NINA SUBIN

He never went to college, but Lyle Talbot was smart enough to know good advice when he saw it. Talbot was a hard-working actor whose career spanned the whole of 20th- century popular entertainment from vaudeville to magic shows, Hollywood studios, Broadway plays, B-movies directed by Ed Wood, and on to the new world of TV and “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.’’ As told by his youngest daughter, Margaret Talbot, a staff writer for The New Yorker, in her new book, “The Entertainer,’’ Lyle had a “Zelig-like” knack for making himself useful — and employable — in each new iteration of American show business.