# Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow - Hardcover

by **Holly Van Leuven** (Author)

Best remembered for his role as the Scarecrow in the 1939 MGM musical _The Wizard of Oz_, Ray Bolger led a rich and extraordinary career in the decade before and more than four decades after the creation of the film. _Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow_ is the first biography of this classic American entertainer, covering the luminous and forgotten career of the eccentric dancer outside of his burlap mask.

The product of a fragmented, working-class Boston Irish family, Bolger learned tap and eccentric dance steps as solace for a difficult life before running away to repertory theater and Vaudeville. From there, he would go on to become a Broadway star, a contract player at Hollywood's major studios, one of the first performers to tour the South Pacific for the USO, a Tony Award winner, an early sitcom star, and the opening headliner of the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

Using unprecedented access to Bolger's papers and many never-before-published photographs, _Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow_ pieces together the lost story of an itinerant hoofer who survived and thrived during the major media changes of the twentieth century and established himself as a staple of American pop culture.  

### Author Biography

  
**Holly Van Leuven** is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles, California. She is the first researcher to access the personal papers of Ray Bolger. She is the inaugural winner of the Biographers International Organization's Hazel Rowley Prize for first-time authors.  

**Number of Pages:** 256

**Dimensions:** 0.8 x 9.3 x 6.2 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** March 08, 2019

## Details

- **Price:** 39.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 39.99 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow - Hardcover

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