1929. Wall Street has crashed and the Great Depression dawns. Across America the attempt to keep the nation dry is failing. Illegal booze is king. Organised crime fights for bootleg territory on the streets. The Mob is at war. Into this cauldron steps a naive young Englishman, Jacob Wattworth. He dreams of movie stardom in Hollywood, but within days of stepping ashore in New York he becomes entangled with a rag-tag crew of raffish but lovable bootleggers led by chameleonic superwoman, Eleanor Macnamara. Murder, romance and comedy follow him from New York's mean streets to the frozen wilderness of Quebec's goldfields. Along the way, he engages with malevolent mobsters and colourful characters such as blind Colonel Selwyn Good and the flamboyant movie producer, Argus D. Lasalle. Always in love, but rarely in luck. Jacob is the plaything of events beyond his control. Even though his mentors, his girl, his friends, desert him or die, his optimism always sustains him.
Boone Parker has just gotten a special delivery. The only problem is, it was sent to the wrong address. Lucky for him, the right address is next door, where a sexy nerd named Dayton Fairchild -- that’s what it says on the address label -- has just moved in. Seizing his opportunity, Boone shows up on Dayton’s doorstep to return the package. Dayton Fairchild has a secret: he’s been crushing on the sexy jock next door and, when his Gamma Man costume shows up just in time for Halloween, he slips it on his neighbor’s doorstep before ringing the bell and scampering away. The ruse works, but his shy neighbor isn’t picking up on any of Dayton’s sexy hints when he returns the package. Or is he? When Dayton steps out on Halloween in his new costume, he’s thrilled to see his neighbor dressed as Radon Ralph, Gamma Man’s trusty sidekick. When the costumes come off and the lovers indulge in their wildest fantasies, their frisky “meet cute” turns into a night of steamy confessions and daring discoveries. What will the morning bring?
The Bootleg Guide is the ultimate in reference works for the 1960s and the 1970s bootleg recordings. Within these pages lies a history of rock at its best, as performed on stage or in the studio. Each entry is catalogued by title, date, featured tracks, and contains a quality rating and comments on the nature and origin of the recording. Cross-references are provided to other titles and extensive information is available on alternate titles of bootlegs. In many cases, quirky facts about a particular title are given-something that in itself may make a title a highly desirable and sought-after 'rarity' amongst collectors. Limited editions are listed to help the reader and collector develop a clearer picture of just how obtainable a bootleg may be. Bootlegs are unofficial 'live' and studio recordings of artists and bands that are released onto vinyl, tape or CD. By definition, most are so rare that they change hands only for vastly inflated sums or are traded by networks of dedicated collectors worldwide. Serious fans and collectors have been known to spend as much as $225 for an original, scratchy vinyl recording of bands like Deep Purple and the Grateful Dead dating back to the early seventies. The rarest of all are akin to valuable paintings as far as collectors and traders are concerned.
The Antic Creedoolies IS about love. Louis Custis Lee, a very wise black man descended from Jeffersons and Custises of Virginia, raises seven white and part-white children as siblings in Christian County from 1920 to post-Vietnam. It is a desperate time calling for intelligence, humor, and a willingness to seize any advantage in every situation. Through three teenage pregnancies, a murder, a depression, and three wars he holds them together with care and tough love. They become war heroes, farmers, Peace Corps volunteers, businessmen--successful, loving adults with a sense of family. Like him.
Before Superman, before Batman, there was—the Phantom! Making its debut as an American newspaper comic strip in 1936, The Phantom was the forerunner of the comic-book superhero genre that today animates vast billion-dollar franchises spanning print, film, television, video games, and licensed merchandise. But you’ve probably never heard of it—you probably think Superman inaugurated the genre. That’s because, despite its American origins, The Phantom comic strip has enjoyed far greater popularity with international audiences, most notably in Australia, Sweden, and India, where it has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and comic books. The paradox of the character’s relative obscurity in the United States, offset by his phenomenal success in these three markedly different countries, is the subject of The Phantom Unmasked. By tracing the publication history of The Phantom in magazines and comic books across international markets since the mid-1930s, author Kevin Patrick delves into the largely unexplored prehistory of modern media licensing industries. He also explores the interconnections between the cultural, political, economic, and historical factors that fueled the character’s international popularity. The Phantom Unmasked offers readers a nuanced study of the complex cultural flow of American comic books around the world. Equally important, to provide a rare glimpse of international comics fandom, Patrick surveyed the Phantom’s “phans”—as they call themselves—and lets them explain how and why they came to love the world’s first masked superhero.
