Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Entertainment & Celebrities

In 1948, New Orleans veteran trumpeter and singer Louis Prima stumbled into a young girl named Keely Smith. She was barely a performer at all, almost half his age, destined for a relatively quiet life; their encounter was pure coincidence. But they went on to invent The Wildest, the most exciting and successful lounge act Las Vegas has ever seen, an act that became one of the hottest in the U.S. in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Without sparing the embarrassing details, Balbirer chronicles the two decades she spent as a struggling actress in the trenches of show business. From the searing purist tutelage of David Mamet at NYU Drama School ("In show business, women who are lucky enough to find employment are asked to do only two things in every role they ever play: take your shirt off and cry") to her bizarre 1 AM Saturday Night Live audition for Lorne Michaels, Balbirer recounts her sometimes disappointing, sometimes painful, and always bizarre adventures.

Monologist Mike Daisey presents a dazzling new work: four "bio-logues" about megalomania and desire constructed from the interleaved life stories of Bertolt Brecht, P.T. Barnum, Nikola Tesla, and L. Ron Hubbard. L. Ron Hubbard was a bigamist, occultist, and charismatic science-fiction author-turned-guru who took 1950s popular psychiatry by storm and went on to create the Church of Scientology: the most celebrity-driven and litigious organization on Earth.

Red Diaper Baby includes three comic autobiographical monologues by performer Josh Kornbluth: "The Mathematics of Change", "Haiku Tunnel", and the title piece. Together, and with the author's introduction, the monologues compose a bildungsroman that is both comic and poignant. Kornbluth shows a deep affection for the wild, eccentric characters who people his universe. With a few deft strokes he paints unforgettable portraits, as true as they are funny.

Miriam Therese Winter, an award-winning musician and four-time Catholic Book Award-winner, shares her experiences of becoming a Sister, working with starving children in Ethiopia and with refugees in Cambodia, of exploring the mysteries of India and the wonders of God in her own backyard, of having breast cancer and having hope. She also illumines new aspects of community, Eucharist, the word and spirit, water and the stars, spiritual blessedness, and much more.

Yo quiero! The heartwarming true story of the camera-ready Chihuahua who became a pint-sized superstar. Her name was Gidget. To the world, she was the Taco Bell dog. This is the extraordinary story of an irresistible pup's life, and that of her devoted trainer, Sue Chipperton. It is not only the story of an adorable television star, but also that of Sue's successful training techniques, and her fascinating stories of working with both human and animal stars.

One of the top bobsledders in the world and leader of the four-man American team, Steven Holcomb had finished sixth in the 2006 Olympics and medaled in nearly every competition he entered. He was considered a strong gold contender for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Talented, aggressive, and fearless, he was at the top of his game. But Steven Holcomb had a dangerous secret. Steven Holcomb was going blind....

In his brilliant non-fiction, David Adams Richards - first and foremost one of Canada's greatest and best-beloved novelists - has been writing a kind of memoir by other means. Like his previous titles Lines on Water, about his pursuit of angling, and Hockey Dreams, about the game his disabled body prevented him from playing, Facing the Hunter explores the meaning of a sport and the way in which it touches lives, not least that of the author.

The remarkable life and career of a recently rediscovered photography legend. He was a trailblazing 20th-century British photojournalist but George Rodger lived in the adventurous tradition of 19th-century explorers. Cofounding Magnum Photos, in 1947, with Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, the modest Rodger was eclipsed by his partners - until now. Rodger's Indiana Jones-style escapades are legendary and worth the telling. He once covered over 75,000 miles of "old Africa" in a Land Rover. He even survived a white rhino charge. He went on to become a key photographer of African tribal life.

Revealingly candid, this Hollywood memoir is the story of Jay Bernstein, an entertainment industry fixture who helped launch and sustain the careers of many celebrities including Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers. From his childhood in Oklahoma City and his first job in a Hollywood mail room to the ownership of his own public relations firm and his work as a television producer, Bernstein’s life is chronicled in his own words.

The British monarchy may be over a thousand years old, but the House of Windsor dates only from 1917, when, in the middle of the First World War that was to see the demise of the major thrones of continental Europe, it rebranded itself from the distinctly Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the homely and familiar Windsor. By redefining its loyalties to identify with its people and country rather than the princes, kings and emperors of Europe to whom it was related by birth and marriage...

