"Poignant memoir of a not-so-typical New York Jewish family’s experiences in the midcentury Hollywood demimonde ... Equal parts emotional tissue-party and shrewd cultural history." - Kirkus Reviews In 1958, young Sheila Weller was living a charmed life with her family in Beverly Hills. Her father was a brilliant brain surgeon. Her mother was a movie-magazine writer whose brother owned Hollywood's most dazzling nightclub, Ciro's. Then her world exploded after she witnessed her uncle's brutal attempt to kill her father. In Dancing at Ciro's, Weller has written a deeply felt memoir of her family's life contrasted with those most glamorous days of Hollywood's forties and fifties. While vividly describing Lana Turner's, Frank Sinatra's, and Sammy Davis Jr.'s evenings--and breakdowns--at Ciro's, Weller casts a keen eye on her own family's turmoil and loss.

Sheila Weller writes of her family's secrets coming to light in Hollywood in the 50's.

Many entertainers launched their careers at Ciro's Nightclub, often referred as "The Nightclub of the Stars." Ciro's was patronized by both famous and non-famous guests who enjoyed dancing, dining, and comedy routines featuring top-name entertainers such as Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Sophie Tucker, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Liberace, Nat King Cole, Joe E. Lewis, and Sammy Davis Jr.--just to name a few. The nightclub's house band was led by Dick Stabile, although bandleader Xavier Cugat, best known for popularizing the rumba in the United States, was a regular headliner at the club. The elite Hollywood regulars at Ciro's included some of the most popular names in entertainment at the time, such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and many more.

Illuminates the expatriate African American community of jazz musicians that thrived in the Montmartre district of Paris in the '20s and '30s and helped turn the "city of lights" into the major jazz capital it remains today.

The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. Members of bands like the Byrds, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Turtles, the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Steppenwolf, CSN, Three Dog Night and Love, along with such singer/songwriters as Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, James Taylor and Carole King, lived together and jammed together in the bucolic community nestled in the Hollywood Hills. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn’t make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day. Far more integrated into the scene than most would like to admit was a guy by the name of Charles Manson, along with his murderous entourage. Also floating about the periphery were various political operatives, up-and-coming politicians and intelligence personnel – the same sort of people who gave birth to many of the rock stars populating the canyon. And all the canyon’s colorful characters – rock stars, hippies, murderers and politicos – happily coexisted alongside a covert military installation.

A unique tribute to Jimi Hendrix on the 50th anniversary of his untimely death, featuring contributions by those who knew and worked with him, enhanced with images by the most renowned rock photographers of the era. In September 1970, the legendary Jimi Hendrix died at only 27 years of age. On the 50th anniversary of this tragic event, acclaimed r

The account of the murder of Diane Whitmore Pikul describes how her wealthy and violent Wall Street husband murdered her and then won custody of her children while under indictment for her murder. “A young mother, so full of promise, is killed by the ‘perfect’ husband. Sheila Weller takes a domestic tragedy and reveals every nuance so that we see the compelling anatomy of a murder in slow motion, from the dynamics of a marriage to the crime itself, to its chilling aftermath. Powerful reporting of an unforgettable story.”—Vincent Bugliosi