Bryan Batt grew up amid the rides and attractions of Pontchartrain Beach amusement park run by his grandfather Harry Batt Sr. While clearing out his mother's estate Batt uncovered a treasure trove of unpublished photographs and memorabilia from the iconic beachfront attraction. With these ephemera as a focal point, Batt began collecting reminiscences from celebrities, former employees, and frequent park-goers. Batt and Danos have created a snapshot of time and place filled with candid moments with musical stars, tales of beauty pageants, and photographic traces of the exciting rides and attractions that drew families from throughout the region. It will be a treasured keepsake for those who visited the regional attraction over the years.
The coasts of today's American South feature luxury condominiums, resorts, and gated communities, yet just a century ago, a surprising amount of beachfront property in the Chesapeake, along the Carolina shores, and around the Gulf of Mexico was owned and populated by African Americans. Blending social and environmental history, Andrew W. Kahrl tells the story of African American–owned beaches in the twentieth century. By reconstructing African American life along the coast, Kahrl demonstrates just how important these properties were for African American communities and leisure, as well as for economic empowerment, especially during the era of the Jim Crow South. However, in the wake of the civil rights movement and amid the growing prosperity of the Sunbelt, many African Americans fell victim to effective campaigns to dispossess black landowners of their properties and beaches. Kahrl makes a signal contribution to our understanding of African American landowners and real-estate developers, as well as the development of coastal capitalism along the southern seaboard, tying the creation of overdeveloped, unsustainable coastlines to the unmaking of black communities and cultures along the shore. The result is a skillful appraisal of the ambiguous legacy of racial progress in the Sunbelt.
Pleasure seekers have visited Lake Pontchartrain destinations for more than two centuries. From grand resorts like the Pontchartrain Hotel to simple camps at Little Woods, these shores welcomed visitors by steamboat and train to dance, dine, drink and gamble. Milneburg was home to a noted hotel and bathhouses, while Mandeville was a popular spot to escape the heat. Entertainment included the contortionist "Happy Frog" Holman, the Great Wallendas and Armand Piron's Jazz Orchestra. Join author Catherine Campanella for a fascinating look back at the camps, restaurants and amusement parks lost to nature, neglect and changing times.
You may think you know the South for its food, its people, its past, and its stories, but if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that the region tells far more than one tale. It is ever-evolving, open to interpretation, steeped in history and tradition, yet defined differently based on who you ask. This Is My South inspires the reader to explore the Southern States––Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia––like never before. No other guide pulls together these states into one book in quite this way with a fresh perspective on can’t-miss landmarks, off the beaten path gems, tours for every interest, unique places to sleep, and classic restaurants. So come see for yourself and create your own experiences along the way!
City Park's 1,300 acres cradle the largest collection of mature live oaks in the nation. Established in 1854, it is one of the country's largest urban parks (457 acres larger than New York's City's Central Park and two years older) and contains the highest earthen elevation in New Orleans. City Park has welcomed as many as 11 million visitors per year who walk among 50 species of trees, including bald cypress, southern magnolia, and pine, and the thousands of ancient southern live oaks. At one mile wide and three miles long, the park's 11 miles of lagoons (the largest in the shape of Lake Pontchartrain) are stocked with a variety of fish. Neoclassical, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Arts and Crafts, Mission, and modern architecture complete City Park. It is a precious and beloved jewel.
