2017, ISBN: 9780671491215

Paperback, Hardcover

A National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his… More...

A National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school track team, but his past is slowing him down in this first electrifying novel of the acclaimed Trackseries from Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Awardwinning author Jason Reynolds.Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track teama team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.Running. That's all Ghost (real name Castle Cranshaw) has ever known. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasonsit all started with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problemsand running away from themuntil he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who sees something in Ghost: crazy natural talent. If Ghost can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed, or will his past finally catch up to him?, Atheneum/caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2017-08, 6, -: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008. Paperback. Good. -. Stay-at-home mum Fran Clarke is approaching both her thirty-seventh birthday and crisis point. Once a brilliant voiceover artist, she now hasn`t worked for years. The talent hasn`t deserted her -- only her self-belief. She could have it all, if she could only see it. But with her confidence shot and a husband who no longer knows how to help her, most days all she sees is the bottom of a wine glass. Fran knows she has to stop the downward spiral before she self-destructs completely. But she hits rock bottom when she realises she can`t even solve the problems of her own two children. And if she thinks she`s a hopeless flake, imagine what the other school-run mums think of her. Ultimately it is her two best friends she must thank for her salvation. Not because they are there for her, but because she learns to be there for them. Being a mum can be hysterically funny. But it can also be heartbreakingly tough. That`s Motherland. --> Genre: Literary Fiction Humour, Hodder & Stoughton, 2008, 2.5, Dean Martin Fan Center Magazine Issue Number 51, October 2006 - feature: Martin & Lewispublication of The Dean Martin Fan Club, Arcadia, CAPaperback8 1/2 x 11 inches, 35 pagessee Table of ContentsDean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 December 25, 1995) was an Italian-American singer, actor, comedian, and film producer. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed the "King of Cool" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assurance.He and Jerry Lewis were partners as the immensely popular comedy team Martin and Lewis, and afterwards he was a member of the "Rat Pack", and a star in concert stages, nightclubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television. He was the host of the television variety program The Dean Martin Show (19651974) and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast (19741984).Martin's relaxed, warbling crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles including his signature songs "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare", and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?".Martin was born on June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, to an Italian father, Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti (18941967), and an Italian-American mother, Angela Crocetti (née Barra; 18991966). They were married in 1914. His father, who was a barber, was originally from Montesilvano, in Abruzzo, and his maternal grandparents' origins are believed to be also from Abruzzo although it is not clearly known. Martin had an older brother named William Alfonso Crocetti (1916-1968). Martin's first language was an Abruzzese dialect of Italian, and he did not speak English until he started school at the age of five. He attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville where he was bullied for his broken English. He later took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. Martin then dropped out of Steubenville High School in the 10th grade because he thought he was smarter than his teachers. He bootlegged liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as a welterweight.At 15 he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, many broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford tape used to wrap boxers' hands), and a bruised body. Of his 12 bouts, he said: "I won all but 11." For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one was knocked out; people paid to watch. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match. Martin gave up boxing to work as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop, where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time he sang with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini). He got his break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin.In October 1941 Martin married Elizabeth "Betty" Anne McDonald. They had four children before the marriage ended in 1949. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style. Martin flopped at the Riobamba, a nightclub in New York, when he followed Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting. Martin was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, serving a year in Akron, Ohio. He was reclassified as 4-F and discharged, possibly because of a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery Martin needed for this in his autobiography). By 1946, Martin was doing well, but he was little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby.Martin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He met comic Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York, where both were performing. Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the formation of a music-comedy team. Martin and Lewis's debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show that night, they would be fired. Huddling in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", they divided their act between songs, skits, and ad-libbed material. Martin sang and Lewis dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of Martin's performance and the club's decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with breadrolls.They did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads. The audience laughed. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a run at New York's Copacabana. The act consisted of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, with the two ultimately chasing each other around the stage. The secret, both said, is that they ignored the audience and played to each other. The team made its TV debut on the first broadcast of CBS-TV network's The Ed Sullivan Show (then called "The Toast Of The Town") on June 20, 1948, with composers Rodgers and Hammerstein also appearing. Hoping to improve their act, the two hired young comedy writers Norman Lear and Ed Simmons to write their bits. With the assistance of both Lear and Simmons, the two would take their act beyond nightclubs.A radio series began in 1949, the year Martin and Lewis signed with Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions.They also controlled their club, record, radio and television appearances, and through these they earned millions of dollars. In Dean & Me, Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. They were friends as well, Lewis acting as best man when Martin remarried in 1949. But harsh comments from critics, as well as frustration with the similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction. He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. Martin told his partner he was "nothing to me but a dollar sign". