Download or read book Ciro s Nightclub of the Stars written by Andra D. Clarke and Regina Denton-Drew and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many entertainers launched their careers at Ciro's Nightclub, often referred as "The Nightclub of the Stars." Ciro's was patronized by both famous and non-famous guests who enjoyed dancing, dining, and comedy routines featuring top-name entertainers such as Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Sophie Tucker, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Liberace, Nat King Cole, Joe E. Lewis, and Sammy Davis Jr.--just to name a few. The nightclub's house band was led by Dick Stabile, although bandleader Xavier Cugat, best known for popularizing the rumba in the United States, was a regular headliner at the club. The elite Hollywood regulars at Ciro's included some of the most popular names in entertainment at the time, such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and many more.
Download or read book Dancing at Ciro s written by Sheila Weller and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Poignant memoir of a not-so-typical New York Jewish family’s experiences in the midcentury Hollywood demimonde ... Equal parts emotional tissue-party and shrewd cultural history." - Kirkus Reviews In 1958, young Sheila Weller was living a charmed life with her family in Beverly Hills. Her father was a brilliant brain surgeon. Her mother was a movie-magazine writer whose brother owned Hollywood's most dazzling nightclub, Ciro's. Then her world exploded after she witnessed her uncle's brutal attempt to kill her father. In Dancing at Ciro's, Weller has written a deeply felt memoir of her family's life contrasted with those most glamorous days of Hollywood's forties and fifties. While vividly describing Lana Turner's, Frank Sinatra's, and Sammy Davis Jr.'s evenings--and breakdowns--at Ciro's, Weller casts a keen eye on her own family's turmoil and loss.
Download or read book Running Springs written by Stanley E. Bellamy and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2007-02-14 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, the mountains and valleys that became the Running Springs area have swelled with natural resources, supplying the hunting and gathering needs of Native Americans who harvested acorns and herbs and hunted deer and other wildlife to sustain themselves through the winters in the valleys below. Nineteenthcentury gold prospectors passed through the Running Springs vicinity on their way to the Holcomb Valley. Lumbermen came to harvest the virgin timber, supplying the construction requirements of the booming population of Southern California as well as the need for shook, the thin-shaved boards used to make packing and shipping boxes for the fast-growing citrus industries. The early days of Running Springs are detailed in this winding trip through San Bernardino Countys namesake mountains in vintage photographs, which also profile the nearby settlements of Arrowbear Lake and Green Valley Lake.
Download or read book Culver City written by Julie Lugo Cerra and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part Mayberry and part Peyton Place, Culver City has provided the backdrop for Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, The Wizard of Oz, Men In Black, Jerry Maguire, "The Andy Griffith Show," "Batman," "Lassie," and the films of Laurel & Hardy. Gwen Verdon grew up here, and so did The Little Rascals. Gene Kelly sang in the rain. Harrison Ford commanded Air Force One. But before glitz and glamour set up shop, the open fields of Culver City were peacefully inhabited by the Gabrielino Indians. Spanish grazing grants of 1819 set the stage for development, and in 1913, Harry Culver announced his ambition to found a city. Two years later, Thomas Ince broke ground on Culver City's first major studio. A star was born. Images of America: Culver City guides you on a VIP back lot tour of a movie town's pioneering moments.
Download or read book Scotty s Castle written by Robert P. Palazzo and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scotty's Castle is a study in contrasts, much like its setting in Death Valley. While the castle is known worldwide and has been visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists, many myths persist. It is not a castle, nor was it owned by Walter E. Scott, known as "Death Valley Scotty." But the Spanish-style hacienda, also known as Death Valley Ranch, has always been linked to Scott. This book explores the fascinating history of Death Valley Scotty, Albert and Bessie Johnson (the true owners and builders of the castle), and the castle itself from construction to private living quarters to a tourist facility owned and operated by the National Park Service.
Download or read book Garvanza written by Charles J. Fisher and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named for the garbanzo bean that Julio Verdugo raised on his Rancho San Rafael, the town of Garvanza was laid out by Ralph Rogers in 1886. The community soon became a haven for artists and others seeking a refuge from the growing urban life of Los Angeles. Early institutions included the Church of the Angels and the Judson Studios, founded by painter William Lees Judson to create art through stained glass. The town's identity was eventually overtaken by neighboring Highland Park, but the community name was reestablished in the 1990s by today's residents, who are as in love with its beauty as those 110 years earlier.