An enchanting space that’s truly unique calls for a sense of humor, whimsy, and an open mind. From a charmed New Orleans childhood to a successful acting career on Broadway and the award-winning TV show Mad Men to the opening of his popular Big Easy home furnishings boutique, Hazelnut, Bryan Batt has always turned to home design as a creative outlet. To him, the best rooms are unexpected yet refined and, above all, evoke emotion. He doesn’t think twice about hanging oversized decorations from a Mardi Gras float in an elegant dining room or bringing home vintage etchings of sconces when he was actually shopping for real ones. He believes that a vibrant orange wall can be a neutral backdrop for an antique writing desk and earthy accessories, and that an artist’s whimsical bird’s nest sculpture hung in a lavender entryway couldn’t serve as a better welcome into a cozy abode. New Orleans has taught Bryan so much about how to pull together a space that’s fearless and colorful with plenty of panache. With the city as his muse—its strong roots in history, its celebration of tradition, and, of course, the wild festivities of Mardi Gras—he believes that designing a fabulous, livable home that truly reflects a dweller’s passions need not be intimidating. Big, Easy Style showcases rooms that make Bryan smile, with pages of rich photography featuring the work of many designers—and plenty of Crescent City interiors—framed by his own entertaining maxims on color, pattern, collecting, living areas, intimate spaces, and more. Explore rooms he’s personally designed and others that inspire him; from an old-world kitchen imported straight from the heart of France to a luxurious Art Deco media room, these homes are enticing and unique, and through their surprising details, completely inviting. Decorating your home to reflect your personality and taste takes practice and patience and can be a daunting undertaking, but Bryan proposes that we not worry about making mistakes, that any decision we make is better than no decision at all. With Big, Easy Style, learn how to put aside your hesitation and surrender to the wild side of home design for a big statement that’s easy to achieve. "You’ll love his collection of photographs of beautiful New Orleans rooms layered with his design tips and anecdotes of his own design experiences."—Southern Living "[Big, Easy Style] reads like a hard-copy extension of Batt's personality--elegant, gregarious, funny, showman-like. The rooms he's chosen to showcase are painstakingly designed, yet, in that enviable way, appear so easily tossed together."— Susan Langenhennig, The Times Picayune "With great passion and a zest for creativity, [Bryan Batt] and Katy Danos offer thoughtful tips on color, collecting, patterns and much more along the way. Kerri McCaffety captures the beauty of each room in her inviting photographs. I love Batt's unique whimsy style. How many of us would think of placing giant decorations from a Mardi Gras float in a lavish dining room? Or how about hanging an ornate crystal chandelier in the kitchen? Or what about painting a Chippendale-style chair mellow yellow. But they all work!"—Jeryl Brunner, Stylist.com "If you've missed Bryan Batt since he left the set of Mad Men in 2009 (he played Salvatore Romano), catch up with him in a decor ode to his hometown: New Orleans. [In Big, Easy Style], we're treated to his vision of making rooms inviting, festive and ultimately setting the foundation for entertaining, which is what this get-down town is all about."—San Francisco Chronicle "The book is full of Batt's tips. It's like spending an afternoon with someone who you'd like to watch decorate a home."-- Karen Dalton-Beninato, Huffington Post Books
The 683 Oddest, Most Inspiring, Totally Scandalous and Just Plain Weird Things You Never Knew about New Orleans With its colorful past, outsized personalities and tragic history of natural disasters, New Orleans is a city like no other. Now, Monica M. Dalide gives us 683 reasons the birthplace of Jazz has been called "the most unique city in America." Presented in a series of bite-sized trivia nuggets, 683 Things About New Orleans amuses, surprises and shocks with the juiciest bits culled from the city's history books and diverse cultural milieu. Readers can: - Take a beginner's class in the New Orleans lexicon, where "make a do do" means "get some shuteye" and a "yat" is the essential sign of a native - Get the skinny on the city's rich musical heritage-the birthplace of Mahalia Jackson, Fats Domino and Louis Armstrong, to name a few - Learn how New Orleans' infamous legal prostitution district came to an end (and meet the unfortunate city official it was named for) - Hear the story behind Crescent City-invented drinks like the hurricane, Sazerac cocktail and powerful "hand grenade" - Meet dozens of famous New Orleanians-from to Lee Harvey Oswald to Reese Witherspoon - Much, much more! Divided into 22 sections covering everything from sports to slave revolts (and, of course, Mardi Gras), 683 Things About New Orleans is the ultimate insider's bible-a field guide to the city's special quirks, only-in-New Orleans traditions and betcha-didn't-know past-that's sure to appeal to the native, the traveler and the former resident alike. But most of all, it's a reminder of just what makes this city so great.
New Orleans in the Thirties offers a nostalgic view of life in New Orleans half a century ago through photographs and reminiscences. It was a time when Robert Maestri was mayor, the St. Charles streetcar made a complete loop, and the Pelicans won the Dixie Series in baseball. Moreover, it was a time when doctors made house calls and women donned gloves to go shopping. Fascinating period photographs accompany intimate and loving descriptions of the Crescent City of the thirties, capturing the mood and magic of that decade. This volume brings to life the New Orleans of the past and allows the reader to discover-or rediscover-the character of that time and place. The author's recollections will appeal to non-New Orleanians, that is, to anyone who grew up in America during the depression era. She recalls, for example, the leisurely pace of pre-television society in which radio held a powerfully unique role, as well as the headline fashions of the day and the cultural mores that now may seem quaint to many. Mary Lou Widmer, a native New Orleanian, is president of the South Louisiana Chapter of Romance Writers of America. She has written several articles for New Orleans publications, and is the author of Night Jasmine, Beautiful Crescent, and Lace Curtain . Widmer is also the author of New Orleans in the Twenties, New Orleans in the Forties, and New Orleans in the Fifties, all published by Pelican.
