Calling All Cars shows how radio played a key role in an emerging form of policing during the turbulent years of the Depression. Until this time popular culture had characterized the gangster as hero, but radio crime dramas worked against this attitude and were ultimately successful in making heroes out of law enforcement officers.Through close analysis of radio programming of the era and the production of true crime docudramas, Kathleen Battles argues that radio was a significant site for overhauling the dismal public image of policing. However, it was not simply the elevation of the perception of police that was at stake. Using radio, reformers sought to control the symbolic terrain through which citizens encountered the police, and it became a medium to promote a positive meaning and purpose for policing. For example, Battles connects the apprehension of criminals by a dragnet with the idea of using the radio network to both publicize this activity and make it popular with citizens.The first book to systematically address the development of crime dramas during the golden age of radio, Calling All Cars explores an important irony: the intimacy of the newest technology of the time helped create an intimate authority—the police as the appropriate force for control—over the citizenry.

"The bank is being robbed! Who will solve the crime?"--P. [4] of cover.

This is an encyclopedic reference work to 1,802 radio programs broadcast from the years 1924 through 1984. Entries include casts, character relationships, plots and storylines, announcers, musicians, producers, hosts, starting and ending dates of the programs, networks, running times, production information and, when appropriate, information on the radio show's adaptation to television. Many hundreds of program openings and closings are included.

This time-saving Internet guide to automotive subjects--from pricing a new minivan to the latest racing news to restoring a 1930s classic--presents over 400 World Wide Web addresses, with 240 detailed descriptions of the most useful, or entertaining. The guide includes a brief history of cars and trucks on the Internet, as well as tips for novice Web users. Sites are arranged by topics, such as purchasing a vehicle, chat rooms, aftermarket suppliers, auto clubs, collectibles, racing, publications, and more. Here's a sampling of what you can find in just a few moments of browsing the pages: * the definitive information and support source for Ford Galaxies (or various other models) * a state-by-state directory of police speed traps as reported by drivers * a blow-by-blow photo diary of a '54 Studebaker restoration in progress * places to buy or sell classics

If television programming is normally considered a wasteland, then The Sopranos may be thought of as a jungle: richly colored, teeming with life, dark with mystery. The Sopranos on the Couch is a must for all who are already caught up in the excitement, as well as for viewers who are coming to the show for the first time. Yacowar helps us understand exactly why we can't get enough of Tony Soprano and that colorful mafia family that we hate to love and often love to hate!This pop-culture sensation is not only the most controversial series on television, but also the most provocative, thoughtful, and complex. Its language and themes have stretched the norms of commercial television, many characters and phrases having entered our everyday life.The Sopranos on the Couch is the first book to provide a compact, lively, and authoritative examination of each episode and season - the themes, inside jokes, and allusions - thereby putting the series into a broader cultural context.

This beautiful and nostalgic pictorial celebration of board games will transport readers back to a simpler time, when child’s play didn’t involve video games or computer screens of any kind. More than 100 of the best are featured, from the 19th century until today, with pictures of both the boards and the various pieces. They include Animal Crackers, which dates from 1883; Across the Continent (1888); the ever-popular children’s favorite Candyland (1938); Nurse Ames (1944); the mystery game Clue (1950); Elvis (1958); and many more. Some are well-known, others more rare, but they will surely send readers scrambling to their old toy chests to play another round.