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day from the first teaming. Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll to the fore, the era of the pop crooner was waning.Martin wanted to become a real actor, known for more than slapstick comedy films. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in a war drama, The Young Lions (1958), his part would be with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this film, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in night clubs, films and records. Martin replaced Randall and the film turned out to be the beginning of Martin's comeback. Martin starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in the Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958). By the mid-1960s, Martin was a movie, recording, television and nightclub star, while Lewis' film career declined. Martin was acclaimed as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. He would team again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), cast as brothers. In 1960, Martin was cast in the film version of the Judy Holliday stage musical comedy Bells Are Ringing. He won a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the 1960 film comedy Who Was That Lady? but continued to seek dramatic roles, portraying a Southern politician in 1961's Ada and starring in 1963's screen adaptation of an intense stage drama, Toys in the Attic, opposite Geraldine Page, as well as in 1970's drama Airport, a huge box-office success.He and Sinatra teamed up for several more movies, the crime caper Ocean's 11, the musical Robin and the 7 Hoods and the western comedies Sergeants 3 and 4 for Texas, some featuring their so-called Rat Pack pals Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, as well as a romantic comedy, Marriage on the Rocks. Martin also co-starred with Shirley MacLaine in a number of films, including Some Came Running, Artists and Models, Career, All in a Night's Work and What a Way to Go! He played a satiric variation of his own womanizing persona as Las Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he poked fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, in which he was a co-producer. In the third Matt Helm film The Ambushers (1967), Helm, about to be executed, receives a last cigarette and tells the provider, "I'll remember you from the great beyond," continuing sotto voce, "somewhere around Steubenville, I hope."As a singer, Martin copied the styles of Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby. Like Sinatra, he could not read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody", knocked the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" off number one in the United States in 1964. This was followed by "The Door is Still Open to My Heart", which reached number six that year. Elvis Presley was said to have been influenced by Martin, and patterned "Love Me Tender" after his style. Martin, like Elvis, was influenced by country music. By 1965, some of Martin's albums, such as Dean "Tex" Martin Rides Again, Houston, Welcome to My World and Gentle on My Mind, were composed of country and western songs by artists such as Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Martin hosted country performers on his TV show and was named "Man Of the Year" by the Country Music Association in 1966. The final album of his recording career was 1983's The Nashville Sessions.But the image of Martin as a Vegas entertainer in a tuxedo has been an enduring one. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?", a song Martin performed in Ocean's 11, did not become a hit at the time, but has enjoyed a revival in the media and pop culture. For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics in the business, benefiting from the decade of comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter, Gail, also sang in Vegas and on many TV shows including his, co-hosting his summer replacement series on NBC. Daughter Deana Martin continues to perform, as did youngest son Ricci Martin until his death in August 2016. Eldest son Craig was a producer on Martin's television show and daughter Claudia was an actress in films such as For Those Who Think Young. Though often thought of as a ladies' man, Martin spent a lot of time with his family; as second wife Jeanne put it, prior to the couple's divorce, "He was home every night for dinner."As Martin's solo career grew, he and Frank Sinatra became friends. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr. formed the Rat Pack, so-called after an earlier group of social friends, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack centered on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of which Sinatra had been a member (The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as "The Summit" or "The Clan" and never as "The Rat Pack", although this has remained their identity in popular imagination). The men made films together, formed part of the Hollywood social scene, and were politically influential (through Lawford's marriage to Patricia Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy).The Rat Pack was legendary for its Las Vegas Strip performances. For example, the marquee at the Sands Hotel might read DEAN MARTINMAYBE FRANKMAYBE SAMMY. Their appearances were valuable because the city would flood with wealthy gamblers. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and trios, along with seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Sinatra's womanizing and Martin's drinking, as well as Davis's race and religion. Sinatra and Martin supported the civil rights movement and refused to perform in clubs that would not allow African-American or Jewish performers. Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad Pitt "Ocean's Trilogy."In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which ran for 264 episodes until 1974. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1966 and was nominated again the following three years.The show exploited his image as a carefree boozer. Martin capitalized on his laid-back persona of the half-drunk crooner, hitting on women with remarks that would get anyone else slapped, and making snappy if slurred remarks about fellow celebrities during his roasts. During an interview on the British TV documentary Wine, Women and Song, aired in 1983, he stated, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that he had someone record them on cassette tape so he could listen to them. His TV show was a success. The show's loose format featured quick-witted improvisation from Martin and his weekly guests. This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the content. The show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, appreciative of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% of the show.However, the validity of that ownership is the subject of a lawsuit brought by NBCUniversal. Despite Martin's reputation as a drinker perpetuated via his vanity license plate "DRUNKY" he masked his self-discipline. He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location, liked to go home to see his wife and children. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers, The Dean Martin Fan Club, 2006, 4, Dean Martin Fan Center Magazine Issue Number 42, May 2004 - feature: Don Cherrypublication of The Dean Martin Fan Club, Arcadia, CAPaperback8 1/2 x 11 inches, 39 pagessee Table of ContentsDean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 December 25, 1995) was an Italian-American singer, actor, comedian, and film producer. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed the "King of Cool" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assurance.He and Jerry Lewis were partners as the immensely popular comedy team Martin and Lewis, and afterwards he was a member of the "Rat Pack", and a star in concert stages, nightclubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television. He was the host of the television variety program The Dean Martin Show (19651974) and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast (19741984).Martin's relaxed, warbling crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles including his signature songs "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare", and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?".Martin was born on June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, to an Italian father, Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti (18941967), and an Italian-American mother, Angela Crocetti (née Barra; 18991966). They were married in 1914. His father, who was a barber, was originally from Montesilvano, in Abruzzo, and his maternal grandparents' origins are believed to be also from Abruzzo although it is not clearly known. Martin had an older brother named William Alfonso Crocetti (1916-1968). Martin's first language was an Abruzzese dialect of Italian, and he did not speak English until he started school at the age of five. He attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville where he was bullied for his broken English. He later took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. Martin then dropped out of Steubenville High School in the 10th grade because he thought he was smarter than his teachers. He bootlegged liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as a welterweight.At 15 he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, many broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford tape used to wrap boxers' hands), and a bruised body. Of his 12 bouts, he said: "I won all but 11." For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one was knocked out; people paid to watch. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match. Martin gave up boxing to work as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop, where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time he sang with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini). He got his break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin.In October 1941 Martin married Elizabeth "Betty" Anne McDonald. They had four children before the marriage ended in 1949. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style. Martin flopped at the Riobamba, a nightclub in New York, when he followed Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting. Martin was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, serving a year in Akron, Ohio. He was reclassified as 4-F and discharged, possibly because of a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery Martin needed for this in his autobiography). By 1946, Martin was doing well, but he was little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby.Martin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He met comic Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York, where both were performing. Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the formation of a music-comedy team. Martin and Lewis's debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show that night, they would be fired. Huddling in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", they divided their act between songs, skits, and ad-libbed material. Martin sang and Lewis dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of Martin's performance and the club's decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with breadrolls.They did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads. The audience laughed. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a run at New York's Copacabana. The act consisted of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, with the two ultimately chasing each other around the stage. The secret, both said, is that they ignored the audience and played to each other. The team made its TV debut on the first broadcast of CBS-TV network's The Ed Sullivan Show (then called "The Toast Of The Town") on June 20, 1948, with composers Rodgers and Hammerstein also appearing. Hoping to improve their act, the two hired young comedy writers Norman Lear and Ed Simmons to write their bits. With the assistance of both Lear and Simmons, the two would take their act beyond nightclubs.A radio series began in 1949, the year Martin and Lewis signed with Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions.They also controlled their club, record, radio and television appearances, and through these they earned millions of dollars. In Dean & Me, Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. They were friends as well, Lewis acting as best man when Martin remarried in 1949. But harsh comments from critics, as well as frustration with the similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction. He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. Martin told his partner he was "nothing to me but a dollar sign". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day from the first teaming. Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll to the fore, the era of the pop crooner was waning.Martin wanted to become a real actor, known for more than slapstick comedy films. