This book is a good quick read. It's basically a set of short stories about the 1930's, a few of which are connected to others. The topics covered are mostly jazz, politics, and sports. This isn't like a history book, but more like a book on pop culture of the time and the things that brought poeple together, like the radio.

Couldn't really figure out the point of this book beyond providing some snapshots of the 1930s. It was OK, but more for skimming than really reading and enjoying. ( )

I reviewed this already, then removed the book. so I'm trying to see if I saved my review somewhere. I know I liked it.

A beautifully written perspective of the mid to late 1930's. However, the book simply centers on a few key personalities of the period rather then delving further into the way the era was for everyone and how it impacted later years in the U.S. While it is easy to read, with a solid story line I would have liked a broader perspective and discussion of the era. ( )

I love the time period this book encompasses, the mid to late 1930's. Lots of good music, writing, events that hadn't been squashed by the coming of World War II.

There is no doubt that Orgill did her research. Wow! She knows it all and does a good job of painting a vivid picture of what the streets of America were like back then. But that's all this book is, a vivid picture of life back then. No real compelling narrative. Just plenty of creative tidbits to highlight some of the characters like Count Basie, FDR and Joe Louis.

I have to say that the few pages on Lewis are the highlights of this short and colorful book. ( )

Although I'm a history major, I don't often read nonfiction for fun. This book, however, not only discusses some of my favourite themes (swing music and the 30's in general), but does so in a surprisingly easy-to-read manner. One of the reviews called the book "danceable", and I agree that it certainly has a rhythm that is easy to get into. While the focus is on Count Basie and his rise to stardom in the big band scene, Orgill also discusses what else was going on in the USA at that point, to further set the scene. Her discussion bounces from boxing (Joe Louis and Max Schmeling) to Amelia Earhart to Eleanor and FDR to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. to Edgar Burgen and George Burns (and Gracie Allen, too, of course), and back again. It almost reads like a whirlwind, but once you start, it's difficult to put down. ( )

It took me forever to get through Dream Lucky - and were it not for the obligation of the Early Reviewer program, I never would have bothered to finish it. Dream Lucky consists of a series of vignettes, each of which is an event in the years between 1936 and 1938 - Joe Louis, Eleanor Roosevelt, Langston Hughes, Amelia Earheart, Count Basie - all make highly disconnected cameos. Each cameo is presented as a "news event" or, I assume, a radio play. If you know anything at all about any part of the time (or have seen the right episodes of American Experience) some sections will be merely skimming the surface of what you already know. In areas of the time you know little about the book presents enough to confuse you but not enough to wet your appetite. The book is devoid of any context and always present an uncritical, unidimensional, and seemingly politically correct view of the characters. I can not think of an audience for which this book would be a good introduction to the time period and it certainly is a bad choice for anyone is who an avid reader of American history. Finally I was somewhat confused as to whether this was a young adult book or not - the author has won awards for early YA books. I have concluded that it was not aimed at the young adult market - however, in sections the writing reads as though the author forgot that fact. ( )

Billie Holiday performing in blackface, Eleanor Roosevelt sharing a racially stereotyped joke with her newspaper readers, Benny Goodman dropping by a black jazz club to listen to Count Basie play: These sound like scenes from an imaginative historical novel, but they are among the delightful and tantalizing historical events reported in “Dream Lucky: When FDR was in the White House, Count Basie was on the radio, and everyone wore a hat…”
Author Roxane Orgill, a former music critic who in recent years has written books for children, turned to the period from 1936 and 1938 and the emergence of swing as the dominant American music of the era for her first book for grown-ups. Some of the stories are outrageous: Mrs. Roosevelt, who in later years was reviled by liberals, writing in her daily newspaper column, “Many of us do not appreciate what we owe the colored race for its good humor and its quaint ways of saying and doing things,” before reprinting tasteless dialect joke from a book called “Chocolate Drops from the South;” a club manager in Detroit who insisted Billie Holiday wear black greasepaint because she looked white next to the members of Count Basie’s orchestra; Adolf Hitler wishing boxer Max Schmeling “every success” in his fight with Joe Louis.
“Dream Lucky” – the name comes from a Jimmy Rushing song – offers a series of well documented historical vignettes, people by names like Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Orson Welles, and Lanston Hughes. It recounts the parts of history too intimate to be recorded in textbooks that flesh out our understanding of a storied era. ( )

It took a little while for me to get used to the tone of this book -- the author's voice, and her approach to history and storytelling. Once I figured out, however, to think of it as the print equivalent of a jazz album, with the author riffing on a series of repeated themes, the book became not only much more accessible, but enjoyable. Even ... dare I say? ... swinging.

