Candy Barr

Candy Barr
Author: Ted Schwarz
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2011-08-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1589796950

Born Juanita Slusher in Edna, Texas, in 1935, the entertainer who became Candy Barr was perhaps the last great dancer in burlesque, a stripper who insisted on live, improvisational music and who at one time commanded $2,000 a week in 1950s Las Vegas. But as Juanita she had started life as a prematurely well-developed thirteen-year-old runaway victimized by a Dallas ritual known as "the capture" that enslaved her into prostitution, for a time turning over 4,000 tricks a year before she was able to escape. A lover of Mickey Cohen's and friend to Jack Ruby, Barr's tumultuous life included a period of imprisonment on trumped-up drug charges, an appearance in a crude, 20-minute stag film, and unlikely role in the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Based on over 100 hours of exclusive interviews with Barr, this book is not just the story of Juanita and Candy, but also paints an unflattering picture of all those who sought to exploit her.

NITA - Alias CANDY BARR

NITA - Alias CANDY BARR
Author: George A. Day
Publisher:
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Dancers
ISBN: 9780981822006

This novel is built on a foundation of facts surrounding the life Juanita Dale Slusher-Dabbs-Phillips-Sahakian-Wilson, alias Candy Barr. Some of the events and places described contain a small kernel of truth. Many of Nita's relatives and friends have been quite helpful as I put this project together. But memories often dim and are faulty; the truth is only as good as the remembrance. Therefore, because of the frailty of the human mind and its memory, this is a book of fiction. I knew Juanita Dale Slusher and many people involved in her life. And just as each of us may have remembrances and justifications about the events in our own lives, sometimes the truth is more apparent to an outsider looking in. This is my truth.

Liberty Falling

Liberty Falling
Author: Nevada Barr
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2010-10-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101443839

Anna Pigeon is in Manhattan to look after her hospitalized sister, and explores the Statue of Liberty in her spare time. But when a teenage girl falls to her death from Liberty's ledge, Anna wonders if the suicide was actually a homicide-and begins an investigation that puts her in the line of fire.

Hollywood Confidential

Hollywood Confidential
Author: Ted Schwarz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2023-06-01
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 149307749X

Hollywood Confidential is the first truly in-depth look at the sexy, humorous, violent, and tragic history of the mob in Hollywood from the 1920s, when Joe Kennedy decided to buy a motion picture company, to the 1980s when the last vestiges of mob influence were revealed through investigations of former Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan and his union backers. The revelations continue into the 1980s when the major studios were no longer important, the independents were on the rise, and it was no longer possible to buy, bribe, or blackmail in a meaningful way. There were deals and bad guys, but the mob as it existed was finished in Hollywood.

Texas Jailhouse Music

Texas Jailhouse Music
Author: Caroline Gnagy
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2016-05-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1625853505

Inside the Texas State Prison is a surprising story of ingenuity, optimism and musical creativity. During the mid-twentieth century, inmates at the Huntsville unit and neighboring Goree State Farm for Women captured hearts all over Texas during weekly radio broadcasts and live stage performances. WBAP's Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls took listeners inside the penitentiary to hear not only the prisoners? songs but also the stories of those who sang them. Captivating and charismatic, banjo player Reable Childs received thousands of fan letters with the Goree All-Girl String Band during World War II. Hattie Ellis, a young black inmate with a voice that rivaled Billie Holiday's, was immortalized by notable folklorist John Avery Lomax. Cowboys, songsters and champion fiddlers all played a part in one of the most unique prison histories in the nation. Caroline Gnagy presents the decades-long story of the Texas convict bands, informed by prison records, radio show transcripts and the words and music of the inmates themselves.

Sitting in Bars with Cake

Sitting in Bars with Cake
Author: Audrey Shulman
Publisher: ABRAMS
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2015-04-07
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1613127731

A “sweet indulgence for your mind, heart, and tastebuds”—now a major motion picture starring Yara Shahidi, Odessa A’zion, and Bette Midler (Molly Tarlov, MTV’s Awkward). Meeting Mr. Right is never easy. And in a big city like Los Angeles, it’s even harder. So, after years of fruitless efforts at finding a soul mate, Audrey Shulman decided to take a different route to a man’s heart—through his sweet tooth. Whipping up a variety of sinfully delicious cakes, Audrey invaded the savage singles scene fully armed with butter, sugar, and frosting. Sitting in Bars with Cake recounts Audrey’s year spent baking, bar-hopping, and offering slices of cake to men in the hope of finding a boyfriend (or, at the very least, a date). With 35 inventive recipes, this charming book pairs each cake with a short essay and tongue-in-cheek lesson about picking up boys in bars. “This delectable mix of encouragement, anecdote and cream-filling is more than enough reason to start baking and flirting.” —Winnie Holzman, creator of My So-Called Life “This is a delightfully humble and enthralling tale about cake and bars and boys, but it’s really about life, and what it takes to get up every day and be the person you have always wanted to be.” —Tracy Moore, Jezebel

The Poison Patriarch

The Poison Patriarch
Author: Mark Shaw
Publisher: Skyhorse
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1628735244

Focusing for the first time on why attorney general Robert F. Kennedy wasn’t killed in 1963 instead of on why President John F. Kennedy was, Mark Shaw offers a stunning and provocative assassination theory that leads directly to the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy. Mining fresh information and more than forty new interviews, Shaw weaves a spellbinding narrative involving Mafia don Carlos Marcello; Jack Ruby (Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer); Ruby’s attorney, Melvin Belli; and, ultimately, the Kennedy brothers and their father. Shaw addresses these tantalizing questions: Why, shortly after his brother’s death, did a grief-stricken RFK tell a colleague, “I thought they would get one of us . . . I thought it would be me”? Why was Belli, an attorney with almost no defense experience (but proven ties to the Mafia), chosen as Jack Ruby’s attorney? How does Belli’s Mafia connection call into question his legal strategy, which ultimately led to the Ruby’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence? What was Joseph Kennedy’s relationship to organized crime? And how was his insistence that JFK appoint RFK as attorney general tantamount to signing the president’s death warrant? For fifty years, Shaw maintains, researchers investigating the president’s murder in Dallas have been looking at the wrong motives and actors. The Poison Patriarch offers a shocking reassessment—one that is sure to alter the course of future assassination debates.

Singin' a Lonesome Song

Singin' a Lonesome Song
Author: Gary Brown
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2001-01-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1461625629

Texas convicts and inmates have made the Texas prison system the most colorful in the world over the past 150 years. T

Convict Cowboys

Convict Cowboys
Author: Mitchel P. Roth
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2016-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574416529

Convict Cowboys is the first book on the nation’s first prison rodeo, which ran from 1931 to 1986. At its apogee the Texas Prison Rodeo drew 30,000 spectators on October Sundays. Mitchel P. Roth portrays the Texas Prison Rodeo against a backdrop of Texas history, covering the history of rodeo, the prison system, and convict leasing, as well as important figures in Texas penology including Marshall Lee Simmons, O.B. Ellis, and George J. Beto, and the changing prison demimonde. Over the years the rodeo arena not only boasted death-defying entertainment that would make professional cowboys think twice, but featured a virtual who’s who of American popular culture. Readers will be treated to stories about numerous American and Texas folk heroes, including Western film stars ranging from Tom Mix to John Wayne, and music legends such as Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Through extensive archival research Roth introduces readers to the convict cowboys in both the rodeo arena and behind prison walls, giving voice to a legion of previously forgotten inmate cowboys who risked life and limb for a few dollars and the applause of free-world crowds.