The summer of 1938 was a pivotal year for baseball and American history. In that same year, John Jordon "Buck" O'Neil, was a rookie first baseman playing his first season in the Negro American League. Born in Carrabelle, Florida, raised in Sarasota and nicknamed Buck, it had taken five years and five different teams before the Kansas City, Monarchs finally signed O'Neil to a contract. Before he could get the starting assignment, though, O'Neil had to dethrone one of the Negro Leagues' hardest hitting first basemen, Eldridge Mayweather. In 1938, a time when African-American hall of fame ballplayers worth millions could be purchased for pennies on the dollar, times were hard and the baseball was tough. Kansas City's Monarchs were a blend of youth and maturity, and one of the best teams in the Negro American League. Oddly, Kansas City, in spite of winning records against every team in the Negro American League, failed to win the first-half or second-half pennant. For the first time ever John "Buck" O'Neil, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and James "Gabby" Kemp and many others are united together to speak on this celebrated season. With interviews from Monarchs' players Willard "Sonny" Brown, Newt Allen and Byron "Mex" Johnson and many others readers are taken on a road trip around America. Along the way readers, just as the team did in 1938, come in contact with segregation and racism as the book helps everyone to relive the glory days of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Illustrated with over forty historic photographs, John "Buck" O'Neil, the rookie, the man, the lagacy 1938 is a welcome addition to every baseball fans reading list.

When author Steve Burton heard the plan for transforming a relatively untouched bird sanctuary in the Middle Eastern emirate of Abu Dhabi into a complex, global entertainment and premier yachting destination within thirty months, he thought the idea was impossible. The Rulers believed otherwise. It will be done. Burton was tasked with performing at the highest level and not sweating the small stuff like money. No was removed from his vocabulary. Those were the rules. Deadlines were another one. It was no small endeavor. Recognized as one of today s premier marina development specialists, Burton was hired by Abu Dhabi s flagship real estate development company in 2007. In Staying Afloat he narrates an account of cross-cultural encounters, stratospheric expectations, unimaginable obstacles, and hilarious day-to-day experiences faced as an American expatriate living for three years in one of the wealthiest and most culturally diverse countries on the planet in the midst of the world s most politically volatile regions. Staying Afloat conveys a unique blend of cultural insight, candor, and wit while communicating that an open mind, a keen sense of humor, and a supreme level of patience and determination are indispensable for living and working in a foreign country.

Enrique Granados (1867-1916) is one of the most compelling figures of the late-Romantic period in music. During his return voyage to Spain after the premiere of his opera Goyescas at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1916, a German submarine torpedoed the ship on which he and his wife were sailing, and they perished in the waters of the English Channel. His death was mourned on both sides of the Atlantic as a stunning loss to the music world, for he had died at the pinnacle of his career, and his late works held the promise of greater things to come.
Granados was among the leading pianists of his time, and his eloquence at the keyboard inspired critics to dub him the "poet of the piano." In Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano, Walter Aaron Clark offers the first substantive study in English of this virtuoso pianist, composer, and music pedagogue. While providing detailed analyses of his major works for voice, piano, and the stage, Clark argues that Granados's art represented a unifying presence on the cultural landscape of Spain during a period of imperial decline, political unrest, and economic transformation. Drawing on newly discovered documents, Clark explores the cultural spheres in which Granados moved, particularly of Castile and Catalonia. Granados's best-known music was inspired by the art of Francisco Goya, especially the Goyescas suite for solo piano that became the basis for the opera. These pieces evoked the colorful and dramatic world that Goya inhabited and depicted in his art. Granados's fascination with Goya's Madrid set him apart from fellow nationalists Albeniz and Falla, who drew their principal inspiration from Andalusia. Though he was resolutely apolitical, Granados's attraction to Castile antagonized some Catalan nationalists, who resented Castilian domination. Yet Granados also made important contributions to Catalan musical theater and was a prominent figure in the modernist movement in Barcelona.
Clark also explores the personal pressures that shaped Granados's music. His passionate affair with a wealthy socialite created domestic tensions, but it was also a source of inspiration for Goyescas. Persistent financial difficulties forced him to devote time to teaching at the expense of composition, though as a result Granados made considerable contributions to piano pedagogy and music education in Barcelona through the music academy he founded there.
While Granados's tragic and early demise casts a pall over his life story, Clark ultimately reveals an artist of remarkable versatility and individuality and sheds new light on his enduring significance.

