Max Hoffman

This fascinating story charts the career of Max Hoffman, the US car dealer who represented Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Fiat, Lancia, BMW, and many other European car brands during the decades following WWII. He pushed for distinguished now-classics like the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, Porsche Speedster, BMW 507, and Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider. Hoffman built a reputation as an effective middleman, but as the car companies he represented became more successful under his watch, the less they needed their go-between. When it was inevitably time to say goodbye to Maxie, he showed his teeth with everything from lawsuits against his suppliers, to threatening executives with a mob hit. However, Hoffman also had a very good reason to be defensive. He understood the American market, and he pushed manufacturers specifically for cars that would strike a chord and make everybody involved richer. Sometimes the hero, sometimes the villain, but more often than not, Max Hoffman was the unseen puppet master behind some of today’s best classics.

'Frank Lloyd wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959', examines the momentous five-year period when one of the world's greatest architects and one of the world's greatest cities coexisted. Authors Jane Hession and Debra Prickel bring each of these unequalled characters to life, exploring the fascinating contradiction between Wright's often-voiced disdain of New York and his pride and pleasure of living in one of the city's greatest landmarks: the Plaza Hotel. From his suite, or 'Taliesin the Third', as it became known, Wright supervised construction of the Guggenheim, sparred with the New York press, and received many famous vistitors such as Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller. home...;Michael Carroll, a renowned astronomical and paleo artist for more than twenty years, has done work for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His art has appeared in many magazines, including 'Time', 'National Geographic', 'Sky & Telescope', and ' Asimov's Science Fiction'. One of his paintings flew aboard MIR; another is resting at the bottom of the Atlantic, aboard Russia's ill-fated Mars 96 spacecraft. nd development without constraining

Despite the stock market crash of October 1929, thousands of theatregoers still flocked to the Great White Way throughout the country’s darkest years. In keeping with the Depression and the events leading up to World War II, 1930s Broadway was distinguished by numerous political revues and musicals, including three by George Gershwin (Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing, and Let ’Em Eat Cake). The decade also saw the last musicals by Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Vincent Youmans; found Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in full flower; and introduced both Kurt Weill and Harold Arlen’s music to Broadway. In The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals, Dan Dietz examines in detail every musical that opened on Broadway from 1930 through 1939. This book discusses the era’s major successes, notorious failures, and musicals that closed during their pre-Broadway tryouts. It includes such shows as Anything Goes, As Thousands Cheer, Babes in Arms, The Boys from Syracuse, The Cradle Will Rock, The Green Pastures, Hellzapoppin, Hot Mikado, Porgy and Bess, Roberta, and various editions of Ziegfeld Follies. Each entry contains the following information: Plot summary Cast members Names of all important personnel, including writers, composers, directors, choreographers, producers, and musical directors Opening and closing dates Number of performances Critical commentary Musical numbers and the performers who introduced the songs Production data, including information about tryouts Source material Details about London and other foreign productions Besides separate entries for each production, the book offers numerous appendixes, including a discography, filmography, and list of published scripts, as well as lists of black-themed and Jewish-themed productions. This comprehensive book contains a wealth of information and provides a comprehensive view of each show. The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals will be of use to scholars, historians, and casual fans of one of the greatest decades in musical theatre history.

Throughout the centuries, different cultures have established a variety of procedures for handling and disposing of corpses. Often the methods are directly associated with the deceased's position in life, such as a pharaoh's mummification in Egypt or the cremation of a Buddhist. Treatment by the living of the dead over time and across cultures is the focus of study. Burial arrangements and preparations are detailed, including embalming, the funeral service, storage and transport of the body, and forms of burial. Autopsies and the investigative process of causes of deliberate death are fully covered. Preservation techniques such as cryonic suspension and mummification are discussed, as well as a look at the recycling of the corpse through organ donation, donation to medicine, animal scavengers, cannibalism, and, of course, natural decay and decomposition. Mistreatments of a corpse are also covered.

Murder and Meth in the High Desert is the true story of the 1987 kidnapping and murder of police drug informant Denise Williams. The book follows the lives of the victim, the suspects, and the police officers who investigated the case. One suspect is murdered prior to being convicted. One suspect pleads guilty, and the other stands trial for the murder. The book follows the trial and appeals of this suspect, with actual court testimony from some of the many court trials and hearings. Alan Creech, the lead detective on the Denise Williams case, becomes obsessed with solving the murder. The book describes the many twists and turns the case takes, including the theft of evidence and the attempted murder of a police service dog.

Ilyana is an historical drama set in Germany during the Weimar and Nazi periods. The storyline follows the chequered life of Max Rieker, an NCO in the Waffen-SS, who finds himself at the cutting edge of one of the most evil and brutal regimes in history. The ordeals Max and his comrades endure, the challenges they face and the opinions they voice vividly portray what it must have been like to live through those times from a German perspective. Meticulously researched, Ilyana provides a rare ‘other side of the coin’ standpoint for the German people correcting a number of misconceptions about the men of the Waffen-SS as well as offering compelling insights as to why Adolf Hitler despised Jews and Freemasons.