"Dream Lucky" isn't really a history book about the days "when FDR was in the White House, Count Basie was on the radio, and everyone wore a hat," even though it sometimes feels like it wants to be. Nor is it really a view of America during the years in question, except insofar as it defines what we were all listening to on the radio. With the exception of a description of Basie's road trip through the south and midwest, this is a New York-centric story, and an impressionist sort of story at that, weaving a little politics and some current events around the story of Basie's rise from a moderate level of fame and success in Kansas City to the big time in the Big Apple. It's an interesting approach, and within that narrower focus Roxane Orgill pulls it off well. And whereas I tend to judge a book in part on how many other books on the topic it makes me want to read, "Dream Lucky" has given me a whole list of CDs to track down and listen to, which I think is just as good a sign of merit (I'm pleased to say I already had several of the recordings she cites, including Benny Goodman's landmark 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, which you really need to hear if you haven't yet).

Again like jazz, this relaxed and, at first glance, erratic way of storytelling may not be to everyone's taste. But if you're inclined to give it a try, I think you'll find it a rewarding way to spend a few hours. ( )

This book is presented as a history of the US and its people during the period of 1936-1938, but it misses that stated aim. Instead, it is a bit of a schizophrenic review of certain facets as the time, as the author jumps around between the musical artists of the time, Mrs. Roosevelt, and race relations. The book rarely leaves the US East Coast, and never ventures west of Texas.

A reader with a good knowledge of the time period may enjoy this book, as the author seems to be chatting with friends and reminiscing about the time period. Unfortunately, if you are not deeply familiar with the people and times being discussed, you feel like an outsider who hasn't been invited in.

The book did provide me some ideas for further reading, as it managed to pique my interest in some topics. Beyond that, I only recommend this book for those deeply familiar with the time period who want to reminisce. ( )

This was an engaging book that read like a novel. "Who says medicine has to taste bad to be good?" Quick and Fun. ( )

As an admirer of the early big bands and a casual student of the interwar years, I looked forward to reading this new book. The first paragraphs of the prologue, however, warned me that I was headed for disappointment: the italics and exclamation marks alone on that first page foretold a tough slog through unpolished prose. I was not sold on it by the end of the first chapter, either, or even halfway through the book. What the author was attempting was clear enough – to tell a story through the hearts and voices of those living in the era, thereby giving the reader a sense of being present in another place and time - but the result was so ragged, the story so disjointed, and the language so irritating that I felt she had not pulled it off. The result at first seemed simply annoying, reading like a box full of research notecards strung loosely together.

The overarching narrative follows the rise of bandleader Count Basie from local success to national fame during the period 1936 to 1938. The tone is nostalgic, but with a recurrant theme underscoring the pervasive racism in that era of change. The short interwoven chapters follow the stories of Joe Louis, Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR, Amelia Earhart, swing band leaders, radio stars, and other personalities of the period. The book tries to tell it the way it was, while highlighting the efforts of those working for positive change. In the end this is what I liked most about the book. So many modern books treating the subject of race in early 20th century America take the obvious stand of condemnation – too easy to do from a post-civil rights standpoint. Dream Lucky highlights people who were working for social change from within the time they lived, people who were dealing with the real constraints and the inevitable compromises that come when trying to alter the status quo.

Another theme of the book is the emphasis on the soundtrack of the era: swing band competitions, radio comedies, FDR’s fireside chats. The author faithfully reproduces in print the sounds of the era, and her description of the styles of the various singers and instrumentalists are well done.

I still have lingering misgivings about the realization of the author’s vision, but in the end the story was more engaging and enlightening than my first impression led me to expect. I am glad I stayed with it and would encourage other readers to do so. ( )

