Legendary western author Max Evans has spent his entire life working with cows and horses. These rangeland animals, and other creatures both domestic and wild, play pivotal roles in his stories. This magnificent collection, beautifully illustrated by cowboy artist Keith Walters, showcases twenty-six animal tales penned by Evans during his long and celebrated career. Both fiction and nonfiction, the stories in this collection get us inside the heads and hearts of numerous four-legged critters—dogs, horses, burros, goats, cattle, deer, coyotes, and more. “The Old One,” for example, shows us the world through the eyes of a prairie dog as she watches her latest litter of pups rolling and tumbling around the mound and thinks of all the things she will need to teach them. And in “The One-Eyed Sky,” an aging cow with a new calf and an old coyote with a litter to feed circle each other warily, trying to protect their young, until a rancher intervenes. Not one to shy away from difficult subjects, Evans also delves into the “animal nature” of human beings, as in “The Heart of the Matter,” where two Vietnam vets and friends kill a deer and then turn their rifles on each other. These captivating tales display Evans’s trademark mix of raucous humor and vivid, poetic descriptions of the high plains of West Texas and his beloved Hi-Lo Country in northeastern New Mexico. He reminds his readers of simpler times and more honorable people even as he evokes the merciless environment in which his characters, both animal and human, struggle to survive.

The northeastern quadrant of New Mexico, with a slice of Colorado, Oklahoma, and West Texas, is the area Max Evans has dubbed the Hi Lo Country. He bought a ranch there when he was seventeen, he painted it as a young artist, and has used the land as the setting for most of his well-known writings. His novels The Rounders and The Hi Lo Country were made into Hollywood movies. Jan Haley is also from the heart of Hi Lo Country, where she has documented in her photography the vanishing homesteads and ranches in this region anchored by four mountains: Eagle Tail, Sierra Grande, Capulin, and Rabbit Ears. Her pictures of the spectacular landscapes of northeast New Mexico will enthrall not just fans of Max Evans but anyone who wants to see the True West that still exists within a day's drive of the big cities that are now the population centers of the country. The Max Evans text written specifically for this book is in his unmatched storytelling style and full of entertaining anecdotes. His writing is rich in heartfelt emotion and, coupled with Haley's photos, is a tribute to a neglected part of the world we can now treasure forever. "Jan Haley's photographs show a place where the people were so tough the Depression felt right at home, and it never left. The rusting 1950 purple Hudson still sits on blocks where the owner left it, imagining shiny renovation someday. . . . Winds so strong, it seemed the outhouse blew over, and is still horizontal. . . . And many an old ranchhouse . . . lean[s] abandoned in the wind."--Richard Benke, Associated Press reporter and author of The Ghost Ocean (UNM Press)

A “lively biography” of the director who choreographed Fred Astaire, Debbie Reynolds and more: “a real backstager” on the making of Hollywood musicals (Wall Street Journal). From the trolley scene in Meet Me in St. Louis to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's last dance on the silver screen to Judy Garland's tuxedo-clad performance of "Get Happy", Charles Walters staged the iconic musical sequences of Hollywood's golden age. The Academy Award-nominated director and choreographer showcased the talents of stars such as Gene Kelly, Doris Day, and Frank Sinatra—yet Walters's name often goes unrecognized today. In the first full-length biography of Walters, Brent Phillips chronicles the artist's career from his days as a Broadway performer to his successes at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Phillips takes readers behind the scenes of beloved musicals including Easter Parade, Lili, and High Society. He also examines the director's uncredited work on films like Gigi, and discusses his contributions to musical theater and American popular culture. This revealing book also considers Walters's personal life and explores how he navigated the industry as an openly gay man. Drawing on unpublished oral histories, correspondence, and new interviews, this biography offers an entertaining and important new look at an exciting era in Hollywood history.

Offers a decade-by-decade history of American singing groups, from the Ames and Mills Brothers, to the Platters and the Beach Boys, to Destiny's Child, the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and many others, covering more than 380 artists and furnishing information on each group's career, key members, influences, photos, and discographies. Original.

The underground world of con men, winos, prostitutes, laborers, and artists has been an abundant source of material for great writers from Dickens to Bukowski. The underground world of Taos, New Mexico, is no different. In the late 1950s this mountain town was higher, brighter, poorer, and farther removed than London, Paris, or Los Angeles, but it was every bit as rich for the explorations of a young writer. Max Evans, the beloved New Mexican writer of such enduring classics of Western fiction as The Rounders and The Hi-Lo Country, returns to form with The King of Taos. Set in the late 1950s, the novel tells the stories of sharp-witted Zacharias Chacon, aspiring artist Shaw Spencer, and a circle of characters who drink, fight, love, argue, and—mostly—talk. Readers will enjoy this witty and moving evocation of unforgettable characters as they look for work, love, comfort, dignity, and bottomless oblivion.

Almost as famous for the legendary excesses of his personal life as for his films, Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) cemented his reputation as one of the great American directors with movies such as The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Max Evans, one of Peckinpah's best friends, experienced the director's mercurial character and personal demons firsthand. In this enthralling memoir we follow Evans and Peckinpah through conversations in bars, family gatherings, binges on drugs and alcohol, struggles with film producers and executives, and Peckinpah's abusive behavior--sometimes directed at Evans himself. Evans's stories--most previously unpublished--provide a uniquely intimate look at Peckinpah, their famous friends (including Lee Marvin, Brian Keith, Joel McCrea, and James Coburn), and the business of Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s.

BACK IN PRINT AND BESSER THAN EVER! For more than six decades, Joe Besser brought gales of laughter to millions—in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio, in motion pictures, and on television. From his days working as a bumbling assistant to the world-famous Thurston the Magician, he carved out success with his own act—that of a childlike sissy who brandished his foils with a flick of the wrist and such hilarious verbal assaults as “Ooh, you crazy you!” and “Not so f-a-s-t!” From stage to film and television screens, the famed roly-poly comedian left an indelible mark–from starring in his own feature films and short-subject series for Columbia Pictures, to dishing out huge laughs on scores of popular programs of the day, most notably as the malevolent brat “Stinky” on The Abbott and Costello Show, to stepping in to replace Shemp Howard after his death as a member of Three Stooges comedy team. Followed by countless more laugh out-loud performances in movies and on television, from playing the frustrated superintendent, Jillson, on The Joey Bishop Show to voicing Saturday morning cartoons, his legacy still lives on today, thanks to reruns of his classic work. Illustrating a passing age of American humor, ONCE A STOOGE, ALWAYS A STOOGE tells the whole story. Jam-packed with timeless remembrances, Besser vividly recounts it all–the personal ups and downs, the classic skits and routines that became his hallmark, and behind-the-scenes stories of show business icons who enriched his life and career, including Abbott and Costello, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jerry Lewis, Olsen and Johnson, and many others. Previously unpublished anecdotes incorporated throughout, plus hundreds of new, many rare and one-of-a-kind illustrations and extensive appendices of the legendary funnyman’s stage, film, radio and TV appearances, round out this charming and thoughtfully written memoir. PRAISE FOR THE ORIGINAL EDITION: “An affectionate, thoroughly enjoyable remembrance of a lifetime spent on the road and on the screen.” -- LOS ANGELES TIMES “A fascinating look at the development of American entertainment from a person who managed to experience it all . . .” --PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER