A quixotic figure, Vasile Avramenko (18951981) used folk culture and modern media in a life-long crusade to promote Ukraine s struggle for independence to North American audiences. From his base in New York City, he built a network of folk dance schools and produced musical spectacles to help Ukrainian immigrants sustain their identity. His feature-length Ukrainian language films made in the 1930s with Hollywood director Edgar G. Ulmer, the king of ethnic and B movies, were shown throughout North America. Orest T. Martynowych s "The Showman and the Ukrainian Cause" is a fascinating portrait...