Here is an excerpt from Playbill's Stephen Suskin's review of the upcoming Hugh Martin autobiography:
"...As for [Hugh Martin], who was born in 1914, he is alive and well and living in Encinitas. California, that is. What do you expect to be doing when you turn 96? Mr. Martin has just written his autobiography, "Hugh Martin: The Boy Next Door" (Trolley Press), and quite a story it is. Martin started as a singer and assistant arranger to the great Kay Thompson; revolutionized the art of Broadway vocal arrangements with a string of shows starting in 1938, working for composers Rodgers, Arlen, Berlin and Styne; wrote several musicals of his own, starting with the 1940 hit "Best Foot Forward" (produced by Abbott and Rodgers); moved to M-G-M for "Meet Me in St. Louis," handing Judy Garland "The Boy Next Door," "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"; labored in the Arthur Freed unit at M-G-M; served as Garland's accompanist for her legendary 1951 comeback at the Palace; and on and on. Adventures which are all related in Martin's friendly, unassuming style. We are accustomed to reading biographies of these people, in which the authors try to recreate historic episodes and long-ago conversations; here we have it all first hand, from someone who was sitting there at the piano bench. Martin's working title was "Hugh Who?" which I suppose he was talked out of by the publishing people. That's a question that people who read this tome will no longer think of asking."
As of November 1, 2010, AtlasBooks will be distributing Hugh Martin/The Boy Next Door directly into Barnes & Noble. It will be two or three weeks before it will be available at Amazon.com.
In the meantime, it can also be directly ordered from Atlas Books:
http://www.atlasbooks.com/marktplc/03110.htm.
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