Roxanne Orgill breathes life into the lines of a historian’s notes. I can see the influence, from her children’s historical picture books, but it works well in this format. Dream Lucky is a wonderfully imaginative way to convey the culture, the community, and most importantly, the color barrier that had yet to be broken during this period of history prior to WWII.
This book reminded me of sitting at the dinner table with my parents, sharing stories of their life growing up, “in the olden days.” They always laughed when my siblings or I would call it that. But looking back and reading this book, I’m so glad to have gleaned those memories. Dream Lucky presents snapshots in time of the way it was, the way people who lived it, saw it. Anyone, who is a baby boomer, even a late boomer like myself can relate to the short vignettes in the book and recall what they were told as a child. If you lived during that time, Orgill will make you sway to the sounds of swing. Count Basie, Bennie, Billie, Ella and all the marvelous musicians of that era will echo in your ears as you read. The author periodically placed black and white photos throughout the book, which enhances your presence in that moment in time. You also hear the radio and see the family huddled around the box. Even though they can’t see anything, they stare listening silently so no sentence is missed. There was something for the whole family, Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats, The Lone Ranger, Burns and Allen, Orson Wells, and more.
What Orgill understands, from any teacher’s perspective, is that history doesn’t have to be an outdated, inaccurate textbook with facts, dates and dry content. That is assuming the schools have enough money to purchase textbooks for every student. We are alive when we are making history. Her approach to history is enjoyable, believable and readable, as it can and should be. You gain the knowledge from the point of view of a ubiquitous insider, who is witness to the events as they unfold during 1936-1938. You stand with Count Basie, Joe Louis, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Jacob Lawrence and so many other African American people who worked where they couldn’t eat, shopped, where they couldn’t work and who had to put up with the laws of Jim Crow, who was alive and active in the south. The social reform movement for racial equality was just beginning to emerge under the leadership of Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. No matter who you were during this period of history, there was tension and turmoil worldwide, and no one stateside including FDR wanted another World War. What everyone had at that time was their dreams and so they hoped they would “Dream Lucky.”
Roxanne Orgill is unique in her approach to historical writing and understands how to make it real. I highly recommend this exceptionally entertaining history and I know as you read it you will believe you are there. ( )

This review is of the Uncorrected Proof.

Remember that time in 6th grade you were to write a biography of Otto von Bismarck and you thought he invented the Bismarck donut, but he didn't? So you fluffed up the Britannica's three paragraphs out to two pages and your teacher wrote "Reads like you talk"? Remember?

Unfortunately, that is how this book reads. It's either a poorly written novel or a bound set of notes for someone's history term paper. Readers cannot be sure as there are no footnotes although the many subjects are quoted extensively in what seem to be private thoughts and conversations.

There are some notes dumped into the back, but no way to tell how these notes inform the text. The clunky writing smells like a junior high locker. I didn't care for the style, but the use of language was just bad. Diagramming sentences from passive into active voice bored me, and I enjoy dissecting sentences.

Avoid. ( )

In spite of its fun title, 'Dream Lucky' is actually a non-fiction piece of US cultural history of the years between 1936 and 1938 when "swing was king". It was also when African Americans were trying to make themselves seen, heard, and respected above white oppression but were making little headway. The book reads almost like a novel, written mostly from the perspective of bandleader Count Basie and his rise to fame in spite of all the obstacles. Orgill takes readers on a musical, cultural, and political journey of pre-World War II America. We get a glimpse inside the White House where Eleanor Roosevelt tried (unsuccessfully) to influence her husband to push through anti-lynching legislation. We go to church with Adam Clayton Powell (Sr. and Jr.). We hear popular radio shows (Burns and Allen, Jack Benny), go to the fights with Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, and attempt to fly around the world with Amelia Earhart. But most importantly, we swing to the music of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Chick Webb and listen to the vocals of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

'Dream Lucky' combines the fun of music with the seriousness of the plight of African-Americans in pre-civil rights America. It is an important history lesson for all of us.

Thank you HarperCollins and LibraryThing for the opportunity to read this book. ( )

I just finished reading this sweet little book, little only in the size of the book. I found it to be a nice social history of the late 1930's, espeically of the music world of Harlem. I enjoyed the book a lot. ( )

In Dream Lucky, Roxanne Orgill gives us a series of two- to five-page vignettes describing various events and aspects of American life between 1936 and 1938. Making the most appearances is William "Count" Basie, the big-band leader from Kansas City. Orgill sandwiches her book between the two Joe Louis-Max Schmeling boxing matches, on June 19, 1936 and June 22, 1938. Her overarching theme is the slow progress toward civil rights for Black Americans. She enlists a mix of characters, from Basie and his band members and other bandleaders such as Chick Webb and Benny Goodman, to the Roosevelts, Amelia Earhart, and the two generations of Adam Clayton Powells. She depicts Basie's progress from a "territory band" to playing in increasingly better venues. Along the way we see FDR addressing the nation about the faltering economy, Langston Hughes returning from serving as a war correspondent in Spain, Powell, Jr., urging Blacks not to shop in stores that won't employ them, and Eleanor Roosevelt struggling to interest her husband in broader issues. We also hear about the many popular radio shows and characters, such as Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Fibber McGee and Molly. The book contains numerous illustrations, including portraits of individuals and posters for jazz concerts. The author provides twenty-some pages of notes that identify her sources and a list of suggested recordings by the bands she describes. Her tone throughout is that of an enthusiastic and interested observer with ringside seats to a lot of interesting goings-on.

