New Book Spotlights Golden Age Bway Set Designs of The Eckharts

The book, which features a foreward by Carol Burnett and a preface by Sheldon Harnick, contains more than 500 full-color illustrations, including production stills and the Eckarts' artistic renderings depicting their work in the golden age of American musicals. Among the Eckarts' most famous sets are Damn Yankees in 1955, in which a curtain of baseballs, beads and tassels captured the play's theme of seduction; and Once Upon a Mattress, in which Carol Burnett had her first big role in 1959. Other sets they designed included the live television production of Cinderella, featuring Julie Andrews in 1957, and Mame, starring Angela Lansbury in 1966.

Harris met the Eckarts in 1985 when he served as chairman of the Southern Methodist University theatre department and the Eckarts taught theatre design at the university. At Bill Eckart's request, Harris began working on the book in 1995, two years after Jean Eckart's death in 1993. When Bill Eckart died in 2000, Harris continued his research, using documents from the Eckart Collection, now housed at University of North Texas.  "Bill never threw anything out," Harris said. "There are things that are missing, but he kept an extremely detailed group of his own work … renderings, books, models, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, contracts, letters, bits of set. He had a two-car garage full of stuff."

The book is set at hardcover price of $37.95 (but is available on Amazon for $23.91). To order, call (800) 826-8911, visit your local bookstore or visit www.amazon.com.