranda! is the story of music-hall showgirl Nena Jover Kelty - part of the renowned Jover family who entertained in circuses, theaters, and music halls throughout the world for three generations. When her father's act, The Two Jovers, broke up in 1939, Tommy Jover drafted his children to form a new act, Tommy Jover with Nena and Raf. They played all over Britain through the dark years of World War II, from 1939 to 1946.
Although buzz bombs were falling, food was scarce, and travel was often dangerous, nothing would frighten the Brits into giving up their evenings at the music hall. In the best tradition of British variety, Tommy Jover did a raucous turn as a female impersonator - music hall patrons screamed with delight when he topped his head with a fruit basket and made like Carmen Miranda - much to the embarrassment of young Nena, who played straight to her father's comic antics.
My Father Was Carmen Miranda! offers glimpses of well-known British headliners like Max Miller, George Formby, Tommy Trinder, Vera Lynn, Flanagan and Allen, Dick Henderson, and Tessie O'Shea and is a vivid backstage look at the vanished world of the English music hall.
Members Reviews:
Great Show People
I know her sister Faye so this was a great story of their lives The part I didn't know was what went on in England during WORLD WAR II when they were younger..
A fun and interesting read
I picked up this little gem in a bookstore in Glendale, the title and cover photo having caught my eye. The author recounts her days as a young woman performing (mostly in England) just before, during, and shortly after WWII. It's an easy read and quite entertaining. She really gives you a feel for English life during an incredible time in history. She obviously wasn't living the life of a typical English girl by any means, traveling extensively and entertaining civilians, troops, and officers, but she puts you right in there among the bombs dropping, the ration cards, the blackouts, and people carrying on living in houses which are missing an entire outside wall.
There are lots of stories about the different acts that shared the stage with her and her family and tidbits about what goes on backstage. Her style is breezy and she moves her story along quickly. I'm sure she cut out a lot. The book is short enough that she probably could've put in another 4 or 5 chapters and not bored the reader.
I'd recommend this book. At the very end, you find out that not only did she live a pretty interesting life in England, but then after she came to the U.S. as a newlywed, she and her husband went on to found Kelty Pack. That was intriguing enough for me to look up that information and find out that there's another book she wrote: Backpacking the Kelty Way. I intend to read that one next.