What follows is an excerpt from Holly Mascot Nadler’s latest book, Vineyard Supernatural, True Ghost Stories from America’s Most Haunted Island.

“Putting together a dinner party is easier than people think,” explains Jessica Harris, foodie, author and professor, whose multiple cookbooks, including The Martha’s Vineyard Table (Chronicle Books 2007), put an invitation to dine with her on a par with dinner chez Julia (as in Childs).

There are landmarks in an artist’s career. First there’s the initial sale of a piece of work. Then comes inclusion in a group show and, with any luck (and, of course, talent), the solo show. But the crowning glory arrives — often, alas, posthumously — when the artist’s work is presented in the hallowed halls of a museum.

A couple of years before Tiny Tim tiptoed through the tulips of America’s oddball garden of novelty singers, Mrs. Elva Miller (1907–1997) of southern California sharpened our appetite for the camp pleasure of the over-warbled, excruciating and off-pitch note. Now in the world-premiere of Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing at the Vineyard Playhouse, Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway director and writer James Lapine brings us the story of the rise and fall of this songstress and, well, the truth must be told: laughingstock.