Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies by Lauren Redniss

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For Doris Eaton Travis, her first century was the most eventful. Born in 1905, she remains the oldest living Ziegfield girl and continued to danced on Broadway until the age of 99. Lauren Redniss's Century Girl describes Travis's performing career (which began at 14), as well as her encounters with various American presidents, Gershwin, Lindbergh, Astaire, and Babe Ruth. An editorial cartoonist as well as an author, Redniss has hand-designed 100 collage spreads for this book, highlighting Eaton's amazing life.

From the Publisher

The Ziegfeld Follies, Florenz Ziegfeld’s stage spectacular, promised the best performers, the most lavish sets, and the most ravishing girls. At fourteen, Doris Eaton Travis became one of these prized beauties.

Over the past century, Doris has performed for presidents and princesses, entertained Gershwin, Lindbergh, and Astaire, starred in silent and talking pictures, bantered with Babe Ruth, offended Henry Ford, outlived six siblings, written a newspaper column, hosted a television show, earned a Phi Beta Kappa degree in history, raised turkeys, and raced horses. Doris has lived through it all with utmost grace and strength of character---and never missed a step.

While Today, The Tonight Show, CNN, Rosie O’Donnell, 20/20 and the New York Times have all showcased Doris, journalist and artist Lauren Redniss tells Doris’s singular story in an utterly original way. Weaving archival imagery with compelling prose, Redniss has created a narrative landscape that is as surreal and delightful as it is rich with meaning.

Immensely fun, seductive, inspiring, and wise (much like its star attraction, Doris Eaton Travis), Century Girl is an innovation in storytelling. It can be read as a graphic narrative or a historical tapestry, or simply relished for its stunning visual effect.

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