What are industrial musicals?

Once upon a time, when American industry ruled the earth, business and Broadway had a baby. This mutant offspring, glimpsed only at conventions and sales meetings, was the industrial musical. Think Broadway show, except the audience is managers and salesmen, and the songs are about how great it is to be working at the company.

Through the rare souvenir record albums presented in EVERYTHING’S COMING UP PROFITS, an alternate show-biz universe emerges: a universe in which musical theater can be about selling silicone products, or typewriters, or insurance, or bathtubs. Some of these improbable shows were hilariously lame. Some were pretty good. And some were flat-out fantastic.

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP PROFITS tells the story of industrial musicals for the first time, complete with eye-popping album covers, rhymes for words like invoice and compressor, and war stories from the people who were there. It’s a surprising slice of Americana that will make you laugh, make you shake your head in wonderment, and make you want to get out there and sell something.

Hardcover • 9½ x 9½ inches • 252 pages • 425 color illustrations

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