Showing results by author "Bob Batchelor" in All Categories

Theories of Celebrity Branding is a smart and timely podcast that explores how fame, marketing, branding, and identity collide in today’s media-driven world. Hosted by cultural historian and bestselling author Bob Batchelor, who teaches at Coastal Carolina University, the series dives into how celebrities—from Hollywood icons to social media influencers—build their brands and shape public culture. Designed for students and curious listeners alike, each episode unpacks how branding, storytelling, and media create the stars we follow—and the values we reflect.

October 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the Volstead Act, which put the enforcement teeth into Prohibition. But the law didn't stop George Remus from cornering the boozy, illegal liquor marketplace and amassing a fortune that eclipsed $200 million (the equivalent of $4.75 billion today). As eminent documentarian Ken Burns proclaimed, "Remus was to bootlegging what Rockefeller was to oil." Author Bob Batchelor has unearthed a treasure trove of untapped historical archives to cover the life, times, and crimes of the man who ran the largest bootlegging operation in America.

Filled with mayhem, mountains of illicit cash, and rivers of bourbon, “Tales of the Bourbon King” presents the life and crimes of George Remus, bootleg king of the Jazz Age, a dazzling true crime spectacle. With gunfights and fisticuffs, he turned America into his violent playground, grafting his way into Warren Harding’s White House. A model for Jay Gatsby, Remus’s story epitomizes the spectacular 1920s – until it came crashing down in an improbable tale of deceit and rage, centered on the dastardly G-man who stole his wife, leading directly to a fateful gunshot that ended her life.

In Roadhouse Blues, Bob Batchelor presents an epic tale of one of rock's (and America's) most significant periods, as the "Age of Aquarius" gave way to a new age of mayhem, presidential misdeeds, and murder. Batchelor combines cultural history, musical and lyrical analysis, and a broad stroke of pop-culture mythos to give fresh perspective on a pivotal time. Candid, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, Roadhouse Blues is a biography of a man, a band, and an era that set the tone for the contemporary world.