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in a war drama, The Young Lions (1958), his part would be with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this film, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in night clubs, films and records. Martin replaced Randall and the film turned out to be the beginning of Martin's comeback. Martin starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in the Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958). By the mid-1960s, Martin was a movie, recording, television and nightclub star, while Lewis' film career declined. Martin was acclaimed as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. He would team again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), cast as brothers. In 1960, Martin was cast in the film version of the Judy Holliday stage musical comedy Bells Are Ringing. He won a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the 1960 film comedy Who Was That Lady? but continued to seek dramatic roles, portraying a Southern politician in 1961's Ada and starring in 1963's screen adaptation of an intense stage drama, Toys in the Attic, opposite Geraldine Page, as well as in 1970's drama Airport, a huge box-office success.He and Sinatra teamed up for several more movies, the crime caper Ocean's 11, the musical Robin and the 7 Hoods and the western comedies Sergeants 3 and 4 for Texas, some featuring their so-called Rat Pack pals Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, as well as a romantic comedy, Marriage on the Rocks. Martin also co-starred with Shirley MacLaine in a number of films, including Some Came Running, Artists and Models, Career, All in a Night's Work and What a Way to Go! He played a satiric variation of his own womanizing persona as Las Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he poked fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, in which he was a co-producer. In the third Matt Helm film The Ambushers (1967), Helm, about to be executed, receives a last cigarette and tells the provider, "I'll remember you from the great beyond," continuing sotto voce, "somewhere around Steubenville, I hope."As a singer, Martin copied the styles of Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby. Like Sinatra, he could not read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody", knocked the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" off number one in the United States in 1964. This was followed by "The Door is Still Open to My Heart", which reached number six that year. Elvis Presley was said to have been influenced by Martin, and patterned "Love Me Tender" after his style. Martin, like Elvis, was influenced by country music. By 1965, some of Martin's albums, such as Dean "Tex" Martin Rides Again, Houston, Welcome to My World and Gentle on My Mind, were composed of country and western songs by artists such as Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Martin hosted country performers on his TV show and was named "Man Of the Year" by the Country Music Association in 1966. The final album of his recording career was 1983's The Nashville Sessions.But the image of Martin as a Vegas entertainer in a tuxedo has been an enduring one. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?", a song Martin performed in Ocean's 11, did not become a hit at the time, but has enjoyed a revival in the media and pop culture. For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics in the business, benefiting from the decade of comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter, Gail, also sang in Vegas and on many TV shows including his, co-hosting his summer replacement series on NBC. Daughter Deana Martin continues to perform, as did youngest son Ricci Martin until his death in August 2016. Eldest son Craig was a producer on Martin's television show and daughter Claudia was an actress in films such as For Those Who Think Young. Though often thought of as a ladies' man, Martin spent a lot of time with his family; as second wife Jeanne put it, prior to the couple's divorce, "He was home every night for dinner."As Martin's solo career grew, he and Frank Sinatra became friends. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr. formed the Rat Pack, so-called after an earlier group of social friends, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack centered on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of which Sinatra had been a member (The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as "The Summit" or "The Clan" and never as "The Rat Pack", although this has remained their identity in popular imagination). The men made films together, formed part of the Hollywood social scene, and were politically influential (through Lawford's marriage to Patricia Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy).The Rat Pack was legendary for its Las Vegas Strip performances. For example, the marquee at the Sands Hotel might read DEAN MARTINMAYBE FRANKMAYBE SAMMY. Their appearances were valuable because the city would flood with wealthy gamblers. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and trios, along with seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Sinatra's womanizing and Martin's drinking, as well as Davis's race and religion. Sinatra and Martin supported the civil rights movement and refused to perform in clubs that would not allow African-American or Jewish performers. Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad Pitt "Ocean's Trilogy."In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which ran for 264 episodes until 1974. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1966 and was nominated again the following three years.The show exploited his image as a carefree boozer. Martin capitalized on his laid-back persona of the half-drunk crooner, hitting on women with remarks that would get anyone else slapped, and making snappy if slurred remarks about fellow celebrities during his roasts. During an interview on the British TV documentary Wine, Women and Song, aired in 1983, he stated, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that he had someone record them on cassette tape so he could listen to them. His TV show was a success. The show's loose format featured quick-witted improvisation from Martin and his weekly guests. This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the content. The show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, appreciative of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% of the show.However, the validity of that ownership is the subject of a lawsuit brought by NBCUniversal. Despite Martin's reputation as a drinker perpetuated via his vanity license plate "DRUNKY" he masked his self-discipline. He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location, liked to go home to see his wife and children. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Cam, The Dean Martin Fan Club, 2004, 4, Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964. Hard cover. Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Perma-Bound sticker on front, inked inventory number on side page edges; clean, tight; paper age toning. Formerly, MM paperback.. 1 426 p. Perma-Bound ex-school inventory; originally Mass Market PB format. Orange-headed, horned devil on cover. Classic poetic drama by Germany's von Goethe (1749-1832), a universally acknowledged genius of great energy and diverse talents. The legend of Doctor Faust served as his base (60 yrs in the writing) for this symbolic treatment of a man's creative aspirations. It was written during great change and upheaval in Germany. Taylor's translation, is modernized in spelling and punctuation. Perma-Bound school edition, complete, using American idiom identified with Taylor's 19th century translation., Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964, 3<