"This engaging biography exactly and vividly catches the tone of a region, a time, and a man."—Larry McMurtry From the best-selling author of Billy the Kid and Route 66, a true-life story of a notorious outlaw that magnificently re-creates the vanished, impoverished world of Dust Bowl America. Michael Wallis evokes the hard times of the era as he follows the life of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd from his coming of age, when there were no jobs and no food, to his descent into a life of petty crime, bootlegging, murder, and prison. Before long he was one of the FBI's original "public enemies." After a series of spectacular bank robberies he was slain in an Ohio field in 1934 at the age of thirty. Pretty Boy is social history at its best, portraying, with a sweeping style, the larger story of the hardscrabble farmers whose lives were so intolerably shattered by the Depression.
Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme. Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme. Isaac Hayes' theme from Shaft. These iconic melodies have remained a part of the pop culture landscape since their debuts back when movie studios and TV production companies employed full orchestral ensembles to provide a jazz backdrop for the suspenseful adventures of secret agents, private detectives, cops, spies and heist-minded criminals. Hundreds of additional films and television shows made from the mid-1950s and beyond have been propelled by similarly swinging title themes and underscores, many of which have (undeservedly) faded into obscurity. This meticulously researched book begins with Hayes' game-changing music for Shaft, and honors the careers of traditional jazz composers who--as the 1970s gave way to the '80s and beyond--resolutely battled against the pernicious influx of synth, jukebox scores and a growing corporate disinterest in lavish ensembles. Fans frustrated by the lack of attention paid to jazz soundtrack composers--including Mort Stevens, Laurie Johnson, Mike Post, Earle Hagen, David Shire, Elmer Bernstein and many, many others--will find solace in these pages (along with all the information needed to enhance one's music library). But this is only half the story; the saga's origins are discussed in this book's companion volume, Crime and Action Jazz on Screen: 1950-1970.
This work is an accurate, wide-ranging, and entertaining account of the illegal liquor traffic during the Prohibition Era (1920 to 1933). Based on FBI files, legal documents, old newspapers and other sources, it offers a coast-to-coast survey of Volstead crime--outrageous stories of America's most notorious liquor lords, including Al Capone and Dutch Schultz. Readers will find the lesser known Volstead outlaws to be as fascinating as their more famous counterparts. The riveting tales of Max Hassel, Waxy Gordon, Roy Olmstead, the Purple Gang, the Havre Bunch, and the Capitol Hill Bootlegger will be new to most readers. Likewise, the exploits of women bootleggers and flying bootleggers are unknown to most Americans. Books about Prohibition usually note that Canadian liquor exporters abetted the U.S. bootleggers, but they fail to go into detail. Bootleggers and Beer Barons examines the major cross-border routes for smuggling liquor from Canada into the U.S.: Quebec to Vermont and New York, Ontario to Michigan, Saskatchewan to Montana, and British Columbia to Washington.
Whether you want to hike through jaw-dropping landscapes of Yosemite, see rare wildlife and natural wonders in Yellowstone, or go river-rafting in the Grand Canyon, the local Fodor’s travel experts in the National Parks of the West are here to help! Fodor’s National Parks of the West is packed with maps, carefully curated recommendations, and everything else you need to simplify your trip-planning process and make the most of your time. This new edition has been fully-redesigned with an easy-to-read layout, fresh information, and beautiful color photos. Fodor’s National Parks of the West travel guide includes: AN ILLUSTRATED ULTIMATE EXPERIENCES GUIDE to the top things to see and do MULTIPLE ITINERARIES to effectively organize your days and maximize your time MORE THAN 70 DETAILED MAPS to help you navigate confidently COLOR PHOTOS throughout to spark your wanderlust! HONEST RECOMMENDATIONS FROM LOCALS on the best sights, restaurants, hotels, activities, side-trips, and more PHOTO-FILLED “BEST OF” FEATURES on “Ultimate Experiences,” “Best Campgrounds,” “Best Lodges,” and more TRIP-PLANNING TOOLS AND PRACTICAL TIPS including when to go, getting around, beating the crowds, and saving time and money HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTS providing rich context on the local people, art, architecture, geography and more SPECIAL FEATURES on “Exploring the Colorado River,” “What to Watch and Read Before You Visit,” and “Yellowstone’s Geothermal Wonders” LOCAL WRITERS to help you find the under-the-radar gems UP-TO-DATE COVERAGE ON: Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Badlands, Sequoia, Rocky Mountains, Glacier, Zion, Yosemite, Grand Tetons, Olympic, and more national parks Planning on visiting Arizona, Colorado, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Sequoia/Kings Canyon, or even the Great Smoky Mountains? Check out Fodor’s Arizona and the Grand Canyon, Fodor's Colorado, Compass Yellowstone National Park, Compass Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks. *Important note for digital editions: The digital edition of this guide does not contain all the images or text included in the physical edition. ABOUT FODOR'S AUTHORS: Each Fodor's Travel Guide is researched and written by local experts. Fodor’s has been offering expert advice for all tastes and budgets for over 80 years. For more travel inspiration, you can sign up for our travel newsletter at fodors.com/newsletter/signup, or follow us @FodorsTravel on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We invite you to join our friendly community of travel experts at fodors.com/community to ask any other questions and share your experience with us!
