Bøger af Steve Bergsman

One of the most successful and daring real estate developments in U.S. history was the building of Levittown, Long Island, in 1947. Although it became the prototype modern suburb, it was more reviled than appreciated during the first three decades of its existence. Intellectuals and critics attacked Levittown unmercifully, essentially calling it a boring environment that crushed the spirit of its population. Popular authors, such as Richard Yates, author of Revolutionary Road, used the modern suburb as a metaphor for creative sterility. When Pete Seeger sang, "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky; Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same," everyone knew he was talking about Levittown and all that it begot. As it turned out, the intellectuals and the critics got it all so very wrong from the start. Not only wasn't Levittown dullsville, but a surprising number of creative people passed through here, including songwriter Ellie Greenwich, singers Eddie Money and Billy Joel, Zippie The Pinhead cartoonist Bill Griffith, children's book illustrator Jon Buller, radio host John Gambling, TV political commentator Bill O'Reilly, Maureen Tucker and Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground (the house band for Andy Warhol's factory), and Steve Bergsman, journalist and author. Steve Bergsman grew up in Levittown during those early years and looking back now as an aging baby boomer, he thought it a wonderful place to have spent a childhood. Growing Up Levittown: In a Time of Conformity, Controversy and Cultural Crisis is a love letter to this quintessential suburb. Juxtaposed against a prevailing history of criticism and literary slander, Growing Up Levittown is a memoir of a happy childhood.

Long-time travel writer Steve Bergsman takes an unusual approach to his task, interpreting all he visits through the writings and music originated by creative people who have visited sites in the years if not centuries before him.

Billy Preston was well-known, well-liked and certainly esteemed during his almost five decades in the music industry, often intermingling with the music pantheon of his time, hence the title of the book, "Friends of Billy Preston." Perhaps Billy's most endearing friendship was with George Harrison, who he first met when they both were unknown aspirants trudging toward eventual stardom. They were teenagers when they met shook hands in England, and then in a Hamburg, Germany, music club. Billy was in Little Richard's touring band and George was with his fellow mates in a band called The Beatles, which was on the cusp of stardom - George, Paul, John and Ringo just didn't know it yet.

The Seduction of Mary Wells is work of historical fiction, chronicling the personal life of the Motown singer, who rocketed to fame in the early 1960s with a string of hits, including My Guy, a Number One record in 1964.

R&B singer's life cut short too soon The tale of Johnny Ace starts in the late 1940s as a young man returns from the Navy to his hometown of Memphis to try and figure out what to do with his life. The man, Johnny Alexander, will eventually make his way to Beale Street, the epicenter of the blues culture in the United States, successfully launch his recording career as Johnny Ace, and battle against his record company, owned by African-American music mogul Don Robey. Along the way, he'll cross paths with musical giants such as B.B. King, Ike Turner, Bobby Bland, Roscoe Gordon, Johnny Otis, Junior Parker, Rufus Thomas and Big Mama Thornton. Eventually Johnny Ace works his way to the fateful concert in the Houston Auditorium, where a moment of violence ends his life. Did Johnny Ace think he could beat Russian roulette one more time? Or, did something else happen in that backstage dressing room crowded with girlfriends, record people, and a very angry Don Robey? The Death of Johnny Ace is based on the life of a real person, rhythm & blues singer Johnny Ace, whose meteoric career was cut short by his unexpected death. He allegedly blew his brains out playing Russian roulette just before he was to appear on stage at a Christmas concert in 1954. Although largely forgotten now, Johnny Ace was the biggest star in R&B, a teen idol, in the early 1950s.

What in the cultural zeitgeist causes a movie to be made? Is it current affairs, a popular event or trend, a best-selling book, a genre of filmmaking or the will of a Hollywood director? In the case of the vastly entertaining cult movie, THE WANDERERS, from 1979, the answer would be all above. The setting of the movie is the Bronx, circa early in the 1960s, but the ambience is the unresolved 1950s when teen gangs frightened American urban dwellers and teenage behavior distressed parents everywhere. The popular singer Dion grew up in the Bronx during the 1950s and in 1961 he climbed the record charts with one of his biggest hits, THE WANDERER. The song struck a nerve in someone else who also grew up in 1950s Bronx, author Richard Price. He ended up writing a book called THE WANDERERS, which incorporated Dion's song into the storyline. Years later, director Philip Kaufman, picked up the book on recommendation from his son and decided to turn it into a movie. Films about gangs and juvenile delinquency had been popular with teens since the early 1950s with The Wild One and Blackboard Jungle. By the 1970s, soon to be middle-age Americans, became wildly nostalgic for the 1950s, resulting a slew of Broadway plays, television shows and movies that mixed greasers, early rock 'n' roll and naïve sexual fumblings into a cultural tsunami. This book is about the times, the song, the book, the director, the genre of teen-gang films and, most definitely, the last great "greaser feature," THE WANDERERS. As a journalist, Steve Bergsman has contributed to more than one hundred magazines, newspapers and wire services over the past four decades. As an author, he has written more than a dozen books. His most recent book was EARTH ANGELS: THE SHORT LIVES AND CONTROVERSIAL DEATHS OF THREE R&B PIONEERS.

