Friday, December 21, 2012
"Man with the Banjo"- book review
“Man with the Banjo” by George Robert Peabody.
A review by Sean
Moyses.
Written by Eddie’s son George, this is a part
factual/fictional novel that was inspired by snippets of information Eddie
passed on to George. Eddie actually commissioned George himself and it was at
that moment George asked himself “How come my Dad made the rank of Lieutenant
Commander when he did not attend Naval College and the country was not at
war?”. He was in fact commissioned by the president himself. The stories needed
to be pieced together and Lowell Schreyer’s book “The Eddie Peabody Story”
helped cement those pieces together. George sat and wrote down all of his
recollections of his Father’s stories and when he finished he found himself with
over 900 pages!
Set in the late 1930’sin the prelude to war in Europe, Eddie
Peabody is already a household name in the USA through his appearances on stage
and radio. He was married to Maude Kelly, a conservative lady who was also his
manager at the time, and the story keeps touching on his dissolving
relationship throughout the book. This is an interesting touch and one of the
factual elements of the book.
At the Request of Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a fan of
Eddie Peabody and an amateur banjoist, Eddie is requested to re-join to Navy
and do an intelligence gathering operation whilst on his European tour of 1938.
This involves being chased by the Gestapo, enduring long hours of searching for
a submarine launch and performing for the “Führer” himself!
The other characters in the book are also a mixture of fact
and fiction and this is a well weaved concoction that makes for a fast moving
story that kept me reading every night for a week. I hear that Eddie Peabody 3rd
actually sat up and read it through the night because he was so gripped by the
story!
Having met the author I can now re-read the story with his
voice in my mind as he quotes his Father’s thoughts on the pages. It’s
interesting to view Eddie in this light and a far cry from his jolly “happy go
lucky” persona on stage. Eddie undertook and extremely dangerous mission by
spying in Germany in the times of the Nazi’s who would think nothing of murder
and revelled in terrorizing the population into submission. To play a concert
for Adolf Hitler and his henchmen themselves must have been terrifying,
especially as he was, for all intents and purposes, a spy.
Having read the book a couple of times I spotted only one
small error in that the legendary Harry Reser was cast as an English banjoist
who was jealous of Eddie. I think the person George was referring to was
Tarrant Bailey jr. In the content of the story this can be over-looked and it
is only the banjo fraternity that would pick up on such a detail.
The book would make an excellent film or stage play and
since Eddie’s grandson is an actor himself I think that this should be
considered. In the meantime though I’d recommend you buy the book through
either Amazon or digital download for your Kindle, relax and enjoy the story.
An excellent effort by George and I’m sure that if Eddie is looking down he
would be very proud that this part of his life has found a voice through George
and his experiences were shared with us.
Sean Moyses
www.seanmoyses.com
