Download or read book Johnny Weissmuller written by David Fury and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looks at the life and career of this Olympic gold-medal winning champion who went on to become an internationally famous actor.
Download or read book Tarzan My Father written by Johnny Weissmuller and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The son of the Olympic swimmer who became a Hollywood star reveals the real story of his famous father’s life. Johnny Weissmuller’s name has become synonymous with Tarzan—the role he played in the 1930s and ’40s to the delight of millions. Many don’t know that he also earned five Olympic gold medals for swimming before his renowned acting career—or that he had five marriages. This authoritative biography of the first Tarzan, written by his only son, offers an intimate look at Weissmuller’s early life, middle years, and later decline, covering his experiences from swimming training and Olympic triumphs to failed marriages, phenomenal stardom, and a subsequent career as Jungle Jim. A sensitive yet unsentimental portrayal of the man who was Tarzan to movie fans around the world, Tarzan, My Father includes interviews with his father’s celebrity friends and former wives, recollections of conversations with his father over the years, and family stories involving Hollywood stars such as Humphrey Bogart.
Download or read book Heroes Ballyhoo written by Michael K. Bohn and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-11-30 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A handful of star athletes, along with their promoters and journalists, created America's sports entertainment industry during the 1920s, the Golden Age of American sports. The period had an extraordinary impact, profoundly changing individual sports, establishing the secular religion of sports and sports heroes, and helping bond disparate social and regional sectors of the country. It's when sports became a cornerstone of modern American life. Heroes and Ballyhoo profiles the ten most prominent Golden Age heroes and describes their effect on sports and society. Babe Ruth saved baseball after the Black Sox Scandal. Boxer Jack Dempsey made the “sweet science” a respectable sport. Red Grange single-handedly set professional football on a path to eventual success. Knute Rockne helped transform college football from a game to a colossal enterprise. Bobby Jones changed golf into a spectator sport, and Walter Hagen sparked the first national interest in professional golf. Bill Tilden put tennis on the front of the sports section. Tennis player Helen Wills Moody joined swimmer Gertrude Ederle in empowering women athletes. Johnny Weissmuller astonished international swimming before becoming Tarzan. The book also explores the ballyhoo artists—sportswriters, promoters, and press agents—who hyped the stars to a receptive public. Simultaneously, the spectators established themselves as the focus of popular sports. The personalities and events of the 1920s thus created today's entertainment conglomerate of heroes, promoters and advertisers, fans, arenas—and money. Sports as a profit center started with the Golden Age's heroes and PR artists, and the public's obsessive interest in sports helped shape America's emerging mass society. Heroes and Ballyhoo tells the story of what was both a symptom and a cause of modern America.
Download or read book Johnny Weissmuller written by David Arthur Fury and published by . This book was released on 2000-07-01 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything written by Mark Jacob and published by Agate Digital. This book was released on 2012-05-10 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years, the Chicago Tribune's "10 Things You Might Not Know" column has been informing and entertaining readers on a diverse range of fascinating subjects. 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything is a collection of the best of these columns, presented in a fun and easy-to-read format. This book gives readers well-researched, obscure facts on universal topics—including arts and culture, food and leisure, history, politics, science and technology, sports, holidays and religion, lifestyle, language, and more. 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything contains a plethora of surprising trivia and pertinent tidbits on so many different areas that will appeal to everyone from history buffs to sports fans to foodies, with an especially riveting look into Chicago-area history and facts. For example, in Zion, Illinois it was once not only illegal to gamble, curse, and sell alcohol and tobacco, but also to whistle on Sundays, put on plays, eat pork or oysters, spit, or wear tan-colored shoes. Some facts will make readers laugh and some will make jaws drop. This collection is a kaleidoscope of the absurd, the outrageous, and the sometimes-gruesome, making a highly entertaining mix of people, places, and things. 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything will leave readers brighter, wittier, and curious to learn more about myriad worlds they never encountered before and will never forget.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age From the End of World War I to the Great Crash written by James Ciment and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-04-08 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated encyclopedia offers in-depth coverage of one of the most fascinating and widely studied periods in American history. Extending from the end of World War I in 1918 to the great Wall Street crash in 1929, the Jazz age was a time of frenetic energy and unprecedented historical developments, ranging from the League of Nations, woman suffrage, Prohibition, the Red Scare, the Ku Klux Klan, the Lindberg flight, and the Scopes trial, to the rise of organized crime, motion pictures, and celebrity culture."Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age" provides information on the politics, economics, society, and culture of the era in rich detail. The entries cover themes, personalities, institutions, ideas, events, trends, and more; and special features such as sidebars and photos help bring the era vividly to life.
