In the 1890s, feisty Tod Sloan (1874-1933) abandoned the centuries-old jockey tradition of riding in a straight sitting position and instead crouched low on the neck of his horse. The result was not only a string of victories for young Sloan but also a revolution in horse racing. In this entertaining book, award-winning author John Dizikes recounts the remarkable story of the Indiana boy who rose from obscurity to become the most famous jockey in the United States and Great Britain at the turn of the century. Dizikes evokes the turbulent, colorful world of horse racing and gambling in which...

In the 1890s the world of racing was turned on its ear by a young American who rodehorses as no professional jockey had ever ridden: Tod Sloan hitched up his stirrups and thrust his weight far forward. Traditionalists laughed at first and dismissed him as a novelty, but as he came to dominate racing on both sides of the Atlantic, his style of riding became widely imitated, and his famous forward seat remains universally practiced to this day. Sloan s place in racing lore and popular culture was cemented in 1904 when George M. Cohan wrote and starred in Little Johnny Jones, a Broadway musical...

"I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera, Ah this indeed is music--this suits me."--Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"
America has had a love affair with opera in all its forms since it was first performed here in colonial times. This book--the first comprehensive cultural and social history of musical theater in the United States--includes vignettes of productions, personalities, audiences, and theaters throughout the country from 1735 to the present day.
John Dizikes tells how opera, steeped in European aristocratic tradition, was transplanted into the democratic cultural environment of...