In the wickedly bittersweet and hilarious You Must Go and Win, the Ukrainian-born musician Alina Simone traces her bizarre journey through the indie rock world, from disastrous Craigslist auditions with sketchy producers to catching fleas in a Williamsburg sublet. But Simone offers more than down-and-out tales of her time as a struggling musician: she has a rapier wit, slashing and burning her way through the absurdities of life, while offering surprising and poignant insights.

For more than 20 years, Englishman Richard Gregson was one of the most powerful film personalities in Hollywood and London. As the agent for Robert Redford, John Schlesinger, Alan Bates, Frederic Raphael and producer Jo Janni, he saw the industry from many angles and met ‘anyone who was anyone’ in Hollywood including Frank Sinatra and members of the Mafia.

Yunte Huang ingeniously traces Charlie Chan from his real beginnings as a bullwhip-wielding detective in territorial Hawaii to his reinvention as a literary sleuth and Hollywood film icon. Huang finally resurrects the "honorable detective" from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America’s rich cultural diversity. The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a "deeply personal...voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of storytelling" (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).

An exploration of the cultural impact of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, the Piet of music, and its enigmatic composer. In the first book ever to explore Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, music and literary critic Thomas Larson tells the story of the prodigal composer, his seminal masterpiece and its fascinating history as America's secular hymn for grieving our dead.

"Stanley Kubrick e me" è la storia di Emilio D'Alessandro, un aspirante pilota di Formula 1 che nel 1970 si ritrova a essere l'assistente personale del regista Stanley Kubrick. Un'emozionante raccolta di ricordi dai set di "Barry Lyndon," "Shining," "Full Metal Jacket" e "Eyes Wide Shut," per raccontare la realizzazione di quattro capolavori cinematografici e la sorprendente amicizia tra due persone all'apparenza opposte che hanno scoperto negli anni di esser fatte l'una per l'altra.

"Vasco aveva già sentito parlare di Massimo, non perché fosse figlio di Giovanni e della Laura, amici di sua madre, amici di suo padre, amici di sua zia, di sua cugina e di chi sa chi altro, ma perché in paese si vociferava che fosse un bambino strano, solitario, che non andava all'asilo, che quando era a casa amava fare soprattutto una cosa, voleva fare sempre quella: ascoltare la musica." Pur essendo trascorsi vent'anni dalla sua morte, Massimo Riva continua a essere amatissimo: da quel maledetto 31 maggio 1999, Vasco Rossi non ha mai fatto un concerto senza ricordarlo.

"Sono nato circondato dall'amore, ma poi mi sono trovato immerso nel buio. Finché non ho ritrovato la luce dentro di me: la danza." È così che Ahmad Joudeh racconta la sua vita: la storia drammatica ed esemplare di chi, fin da giovanissimo, si è trovato a lottare contro tutto e tutti pur di coronare il suo sogno. Dopo un'infanzia felice vissuta a Yarmouk, in Siria, la scoperta di una crescente passione per la danza è un richiamo a cui Ahmad sente di non potersi sottrarre. Ma non è semplice diventare un ballerino se vivi in una delle periferie più difficili di Damasco.

Due strade parallele, dritte e morbide come la serenità solare che le avvolge. Una macchina avanza piano con una barchetta a rimorchio, mentre in sottofondo si innalzano le voci di Jussi Björling e Renata Tebaldi che intonano "Tu qui santuzza". Vediamo mani che scelgono cd, sentiamo risate: una coppia sta giocando a chi indovina la canzone; il figlio, sul sedile dietro, è chiamato a fare da garante. Torniamo a vedere la macchina dall'alto; poi la telecamera ci mostra i volti della famiglia felice, in procinto di raggiungere la casa delle vacanze.

Nel novembre 1838 da una cella della certosa abbandonata di Valldemossa, fra le montagne che circondano Palma di Maiorca, si diffondono le note di un "pianino". Non sono note qualsiasi: sono quelle che completeranno i ventiquattro "Preludi" di Frédéric Chopin, opera cardine del Romanticismo. Non è stato possibile trovare uno strumento migliore sull'isola, ma quel piccolo pianoforte, costruito da un artigiano locale, fatto di legno dolce, ferro, rame, feltro e avorio, avrà una grande vita.