Download or read book The Clock Struck Murder written by Betty Webb and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-04-09 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One woman's trash is another woman's--lost Chagall masterpiece?!? Expat Zoe Barlow has settled well into her artist's life among the Lost Generation in 1920s Paris. When a too-tipsy guest at her weekly poker game breaks Zoe's favorite clock, she's off to a Montparnasse flea market to bargain with the vendor Laurette for a replacement. What Zoe didn't bargain for was the lost Chagall painting that's been used like a rag to wrap her purchases! Eager to learn whether Laurette has more Chagalls lying about like trash, Zoe sets off to track her down at her storage shed. With no Laurette in sight, Zoe snoops around and indeed finds several additional Chagalls—and then she finds Laurette herself, dead beneath a scrap heap, her beautiful face bashed in. With Paris hosting the 1924 Summer Olympics, the police are far too busy with tourist-related crimes to devote much time to the clock seller's murder. After returning the paintings to a grateful Marc Chagall, Zoe begins her own investigation. Did the stolen paintings play any part in the brutal killing? Or was it a crime of passion? Zoe soon discovers that there were many people who had reason to resent the lovely Laurette. But who hated the girl enough to stop her clock permanently? When Zoe discovers a second murder victim, the pressure is on to find the killer before time—and luck—run out.
Download or read book America s Girl written by Tim Dahlberg and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2009-08-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's Girl is an intimate look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, but broke the record set by men. The feat so thrilled America that it welcomed her home with a ticker tape parade that drew two million people. This fascinating portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics, to the first attempt the next year by Ederle to swim from France to England in frigid and turbulent waters, a feat that had been conquered by only five men up to that time. This is also a stirring look at the go-go era of the 1920s, when the country was about to recognize that women not only could vote, but compete on an international scale as athletes. At the height of Prohibition, Ederle's triumph over the formidable Channel was a triumph for women everywhere. America's Girl immerses readers in a pivotal era of American history and brings to life the spirit of that time.
Download or read book Waterman written by David Davis and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Waterman is the first comprehensive biography of Duke Kahanamoku (1890–1968): swimmer, surfer, Olympic gold medalist, Hawaiian icon, waterman. Long before Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz made their splashes in the pool, Kahanamoku emerged from the backwaters of Waikiki to become America’s first superstar Olympic swimmer. The original “human fish” set dozens of world records and topped the world rankings for more than a decade; his rivalry with Johnny Weissmuller transformed competitive swimming from an insignificant sideshow into a headliner event. Kahanamoku used his Olympic renown to introduce the sport of “surf-riding,” an activity unknown beyond the Hawaiian Islands, to the world. Standing proudly on his traditional wooden longboard, he spread surfing from Australia to the Hollywood crowd in California to New Jersey. No American athlete has influenced two sports as profoundly as Kahanamoku did, and yet he remains an enigmatic and underappreciated figure: a dark-skinned Pacific Islander who encountered and overcame racism and ignorance long before the likes of Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and Jackie Robinson. Kahanamoku’s connection to his homeland was equally important. He was born when Hawaii was an independent kingdom; he served as the sheriff of Honolulu during Pearl Harbor and World War II and as a globetrotting “Ambassador of Aloha” afterward; he died not long after Hawaii attained statehood. As one sportswriter put it, Duke was “Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey combined down here.” In Waterman, award-winning journalist David Davis examines the remarkable life of Duke Kahanamoku, in and out of the water. Purchase the audio edition.
