The Red Scare, Ufos & Elvis


Book Description

The baby boomer generation (19461964) grew up in a time of dramatic social change. Their experiences in the Cold War were very different from those of their parents. While adults perceived communism as a threat to the American way of lifeto their health and well-being and those of their familiestheir children learned to fear the loss of a future they could grow into and inhabit. These kids of the atomic age wondered if they might be the last children on earth. They were raised on civil defense films, tales of nuclear annihilation, and a world taken over by communism. America had entered the atomic age. Flying saucers were big news, communism appeared rampant, a war in Korea erupted, teens turned to murderers, and there was fear the world might end. It was also a time of transition. Rock n roll entered the scene, space flight became a reality, and the public learned not to blindly accept what the government told them, especially when it came to atomic radiation and waste.




Amador City: A Haunting History


Book Description

Amador City is a small Gold Rush era town in Amador County, which has more dead than living. The .3 square mile hamlet of just 201 “living” souls is the smallest incorporated city in California. It was once the center of a thriving mining industry, with over 1000 residents. The town has seen its population ebb and flow, along with mining. It has experienced several fires, and frequent deaths. It is a city with much history lying buried along with many who once called it home. It is a city where fortunes were made. There was Alvinza Hayward, who consulted mediums before staking a mining claim, and well-known individuals such as Leland Stanford and George Hearst. However, there were many who never found the elusive gold that evaded them in life. Perhaps their spirits are responsible for the orbs of light seen flashing through Amador City’s buildings, and the ethereal voices still heard echoing along the banks of Amador Creek. Some spirits have been seen in physical form, others seemingly expressing themselves through moving objects, cold spots and unexplained noises. Then there are those wandering souls still seeking a resolution to their murder, restless miners whose deaths could have been avoided, and suicides who ended their lives abruptly. It is a city where the past still haunts the present. Read and explore tales of the dead and more — forgotten byways, neighboring towns that have disappeared, robberies, saloon brawls and how 1872 mining claim laws are still in effect, and how you too, may become rich by becoming a present-day gold miner.




The Pacific Squab and Poultry Farm


Book Description

In 1889, during the Great Depression of British Agriculture, the Harnett farm in Kent, England, was suffering financially. With Britain’s refusal to tax grain imports their farm could no longer support a family of eleven children. Ernest and Julia Harnett had a hard decision to make — either leave their beloved England or give up six of their youngest children. It was something they would not do. A letter from a friend who had moved to Southern California wrote of an alcohol free, religious community, with good farm land. They made up their minds. They would move to the American Colony — created a few years earlier by a fellow Englishman, William Willmore. There they would create a new life on the Pacific Squab and Poultry Farm. Follow their journey across the Atlantic and explore their new home — an area called Burnett, close to Signal Hill, which would eventually become part of Long Beach, California. Get to know each of the members of the Harnett family through the eyes of Ivy Harnett, the first of three children to be born in America. There is Jane (Bessie), a teacher, who left an indelible mark on California history; Norah and Josie who found love and marriage in faraway Alaska; Anne, the artist; Kathleen, the top student graduate at UC Berkley; Ethel; Helen; Jack, the engineer; Tom and his milling company; Edward and Frank, Long Beach civil servants who contributed much to the growth of the city. Learn of the tragic deaths of Geoffrey, Caroline, and the patriarch of the family, Ernest Harnett, struck by a hit and run driver a few weeks after his daughter Jane’s death. This true story, is sure to entertain, taking readers to a past that once was, and a family who refused to leave any child behind.




Animal Tales (Some a Little Fishy)


Book Description

Learn about: • An opossum who enjoyed X-rated movies. • A canine thief with an appetite for eggs. • A man who lost out on $38,000 in valuable pearls because he liked his oysters cooked instead of raw. • Strange events and creatures off the California coast. • A recipe for Pius IV’s favorite dish — frog livers. • A statewide event where California school children were asked to kill as many ground squirrels as possible, verifying their kills by bringing the tails to school! These are but a few of the stories largely centered around Long Beach, California, which have appeared over the past 130 years. Most have remained forgotten, until now. How much is true and how much “tongue in cheek” I will leave up to the reader to decide. In any case, they are they are fun, humorous and sure to entertain.




African Americans in Long Beach and Southern California: a History


Book Description

Racial discrimination and unrest are intertwined with the history of Long Beach and Southern California in Ms. Burnett’s latest book. African Americans in Long Beach and Southern California begins in the 1800s and continues to 1970, reaching into later years to describe what that history has led to today. Ms. Burnett spent over five years researching recently digitized African American newspapers which has allowed her access to the black perspective on issues rarely written about in the white press or by other authors. Personal stories, legislation, Southland history and possible solutions to decades old problems are presented, making for an interesting and informative read. It is a unique work, sure to open the eyes of many.