2006, ISBN: 9780671491215

Hardcover

Vintage International. Very Good. 4.37 x 0.75 x 7.13 inches. Paperback. 2006. 272 pages. <br>Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-B aptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned o… More...

Vintage International. Very Good. 4.37 x 0.75 x 7.13 inches. Paperback. 2006. 272 pages. <br>Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-B aptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Pari s as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gi ft: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human's. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in all the city. Yet t here is one odor he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. A nd kill... Editorial Reviews From Library Journal Penguin's una bridged production of this international best seller is a thoroug hly captivating production. Suskind's demented protagonist, Jean- Baptist Grenouille, is a gifted abomination whose highly develope d sense of smell could easily make him the greatest perfumer of a ll time. Given the general stench of 18th-century cities, good pe rfumers were held in high regard. However, Grenouille the misfit, scorned by society throughout his life, hasn't the heart to crea te pretty perfumes for society's elite. When he finally does earn the adoration of the masses through his twisted genius, he decid es that he would much prefer to exterminate all these stupid, sti nking people from the earth. Reader Sean Barrett does not overdra matize the often sensational events here but instead relates them with a measured, detached air that perfectly captures Suskind's cool tone. Also, his reserved narrative style allows listeners to appreciate Suskind's expert use of language (passages from this novel can be found in dictionaries of similes). This extraordinar y production is highly recommended for all serious fiction collec tions.?Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., Ohio Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From the Inside Flap An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Sus kind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what ha ppens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion-his sense of smell-leads to murder. In the slums of eighteenth-century Fr ance, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublim e gift-an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfu mer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and h erbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more -terrifying quest to create the ultimate perfume-the scent of a b eautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Pe rfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravi ty. Translated by John E. Woods A fable of crimial genius.... R emarkable. --The New York Times Superb storytelling all the way ...the climax is a savage shocker. --The Plain Dealer An astonis hing performance, a masterwork of artistic conception and executi on. A totally gripping page-turner. --The San Francisco Chronicl e --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From the Back Cover Superb storytelling all the way ...the climax is a savage shocker.-The Cleveland Plain Dealer --T his text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review A fable of crimial genius.... Remarkable. -The Ne w York Times Mesmerizing from first page to last.... A highly so phisticated horror tale. -The Plain Dealer A supremely accomplis hed work of art, marvelously crafted and enjoyable and rich in hi storical detail. -The San Francisco Chronicle An original and as tonishing novel. -People An ingenious story...about a most exoti c monster.... Suspense build up steadily. -Los Angeles Times Imm ensely seductive.... Storytelling at its best. -The Kansas City S tar --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From AudioFile In leisurely, aristocratic measure s soaked with irony, PERFUME unfolds the gruesome, picaresque all egory of an olfactory genius-monster--a murderous perfumer of dec adent eighteenth-century France. Sean Barrett gives a masterfully effete reading, with flawless articulations of character and wic ked, understated nuances. He wisely plays the humor not at all, i nstead accentuating a kind of connoisseur's study of the Grand Gu ignol. Eschewing overtly Gallic inflections, he puts pre-Revoluti onary France in his voice merely through lightness of touch. A fe ast for lovers of voluptuous language, sly wit and epicurean mayh em. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE's Earphones Award. (c)AudioFile, Por tland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All r ights reserved. 1 In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an e ra that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His sto ry will be told here. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name-in contrast to the names of other gifted abominations , de Sade's, for instance, or Saint-Just's, Fouch?'s, Bonaparte's , etc.-has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Gren ouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came t o arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, to wic kedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restric ted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent. In the period of which we speak, there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and wo men. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the st airwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of s tale dust, the bedrooms of greasy sheets, damp featherbeds, and t he pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. The stench of sulfur ro se from the chimneys, the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneri es, and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blo od. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth, from their bellies that of oni ons, and from their bodies, if they were no longer very young, ca me the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease . The rivers stank, the marketplaces stank, the churches stank, i t stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces. The peasant stank as did the priest, the apprentice as did his master's wife, the whole of the aristocracy stank, even the king himself stank, stan k like a rank lion, and the queen like an old goat, summer and wi nter. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder b acteria busy at decomposition, and so there was no human activity , either constructive or destructive, no manifestation of germina ting or decaying life that was not accompanied by stench. And of course the stench was foulest in Paris, for Paris was the larges t city of France. And in turn there was a spot in Paris under the sway of a particularly fiendish stench: between the rue aux Fers and the rue de la Ferronnerie, the Cimeti?re des Innocents to be exact. For eight hundred years the dead had been brought here fr om the H?tel-Dieu and from the surrounding parish churches, for e ight hundred years, day in, day out, corpses by the dozens had be en carted here and tossed into long ditches, stacked bone upon bo ne for eight hundred years in the tombs and charnel houses. Only later-on the eve of the Revolution, after several of the grave pi ts had caved in and the stench had driven the swollen graveyard's neighbors to more than mere protest and to actual insurrection-w as it finally closed and abandoned. Millions of bones and skulls were shoveled into the catacombs of Montmartre and in its place a food market was erected. Here, then, on the most putrid spot in the whole kingdom, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born on July 17, 1738. It was one of the hottest days of the year. The heat lay l eaden upon the graveyard, squeezing its putrefying vapor, a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn, out in to the nearby alleys. When the labor pains began, Grenouille's mo ther was standing at a fish stall in the rue aux Fers, scaling wh iting that she had just gutted. The fish, ostensibly taken that v ery morning from the Seine, already stank so vilely that the smel l masked the odor of corpses. Grenouille's mother, however, perce ived the odor neither of the fish nor of the corpses, for her sen se of smell had been utterly dulled, besides which her belly hurt , and the pain deadened all susceptibility to sensate impressions . She only wanted the pain to stop, she wanted to put this revolt ing birth behind her as quickly as possible. It was her fifth. Sh e had effected all the others here at the fish booth, and all had been stillbirths or semi-stillbirths, for the bloody meat that e merged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already, nor had lived much longer, and by evening the whole mes s had been shoveled away and carted off to the graveyard or down to the river. It would be much the same this day, and Grenouille' s mother, who was still a young woman, barely in her mid-twenties , and who still was quite pretty and had almost all her teeth in her mouth and some hair on her head and-except for gout and syphi lis and a touch of consumption-suffered from no serious disease, who still hoped to live a while yet, perhaps a good five or ten y ears, and perhaps even to marry one day and as the honorable wife of a widower with a trade or some such to bear real children . . . Grenouille's mother wished that it were already over. And when the final contractions began, she squatted down under the guttin g table and there gave birth, as she had done four times before, and cut the newborn thing's umbilical cord with her butcher knife . But then, on account of the heat and the stench, which she did not perceive as such but only as an unbearable, numbing something -like a field of lilies or a small room filled with too many daff odils-she grew faint, toppled to one side, fell out from under th e table into the street, and lay there, knife in hand. Tumult an d turmoil. The crowd stands in a circle around her, staring, some one hails the