Download or read book Three Kings written by Todd Balf and published by Blackstone Publishing. This book was released on 2024-07-02 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of The Boys in the Boat, and marking the 100th anniversary of the Paris Olympics, the never-before-told story of three athletes who defied the odds to usher in a golden age of sports Even today, it’s considered one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. The hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring three of the world’s fastest swimmers—American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller, and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi—had the cultural impact of other milestone moments in Olympic history: Jesse Owens’s podiums in Berlin and John Carlos’s raised, black-gloved fist in Mexico City. Never before had an Olympic swimming final prominently featured athletes of different races, and never had it been broadcast live. Across the globe, fans held their breath. In less than a minute, an Olympic record would be shattered, and the three men would be scrutinized like few athletes before them. For the millions worldwide for whom swimming was a complete unknown, the trio did something few could imagine: moving faster through water than many could on land. As sportsmen, they were godlike heroes, embodying the hopes of those who called them their own, in the US and abroad. They personified strength and speed, and the glamour and innovation of the Roaring Twenties. But they also represented fraught assumptions about race and human performance. It was not only “East vs. West”—as newspapers in the 1920s described the competition with Japan—it was also brown versus white. Rich versus poor. New versus old. The race was about far more than swimming. Each man was a trailblazer and a bona fide celebrity in an age when athletes typically weren’t famous. Kahanamoku was Hawaii’s first superstar, largely responsible for making the state the popular travel destination it is today. Weissmuller, a poor immigrant, put Chicago on the sports map and would make it big as Hollywood’s first Tarzan. Takaishi inspired Japan to compete on the world stage and helped turn its swimmers into Olympic powerhouses. He and Kahanamoku in particular shattered the myth of white superiority when it came to sports, putting the lie to the decade’s burgeoning eugenics movement. Three Kings traces the careers and rivalries of these men and the epochal times they lived in. The 1920s were transformative, not just socially but for sports as well. For the first time, athletes of color were given a fair (though still not equal) chance, and competition wasn’t limited to the wealthy and privileged. Our modern-day conception of athleticism and competition—especially as it relates to the Olympics—traces back to this era and athletes like Kahanamoku, Weissmuller, and Takaishi, whose hard-won victories paved the way for all who followed.
Download or read book 1927 written by Thomas S. Hischak and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-06-12 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first solo transatlantic flight. The release of the first talking picture. The invention of the jukebox. These are just a handful of milestones that occurred in one momentous year. In a decade of historic firsts, 1927 stands out as the peak year of the Roaring Twenties, a span of time in which dozens of significant events took place—in America and around the world. The economy was booming, the Jazz Age was in full swing, social mores were looser than ever, and the nation was celebrating new dances, gadgets, and heroes. In sports, records were broken, and several champions in different fields thrilled fans with outstanding feats. In 1927: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of the Jazz Age’s Greatest Year, Thomas S. Hischak provides a daily account of this pivotal period in history. Every major news story—on the national and international stage—is accounted for, from popular culture phenomena to minor news items that would prove to be more important later. In addition to Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight, the book recounts such events as the discovery of the Peking Man, the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Shanghai Massacre, the Great Mississippi River Flood, and the advent of talking pictures with the arrival of The Jazz Singer. From the world of entertainment—the debut of the classic musical Show Boat and the formation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—to headlines that gripped the country, this book focuses on a diverse and complicated year. Scattered throughout the book are interesting statistics and pieces of information regarding life during this era. Highlighting the people, inventions, discoveries, and milestones that made these twelve months so special, 1927 will appeal to armchair historians everywhere.
Download or read book Made in Mexico written by Luis I. Reyes and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a century, directors from both sides of the border have chosen Mexico as the location to create their cinematic art, leaving an indelible imprint on the imaginations of moviegoers and filmmakers worldwide. Now, for the first time, Made in Mexico: Hollywood South of the Border presents a comprehensive examination of more than one hundred Hollywood theatrical feature films made in Mexico between 1914 and the present day. Lavishly illustrated throughout, Made in Mexico examines how Hollywood films depicted Mexico and how Mexico represented itself in relation to the films shot on location. It pulls back the curtain on how Hollywood filmmakers influenced Mexican films and Mexican filmmakers influenced Hollywood. Listed chronologically and featuring cast, credits, synopsis, and contemporary reviews along with a production history for each entry, this book highlights the concept of “crossing borders ” in which artists from both nations collaborated with one another. Made in Mexico also provides a brief historical perspective on the aesthetics, economics, and politics of the film industries in each country, giving readers a glimpse of the external forces at play in the production of these films. With motion pictures permeating the cultural and historical landscape of both Mexico and the United States, this compulsively readable compendium demonstrates the far-reaching influences of the featured films on the popular culture of both nations.