What in the cultural zeitgeist causes a movie to be made? Is it current affairs, a popular event or trend, a best-selling book, a genre of filmmaking or the will of a Hollywood director? In the case of the vastly entertaining cult movie, THE WANDERERS, from 1979, the answer would be all above. The setting of the movie is the Bronx, circa early in the 1960s, but the ambience is the unresolved 1950s when teen gangs frightened American urban dwellers and teenage behavior distressed parents everywhere. The popular singer Dion grew up in the Bronx during the 1950s and in 1961 he climbed the record charts with one of his biggest hits, THE WANDERER. The song struck a nerve in someone else who also grew up in 1950s Bronx, author Richard Price. He ended up writing a book called THE WANDERERS, which incorporated Dion's song into the storyline. Years later, director Philip Kaufman, picked up the book on recommendation from his son and decided to turn it into a movie. Films about gangs and juvenile delinquency had been popular with teens since the early 1950s with The Wild One and Blackboard Jungle. By the 1970s, soon to be middle-age Americans, became wildly nostalgic for the 1950s, resulting a slew of Broadway plays, television shows and movies that mixed greasers, early rock 'n' roll and naïve sexual fumblings into a cultural tsunami. This book is about the times, the song, the book, the director, the genre of teen-gang films and, most definitely, the last great "greaser feature," THE WANDERERS. As a journalist, Steve Bergsman has contributed to more than one hundred magazines, newspapers and wire services over the past four decades. As an author, he has written more than a dozen books. His most recent book was EARTH ANGELS: THE SHORT LIVES AND CONTROVERSIAL DEATHS OF THREE R&B PIONEERS.

"Recording and performing in the early 1950s, Jesse Belvin, Johnny Ace, and Guitar Slim produced at least thirteen top-25 hits among them. In the years since, their songs have been covered by artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Luther Vandross, and Paul Simon, and they have influenced musicians as varied as Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Despite all that, their names remain mostly forgotten in the annals of rock 'n roll. Perhaps, as author Steve Bergsman notes in his introduction to Earth Angels: The Short Lives and Controversial Deaths of Three R&B Pioneers, this lack of notoriety is partly due to an unfortunate circumstance joining the three: their untimely deaths. Guitar Slim, whose million-selling song The Things I Used to Do has been re-recorded by both Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, died in New York City at the age of 32, due to pneumonia that was possibly induced by alcoholism. Johnny Ace's Pledging My Love spent ten weeks at the top position on Billboard's R&B chart and was subsequently performed by Elvis Presley and Paul Simon. Ace died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 25. Jesse Belvin, a crooner whose Goodnight My Love became the closing theme to famed disc jockey Alan Freed's radio shows, was killed in a head-on collision, along with his wife, just after performing at the first racially integrated concert in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1960; he was 27. 'If they had made it into the rock era,' Bergsman writes, 'or even the British Invasion years of the early '60s . . . they might have seen their stars shine once again, be recognized as pioneers of R&B, and maybe eventually be ensconced in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Instead, they had the bad luck to die before any of that could come to pass . . .'. Bergsman's meticulous research and entertaining narrative style will afford readers an appreciation-and, for many, an initial view-of the lives and careers of three talented and influential artists who left us much too soon"

Explores the ups and downs of one of the most successful girl groups of the early 1960s. Telling their story for the first time, in their own words, Chapel of Love reintroduces the Louisiana Music Hall of Famers to a new audience.

The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Selling Property Like the Experts How do the world's most successful developers--from Donald Trump to Sam Zell--make the most of every real estate transaction? The answers are found throughout Maverick Real Estate Investing.

The real estate market is booming, and over the last few years, people have turned to this reliable investment because of its incredible potential. However, real estate investing is a much different beast than buying a home. The objective is no longer real estate for individual use, but to lease the property to others in order to create income.