Yep that's me, Hal Needham, on the cover doing a fire stunt. When you're on fire you don't dare breathe because if you do, you'll suck those flames right down your throat. I was Hollywood's highest paid stuntman so I should know.
I wrecked hundreds of cars, fell from tall buildings, got blown up, was dragged by horses, and along the way broke 56 bones, my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth...I hung upside down by my ankles under a bi-plane in "The Spirit of St. Louis," jumped between galloping horses in "Little Big Man," set a world record for a boat stunt on "Gator," jumped a rocket powered pick-up truck across a canal for a GM commercial, was the first human to test the car airbag-and taught John Wayne how to "really "throw a movie punch.
Life also got exciting outside of the movie business. I had my Ferrari stolen right from under my nose, flew in a twin-engine Cessna with a passed out pilot, rescued the cast and crew from a Russian invasion in Czechoslovakia, and once took six flight attendants on a date. I owned the Skoal-Bandit NASCAR race team, the sound-barrier breaking Budweiser Rocket Car and drove a souped-up, fake ambulance in a "little" cross-country race called "The Cannonball Run," which became the movie I directed by the same name. Oh yeah, I also directed "Smokey and the Bandit," "Hooper" and several other action/comedy movies that I liked a bunch.
I was a sharecropper's son from the hills of Arkansas who became a Hollywood stuntman. That journey was a tough row to hoe. I continually risked my life but that was the career I chose. I was never late to the set and did whatever I had to do to get the job done.
Hollywood's not all sunglasses and autographs. Let me tell you a few stories...

Hal Needham co-writes and directs this 1984 car chase comedy starring an all-star cast including Burt Reynolds, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Dom DeLuise.

Having lost the first Cannonball Run, the Sheik (Jamie Farr) is commanded by his wealthy father to return to the United States and bring honour back to the family name by winning the next race. Many of the participants from the previous outing are brought back to compete...

The consequences of climate change, increasing storm surge, and rising sea levels are being seen and felt by coastal communities across the globe as hurricanes, coastal storms, and flooding increase in intensity and frequency. Understanding how coastal communities around the world have adapted to these challenging environments can help identify not only the strategies to better prepare our vulnerable cities, but also the attitudes that are most effective in producing constructive solutions. Protecting Historic Coastal Cities presents an overview of how historic communities in coastal environments understand and confront the unique challenges they face. It represents a variety of disciplines including historical preservation, public history, environmental science, engineering, and architecture. Authors explore communities that take a proactive approach to the special circumstance of living on a coast-historic preservation efforts in the midst of hurricane response, the 1900 Galveston Hurricane and the subsequent raising of Galveston Island, resilient housing initiatives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, aggressive public infrastructure changes in Miami Beach, and pioneering advances in flood protection in the Netherlands. Each disaster is different, and the unique characteristics of the event determine approaches to recovery as well as funding from both insurance and government. As we prepare for future disasters, we must understand the underlying conditions that make us vulnerable as human beings and recognize the links between the built environment and the natural environment. In Protecting Historic Coastal Cities, the authors assert that building resilient coastal communities requires a profound understanding of this relationship to confront the extreme conditions of living and working in coastal areas around the world.