Download or read book Straight written by Wheeler Winston Dixon and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: straight / 'strāt (adj.) . . . without curves . . . correct . . . honest . . . not deviating from the normal . . . conventional . . . Heterosexual Practically all mainstream cinema is "straight," and has been since its inception. In Straight, Wheeler Winston Dixon explores how heterosexual performativity has been constructed in film, from early cinema to the present day. In addition to discussing how cinematic visions of masculine and feminine desire have been commodified and sold to reinforce existing societal constructs, Dixon also documents the recent emergence of "hypermasculinity," a kinetic and exaggerated masculinity that has been created to counter the more gentle, thoughtful male portrayed in While You Were Sleeping, Sleepless in Seattle, and other films that seemingly threaten the established order of patriarchal cinematic discourse.
Download or read book Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty First Century An Encyclopedia written by Steven A. Riess and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 1204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique new reference work, this encyclopedia presents a social, cultural, and economic history of American sports from hunting, bowling, and skating in the sixteenth century to televised professional sports and the X Games today. Nearly 400 articles examine historical and cultural aspects of leagues, teams, institutions, major competitions, the media and other related industries, as well as legal and social issues, economic factors, ethnic and racial participation, and the growth of institutions and venues. Also included are biographical entries on notable individuals—not just outstanding athletes, but owners and promoters, journalists and broadcasters, and innovators of other kinds—along with in-depth entries on the history of major and minor sports from air racing and archery to wrestling and yachting. A detailed chronology, master bibliography, and directory of institutions, organizations, and governing bodies—plus more than 100 vintage and contemporary photographs—round out the coverage.
Download or read book The Hollywood Book of Breakups written by James Robert Parish and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2010-12-20 with total page 677 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Half of all marriages end in divorce--and then there are the really unhappy ones." --Joan Rivers Do you suppose that the person who first said "Life is stranger than fiction" might have had Hollywood marriages in mind? Why watch a romantic film starring a leading man and a leading lady when their real-life romances are so much more interesting? It seems that a celebrity's latest film can have a considerably longer life span in the theater than his or her marriage du jour. One would almost think that Tinseltown has come to embrace divorce as an accepted pastime. Some celebrities have seemingly collected spouses over the years, systematically adding notches in their belts of divorces. Cases in point: Zsa Zsa Gabor (nine), Lana Turner (eight), Elizabeth Taylor (nine), and Mickey Rooney (eight). This list appears to make Jennifer Lopez a mere novice with only three marriages, two divorces, and one terminated engagement to date. In The Hollywood Book of Breakups, James Robert Parish looks at scores of hot Hollywood romances that eventually fell apart. From the decade-long union of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to the "just-for-show" nuptials of Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates to the four-and-a-half-year marriage of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to the "other woman" divorce of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Parish covers it all--from the burning embers to the fizzling fires of Hollywood breakups. You couldn't make this stuff up--and James Robert Parish doesn't need to. Hollywood writes its own drama when it comes to scandalous breakups.
Download or read book Mindset List of the Obscure written by Ron Nief and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An entertaining trip through pop culture, for the "old fogeys" and "kids these days" Today's teens and twentysomethings have never seen a real airplane ticket. To them, point-and-shoot cameras are so last millennium and "Star Wars" is a movie, not a defense strategy. The world views of today's young and old have never been more different. In this entertaining romp through American culture, the creators of the Beloit College Mindset List explore 75 icons once-famous and now forgotten-from Abbott and Costello to the singing telegram. Packed with entertaining facts, trivia, and photos, this is the perfect gift for college students, their oh-so-outdated parents, and pop culture mavens nostalgic for days gone by.
Download or read book An Ordinary Hero written by Debra Feldman and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003-08-11 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who becomes a hero? Where does their story really start--the beginning or the end? Is the past unchangeable? Has the future already happened? Is Time a constant or, like Albert Einstein said, all relative, with past, present and future coexisting? In the midst of the Vietnam war, five unlikely friends join forces to answer those questions and unmask a traitor--the Brasshole responsible for orchestrating two suicide missions, hundreds dead. A legend joined to a story, meant to guide the friends, was sent from the past into the future and back again, but remained an unsolved puzzle for generations. Only by working together, utilizing bits of information they each possess, can the friends decipher the ancient tale and discover that their friendship was not random, nor have they each simply been lucky in war. Time has manipulated their lives, aided and protected them, marking one for travel to the past, so that, that which is meant to be can be preserved. Time's goal? For them to arrive at a future they are promised has already happened. What bits of the past will ultimately remain and what will have been the cost of preserving it? Only a hero knows.