The Gold Rush West was dotted with mining boomtowns and bustling new cities that sprang up overnight around strikes. Fortunes were made and lost daily, lawlessness was commonplace, and gambling dens, saloons, brothels, and dance halls thrived, but after a while the miners and merchants began to long for more polished amusements. Soon, theatres popped up in tents and then auditoriums and playhouses were built where operas, arias, and Shakespeare were performed by brave actors, dancers, singers, and daredevils who were lured by the call of the West. Many of the most popular women entertainers of the mid-and late-1800s performed in the boomtowns that dotted the West, drawn by the same desire for riches that took miners and merchants there, and bringing a variety of talents and programs. Though they were sometimes literally showered with gold, their personal lives were often marked by tragedy and unhappiness. These stories reveal the entertaining side, but also some of the hardship of the American West.

In The Image Business, Steve Powell's autobiography lifts the lid on the development of sports photography and photojournalism. With a no holds barred account of his life as a working photographer and business innovator, he tells of covering world-beating sporting successes and occasional failures, and of how he built the Allsport Photographic agency into an industry leader that made him a millionaire. "The authors' experiences are so vast and often outrageous that it's easy to forget that this is a true story." L Lemay. He has worked with everyone from world beating powerboat racers to Olympic greats such as Seb Coe and Daley Thompson. Muhammad Ali, Bjorn Borg, Seve Ballesteros and Diego Maradona have all been his subjects during a lifetime of capturing iconic images. "In a book market full of often told stories, this is a unique and compelling read." MarcoVB. Unique insights into the athletes and administrators who shaped sport over thirty years could only come from a true insider. He gives a fascinating and fast-paced narrative of a career that began on the gritty streets of London and took him to every global arena where sport is played, working with every major publication and sponsor as he developed ways to help them deliver their messages. - "This book is right up there with Phil Knight's "Shoe Dog"." Anonymous Powell reveals the struggles of an emerging independent agency as it fought to gain recognition, how it helped break the union stranglehold on Fleet Street and established Allsport and its photographers as the go-to source for all that was best in the emerging sports photography industry. - "This is a thoroughly entertaining book and, I believe, an important one." R Bundy. Follow his riveting personal narrative as he describes how he overcame personality clashes that almost brought the agency to its knees and how riding the tide of advancing technologies helped create a unique business model. Always just one step ahead of the opposition, his career mirrors how he harnessed fast moving changes in the industry to create his own unique place in sports media history. "(The author) has you feeling as if you are right there living it alongside him." Anonymous. This is the story of the man who built the world's biggest and most famous sports photography business and under whose guidance, became the first official photographer to the International Olympic Committee and worked with every major sporting organisation, governing body and athlete in Europe, and North America. "A truly inspiring read, by a truly inspiring guy. His life, his travels keep you reading until the end. What a life, great read." J Tilley. Finally, the book traces with engaging candour his learning curve in preparing the company for sale, turning the business of capturing images into capitalising images as a business. The buyer was Mark Getty and guided by Powell, Allsport became a bedrock in the rapidly emerging Getty Images and made Powell more successful than he could have imagined.

This is a story covering 37 years in television broadcasting including 29 years at the ABC Television Network. It's a story about the broadcast of major events ranging from The Super Bowl and The Olympics to the accident at Three Mile Island. It's about the efforts to get the broadcast back on the air at The 1989 World Series after The San Francisco Earthquake hit disrupting the coverage. It tells what was involved in getting those unforgettable images of Captain John Testrake being interviewed on the tarmac of Beirut Airport while a terrorist waved his pistol behind the Captain's head during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847. Learn what went on behind the scenes to bring those events to your home. Learn about the obstacles that had to be overcome; the hard work, the zany antics and the triumphs of the people who worked behind the cameras and microphones to get those broadcasts on the air and bring those images to America and the world.

Born in Wisconsin in 1919, Wladziu Valentino Liberace began his career as a performer at roadhouses, bars, stag parties, afternoon teas, and dances in the Milwaukee area. Television brought him to stardom in 1952, when The Liberace Show was watched by more than 35 million people each week. His television exposure led to one of the most lucrative concert, nightclub, and recording careers in history. His death from AIDS in 1987 continued the perpetual speculation about his personal life. This book charts the always controversial life and career of Liberace, from his birth in America's heartland to his death as one of the most flamboyant entertainers of his generation. A short biography and chronology present his life in capsule form and give full attention to the scandals that plagued his career. The chapters that follow detail his work in film, television, radio, recordings, and concerts. Each entry provides fascinating information about his performances, and an annotated bibliography describes sources for additional information.

90-plus interviews with celebrities, including Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley, Jack Lemmon, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Ingrid Bergman, Barbara Walters, Gore Vidal, William Buckley, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Bill Cosby, Judy Garland, Merv Griffin, Peter O'Toole, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, David Frost, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Bernstein, et al. The interviews were conducted in many cities and countries and in such places as St. Patrick's Cathedral, Central Park and in television and movie studios in New York and Hollywood, in planes and trains as well as the homes of stars.

