In her day, Eva Tanguay (1878–1947) was one of the most famous women in America. Widely known as the "I Don’t Care Girl"—named after a song she popularized and her independent, brazen persona—Tanguay established herself as a vaudeville and musical comedy star in 1901 with the New York City premiere of the show My Lady—and never looked back. (Vaudeville's Julian Eltinge had made a name for himself in an earlier, all-male, drag version of the show.)

In Queen of Vaudeville, Andrew L. Erdman tells Eva Tanguay’s remarkable life story with verve. Born into the family of a country doctor in rural Quebec, Tanguay was a child actor who eventually found a home on the vaudeville stage.

Erdman follows the course of her life as she amasses fame and wealth, marries (and divorces) twice, engages in affairs closely followed in the press, maddens the censors, becomes one of the first celebrities to get plastic surgery, and ends up virtually penniless in an unglamorous Hollywood apartment surrounded by yellowing newspaper clippings of her glory days. Queen of Vaudeville is a dynamic portrait of a dazzling and unjustly forgotten show business star.

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Praise for Queen of Vaudeville

Featuring a likely illegitimate daughter, a gender-bending show-biz marriage, a dog's heart in a jar, violent relationships, and the phasing out of a successful performer's career as vaudeville receded along with her health, this biography is tremendous.
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Christine Femia, Bust Magazine
[A] poignant portrait of an exuberant, talented, deeply lonely woman, whose invisible legacy lives on through American pop culture today....A biography that is as frank as it is compassionate. 5 stars!!!!!!
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Tank, Goodreads
This was really interesting. Eva had a fascinating life and influenced so much....If you’re interested in show biz, early twentieth-century history, women, etc., you’ll enjoy this book.
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Bronwyn, Goodreads
[Mr. Erdman’s social work] training allows him to convincingly place Tanguay’s stardom in historical perspective while still summoning the physicality that made her so popular.

Sam Roberts, New York Times
In his loving new biography of this long-forgotten celebrity, Andrew Erdman brings Tanguay back to life warmly....You can almost feel the same electricity audiences of the early 20th century felt at just the mention of her name.
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David Williams, Louisville Courier-Journal
Mr. Erdman shows that Eva and the Golden Age of Vaudeville her shows epitomized deserve to be retrieved from obscurity....Highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of American show business.
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Vic Lauterbach, Goodreads

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