Winters' Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual [Paperback]

Jonathan Winters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

The most original and influential comic mind of our generation gives us a rollicking tour of his expansive imagination. Alongside the hilarity are intimate, revealing, and poignant recollections of childhood`s pains and lost love, as well as remarkable illustrations from Winters` accomplished, surreal pen. From the Jonathan Winters'

Introduction: Throughout my life, I've been gratified that I've been able to keep the child in me alive and inspire others to do the same. If these stories do that for you, I'll be happy. (Or maybe I should say happier.) Not all of these tales, of course, are funny, but I hope they all let you use your imagination in whatever way that sets you free. It's what they've done for me, and if I'm lucky, they will do the same for you, too.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An absolutely flat-out-wonderful collection of strange, funny, sad, bizarre stories from that unusual mind. -- USA Today

One of the few people able to make me laugh from my soul. -- Robin Williams

Satirical, refreshingly cruel and provocative. -- Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

Jonathan Winters was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1925. After serving with the marines in the South Pacific for two and a half years, he studied at Kenyon College and the Dayton Art Institute. Soon thereafter he won a local talent contest, which led to a job as a radio disc jockey. By the mid-fifties, he had moved from the airwaves to the stage, becoming a staple at nightclubs throughout America. Regular television appearances followed, notably on the Garry Moore and Steve Allen shows, and especially on Jack Paar's programs for NBC. His own TV series, The Jonathan Winters Show, first aired in 1956. As an actor, Winters has starred in such acclaimed films as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, Oh Dad, Poor Dad and Tony Richardson's classic The Loved One, as well as the popular television series Mork and Mindy. Today, he continues to make frequent television and motion picture appearances, performs solo concerts, shows his paintings and drawings in galleries throughout the country and is writing his autobiography. He has two grown children and lives with his wife, Eileen, in Los Angeles

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Silver Spring Books (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916562670
• ISBN-13: 978-0916562670
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,055,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tales to last a lifetime, February 16, 2002

By 

Chris Gross (Oradell, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winters' Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual (Paperback)

What a wonderful book. You would expect a book by a comedian to be full of laughs (and this one is definitely full of laughs), but there is a serious note to many of the stories; it's the kind of book that puts you into a state where you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Jonathan Winters writes like O. Henry; you never know how his stories will turn out, but you know there will be a twist in the end. These stories beg to be read aloud; I hope that someday a spoken-word version will be released.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Less Odd than You Might Think., June 9, 2004

By 

James Hercules Sutton (Des Moines, IA (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winters' Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual (Paperback)

These aren't short stories--more like scenarios, or poems in the form of scenarios. Jonathan Winters impersonates children, a baby robin, a migrating duck, a tiger, a lunatic from an asylum on a picnic, a bear cub that becomes a teddy bear, a child going to an asylum, the President of the United States hosting a boring reception, a man attacked by a bear, soldiers, an alcoholic Navaho artist looking to his Medicine Man for a cure, a test pilot, orphans, Santa Claus & a turkey, among others. He has it in for Admiral Byrd--maybe the name, because birds appear often. Each "take" has a twist at the end, more for surprise than irony. His tone is more screwball than bizarre, as if he were trying to bean the reader with a wild pitch. His method is to strew stimulation everywhere, but he also deals with serious subjects--love, war, loss. His mood is plaintive rather than deep, like a kitten crying. He searches for value & finds none except laughter, as if he were Kafka scripting an episode of "The Twilight Zone." If the book gets thin in places, it's because the written word is less effective for a performing artist than the spoken word. Listen to the casette first.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing stories that I found difficult to read, June 22, 2008

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Winters' Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual (Paperback)

Jonathan Winters is a man known for his humor, not his writing of serious stories. From the content of this book, it will do little to improve his standing in the latter. These stories are deeply disturbing, they reminded me of some of the writings of Ray Bradbury, yet they lack his intensity that somehow softens them.
The most disturbing is "A Well-Kept Secret", about a boy raised by his grandfather and who grows up to be a cross-dressing gay man who performs in a Las Vegas show. He invites his grandfather to Vegas and pretends to be Lilly Long, a female friend of the grandson. When his grandfather arrives, he goes through the actions of "seducing" his grandfather, even kissing him passionately. When his robe catches on a piece of furniture and his manhood is revealed, the grandfather dies of a heart attack.
Most of the other stories were in a similar macabre vein, while I sometimes read such stories and enjoy them for their message, it was hard to complete this book. The story "The Last Day the Circus Came to Town" is a flashback to the old days of the traveling circus and the parade they held from the train station to where they were to hold their performances. In this case, the circus train is hit head-on by a fast-moving freight train and most of the performers and animals are killed or taken down. This book is for the very hard-hearted and there is no humor here.