How quickly the memories fade of local and favorite hangouts that once helped define Long Beach. In this collection, Tim Grobaty remembers growing up in the fast-growing new neighborhoods of East Long Beach, the beloved places downtown that were part of the city's mid-twentieth-century fabric and a few obscure spots in the margins. Long Beach's memory lane includes the dearly departed restaurants the Golden Lantern in Los Altos and Rusty's in the Wrigley District, the Circle and Los Altos Drive-Ins, great concerts of the 1970s in the arena and auditorium and the shoppers' paradises of Uncle Al's Toy Korral in the Plaza and Buffum's downtown. Join "Press-Telegram" columnist Tim Grobaty as he records Long Beach residents' recollections and taps his own boomer-years memories.
Reginald Knox was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1961. He moved to Long Beach, California, in 1964. Reggie lived in a two-bedroom house on Linsley Court, located between Pacific Coast Highway and Martin Luther King Boulevard. During Reggie's childhood, he would experience gangs, murders, prostitution, and drug dealers, on a daily basis. Reggie's family would later move from the tough streets on the Eastside of Long Beach, to a nice home on the Westside. Reggie would later experience another setback in his life, when his Mom and Dad would go through a divorce. Looking for love, Reggie would later join a gang called the "Westbound Crips." Only to see his best friend murdered, by a rival gang member. Through all the trials and tribulations he experienced as a child, Reggie would succeed to live the American Dream. This is Reggie's true story from the bottom streets of Long Beach, California, to the top of the world.
To support his family, Billy Crystal's father, Jack, worked two jobs, having only one day a week to spend with his family. Based on Crystal's one-man Broadway show of the same name, "700 Sundays"--referring sadly to the time shared by an adoring father and his devoted son--offers a heartfelt, hilarious memoir.
Incorporated in 1888, Long Beach was the nation's fastest-growing city for much of the early twentieth century. Tim Grobaty, columnist for two decades for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, looks back at the major events and compelling personalities that shaped the city's formative years. Early settlers such as William Willmore, Charles Rivers Drake and the Bixby family are brought into sharp focus as Grobaty recounts the city's defining moments. From the naming of city streets to early local newspaper wars, and culminating with the devastating earthquake of 1933, Long Beach Chronicles presents a fascinating collection of tales from the city's provocative past.
This book contains my stories about growing up in the 1950s, '60s and '70s in Long Beach, California. It begins with an idyllic childhood playing cowboys and Indians, trading baseball cards and staying outside until the streetlights came on. We had the "Milkman," the "Donut Man" and the "Ice Cream Man."Having a large park across the street and many kids my age in the neighborhood, it was perfect for playing sports: football, basketball and my favorite, baseball.As I become a teenager my life takes a turn. I discover cars, girls and the secret of having an alcoholic parent.The stories in this book follow the culture of our time. We had our first jobs, spent time with our friends at the Towne and Crest theaters, worked on our cars, went to dances, listened to great music and spent hours on the baseball diamond.Each chapter is an individual story from the memory and events of my youth that will hopefully reconnect you to your own childhood.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • An inspiring and intimate self-portrait of the champion of equality that encompasses her brilliant tennis career, unwavering activism, and an ongoing commitment to fairness and social justice. “A story about the personal strength, immense growth, and undeniable greatness of one woman who fearlessly stood up to a culture trying to break her down.”—Serena Williams In this spirited account, Billie Jean King details her life's journey to find her true self. She recounts her groundbreaking tennis career—six years as the top-ranked woman in the world, twenty Wimbledon championships, thirty-nine grand-slam titles, and her watershed defeat of Bobby Riggs in the famous "Battle of the Sexes." She poignantly recalls the cultural backdrop of those years and the profound impact on her worldview from the women's movement, the assassinations and anti-war protests of the 1960s, the civil rights movement, and, eventually, the LGBTQ+ rights movement. She describes the myriad challenges she's hurdled—entrenched sexism, an eating disorder, near financial peril after being outed—on her path to publicly and unequivocally acknowledging her sexual identity at the age of fifty-one. She talks about how her life today remains one of indefatigable service. She offers insights and advice on leadership, business, activism, sports, politics, marriage equality, parenting, sexuality, and love. And she shows how living honestly and openly has had a transformative effect on her relationships and happiness. Hers is the story of a pathbreaking feminist, a world-class athlete, and an indomitable spirit whose impact has transcended even her spectacular achievements in sports.
Claudine Burnett, author of popular Murderous Intent and Strange Sea Tales Along the Southern California Coast, has at last revised and updated the long out of print Haunted Long Beach. New stories and updates have come her way since the original Haunted Long Beach was published in 1996. Now readers can rediscover the "ghostly" side of one of America's finest cities----haunted houses, phantom airplanes, cemetery apparitions, and ghosts of the Queen Mary come alive in these true stories of eerie happenings in Long Beach, California. Gathered from historical files and personal experiences, Ms. Burnett has researched these stories extensively to try to find historical evidence as to their cause. All in all, these ghostly tales are sure to entertain both visitors and residents alike.
A history of the Port of Long Beach, Calif., from the days of Native Americans in San Pedro Bay to the present, Port Town tells the story of the men and women who took a mud flat and turned it into an economic powerhouse, one of the world's most modern ports.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The twentieth anniversary edition of the classic story of an incredible group of students and the teacher who inspired them, featuring updates on the students’ lives, new journal entries, and an introduction by Erin Gruwell Now a public television documentary, Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart In 1994, an idealistic first-year teacher in Long Beach, California, named Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. She had intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust. She was met by uncomprehending looks—none of her students had heard of one of the defining moments of the twentieth century. So she rebooted her entire curriculum, using treasured books such as Anne Frank’s diary as her guide to combat intolerance and misunderstanding. Her students began recording their thoughts and feelings in their own diaries, eventually dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers.” Consisting of powerful entries from the students’ diaries and narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an unforgettable story of how hard work, courage, and determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. In the two decades since its original publication, the book has sold more than one million copies and inspired a major motion picture Freedom Writers. And now, with this twentieth-anniversary edition, readers are brought up to date on the lives of the Freedom Writers, as they blend indispensable takes on social issues with uplifting stories of attending college—and watch their own children follow in their footsteps. The Freedom Writers Diary remains a vital read for anyone who believes in second chances.