police. The woman with the knife in her hand is sti ll lying in the street. Slowly she comes to. What has happened t o her? Nothing. What is she doing with that knife? Nothing. W here does the blood on her skirt come from? From the fish. She stands up, tosses the knife aside, and walks off to wash. And th en, unexpectedly, the infant under the gutting table begins to sq uall. They have a look, and beneath a swarm of flies and amid the offal and fish heads they discover the newborn child. They pull it out. As prescribed by law, they give it to a wet nurse and arr est the mother. And since she confesses, openly admitting that sh e would definitely have let the thing perish, just as she had wit h those other four by the way, she is tried, found guilty of mult iple infanticide, and a few weeks later decapitated at the place de Gr?ve. By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of d ays. It was too greedy, they said, sucked as much as two babies, deprived the other sucklings of milk and them, the wet nurses, of their livelihood, for it was impossible to make a living nursing just one babe. The police officer in charge, a man named La Foss e, instantly wearied of the matter and wanted to have the child s ent to a halfway house for foundlings and orphans at the far end of the rue Saint-Antoine, from which transports of children were dispatched daily to the great public orphanage in Rouen. But sinc e these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which, for reasons of economy, up to four infants were place d at a time; since therefore the mortality rate on the road was e xtraordinarily high; since for that reason the porters were urged to convey only baptized infants and only those furnished with an official certificate of transport to be stamped upon arrival in Rouen; since the babe Grenouille had neither been baptized nor re ceived even so much as a name to inscribe officially on the certi ficate of transport; since, moreover, it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of t he halfway house, which would have been the only way to dodge the other formalities . . . thus, because of a whole series of burea ucratic and administrative difficulties that seemed likely to occ ur if the child were shunted aside, and because time was short as well, officer La Fosse revoked his original decision and gave in structions for the boy to be handed over on written receipt to so me ecclesiastical institution or other, so that there they could baptize him and decide his further fate. He got rid of him at the cloister of Saint-Merri in the rue Saint-Martin. There they bapt ized him with the name Jean-Baptiste. And because on that day the prior was in a good mood and the eleemosynary fund not yet exhau sted, they did not have the child shipped to Rouen, but instead p ampered him at the cloister's expense. To this end, he was given to a wet nurse named Jeanne Bussie who lived in the rue Saint-Den is and was to receive, until further notice, three francs per wee k for her trouble. 2 A few weeks later, the wet nurse Jeanne Bu ssie stood, market basket in hand, at the gates of the cloister o f Saint-Merri, and the minute they were opened by a bald monk of about fifty with a light odor of vinegar about him-Father Terrier -she said There! and set her market basket down on the threshold. What's that? asked Terrier, bending down over the basket and sn iffing at it, in the hope that it was something edible. The bast ard of that woman from the rue aux Fers who killed her babies! T he monk poked about in the basket with his finger till he had exp osed the face of the sleeping infant. He looks good. Rosy pink a nd well nourished. Because he's stuffed himself on me. Because h e's pumped me dry down to the bones. But I've put a stop to that. Now you can feed him yourselves with goat's milk, with pap, with beet juice. He'll gobble up anything, that bastard will. Father Terrier was an easygoing man. Among his duties was the administr ation of the cloister's charities, the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy. And for that he expected a, Vintage International, 2006, 3, New York.: Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964. Hard cover. Good. No dust jacket as issued. Perma-Bound sticker on front, inked inventory number on side page edges; clean, tight; paper age toning. Formerly, MM paperback.. 1 426 p. Perma-Bound ex-school inventory; originally Mass Market PB format. Orange-headed, horned devil on cover. Classic poetic drama by Germany's von Goethe (1749-1832), a universally acknowledged genius of great energy and diverse talents. The legend of Doctor Faust served as his base (60 yrs in the writing) for this symbolic treatment of a man's creative aspirations. It was written during great change and upheaval in Germany. Taylor's translation, is modernized in spelling and punctuation. Perma-Bound school edition, complete, using American idiom identified with Taylor's 19th century translation., Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964, 2.5<

