"Eddie Foy's career mirrored the growth of popular theater entertainment in America from the Civil War to the Roaring Twenties. Foy was the consummate stage comedian, displaying his versatility in both poverty-inspired Irish two-acts and lavish musical comedies."--BOOK JACKET.

"This is the first-ever biography of Foy. It tells the story of his indigent childhood in New York's Bowery and in Chicago, his tough uphill climb as a "variety artist" in Western outposts, his success in vaudeville and Broadway, and his arrival as a national icon with the Seven Little Foys. Exhaustively researched, this work contains many rare personal photographs from the Foy family archives."--BOOK JACKET.