Dawn Williams

Me and My Father's Shadow: a Daughter's Quest and Biography of Ted Lewis "The Jazz King" Dawn Williams

Me and My Father's Shadow is both biography and autobiography woven together. It tells the story of Ted Lewis, ?The Jazz King," who was the originator of The Big Bands, and considered by many of his contemporaries as the most famous and highest paid bandleader, recording artist, entertainer, and movie/radio/television personality of the twentieth century. This quest and biography is told by his daughter, and only child, whom he never knew. The story is also about famed restaurants such as Reisenwebers and Rectors, vaudeville/burlesque theaters, and nightclub stages that blazed with the names of Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice, and Will Rogers, plus hundreds of other stars made famous by the Hammersteins, Shuberts, and Ziegfelds. It is about Tin Pan alley, The Great White Way, and an infant movie industry destined to grow and mature into even greater celebrity. Ted Lewis is essential to this era's story, and most of the book highlights his remarkable rise to fame, his life-long love affair with Show Business, his fellow entertainers who loved him, and the magic he exuded on and off stage.