Joel Grey, the Tony and Academy Award-winning Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret finally tells his remarkable life story. Born Joel David Katz to a wild and wooly Jewish American family in Cleveland, Ohio in 1932, Joel began his life in the theater at the age of 9, starting in children’s theater and then moving to the main stage. He was hooked, and his seven decades long career charts the evolution of American entertainment - from Vaudeville performances with his father, Mickey Katz to the seedy gangster filled nightclubs of the forties, the bright lights of Broadway and dizzying glamour of Hollywood, to juggernaut musicals like Cabaret, Chicago, and Wicked. 
Master of Ceremonies is a memoir of a life lived in and out of the limelight, but it is also the story of the man behind the stage makeup. Coming of age in a time when being yourself tended to be not only difficult but also dangerous, Joel has to act both on and off the stage. He spends his high school years sleeping with the girls-next-door while carrying on a scandalous affair with an older man. Romances with to-die-for Vegas Showgirls are balanced with late night liaisons with like-minded guys, until finally Joel falls in love and marries a talented and beautiful woman, starts a family, and has a pretty much picture perfect life. But 24 years later when the marriage dissolves, Joel has to once again find his place in a world that has radically changed. 
Drawing back the curtain on a career filled with show-stopping numbers, larger-than-life stars and even singing in the shower with Bjork, Master of Ceremonies is also a portrait of an artist coming to terms with his evolving identity. When an actor plays a character, he has to find out what makes them who they are; their needs, dreams, and fears. It’s a difficult thing to do, but sometimes the hardest role in an actor’s life is that of himself. Deftly capturing the joy of performing as well as the pain and secrets of an era we have only just started to leave behind, Joel’s story is one of love, loss, hard-won honesty, redemption, and success.

Master of Ceremonies: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

GREY, JOEL

Arts & Literature

Flatiron Books

Master of Ceremonies

The actor best known for his iconic role as the irascible emcee in "Cabaret" traces his remarkable life story, documenting his Jewish-American upbringing in 1930s Cleveland, childhood roles, rise to fame, and challenging losses.

Master Of Ceremonies (Thorndike Biography)

Paley, Rebecca

Humor & Entertainment

Thorndike Press Large Print

MacMillan Audio

Academy Award, Tony Award, and Golden Globe Award winning performer, Joel Grey's early passion for flowers and plants helped form a life-long love for nature's beauty. From the tender age of just 10 years old, Grey recalls a childhood spent poring over seed catalogs searching for the perfect flower he hoped to someday nurture with love. Growing up adjoining an undeveloped parcel of land just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, Grey enjoyed the magic and splendor of flora while exploring this dark and somehow inviting mini-forest. Searching through weeds and tall grasses, his prize was occasionally his all-time-favorite, a lily of the valley in full bloom. Today, Grey is a favorite of his local New York City's flower market where he can be found regularly indulging his passion to refresh his vases with the finest petals he can locate. Appreciating the splendor of his latest bounty, Grey celebrates the fascinating and unique sexuality of these beauties with intimate views of their petals, pistils and stamens. My Secret Garden is Grey's personal testament to the sensual and mysterious sexual universe of flowers. With a deep rooted love for painterly abstraction, Grey's observations of lilies, tulips, roses, poppies, calla lilies, ranunculuses, daffodils, sunflowers, narcissuses, hydrangeas, daisies, and of course Grey's revered lily of the valley among many others, echo the feeling of the watercolors he has always yearned to create.

The Flower Whisperer

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

powerHouse Books

"This collection of 28 oversize photographs transforms ordinary advertising posters into richly layered tapestries." - The New York Times The Billboard Papers is the fourth book of photography by award-winning screen and stage actor Joel Grey. Twenty-eight full-color photographs of various torn and decaying billboards from the streets of New York resemble paper collages, revealing the strange and unexpected layers of billboards past. Grey's striking photographs are of tapestries of embedded memories - constantly fleeting and subject to change, or demolition, or renewal. This unique collection, designed by Sam Shahid, features an introduction by Grey and a preface by American artist Ross Bleckner; it is published in a limited edition of 600 numbered copies.

The Billboard Papers: Photographs by Joel Grey

Pointed Leaf Press

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Books by GREY, JOEL