Elvis, Marilyn, and the Space Aliens


Book Description

Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and space aliens like the Transformers share a surprising connection along with James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Rocky Balboa. These beloved icons played active roles in movie and television projects set in the state of Nevada. Long time state film commissioner and movie reviewer Holabird explores the blending of icons and Nevada, along with her personal experiences of watching movies, talking with famous people, and showing off a diverse range of stunning and iconic locations like Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Area 51. Holabird shows how Nevada’s flash, flair, and fostering of the forbidden provided magic for singers, sexpots, and strange creatures from other worlds. She also gives readers an insider’s look into moviemaking in Nevada by drawing on her extensive experience as a film commissioner. This is a unique take on film history and culture, and Holabird explores eighteen film genres populated by one-of-a-kind characters with ties to Nevada. Along with being a film history of the state of Nevada written by a consummate insider, the book is a fun mixture of research, personal experiences, and analysis about how Nevada became the location of choice for a broad spectrum of well-known films and characters.




The Other Fifties


Book Description

From the Edsel to Eisenhower, from Mau Mau to Doris Day, and from Ayn Rand to Elvis, contributors to The Other Fifties topple the decade's already weakened image as a time of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and conformity. Representing the fifties as a period of cultural transformation, contributors reveal the gradual "unmaking" of traditions and value systems that took place as American culture prepared itself for the more easily observed cultural turbulence of the 1960s. Well known contributors demonstrate how television, the novel, the Hollywood movie, the Broadway musical, and rock and roll assaulted midcentury American attitudes toward sexuality, race, gender, and class, so altering public sensibilities that what was novel or shocking in the fifties seems tame or even downright difficult to grasp today. They also rebut the widely held view that 1950s consumerism led to cultural homogeneity, replacing this view with a picture of robust popular markets that defied conservative controls and actively subverted conventional norms and values. Brushing away the haze of an era, The Other Fifties will help readers understand the decade not as placid or repressed, but as a time when emancipatory desires struggled to articulate themselves.




Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1950s


Book Description

The Decades of Modern American Drama series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1930s to 2009 in eight volumes. Each volume equips readers with a detailed understanding of the context from which work emerged: an introduction considers life in the decade with a focus on domestic life and conditions, social changes, culture, media, technology, industry and political events; while a chapter on the theatre of the decade offers a wide-ranging and thorough survey of theatres, companies, dramatists, new movements and developments in response to the economic and political conditions of the day. The work of the four most prominent playwrights from the decade receives in-depth analysis and re-evaluation by a team of experts, together with commentary on their subsequent work and legacy. A final section brings together original documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material. The major writers and their works to receive in-depth coverage in this volume include: * William Inge: Picnic (1953), Bus Stop (1955) and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957); * Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins: West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959); * Alice Childress: Just a Little Simple (1950), Gold Through the Trees (1952) and Trouble in Mind (1955); * Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee: Inherit the Wind (1955), Auntie Mame (1956) and The Gang's All Here (1959).




UFOs, JFK, and Elvis


Book Description

The distinguished statesman of stand-up comedy tackles some of the biggest conspiracies and cover-ups this side of Roswell. “A must-read . . . You gotta love the Belz. . . . His sharp sense of humor doesn’t allow him to miss an opportunity for laughs.”—Playboy I’m not asking you to believe every single conspiracy theory you find in this book. . . . I didn’t write this book to give you all the answers. I wrote this book to inspire you to do what the powers that be wish you wouldn’t: question authority . . . and to keep an eye out for Elvis Just what is it that they don’t want you to know about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Area 51, and what the American astronauts really found on the moon? The unexplained crash at Roswell and the mysterious “face” on Mars? The link between the Nazis and the U.S. space program? Evidence of extraterrestrial experimentation? Finally, one lone “nut” exposes the conspiracy to keep conspiracies a dirty little secret, standing up to the shadowy forces that would have us believe that Oswald acted alone, those lights in the sky are weather balloons, and fluoridated water is good for you (yeah, right). “Some of the smartest people I know . . . find it easier—and certainly more comforting—to believe that America is the only country on earth with no conspiracies at all.” Just remember: do not ask on whom The Belz has told—he’s told on them.




Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History [2 volumes]


Book Description

This up-to-date introduction to the complex world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories provides insight into why millions of people are so ready to believe the worst about our political, legal, religious, and financial institutions. Unsupported theories provide simple explanations for catastrophes that are otherwise difficult to understand, from the U.S. Civil War to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Ideas about shadowy networks that operate behind a cloak of secrecy, including real organizations like the CIA and the Mafia and imagined ones like the Illuminati, additionally provide a way for people to criticize prevailing political and economic arrangements, while for society's disadvantaged and forgotten groups, conspiracy theories make their suffering and alienation comprehensible and provide a focal point for their economic or political frustrations. These volumes detail the highly controversial and influential phenomena of conspiracies and conspiracy theories in American society. Through interpretive essays and factual accounts of various people, organizations, and ideas, the reader will gain a much greater appreciation for a set of beliefs about political scheming, covert intelligence gathering, and criminal rings that has held its grip on the minds of millions of American citizens and encouraged them to believe that the conspiracies may run deeper, and with a global reach.