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Assorted ramblings from the world of entertainment:
Etruscan Press, Lit Youngstown, The Youngstown Press Club and The Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County are launching a Community Read next spring.
The event is similar to the Trumbull County Reads events that encourage area residents to all read the same book and participate in discussions and special programming; however, there is one notable difference.
Through a donation from Etruscan Press, 500 copies of the selected book -- "American Mother" by Colum McCann and Diane Foley -- are available for free at independent book stores in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Books are available while supplies last at Leana's Books in Austintown, POP! Art, Books Culture and Spellbound Sisters Bookstore & Cafe in Boardman, The Main Chapter Bookstore in Hubbard and The Book Nook in Warren.
Free in-store pickup is limited to one book per person. Groups and book clubs are welcome to participate but individuals must pick up their own copy.
"American Mother" tells the story of Foley, who is the mother of James Wright Foley, a freelance war correspondent who was captured and beheaded by ISIS in 2014. She founded the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which advocates for freedom for innocent Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad and for journalist safety.
Programming in the spring for Community Read will include panel discussions on journalism in dangerous places, World Press Day and a live readers theater performance of excerpts from the book. Admission to all Community Read events is free.
For more information, go to.lityoungstown.org/americanmother.
Tony Butala, a founding member of the vocal group The Lettermen, died Sunday at the age of 87.
The Sharon, Pa., native loved performing and loved the road.
The last time I talked to him, in 2016, Butala said, "If I wanted to stay home and not travel, I’d become a dentist. If you’re an entertainer, you go where the people are.”
Butala was the last surviving member of the Lettermen's original lineup, and he continued to perform until 2019. The group had a half dozen top 40 hits in the 1960s and early '70s -- "The Way You Look Tonight," "When I Fall in Love," "Come Back Silly Girl," 'Theme from A Summer Place," "Going Out of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Hurt So Bad." The group had at least 30 hits on the adult contemporary chart.
The Lettermen had a Grammy nomination in 1962 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which were mentioned in the Associated Press story following his death. But the AP didn't mention one of the accomplishments he will be remembered for in this area.
Butala was the driving force behind the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in his hometown of Sharon. The hall no longer exists, but its website does -- vocalgroup.org.
Some of my favorite memories on the entertainment beat are covering the VGHOF induction ceremonies. Many of the groups honored toiled in relative anonymity. Many know the words to such songs as "The Great Pretender" or "Yakety Yak," but how many can name a member of The Platters or The Coasters, the groups that recorded them?
Many of those acts were trapped in onerous recording contracts and management deals that kept them from seeing much of the proceeds from their work. And that anonymity made it easy for imposter acts to steal gigs from them later in their careers.
Butala, through the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, recognized those singers and honored them, and the gratitude they expressed at those events was touching. And their love of performing was evident at the concerts the hall organized at the Mahoning Valley Scrappers ballpark in Niles and the Covelli Centre in Youngstown.
That may have been Butala's greatest hit.
Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.