Showing results by narrator "Johnny Heller" in All Categories

Starting for the first-place Cubs and hitting a career high of .274, for the first time in his life, Mickey Rawlings is feeling comfortable enough to buy furniture. But it is a time of mixed blessings; ominous battles are brewing at home and abroad. On the homefront, Major League baseball may be suspended for the duration of the war, anti-German sentiment is running high, and Mickey's best friend - a rookie named Willie Kaiser - has just been shot right on the diamond.

When Brian DePalma's operatically violent and profane Scarface debuted in 1983, the film drew almost as much fire as the relentless gunfire in the film itself. The movie was a remake of 1932's Scarface—revamped for a new era of drugs, sex, and graphic violence. Attacked as both a celebration of cocaine-fueled excess and a condemnation of it, the film's reputation only grew as the years went by. But the real story of its success started nearly a century ago—when Hollywood first fell in love with the American gangster....

Most histories of the US Army in World War II view the Mediterranean Theater of Operations primarily as a deadly training ground for very green forces, where lessons learned on the beaches of Oran, in the hills of the Kasserine Pass area, and at the collapse of the Tunis bridgehead all contributed to later success in Western Europe. Steven Barry, however, contends that victory in the MTO would not have materialized without the leadership of battalion-level commanders. They operated at a high level, despite the lack of combat experience for themselves and their troops.

This short story is included in Tales of the Jazz Age, a collection written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald says, "I suppose that of all the stories I have ever written this one cost me the least travail and perhaps gave me the most amusement...it was written during one day in the city of New Orleans.... My amusement was derived from the fact that the camel part of the story is literally true; in fact, I have a standing engagement with the gentleman involved to attend the next fancy-dress party to which we are mutually invited, attired as the latter part of the camel"....

Experience the height of the Jazz Age through the eyes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the most notable authors in American literature. This collection includes: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby.

It’s 1974, and Adventure Command International is still on the job in hotspots at the four corners of the wide world! After a harrowing year, Adventure Command’s members have taken their knocks and licked their wounds and now stand ready to plunge into a new set of three amazing adventures designed to thrill boys and girls of all ages! Rev up the Mobile Command Vehicle and set up the Flying Recon! Give them both the gas for tales of action and suspense with the team in the frozen Arctic, along Florida’s space coast, and up the sides of one of Japan’s most active volcanos!

Prohibition, with all its crime, corruption, and cultural upheaval, ran its course after 13 years in most of the rest of the country - but not in Memphis, where it lasted 30 years. Patrick O'Daniel takes a fresh look at those responsible for the rise and fall of Prohibition, its effect on Memphis, and the impact events in the city made on the rest of the state and country.

Kaytek, a mischievous schoolboy who wants to become a wizard, is surprised to discover that he is able to perform magic spells and change reality. He begins to lead a double life: a powerful wizard in the dress of an ordinary boy. It's all great fun using magic to cause strange incidents in his school and neighborhood, but soon Kaytek's increasing powers cause major chaos around the city of Warsaw.

Listeners will laugh themselves silly as they learn to find their inner calm so they can sleep - even when they wake in the night - and also discover the difference between nocturnal and diurnal animals.

Miles Landry is trying to put violence behind him when he takes up work as a private detective focused on humdrum adultery cases. But when a Tibetan monk hires him to find a missing person, things get weird fast. Charged with tracking down the reincarnation of a man possessed by a demonic guardian from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Miles is plunged into a world of fortune-tellers, gangsters, and tantric rituals.

This reissue of Willeford's 1963 pulp classic is a timely reminder that madness is truly the dark heart of politics. Written at a time when people still had faith in their elected leaders, Willeford's book laid bare the American dream. There is an almost Chekhovian wistfulness in the treatment of his stories, which belies their considerable - and still relevant - impact.  

Ever want to know what that thing is growing on your face—and how it got there? How about what that insect is doing outside your window? Oh, Yuck! has stories about these things and more! Learn about vile bodily functions, including gas eruptions, skin breakouts, and escaping fluids. Witness creepy crawly bugs from your backyard to the deepest darkest jungles doing the grossest things imaginable.

History is chock full of characters and events that could turn your hair white. From rampaging pirates to raunchy monarchs, Oh Yikes! has thrilling stories to spare about history's wildest, scariest moments.

Will Rogers - pithy, political, and plainspoken - was one of the finest entertainers of his generation. As a great American humorist, it was considered an honor to be made fun of by him. By the time of his death in 1935, he had traveled the globe three times, written some four thousand articles, and was one of America's highest-paid film stars. He began his act in Vaudeville by saying, "All I know is what I read in the papers," while idly swinging a lasso he used for rope tricks.

In My Last Eight Thousand Days, Gutkind turns his notepad and tape recorder inward, using his skills as an immersion journalist to perform a deep dive on himself. Here, he offers a memoir of his life as a journalist, editor, husband, father, and Pittsburgh native, not only recounting his many triumphs, but also exposing his missteps and challenges.

Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since the ancient Egyptians observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war and plague. But it wasn't until the 19th century when "canals" were observed on the surface of the Red Planet, suggesting the presence of water, that scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs became obsessed with the question of whether there's life on Mars. The Big Book of Mars is the most comprehensive look at our relationship with Mars - yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

In Roadside Americans, Jack Reid traces the rise and fall of hitchhiking, offering vivid accounts of life on the road and how the act of soliciting rides from strangers, and the attitude toward hitchhikers in American society, evolved over time in sync with broader economic, political, and cultural shifts. In doing so, Reid offers insight into significant changes in the United States amid the decline of liberalism and the rise of the Reagan Era.

Most people have come to associate Peanuts with the innocence of childhood, not the social and political turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s. Some have even argued that Peanuts was so beloved because it was apolitical. The truth, as Blake Scott Ball shows, is that Peanuts was very political. Charlie Brown's America is a historical journey through the tumultuous decades of the Cold War as seen through the eyes of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang.

Tyrone Power was as versatile in life as he was on the screen. He was a multifaceted man and was the last idol created by the vast star-making machine 20th Century Fox. Coming from a family of multi-generational actors, Tyrone Power broke the proverbial mold. His on-screen charisma in the 30s and 40s propelled him to the forefront of must-have actors. His on-screen accomplishments were many, yet he did not hesitate to enter the military when his country went to war. After the war, he continued in his career, but the years took their toll.

With examples from the more than 130,000 campaigns developed by mobile marketing leader Hipcricket, Mobilized Marketing breaks down how brands of all sizes have performed in their mobile efforts, why some have failed, and how others bravely turned to mobile.