Historical references are from the Encyclopedia Britannica and World Almanac. I am also grateful to the New York Public Library. The personnel at their Performing Arts branch offered valuable assistance in the search for old copies of Billboard and Variety, plus making many private collections and scrapbooks accessible.
I also wish to express my thanks to five private collectors for their invaluable material and courteous assistance, namely: Dennis Soldati, Larry Weeks, Roger Montandon, Karl-Heinz Ziethen, and Hermann Sagemüller. And my thanks to Pat Kailer of the Albuquerque Journal for the publicity she gave this book long before it was completed - I'm also extremely grateful to Jim Strinka for the willingness and skill he demonstrated when I asked him to pose for the technical illustrations, although those illustrations do not appear in this volume. And my sincere thanks to Mike Knoepfler for his help in translating from the German language.