I found it interesting to see events and people from different fields of endeavor intermingled along a time line of two years. I found the sections on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Powells the most interesting, along with the stories of the battles of the big bands. Unfortunately Orgill creates very few linkages to explain how things are related; to a large extent we are reading something like a series of magazine and newspaper articles. We see Basie, in particular, meeting with frustration and eventual success, but we don't see how one became the other. I would have enjoyed the book a lot more, and rated it more highly, had Orgill made more connections between the people she describes and said more about why Basie was able to overcome numerous hurdles to achieve fame and success. As it is, the book is more a collection of trivia and entertaining portraits that yields less insight than I hoped for into the period it describes. ( )

Dream Lucky: FDR, Count Basie, and everyone wore a hat... very good, very readable, very recommendable... touches a little on the whole pre-war mood in the U.S., but focuses specifically on events of 1936: Count Basie coming to Harlem, the Roosevelts dealing with race and Hitler, Joe Loius, Amelia Earhart, "only the Shadow knows..."
It's non-fiction, small chapters with pearls of history from a time when the nation was building up for greater things: here are the small steps leading to WWII and economic recovery, the Civil Rights movement, and the birth of rock 'n roll. The author is enthusiatic with the people and material, hinting at their future greatness after first failures (Schmeling thumps Louis! Basie's band suffers stage fright...) and adds enough of a "historical fiction" touch to get us to feel like we know the characters as people, not dry facts from history. Between larger sections on race relations and trouble in Europe are bits on radio programs from Allen and Burns, Charlie McCarthy, "'taint funny, McGee"... race is an issue dealt with honestly and without judgement, and the author's tone lets her reader, regardless of color, feel pride in those overcoming discrimination and embarrassment at failures to do so (blackface, lynching laws).
Again, a very good book. A quick, easy read, warm tone and continuously entertaining... could be used for high school students or even jr. high (with maybe a few deleted words)...

This book should have been a home run with me: I live in one of FDR's green cities (built in 1937), I love old time radio, and I usually enjoy these kind of popular history books (like 1939 and Devil in the White City). But I find myself ambivalent about this work.

Dream Lucky covers a two year period in the 1930s, concentrating on the pop touchstones of the era: boxing, jazz, and flying. It seems to be written for a younger audience, as far as I can tell from the style and word usage. It is populated by a lot of little two and three page chapters, character sketches of the era, I think. It does a good job dropping the reader into the _feeling_ of the era, but it doesn't give you a chance to dig down into anything. It's like a doughnut that way: nice mouthfeel, little nutrition.

But I like a good doughnut every once in a while.

An intriguing and at times fascinating book, Dream Lucky looks at the end of the 1930s through Count Basie's rise to the top of the music profession.

Roxane Orgill has managed to weave numerous story threads into one pattern. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife flit in and out, while Amelia Earhardt flies around the world, and figures from pop culture and American society in general, stop by to join in the narrative. At times, the central story is lost behind the many side images Orgill introduces, but perhaps that mirrors the turbulent end to the last decade before WWII.

Orgill's writing style is breathless, in time with Basie's pounding rhythm. The short chapters drive you onwards, almost mimicking Lester Young's solos.

The one major issue with this book is the editorial work. I am not certain how Orgill's editor allowed to her to keep the language used. Either the book was written in the 1950s and has not been updated to take into account acceptable racial descriptions or HarperCollins needs to take a serious look at the imagery portrayed by Orgill's archaic and frankly unnecessary racial descriptors.

Overall, it is a book worth reading. Readers are able to dip in and out without losing the flow, and the personalisation of many famous people makes the story easily accessible. ( )

I found this book to be a quick and interesting read. The author's style is lively and helps the reader to get a sense of the atmosphere of the times. The book covers a span of about two years in the mid-1930s and weaves together politics, jazz, and pop culture into a single, very enjoyable story. Serious history buffs may not be as impressed and sometimes the treatment of particular events leaves you wondering if it isn't partly fiction.

