This Week's Travel Reading

Ever hear of Lyle Talbot? Don't be unduly embarrassed if you haven't. He was never a major star in movies or TV, despite the fact that he worked in Hollywood from the early 1930s to the late 1980s. I first encountered his work in the dubious films of Ed Wood. Before then, he'd been a leading man in Poverty Row films; after that, he was a character actor, especially on TV (he was a regular on The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet).

The Entertainer, though, isn't a straight biography, not is it a memoir of Talbot's daughter, Margaret, who wrote the book. It's more complicated, more textured than that. It's really a look at a man whose life spanned nearly all of the 20th century (Talbot was born in 1902 and died in 1996). Margaret looks at the relationship between entertainment and society (and how they influenced one another) through the prism of her father's experience. It's a fascinating read.