In here is an offering. An offering designed to enlighten and inspire anyone who is on the less traveled road laid out by the 12 steps of recovery. I say less traveled because the numbers of true recoverees is relatively small in comparison to the numbers of people caught in addictions. This collection has been many, many years in the making. I hope that it may bring some light and maybe a little humor to a relatively dark subject.I have tried not to offend sensitive eyes and pallets but there is some language used in the cramped world of users that works when other language doesn't, and some of it is in this collection. I have refrained from vulgarity however and if you can tolerate some compromise I am sure you will be pleasantly rewarded. If you are new to recovery you may be surprised at some of the things here that you thought no one else had ever thought.It is important to remember that the common thread in addiction is the lie that you are the only one who has ever done the things you are doing. There is only so much dysfunction in the world, and when you have been on the road of recovery for a while it becomes amazingly redundant. Everybody is stunned to find out they are not alone in their weirdness. Stunned and then relieved to find out that there is a way out.The bottom line is that we give up a life of using for a life of service. When you find this and come to terms with serving people who usually don't care, and you serve them anyway, then and only then will you start receiving the rewards that await you.

Louise Larocque Serpa often said she was born "in the wrong place, to the wrong woman, at the wrong time." Born in 1925 and growing up in New York society with a mother who was never satisfied with her rather lanky, unpolished daughter, teenager Louise eventually found happiness when she spent a summer on a Wyoming dude ranch scrubbing toilets, waiting tables and wrangling cattle. Later in life, she settled in Tucson, Arizona, where her introduction to photographing rodeos came about after a friend invited her to watch his children participate in a junior rodeo competition. Using a cheap drug-store camera, Louise began photographing youngsters as they bounced and bucked on small sheep and calves, then sold the pictures to proud parents, beginning a career that would span fifty years and take her to the highest pinnacles of rodeo photography. This biography of the legendary rodeo photographer Louise Sherpa, reveals the story of a woman who made her own way in a man's world and who helped shaped the character of rodeo. Interviews with her contemporaries and family and photographs from her family archives add flavor to this lively portrait of a remarkable Western woman.

Film and theatre director Tony Richardson's death in 1991, the publication of his memoirs in 1993, and the posthumous release of his final movie, Blue Sky in 1994 have resulted in the beginning of a critical reevaluation of Richardson's career. The first major reference on Richardson's life and work in British and American theatre and film, this book is a necessary first step in that reevaluation. Richardson's life and work are summarized in a brief opening biography. A chronology then outlines the major events in his career. The chapters that follow provide extensively annotated listings for all of his professional film, theatre, and television work. Entries provide plot summaries, cast and credit listings, review excerpts, and commentary. Also included is a list of awards and nominations given to Richardson and his productions. Of great significance is the annotated bibliography of books and articles by, about, or with significant references to Richardson.

With his topical jokes and his all-American, brash-but-cowardly screen character, Bob Hope was the only entertainer to achieve top-rated success in every major mass-entertainment medium of the century, from vaudeville in the 1920s all the way to television in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He virtually invented modern stand-up comedy. Above all, he helped redefine the very notion of what it means to be a star: a savvy businessman, an enterprising builder of his own brand, and a public-spirited entertainer whose Christmas military tours and unflagging work for charity set the standard for public service in Hollywood. As Richard Zoglin shows in this "entertaining and important book" (The Wall Street Journal), there is still much to be learned about this most public of figures, from his secret first marriage and his stint in reform school, to his indiscriminate womanizing and his ambivalent relationships with Bing Crosby and Johnny Carson. Hope could be cold, self-centered, tight with a buck, and perhaps the least introspective man in Hollywood. But he was also a tireless worker, devoted to his fans, and generous with friends. "Scrupulously researched, likely definitive, and as entertaining and as important (to an understanding of twentieth- and twenty-first-century pop culture) as its subject once genuinely was" (Vanity Fair), Hope is both a celebration of the entertainer and a complex portrait of a gifted but flawed man. "A wonderful biography," says Woody Allen. "For me, it's a feast."

George Henry Newton had a dream. His dream was to get out of Zion, Nevis. The village was poverty stricken. He ventured abroad and entered the United States. He became a soldier and fought in W.W.II. Fortunately, he escaped the ravages of the battle field. During the post war years, he acquired a career, raised his family, made his mark but became victim of a dependency. He died at age fifty four, but his eldest son did not let his legacy die with him.