“Do you think you could teach Rock Hudson to talk like you do?” The question came from famed Hollywood director George Stevens, and an affirmative answer propelled Bob Hinkle into a fifty-year career in Hollywood as a speech coach, actor, producer, director, and friend to the stars. Along the way, Hinkle helped Rock Hudson, Dennis Hopper, Carroll Baker, and Mercedes McCambridge talk like Texans for the 1956 epic film Giant. He also helped create the character Jett Rink with James Dean, who became a best friend, and he consoled Elizabeth Taylor personally when Dean was killed in a tragic car accident before the film was released. A few years later, Paul Newman asked Hinkle to do for him what he’d done for James Dean. The result was Newman’s powerful portrayal of a Texas no-good in the Academy Award–winning film Hud (1963). Hinkle could—and did—stop by the LBJ Ranch to exchange pleasantries with the president of the United States. He did likewise with Elvis Presley at Graceland. Good friends with Robert Wagner, Hinkle even taught Wagner’s wife Natalie Wood how to throw a rope. He appeared in numerous television series, including Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Dragnet, and Walker, Texas Ranger. On a handshake, he worked as country music legend Marty Robbins’s manager, and he helped Evel Knievel rise to fame. From his birth in Brownfield, Texas, to a family so poor “they could only afford a tumbleweed as a pet,” Hinkle went on to gain acclaim in Hollywood. Through it all, he remained the salty, down-to-earth former rodeo cowboy from West Texas who could talk his way into—or out of—most any situation. More than forty photographs, including rare behind-the-scenes glimpses of the stars Hinkle met and befriended along the way, complement this rousing, never-dull memoir.

In the Sport of Kings, races aren't made just by the animals that run them, but by the voices that call them. This book covers 11 of the top racetrack announcers in the United States: Tom Durkin, Kurt Becker, Dave Rodman, Michael Wrona, Terry Wallace, Larry Collmus, John Dooley, Luke Kruytbosch, Dave Johnson, Robert Geller and Trevor Denman. Based on extensive interviews, each chapter is devoted to a single announcer, addressing details of his life in the profession. Included are additional insights and anecdotes provided by family members, trainers, jockeys, owners and other well-known individuals in the horse racing industry.

The Collin Dymond story covers 1857 to 1865. Collin Dymond follows his father out to the gold fields and settles in Nevada. When the Civil War starts Collin returns to enlist in the Second Kansas which later become a Calvary unit. Collin fights in the Battle of Wilson's Creek and on through years of war in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas rising in rank from private to Captain. Late in the war Collin is wounded, released, and returns to Nevada.

This is a adventure story about a life which started with humble beginning which lead to building of a major home building company, to reposions, foreclosures, and judgments, and how a can do will do positive mental attitude shape this life. There will be major set backs that will be over come by believing in a positive mental attitude. This story describes success and down turns of a life that will lead to different business ventures, to a soldier of fortune, to years of entrainment in the legal world, to adventures in hunting and fishing.

It is that time of the year when adventure is everything. Francis escapes deep into the jungle where friendship and brotherhood are put to test. He's sucked into a world where he must learn how to win.