Make Room for Daddy: The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room

The late Danny Thomas recounts his fantastic life and career in this touching memoir. From his poverty-stricken boyhood to his incredible rise to fame, from his friendships with the giants of the entertainment world to his unselfish work for the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, here is a warmhearted look at one of the world's great storytellers.--Associated Press. 16 pages of photographs.

Using fathers' first-hand accounts from letters, journals, and personal interviews along with hospital records and medical literature, Judith Walzer Leavitt offers a new perspective on the changing role of expectant fathers from the 1940s to the 1980s. She shows how, as men moved first from the hospital waiting room to the labor room in the 1960s, and then on to the delivery and birthing rooms in the 1970s and 1980s, they became progressively more involved in the birth experience and their influence over events expanded. With careful attention to power and privilege, Leavitt charts not only the increasing involvement of fathers, but also medical inequalities, the impact of race and class, and the evolution of hospital policies. Illustrated with more than seventy images from TV, films, and magazines, this book provides important new insights into childbirth in modern America, even as it reminds readers of their own experiences.

Bachelor Surprise! Upon learning a casual fling had resulted in a bundle of joy, Greg Chandler felt compelled to go under cover and find the kid—just to make sure it was well cared for. But that was before he saw Mikelle Bennet, the sexy widow who had adopted "Jamie." Before he'd held his son in his arms. Before his fatherly fate was sealed… Mikelle was suspicious of the newest guest at her Nantucket inn. The only local color he seemed interested in was baby blue! And why was a confirmed bachelor suddenly fascinated by warm bottles and baby booties? Greg's charm and sheer masculinity stole her heart. But was it also his intention to steal her son?

Between 1948 and 1955, nearly two-thirds of all American families bought a television set—and a revolution in social life and popular culture was launched. In this fascinating book, Lynn Spigel chronicles the enormous impact of television in the formative years of the new medium: how, over the course of a single decade, television became an intimate part of everyday life. What did Americans expect from it? What effects did the new daily ritual of watching television have on children? Was television welcomed as an unprecedented "window on the world," or as a "one-eyed monster" that would disrupt households and corrupt children? Drawing on an ambitious array of unconventional sources, from sitcom scripts to articles and advertisements in women's magazines, Spigel offers the fullest available account of the popular response to television in the postwar years. She chronicles the role of television as a focus for evolving debates on issues ranging from the ideal of the perfect family and changes in women's role within the household to new uses of domestic space. The arrival of television did more than turn the living room into a private theater: it offered a national stage on which to play out and resolve conflicts about the way Americans should live. Spigel chronicles this lively and contentious debate as it took place in the popular media. Of particular interest is her treatment of the way in which the phenomenon of television itself was constantly deliberated—from how programs should be watched to where the set was placed to whether Mom, Dad, or kids should control the dial. Make Room for TV combines a powerful analysis of the growth of electronic culture with a nuanced social history of family life in postwar America, offering a provocative glimpse of the way television became the mirror of so many of America's hopes and fears and dreams.

The Bewitched Continuum is a fun insider's look at the classic television show's overall continuity that will have you appreciating Samantha, Darrin, and their circle of impish witches and manic mortals in a whole new way.Adam-Michael James zaps up the same magnifying glass he uses on scripts for Hollywood studios and his columns at soapcentral.com to explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of Bewitched, comparing and contrasting all 254 episodes like never before. The only book to focus solely on the supernatural sitcom's fictional elements, The Bewitched Continuum delves into burning questions like: How come witches can use their powers in the past in some episodes but not in others? Can witches undo one another's spells, or not? The result is a definitive reference guide that is entertaining, perceptive, and always respectful.In addition to stunning photos and overviews for all eight seasons, this magical manual reveals how many times Endora called Darrin "Durwood" and who was afflicted with which witchy illness, not to mention offers an exclusive peek at one idea for the series finale Bewitched never had. Whether hardcore fan or discovering the show for the first time, The Bewitched Continuum casts a spell you won't soon forget!

Moviegoers know her as the housekeeper in White Christmas, the nurse in Now, Voyager, and the crotchety choir director in Sister Act. This book, filled with never-published behind-the-scenes stories from Broadway and Hollywood, chronicles the life of a complicated woman who brought an assortment of unforgettable nurses, nuns, and housekeepers to life on screen and stage. Wickes (1910–1995) was part of some of the most significant moments in film, television, theatre, and radio history. On that frightening night in 1938 when Orson Welles recorded his earth-shattering “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, Wickes was waiting on another soundstage for him for a rehearsal of Danton's Death, oblivious to the havoc taking place outside. When silent film star Gloria Swanson decided to host a live talk show on this new thing called television, Wickes was one of her first guests. When Lucille Ball made one of her first TV appearances, Wickes appeared with her—and became Lucy's closest friend for more than thirty years. Wickes was the original Mary Poppins, long before an umbrella carried Julie Andrews across the rooftops of London. And when Disney began creating 101 Dalmatians, Wickes was asked to pose for animators trying to capture the evil of Cruella De Vil. The pinched-face actress who cracked wise by day became a confidante to some of the day's biggest stars by night, including Bette Davis and Doris Day. Bolstered by interviews with almost three hundred people, and by private correspondence from Ball, Davis, Day, and others, Mary Wickes: I Know I've Seen That Face Before includes scores of never-before-shared anecdotes about Hollywood and Broadway. In the process, it introduces readers to a complex woman who sustained a remarkable career for sixty years.