author
Walter J. Kingsley
A lively Broadway insider, he wrote from deep inside the theater world and helped capture the energy of early 20th-century New York entertainment. His best-known book, co-authored with Edward L. Bernays, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Murdock Pemberton, offers a vivid snapshot of the stage scene in 1917.
1 Audiobook
The Broadway Anthology
by Edward L. Bernays, Samuel Hoffenstein, Walter J. Kingsley, Murdock Pemberton
About the author
Walter J. Kingsley was an American journalist and press agent whose career moved between newspapers and the theatrical world. The New York Public Library describes him as a reporter for the New York Telegraph and the London Daily Express before he shifted into press work in the early 1900s.
For much of the 1910s and 1920s, he served as general press representative for United Booking Offices and B.F. Keith theaters in New York, and later became press representative for Florenz Ziegfeld. That background gave him a close view of performers, producers, and the fast-moving Broadway scene.
As a writer, he is best known as one of the contributors to The Broadway Anthology (1917), a collaborative book that reflects the wit, glamour, and backstage texture of its era. Even now, his work stands out for its connection to the people and publicity machine that helped shape American popular entertainment.