"In the end we all become stories"
Margret Atwood
During his whirlwind 1903 tour of the western states, President Theodore Roosevelt paid his first visit to California. In between the appearances and pageantry, he embarked on three days of epic adventure in the wilderness of Yosemite with the famous and influential naturalist John Muir. A lover of the rugged outdoors, Roosevelt was humbled and impressed by the camping trip, which proved to be one of the most important sojourns in presidential history. Through firsthand accounts, speeches and rare photographs, author Chris Epting tells the story of a great and profound journey that had a lasting effect on conservation history and the National Park System.
Roadside Baseball is a fascinating read as well as a fantastic travel guide and history book all in one. Baseball's rich history is celebrated in Cooperstown, N.Y., but it's only a glimpse of baseball's storied past. Baseball history lives in the city streets of Brooklyn to the country fields of Iowa. It's in these places you'll find birthplaces, shrines, museums, final resting places and out-of-the-way spots where Baseball's history was made or still is preserved.
Anyone who has ever wondered where Dorothy's ruby slippers, George Washington's teeth, or the world's largest olive are located will be thrilled to take this journey to find hundreds of the most important items from America's popular culture. Found in such major institutions as the Smithsonian and the Basketball Hall of Fame as well as in such offbeat collections as the Sing Sing Prison Museum and the Delta Blues Museum, these pop culture treasures include the most famous—and quirkiest—items from movies, crime, TV, sports, music, history, and America's roadside attractions.
In Hello, It’s Me, pop culture historian Chris Epting celebrates the cultural touchstones of the past 40 years—the music, movies, television, hobbies, and fads that have defined recent generations.
Whether it’s shooting hoops with NBA legend Elgin Baylor, drinking whiskey in a Radio City Music Hall broom closet with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart while thousands of fans scream from below, sharing a milkshake with Jerry Lewis, running into Alfred Hitchcock’s stomach as a young child, or jumping on a trampoline with Sally Struthers, Chris Epting takes us on his own strange trip through time, space and hula hoops.
Bob Dylan’s motorcycle accident. Mick Jagger’s Memory Motel. Buddy Holly’s crash site. Bob Marley’s U.S. debut. Elvis Presley’s first public performance. The Sex Pistols’ first and last concert in America. The home where Kurt Cobain died. Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off of a bat. David Bowie’s secret Diamond Dogs rehearsal location. Bruce Springsteen’s “E” Street. John Lennon’s final days. Monterey Pop. Woodstock. Altamont.
In Led Zeppelin Crashed Here: The Rock and Roll Landmarks of North America, pop culture historian Chris Epting takes you on a journey across North America to the exact locations where rock and roll history was made.
James Dean Died Here takes you on a journey across North America to the exact locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place. It's a road map for pop culture sites, from Patty Hearst's bank to the garage where Apple Computer was born. Featuring hundreds of photographs, this fully illustrated encyclopedic look at the most famous and infamous pop culture events includes historical information on over 600 landmarks—as well as their exact location. James Dean Died Here is an amazing portrait of the bizarre, shocking, weird and wonderful moments that have come to define American popular culture.
In her extraordinary swimming career, Shirley Babashoff set thirty-nine national records and eleven world records. Prior to the 1990s, she was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer in the world. Heading into the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Babashoff was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and followed closely by the media. Hopes were high that she would become “the female Mark Spitz.”
All of that changed once Babashoff questioned the shocking masculinity of the swimmers on the East German women’s team. Once celebrated as America’s golden girl, Babashoff was accused of poor sportsmanship and vilified by the press with a new nickname: “Surly Shirley.”
In 1945, a watershed moment in pop culture history occurred when Norma Jeane Baker walked into a beauty salon at 6513 Hollywood Boulevard and changed her hair from brunette to blonde. With Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here, Chris Epting follows up his critically acclaimed James Dean Died Here with another collection of the locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place. This fully illustrated encyclopedic look at the most famous and infamous pop culture events includes historical information on over 600 landmarks-as well as their exact locations. Like its predecessor, Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here is an amazing portrait of the bizarre, shocking, weird, and wonderful moments that have come to define American popular culture.
John Oates was born at the perfect time, paralleling the birth of rock ‘n roll. Raised in a small Pennsylvania town, he was exposed to folk, blues, soul, and R&B. Meeting and teaming up with Daryl Hall in the late 1960s, they developed a style of music that was uniquely their own but never abandoned their roots. John uncovers the grit and struggle it took to secure a recording contract with the legendary Atlantic Records and chronicles the artistic twists and turns that resulted in a DJ discovering an obscure album track that would become their first hit record. This is not your typical rock and roll story. John was focused creating great music. Along the way he achieved incredible success, battling the ever-changing pop music landscape and coming to terms with complex managerial, business, and personal challenges.
Idol Truth: A Memoir
Leif Garrett with Chris Epting
Elvis Presley Passed Here is an amazing portrait of the bizarre, shocking, weird, and wonderful moments that have come to define American popular culture. The follow-up to the critically acclaimed James Dean Died Here and Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here, this third collection of the locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place offers a fully illustrated encyclopedic look at the most famous—and infamous—pop culture events, providing historical information on more than 600 landmarks as well as their exact locations (including, of course, the Los Angeles park where Elvis Presley and his entourage would organize spirited touch football games against other celebrities).