Download or read book Sacramento s Greenhaven Pocket Area written by Carol Ann Gregory and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greenhaven/Pocket community is located just southwest of downtown Sacramento. Geographically, its unique location is within a meandering bend of the Sacramento River, thus termed "the Pocket" because it is bounded by the Sacramento River to the north, west, and south. Captured here in over 180 vintage images are the sorrows and triumphs of the area's earliest settlers, encompassing the continents of the world and spanning over a century. The Greenhaven/Pocket area was a rural farming community for 110 years before suburban development, with the most significant group of people contributing to the area's history and identity being Portuguese immigrants from the Azores Islands of Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, and Terceira. They began arriving a few years after the Gold Rush and by 1880, almost half of the Portuguese population in Sacramento County was within these townships that encompassed and surrounded the Riverside/Pocket area. Pictured here is the evolution of this thriving community, from the earliest founding families and their sprawling ranches, to the Japanese settlement of World War I, and finally to the innovative Greenhaven 70 plan development in the 1960s that laid the foundation for today's community.
Download or read book Fort Ross and the Sonoma Coast written by Lyn Kalani and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kashaya Indians made foot trails through the grassy mountain slopes of Sonoma's northern coast for centuries before colonists from the Russian-American Company arrived in 1812. These Russians, the vanguard of European settlement, built Fort Ross from virgin redwood on a bluff overlooking the sea. Although they stayed only 30 years, they left behind a heritage that includes the earliest detailed scientific and ethnographic studies of the area and California's first ships and windmills. Soon others came to ranch, lumber, and quarry, shipping their harvest and stone to help build and feed San Francisco. Ranches and mill sites evolved into towns, often bearing the names of the rugged men who first settled there. Much of the coastline remains as it was in centuries past, its rich history still visible in ship moorings and chiseled sandstone, and new residents and visitors are still drawn to this dramatic meeting of blue Pacific and forested coastal mountains.
Download or read book On the Edge written by Bill Disbrow and published by Winlock Galey. This book was released on 2005-02 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1920 Bill Disbrow had his first airplane ride with his dad in a Jenny WWI trainer when he was five. This ignited his desire to be an Army Air Corps pilot. He finally applied in 1935 but failed his physical due to high blood pressure from excitement. He tried three more times. After Pearl Harbor, he was turned down because he was married, but the marriage ban was lifted and he was in and getting shot at. He always thought he could fly and sailed through Cadets in 1943, the oldest Cadet at 28. He was finally a pilot! He expected to go to P-38 fighter school but wound up as a B-24 co-pilot. His pilot and Bill flew their B-24 from Hamilton Field to Italy. Bill flew 50 missions for the 15th Air force, 455th Bomb Group, 741st Squadron. 25 of those mission he was first pilot in the B-24, Organized Confusion. He survived 7 missions to the Ploesti oil fields, the graveyard of the 15th Air Force. He returned to the U.S. in 1944 with the DFC and the Air Medal with 3 OLCs, where he attended Officers Armament School and graduated at the top of his class. He was later assigned to Colorado Springs where, as a recruiting officer, he flew anything they would let him. Bill In 1948, he was sent to Japan as an I & E officer and later Chief of Flight Test FEMCOM. Later he took an old C-47 to Korea, ferrying supplies to the troops and became stationed there in charge of field maintenance at Pusan. On his return to the states, Bill became the CO of the Air Force recruiting in Los Angeles where he built the Disbrow Special sportcar. Later he brought the car to Tyndal AFB in Florida and raced against General LeMay and others. There he flew F-86s and F-102s. He was sent back to Japan in charge of a fighter squadron and finally sent home to Travis AFB where he retired with 21 years of active duty. On retiring he would become an investigator, a high school teacher, a aircraft owner, a civilian flight instructor a resort owner, a house builder, a world-class snow skier in his age group, and an excellent ballroom dancer. He would sire four beautiful daughters by his wife Fay of 27 years; have 10 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren and still counting. through all the anxiety and adversities he had to contend with. He thanks his Lord Jesus Christ for making this all possible.
Download or read book The Palace Hotel written by Richard Harned and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it opened in 1875, the Palace Hotel was the largest and most luxurious hotel in the world, a perfect symbol of one of the most remarkable eras in San Francisco history. Built at a time when Nevada's fabulously rich silver mines were pouring millions of dollars each month into San Francisco, it typified the color and grandiose extravagances of the whole bonanza period. After the original hotel was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, a successor Palace Hotel took its place and remains one of the most prestigious hotels in San Francisco today.
