Max Oldaker: Last Of The Matinee Idols
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
At the glittering crossroads of stage, screen, and song stood Max Oldaker — a name that once electrified audiences across Australia and Britain, and whose remarkable life Charles Osborne chronicles with warmth, rigour, and an insider's passion for the performing arts. Max Oldaker: Last of the Matinee Idols resurrects the career of one of the twentieth century's most charismatic entertainers, tracing his journey from the Australian stages of the 1920s through a dazzling ascent to West End stardom, operetta, and film, painting a vivid portrait of a vanishing world of greasepaint, glamour, and theatrical romance. Osborne, himself a distinguished figure in the world of opera and biography, brings an authoritative and lyrical voice to this affectionate tribute, situating Oldaker within the broader cultural tapestry of an era when the matinee idol was a figure of genuine public reverence. With a foreword by the incomparable Barry Humphries lending further wit and perspective, the book illuminates not just a singular career, but the entire gilded epoch of theatrical entertainment that Oldaker embodied — leaving the reader to wonder how many such luminaries history has quietly, and unfairly, forgotten.
Author: Charles Osborne
Format: Hardback
Published: 1988, Michael O'Mara Books Limited
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
At the glittering crossroads of stage, screen, and song stood Max Oldaker — a name that once electrified audiences across Australia and Britain, and whose remarkable life Charles Osborne chronicles with warmth, rigour, and an insider's passion for the performing arts. Max Oldaker: Last of the Matinee Idols resurrects the career of one of the twentieth century's most charismatic entertainers, tracing his journey from the Australian stages of the 1920s through a dazzling ascent to West End stardom, operetta, and film, painting a vivid portrait of a vanishing world of greasepaint, glamour, and theatrical romance. Osborne, himself a distinguished figure in the world of opera and biography, brings an authoritative and lyrical voice to this affectionate tribute, situating Oldaker within the broader cultural tapestry of an era when the matinee idol was a figure of genuine public reverence. With a foreword by the incomparable Barry Humphries lending further wit and perspective, the book illuminates not just a singular career, but the entire gilded epoch of theatrical entertainment that Oldaker embodied — leaving the reader to wonder how many such luminaries history has quietly, and unfairly, forgotten.