Lexington Books
Pages: 172
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-66692-792-4 • Hardback • October 2023 • $95.00 • (£73.00)
978-1-66692-793-1 • eBook • October 2023 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic is librarian emerita of Rutgers University Libraries.
Chapter One: Situating Children’s Programming in Television’s Golden Age
Chapter Two: Sex, Sally Starr, and the Paradox of the American Cowgirl
Chapter Three: Pixanne, Class, and the Cold War American Childhood
Chapter Four: Gene London, Cold War Masculinity
Chapter Five: Chief Halftown, Race, and Nostalgia
Coda: The Demise of Hosted Shows
Smart and bold in its claims, Vibiana Cvetkovic's book invites us to view early children's tv hosts from the lens of today. Hosts at once conformed to familiar roles and troubled them. Neither completely male nor female, adult nor child, teacher nor entertainer, parent nor friend, counselor nor salesperson... hosts were rather like 'impossible burgers' today. People wanted them to pass for a suburban bbq, but they nevertheless gently transformed the midcentury landscape with new possibilities and appetites.
— Holly Blackford Humes, Rutgers University