Download or read book Sam s Castle written by Bridget Oates and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With romance, elegant parties, and dashing, uniformed gentlemen, this charming castle story is almost what one might expect. But add in dramatic police raids and rumors of bodies buried in the garden, and it becomes the very unique tale of Sam's Castle. Built in 1908 as a haven for the earthquake-rattled Henry Harrison McCloskey (grandfather of former congressman Pete McCloskey), the castle served as a home, speakeasy, rum-runner signaling station, abortion clinic, and U.S. Coast Guard lookout during World War II. Despite its turbulent history, however, this castle story has a happy ending. In the care of the Sam Mazza Foundation, the magnificent estate will remain a treasured Pacifica landmark for all to enjoy.
Download or read book Monterey s Waterfront written by Tim Thomas and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Monterey's waterfront the words sardine, salmon, mackerel, pompano, albacore, abalone, flounder, and squid were music to the ears of fishermen. With its deep underwater canyon, Monterey Bay hosted a sealife jamboree long before the native Rumsien set out in small tule boats to harvest its bounty. It has sounded a siren call to fishermen and biologists ever since. Chinese fishermen pioneered modern commercial fishing in the 1850s, clustering in villages along Monterey's rugged coast. The cry "Baleia!" sounded through town, summoning Portuguese whalers to their longboats. Japanese divers in primitive hard-hat gear brought a sea snail called abalone to national attention, while Sicilians earned Monterey the title "sardine capital of the world." The railroad opened the way for visitors to discover this natural coastal paradise, now a tourist mecca.
Download or read book San Anselmo written by Judy Coy and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: San Anselmo has been a crossroads if not a center of activity from the days when the Coast Miwok inhabited the valley and fished the fresh waters of the creek. Red Hill, a town landmark, was the meeting point of three 1840s Mexican land grants. The rancho days had come to an end by 1875, when the North Pacific Coast Railroad completed its line, with its tracks branching east and west at San Anselmo. Railroad officials encouraged real estate activity, but it was not until the San Francisco Theological Seminary was completed in 1892 that the town began to grow. Incorporation followed in 1907, after refugees from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire built permanent homes. The population grew in the years following World War II, but San Anselmo has remained a small, family town.
Download or read book Santa Rosa written by Simone Wilson and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Santa Rosa Valley, once carpeted in wild oats and littered with acorns from ancient oaks, was home to Pomo and Miwok Indians for thousands of years. The cattle ranches and farms that displaced them in the mid-1800s had already spawned a thriving commercial town named Santa Rosa, the county seat, when the railroad arrived in 1870. That railroad, and the commerce it brought, secured the city's role as the legal and financial nexus of Sonoma County and its most populous city. When many of the downtown buildings collapsed in the famous 1906 earthquake, the community built itself back into a picture-perfect all-American city, the setting for such films as Hitchcock's Shadow of Doubt and Disney's Pollyanna. Another devastating quake in 1969 damaged many structures, but once again that destruction prompted redevelopment and renewed growth for Santa Rosa in the 21st century.
Download or read book Los Angeles s Little Tokyo written by and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1884, a Japanese sailor named Hamanosuke Shigeta made his way to the eastern section of downtown Los Angeles and opened Little Tokyo's first business, an American-style café. By the early 20th century, this neighborhood on the banks of the Los Angeles River had developed into a vibrant community serving the burgeoning Japanese American population of Southern California. When Japanese Americans were forcibly removed to internment camps in 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entrance into World War II, Little Tokyo was rechristened "Bronzeville" as a newly established African American enclave popular for its jazz clubs and churches. Despite the War Relocation Authority's opposition to re-establishing Little Tokyo following the war, Japanese Americans gradually restored the strong ties evident today in 21st-century Little Tokyo--a multicultural, multigenerational community that is the largest Nihonmachi (Japantown) in the United States.
Download or read book Dancing at Ciro s written by Sheila Weller and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-02-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sheila Weller writes of her family's secrets coming to light in Hollywood in the 50's.
Download or read book Leimert Park written by Cynthia E. Exum and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leimert Park, one of the first comprehensively planned communities in Southern California, was founded and developed in 1927 by Walter H. Leimert Sr. and designed by Olmsted Brothers, a firm headed by sons of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., the master planner of New York City's Central Park. In its early years, Leimert Park was a pasture situated on portions of the Rancho Cienega O Paso de la Tijera, once owned by land baron E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin. The area is best known for its gracefully curved tree-lined streets, Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean-style homes, and Art Deco buildings designed by some of the nation's foremost architects. Famous residents Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Los Angeles's first African American mayor, Tom Bradley, have called Leimert Park home. In 1967, artists Alonzo and Dale Davis founded Brockman Gallery, and with this beginning, a new era of Leimert Park as an arts and cultural center dawned. Today, with its art galleries, jazz and blues clubs, coffeehouses, performance spaces, restaurants, and Afrocentric fashion and merchandise shops, the area has evolved into one of Los Angeles's great idyllic communities.