2016, ISBN: 9780671491215

Hardcover

-: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002. Paperback. Acceptable. -. `Why did the guy eat two dead skunks for breakfast?` `Because dead ones squeal when you stick the fork in.` Gary W. Boone knows… More...

-: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002. Paperback. Acceptable. -. `Why did the guy eat two dead skunks for breakfast?` `Because dead ones squeal when you stick the fork in.` Gary W. Boone knows he was born to be a stand-up comedian. It is the rest of the kids in the class who think he is a fool. Then the Floyd Hicks Junior High School Talent Show is announced, and he starts practising his routine nonstop to get it just right. Gary`s sure that this will be his big break - he`ll make everyone laugh and will win the $100 prize money. But when an outrageous surprise threatens to turn his debut into a disaster, it looks as if the biggest joke of all may be on Gary himself., Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002, 2.5, HarperCollins, September 2016. Trade Paperback. Very Good - Cash. Minor rubbing and edge wear to cover, with light reader wear to pages. Still great condition. Unmarked pages. Secure pages, solid binding. Stock photos may not look exactly like the book., HarperCollins, 3, Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964. Hard cover. Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Perma-Bound sticker on front, inked inventory number on side page edges; clean, tight; paper age toning. Formerly, MM paperback.. 1 426 p. Perma-Bound ex-school inventory; originally Mass Market PB format. Orange-headed, horned devil on cover. Classic poetic drama by Germany's von Goethe (1749-1832), a universally acknowledged genius of great energy and diverse talents. The legend of Doctor Faust served as his base (60 yrs in the writing) for this symbolic treatment of a man's creative aspirations. It was written during great change and upheaval in Germany. Taylor's translation, is modernized in spelling and punctuation. Perma-Bound school edition, complete, using American idiom identified with Taylor's 19th century translation., Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964, 3<

ISBN: 9780671491215

Hardcover

New York.: Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964. Hard cover. Good. No dust jacket as issued. Perma-Bound sticker on front, inked inventory number on side page edges; clean, tight; p… More...

New York.: Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964. Hard cover. Good. No dust jacket as issued. Perma-Bound sticker on front, inked inventory number on side page edges; clean, tight; paper age toning. Formerly, MM paperback.. 1 426 p. Perma-Bound ex-school inventory; originally Mass Market PB format. Orange-headed, horned devil on cover. Classic poetic drama by Germany's von Goethe (1749-1832), a universally acknowledged genius of great energy and diverse talents. The legend of Doctor Faust served as his base (60 yrs in the writing) for this symbolic treatment of a man's creative aspirations. It was written during great change and upheaval in Germany. Taylor's translation, is modernized in spelling and punctuation. Perma-Bound school edition, complete, using American idiom identified with Taylor's 19th century translation., Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, 1964, 2.5<