Cinema Houston: From Nickelodeon to Megaplex (review)

456Southwestern Historical QuarterlyApril Davis presents Martin's life and times and trials and tribulations in the traditional biographical form, beginning with her 1913 birth in Weatherford, Texas, and concluding with her burial there seventy-six years later in 1990. In the process, he reveals a performer who put the perfection of her craft above all else. Martin began performing when just a young girl, endured lean years in Hollywood while "breaking into" the business, and later basking in the wealth and comfort provided by her success. The costs of Martin's "stage perfection," however, were high. Martin's son, actor Larry Hagman, was raised by his maternal grandmother until age twelve, and afterward divided time between boarding schools and his father's home so Martin might pursue her theatrical goals. Martin's career and the raising of her daughter, Heller, were carefully orchestrated by her husband and manager, Richard Halliday, a brilliant man plagued by depression and substance abuse. Through it all, Martin remained focused squarely on her task. She smiled, sang, and performed. The breadth and scope of Davis's research is impressive, and the plethora of personal interviews—some conducted with Martin herself—provides readers with an almost personal access to Broadway and Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. At the same time, Martin's story serves to remind us that while film endures, the stage performance is a moment in time —a flash—then gone forever . The roles with which the Weadierford, Texas, native charmed the world were preserved on celluloid not by Martin, but by odiers: Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp, Doris Day as Annie Oakley, and Mitzi Gaynor as Nellie Forbush. Even Martin's quintessential role, Peter Pan, is more closely identified with actresses Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby than it is with Martin, the first to sail through theaters on a wire as the boy who would never grow up. Davis's work should appeal to a variety of readers, particularly those interested in the history of die theater. Of personal interest to diis reviewer was Martin's time spent at Nashville's Ward-Belmont College, though I do take exception widi the audior's characterization of die institution as a "finishing school." Of interest to others will be Martin's son, Larry Hagman, die fictionalJ. R. Ewing of television's Dallas. A photograph of Martin and Hagman would have been a nice addition. It would also be interesting to know ifJ. R.'s fictional wife "Sue Ellen" was named in honor of his mother's lifelong best friend, Bessie May Sue Ella Yaeger Austin. Davis's work presents neither a grand theme nor a newfound theory. Radier, Ronald L. Davis's intention with this volume was to return Mary Martin to her rightful place as the grande dame of the American musical theater, and in this he succeeded. Belmont UniversityBrendaJackson-Abernathy Cinema Houston: From Nickelodeon to Megaplex. By David Welling. Foreword byJack Valenti. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007. Pp. 352. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780292717008, $45.00 cloth.) Film study has gained respectability in the English and history departments of the nation's academic institutions. The focus of this scholarship, however, is usu- 20ogBook Reviews457 ally limited to analysis of film texts rather dian audience reception of the cinematic experience. In an era in which film viewing is increasingly a private experience taking place within the home, it is easy for some to forget that screening a movie was once a public event. In the text and photographs of Cinema Houston, graphic artist David Welling reminds readers of the role played by movie tiieaters in fostering a sense of community in his native city. Cinema Houston is essentially a nostalgic volume in which Welling laments diat in its rapid urban development Houston destroyed many of the lavish movie palaces which once dotted die city's downtown landscape. Welling writes, "Going to the movies was meant to be a spectacle, both on die screen and in die dieatre itself. It was meant to be larger than life. It was meant to be remembered" (xviii). Relying primarily upon newspaper accounts from the Houston Post and the Houston Chronicle, along with photographs from...