Roxane Orgill has written several books for young people on music and dance. Her subjects have been as varied as Fred Astaire and Mahalia Jackson. In [Dream Lucky], she is writing for adults, weaving together the story of Count Basie’s struggle to make a name for his band, with anecdotal bits of American history to create a big picture of America before World War II. Two dozen pages of end notes testify to the research that went into the writing of Dream Lucky, but in the reading you might almost believe that every chapter was written up by a contemporary observer of the events, from notes taken on the spot. There is no scholarly tone, not a dry page or line to be found. The historical characters come alive, and dance through the pages. Do you want to know what kind of dress Joe Louis’s wife was wearing the night he defeated Max Schmelling? How Eleanor Roosevelt reacted to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance, or what she did about her husband’s failure to push for an anti-lynching bill? What big band leader took one look at 17-year-old Ella Fitzgerald and said “Your’e not puttin’ that on my bandstand” ? Or how Edgar Bergen made ventriloquism work on the radio, where no one could tell whether his mouth was moving or not? It’s all in this nifty book, and it all goes together somehow, even though there often seems to be no sequé from one chapter to the next. . It isn’t “History”, in the sense that no theories are presented, no analysis made, no conclusions drawn; but it is the kind of story-telling that can spark an interest that leads to further exploration. And it was fun to read. ( )

Like a jazz theme effortlessly rolling from Count Basie's own keyboard, Roxane Orgill's prolouge provides the basic notes upon which she will improvise and expand with each passing chapter, adding new facts or more background, like subtle changes in key.

Capturing the feel, look, and sound of an era is difficult, especially one seventy years gone. Often the result is sentimental and saccharine. Not so here. Orgill is not only able to transport the reader to Yankee Stadium for the Brown Bomber's devasting loss and eventual redeeming re-match, but also to a multitude of other unknown corners of the country to examine the everyday struggles to overcome economic depression and racial hatred.

Count Basie, the main character of this barnstorming tour of 1937 and 1938, is described in full here. The book never shortcuts Basie, or any of the people of the time, by focusing only on the most well-known aspect of their lives. It would be easy to zero in on Basie's music and his struggle to succeed but to do so would leave out his humble beginnings, his fear of failure, or hiseven fear of wooden bridges. In one chapter, Orgill even imagines Basie's realization that he has transformed himself from a regional attraction to a national band leader. Though the description of the epiphany is not based on any specific source, Orgill's knowledge of Basie is so complete, the passage reads as if she is merely transcribing Basie's own recollections. Orgill focuses the same expert eye on the other subjects of the book, narrating with ease the lives and private thoughts of FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Amelia Earhart.

The surprise of the book is Orgill's focus on the radio and its ever present place in the American experience of the time. Basie longs for national radio broadcasts, as that is a true measure of success. And, indeed, Basie's big break comes when he is heard by a music writer on a local broadcast out of Kansas City. FDR, Jack Benny, Charlie McCarthy all became national icons with radio broadcasts. The explosive amount and variety of music, news, and entertainment available on the radio echos the current explosive internet culture.

I knew about Count Basie, and most of Orgill's subjects, before reading this book, but I feel like I know them in a much more personal now. As I write this, I am re-visiting Count Basie, listening to an ablum from his late life, recorded from shows in Munich and the south of France in the 1970's. Even at 70, the Count and his band could swing. The revelation, for me, is listening to this music, with a better understanding of the era which shaped Basie's swing. ( )

I was slightly disappointed in this book. It touched briefly on the what the title was about. I did enjoy the discriptions of the music being played, but as a whole the book lacked anything to do with the description given of the book.

The majority of the book is about the rise of Count Basie and his orchestra. If you like stories of the rise of swing then this is very interesting in the way it followed the band's early days and what they went through. Roxane Orgill's descriptive words of the way the orchestra played the music is wonderful. She uses colors and symbols that become almost real and you almost see it.

Although I like reading about the history of things, and I did enjoy reading about Count Basie, I felt that it really had nothing to do with FDR in the White House or the fact that everyone wore hats. ( )

“Dream Lucky: When FDR was in the White House, Count Basie was on the radio, and everyone wore a hat...” is a really wonderful book. This quick read tackles a time period that up until only recently, very few authors have had the courage to write about. Mrs. Orgill wrote “Dream Lucky” with wit and candor; I would not be surprised if this book gets a lot of attention when it is released to the public. The topics the author covers range from Amelia Earhart’s explorations to the growing concern over Hitler’s conquests; the economy and the race crisis in the cities, and most importantly the rise of jazz music in America and the growth of radio. I found myself thinking of this book not as a weekend page-turner, but a book that could be used in any number of history classes. As a former historian turned librarian, I could think of many history courses, or libraries for that matter, that would benefit by adding this book to their repertoire. An overall fantastic read! ( )