The day before the daredevil stunt pilot, Black Jack Hosmer, crashed fatally in front of an air show crowd, he launched his 12-year-old son, Lori, into his own risky aerobatics, declaring him "The world's youngest pilot!" Joining the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1939, he became a military test pilot then led an 8th Air Force Bomb Group toward smashing Hitler's ambitions to conquer all of Europe. His ingenious, unorthodox attacks against the Germans forced the American authorities to either jail him or give him another medal. Lori Hosmer crossed paths and swords with military leaders but recruited President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to sanction his wild-eyed tactics. After volunteering to obtain Nazi secrets to protect Eisenhower's D-Day invasion, Lori's spectacular victory celebration led the British allies to doubt the sanity of American flyers.
Eddie Fung has the distinction of being the only Chinese American soldier to be captured by the Japanese during World War II. He was then put to work on the Burma-Siam railroad, made famous by the film The Bridge on the River Kwai. In this moving and unforgettable memoir, Eddie recalls how he, a second-generation Chinese American born and raised in San Francisco's Chinatown, reinvented himself as a Texas cowboy before going overseas with the U.S. Army. On the way to the Philippines, his battalion was captured by the Japanese in Java and sent to Burma to undertake the impossible task of building a railroad through 262 miles of tropical jungle. Working under brutal slave labor conditions, the men completed the railroad in fourteen months, at the cost of 12,500 POW and 70,000 Asian lives. Eddie lived to tell how his background helped him endure forty-two months of humiliation and cruelty and how his experiences as the sole Chinese American member of the most decorated Texan unit of any war shaped his later life.
“A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whew—what an utterly compelling and deeplysatisfying read!" —Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoffunleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War IIrescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S.military personnel into a land that time forgot. Fans of Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers, Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor, and David Grann’s The Lost Cityof Z will be captivated by Zuckoff’s masterfullyrecounted, all-true story of danger, daring, determination, and discovery injungle-clad New Guinea during the final days of WWII.
From the 1920s to the 1950s, radio was the entertainment source for millions. Two of the primary themes of radio serials were mysteries and adventure. This is a detailed analysis of the important programs in these genres--Jack Armstrong, The Green Hornet, Sergeant Preston, Tom Mix, and more. Each entry includes type of series, broadcast days, air dates, sponsors, network, cast and production credits, and a comprehensive essay. When, as often happened, the series landed in other media, that is examined as well.
Published for devotees of the cowboy and the West, American Cowboy covers all aspects of the Western lifestyle, delivering the best in entertainment, personalities, travel, rodeo action, human interest, art, poetry, fashion, food, horsemanship, history, and every other facet of Western culture. With stunning photography and you-are-there reportage, American Cowboy immerses readers in the cowboy life and the magic that is the great American West.
Over the course of 80 years television has produced countless programs, many of which fit a particular profile. Did you know, for example, some programs are devoted to ghosts, genies, angels and even mermaids? Color broadcasting was first tested in 1941? Live models were used to advertise lingerie as early as 1950? Or that nudity (although accidental) occurred on TV long before cable was even thought possible? These are just a few of the many facts and firsts that can be found within the 145 entries included. Appropriate for fans and scholars, and bursting with obscure facts, this work traces the evolution of specific topics from 1925 through the 2005-2006 season. Entries include such diverse themes as adolescence, adult film actresses on TV, bars, espionage, gays, immigrants, lawyers, transsexuals and truckers, as well as locations like Canada, Hawaii, New York and Los Angeles. Each entry is arranged as a timeline, clearly displaying how television's treatment of the subject has changed through the years. Each entry is as complete as possible and contains series, pilot, special and experimental program information. Whether just a fan of television and eager to know more about the medium or a scholar seeking hard-to-find facts and information, this book traces the history of specific topics from television's infancy to its changes in the early twenty-first century.
Drama. Tragedy. Irony. Unsolved mysteries. And throw in a little greed. Beneath Haunted Waters is not a ghost story; it’s not that kind of “haunted” at all. These are waters haunted by generations of people who cannot forget the story of how two B-24 Liberator bombers disappeared in 1943 and what happened to the boys on board. During the World War II years, the convention was to call young men in their late teens to their late 20s, “boys.” The boys who piloted bombers and fighter aircraft during World War II were 19 or 20 years old - barely out of their childhood. Imagine boarding a 737 today and seeing a teenager at the controls instead of a person with greying temples. That was the situation during the war. Beneath Haunted Waters is a story about that era, when children flew large airplanes equipped with enough firepower to destroy cities. And yet, boys they were, and boys they will always be. But it’s primarily a story of how they died, not in combat, but by accident. During World War II the USA lost 7100 combat aircraft and 5300 trainers, along with 15,530 pilots, crew members, and ground personnel in over 52,000 domestic accidents. These statistics don’t compare to the huge numbers of RAF, 8th Air Force, and Luftwaffe losses during the European air war but the numbers are still frightening: Between 1942-1945, US aviation losses to accidents (12,400) exceeded combat losses (4500) to the Japanese. For every plane shot down in the South Pacific there were three lost to accidents within the United States. While memoirs of those who served, histories of military and political leaders, and books about combat abound, very little has been written about the terrible toll of aviation training accidents during the war. Beneath Haunted Waters is unique because it tells this hardly known and little appreciated story. Most information on this subject is covered in official reports. It appears in a casual way in many memoirs. There are a few histories of the air war during World War II that mention aviation accidents during training or once the boys were in theater. There has been no popular, academic, or comprehensive book on the subject. I propose to cover this subject within the more personal story of what happened to the two Liberators that wound up in Huntington Lake and Hester Lake. Usually, pilots and crews of World War II aircraft were neither old enough to vote nor to drink. Many had never driven a car or taken a train ride much less been in an airplane. Nine months after enlistment they were flying the most technologically advanced, high performance, machines ever built. The same could be said for their navigation equipment and radio gear. But aviation had been around for only 40 years! Aircraft design was still in its infancy. Engines failed, pilots flew into mountains, navigators got lost, radios broke, and weather forecasts were frequently and fatally wrong.
LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.
A Complete Film Guide to motion pictures and television shows that pertain to WWII. Facts and stories about Hollywood personal that served in the Armed Forces, War Bond drives, USO shows, Hollywood Canteen and those who were ruled 4 F during the war. Complete history of world cinema during the years of the war. As well as other interesting facts are also included in the first volume. Featurine shorts, cartoons, documentaries, and feature films. Don't forget to get the second volume L-Z.
An investigation into how constructions of character in children's literature become cultural imprints that serve a functional purpose in the wider context of race and power.
