Waldorf Hysteria presents the lighter side of hotels. This appealing gift book looks back to the first golden age of hospitality, with full page photographs from the archives, hotel etiquette advice from long ago, and quirky tales of hotel shenanigans. The book includes plenty of tales from today's hotels so readers can judge for themselves. These stories cover all aspects of hotel life: room service; pets in hotels; celebrities and scandals; rip-offs and scams; unusual hotels; hotels as movie sets; hotels of future; and the things people leave behind.

“...to the Creative Spirit that let me in, and to all my Music Buds who took the journey back then, and by guile, gall, hand, heart, and mind, sound or otherwise, had the will, persistence, tenacity, and desire to succeed back when it was still fun, yeah.” Promo Monkey: My Life as a BellHop in the Waldorf Hysteria is written in the key of R2 major. This alphabetical encyclopedia is a reflection on the real experiences and impressions of RayMan Ramsay during his career as Promo Rep/Manager at Quality Records/TPC Distribution and RCA/BMG Canada/Vancouver. Though he may take some flak for the way he portrays history, he has chosen to err on the side of passion rather than caution, and damn the tomatoes! Funny, clever, and entertaining, this book takes an in-depth and intimate look at the “Biz.” Because it’s always about the music. Always.

A young gay man comes of age amid the AIDs epidemic of “an expertly drawn, starkly authentic, early-1980s Manhattan” in this novel by the acclaimed author (Publishers Weekly). Shy, afflicted with a stutter, and struggling with his sexuality, Will Parker comes to New York to escape his provincial western hometown. In New York, he finds himself surrounded for the first time by people who understand and celebrate his quirks and flaws. He also begins an unforgettable love affair with a volatile, six-foot-five African American drag queen and performance artist named Rose. But even as he is falling in love with Rose and growing into himself, Will must watch as AIDS escalates from a rumor into a devastating tragedy. When a vicious riot erupts in a local park, Will seizes the chance to repay the city for all it has taught him. Tom Spanbauer is the critically acclaimed author of The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon and founder of the successful workshop Dangerous Writing, where he’s taught students including Chuck Palahniuk. With In the City of Shy Hunters, he offers a “rich and colorful” historical novel told with “raw power” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Spanbauer’s genius resides even in the asides . . . teas[ing] out the genuine complexity of human love.” —The Washington Post Book World “Ambitious and compelling . . . a mixture of the ghastly, the hilarious, and the curiously touching.” —The Seattle Times “In the City of Shy Hunters has the earmarks of a literary landmark . . . Its importance and originality are unmistakable.” —The Baltimore Sun “A big ambitious stylefest of a novel.” —Village Voice

One of The Globe and Mail’s “Favourite Books of the Year” The closer she gets to the truth, the faster it slips away. In the spring of 1945, fifteen year-old Heike circles in the mountains high above Switzerland. Pushed out the door by a worried mother, Heike and her little sister, Lena, have escaped Dresden only days ahead of the firebombs that will destroy that city, to cross a war-torn Germany on their own. But now, Lena is lost and Heike is alone, stalked by a feral dog. Eleven years later, Heike’s life looks very different: married to a prominent American psychiatrist, she’s living in idyllic upstate New York, where she’s free to wander the woods and care for her beloved four-year old son, Daniel. But despite the shiny veneer of this new life, Heike cannot shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong. On the sunniest day of the year, she’s relaxing by a pond with Daniel when a strange little girl appears out of nowhere—then eerily disappears below the surface of the water. From that moment on, nothing is ever the same again. Is the girl a ghost, or an omen of bad things to come? The closer Heike gets to the truth, the faster it slips away.

Completed in 1931, New York’s Waldorf-Astoria towers over Park Avenue as an international landmark and a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture. A symbol of elegance and luxury, the hotel has hosted countless movie stars, business tycoons, and world leaders over the past ninety years. American Hotel takes us behind the glittering image to reveal the full extent of the Waldorf’s contribution toward shaping twentieth-century life and culture. Historian David Freeland examines the Waldorf from the opening of its first location in 1893 through its rise to a place of influence on the local, national, and international stage. Along the way, he explores how the hotel’s mission to provide hospitality to a diverse range of guests was put to the test by events such as Prohibition, the anticommunist Red Scare, and civil rights struggles. Alongside famous guests like Frank Sinatra, Martin Luther King, Richard Nixon, and Eleanor Roosevelt, readers will meet the lesser-known men and women who made the Waldorf a leader in the hotel industry and a key setting for international events. American Hotel chronicles how institutions such as the Waldorf-Astoria played an essential role in New York’s growth as a world capital.

This documentation of the architecture of Santa Barbara, California has grown since the first edition was published in 1970: the second (1980) saw an expanded format and some 150 new photographs, and the third includes still more pages and photographs. The architectural examples presented here, selected from thousands taken on a block-by- block survey, were chosen for purity of style, historical signficance, and uniqueness. Each clear and beautiful black and white photo is captioned with information on the original owner or building title; date of construction; name of architect, designer, or builder; address; and alterations or additions to the building. 11x10" Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR