Charles River

*Includes pictures *Includes Cole's quotes *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "If I could read it, I could play it." - Nat King Cole A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. Among the most recognizable and iconic vocal artists known to American society from the mid-twentieth to the twenty-first century, baritone Nat King Cole is indelible in the nation's consciousness for such hits as "Mona Lisa" and "Ramblin' Rose" as well as for his rendition of Mel Torm 's famous "Christmas Song," with the opening line known to millions of American households, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." Cole is almost synonymous with the Christmas holiday season. His entire career, following an early start as a first-rate pianist, includes a consistent string of similar hits, including: "Route 66," "Sweet Lorraine," "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," "Nature Boy," "Too Young," "Answer Me," "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Lush Life," "Those Hazy Lazy Crazy Days of Summer," "People," "That Sunday That Summer," "Dear Lonely Hearts, "L-O-V-E," and "Unforgettable." His gentle baritone sound, elegant phrasing, and crystal-clear enunciation are unmistakable, and have remained as a beloved fixture in America's collective ear for well over half a century. On the other hand, Cole, so well-known for just a fraction of his contribution to 20th century music, is one of the most anonymous and unexplored artists in the lexicon of great pop and jazz figures known to American and European audiences. Jazz devotees may know that, in his early years as a jazz pianist, he both studied with and influenced the greatest players, in his generation and those that followed. Those who regularly listen to the blues will find its distinct presence in his playing and can point to Cole's motion picture roles, one of which was the portrayal of the "Father of the Blues" himself, W. C. Handy. For those who love his singing, examples exist in multiple genres, and his image as a stage personality and host were smooth, unruffled, and elegant, putting him in good stead with others of his kind, such as Bing Crosby. And finally, despite his general bent toward tolerance and a non-violent response toward abuse, Cole's professional and personal stories are interwoven into the urge toward equal civil rights for African-Americans in the United States. Much like other famous singers, such as Marian Anderson, he fought ignorance and injustice, in part, by rising above it and providing a model for civilized behavior, both as a public figure and as an international musician. A professional performer who has continued to sell millions of records well past the date of his death, Nat King Cole also left a legacy, not only of an enormous body of recorded work, but in the career of his famous daughter, Natalie Cole. The United States feels nostalgia for Nat King Cole that it feels for few other artists, one that is easily triggered by the playing of any number of hits recorded over several decades. The strong strain of pianistic and vocal skills can be found in his "students" of the following generation, from pianist Oscar Peterson to singers George Benson and Johnny Mathis. American Legends: The Life of Nat King Cole looks at the life and legacy of one of America's most famous musicians. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Nat King Cole like never before, in no time at all.

*Includes pictures *Includes the comedy acts' most famous quotes *Includes bibliographies for further reading *Includes a table of contents There has been no shortage of comedy acts in American history, but the most famous and popular of them all is The Three Stooges, an act that has become synonymous with slapstick. Bring up their name to any American or even ask about slapstick comedy, and invariably, certain images will come to mind, most of which came from the comedy shorts featuring three bumbling but likable fools getting into all sorts of trouble due to their inability to think or behave properly. Moe, Larry and Curly quickly became a hit in comedy shorts on screen, and even as other similar acts like Abbot & Costello went on to make full length films, the Stooges continued to star in shorts, producing the iconic scenes that everyone associates with them, from Larry asking what he did wrong to Moe trying to hit Curly and Curly's efforts to block him. By the 1920s, English comic Stan Laurel had been in dozens of films and American Oliver Hardy had appeared in hundreds, but it was not until they formed a duo together in 1926 that they began to truly be noticed. Once they did, however, Laurel & Hardy became one of the most famous comedy teams in American history, with a career that spanned 4 decades and included over 100 combined shorts and feature films. Even today, nearly 60 years after their last performances together, Laurel & Hardy are still popular, alongside legends like The Three Stooges and Abbott & Costello, and their routines are still watched across the globe. Ironically, one of America's most famous comedy duos, and the performers of the country's most famous skit, came together in part because Lou Costello had already failed to cut it in the film industry. In fact, Costello had appeared in a Laurel & Hardy film in 1927 before meeting his partner, Bud Abbott, on the burlesque circuit in New York City. In fact, the two first performed together in 1935 only because Abbott filled in for Costello's usual partner, who happened to be ill one fateful day. Over time, Abbott & Costello perfected their routine, which typically consisted of Abbott playing the straight man while his dimwit partner acted foolishly and interrupted his plans. It was a shtick that also did well on radio, albeit one that required Costello to modify his voice with a higher pitch that not only differentiated his from Abbott but also made him sound appropriately dumber. By 1940, they were not only successful on the radio but also among America's most popular movie stars, a status they held almost consistently throughout the decade and into the early 1950s. Working as "Martin and Lewis", the team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis became the most popular nightclub act in America, commanding huge fees for their appearances all across the country. Perhaps the most ironic aspect of their success is that Dean Martin was not a comedian in any real sense of the word, and even during their act, he essentially served as the straight man to Jerry Lewis. The routine ensured that critics took more notice of Jerry Lewis, who intentionally came across as an awkward figure with a brand of bodily humor that was borrowed from a lineage of Yiddish humor predicated on physical slapstick. And just as Martin benefited from Lewis' comedic skills, Lewis also further developed a singing career thanks to the more famous Martin's crooning. Though it's often forgotten now, the duo eventually broke up in the mid-1950s because Lewis was starting to outshine Martin in their joint film career.

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the gang's most famous robberies written by Cole Younger *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the "Wild West", which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind. In Charles River Editors' Legends of the West series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. The Wild West has made legends out of many men after their deaths, but like Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James was a celebrity during his life. However, while Hickok was (mostly) a lawman, Jesse James was and remains the most famous outlaw of the Wild West, with both his life of crime and his death remaining pop culture fixtures. James and his notorious older brother Frank were Confederate bushwhackers in the lawless region of Missouri during the Civil War. Despite being a teenager, James was severely wounded twice during the war, including being shot in the chest, but that would hardly slow him down after the war ended. Eventually James, his brother and their infamous gang became the most hunted outlaws in the country, but Jesse would famously be done in by the brother of his most trusted gang members. After Jesse moved in with the Ford brothers, Bob Ford began secretly negotiating turning in the famous outlaw to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden. On April 3, 1882, as the gang prepared for another robber, Jesse was famously shot in the back of the head by Bob Ford as he stood on a chair fixing a painting. While conspiracy theories have continued to linger that somehow James was not killed on that day, the Ford brothers would celebrate their participation in his murder, Bob himself would be murdered a few years later, and Jesse James's legacy had been ensured. Meanwhile, Jesse's most famous associates, the Younger brothers - Cole, Jim, John, and Bob - were also some of the most feared bandits in the country. Rivaled only by Frank and Jesse James, with whom they often rode, they captured the imaginations of a not entirely unsympathetic public. Newspapers gave breathless accounts of their exploits and dime novels made up adventures they never had. In Cole Younger's self-serving and often unreliable autobiography, written shortly after being released from prison, Cole complained, "On the eve of sixty, I come out into the world to find a hundred or more of books, of greater or less pretensions, purporting to be a history of 'The Lives of the Younger Brothers, ' but which are all nothing more nor less than a lot of sensational recitals, with which the Younger brothers never had the least association. One publishing house alone is selling sixty varieties of these books, and I venture to say that in the whole lot there could not be found six pages of truth. The stage, too, has its lurid dramas in which we are painted in devilish blackness." Of course, the very nature of their business makes the Younger brothers hard to trace. Historians disagree on what robberies they participated in. One good estimate is that one or more of the Younger brothers, principally the eldest brother Cole, participated in a total of 12 bank robberies, seven train robberies, and four stagecoach robberies. Most of these robberies were done in league with the James brothers and many led to bloodshed, with at least 11 civilians being killed. Legends of the West: The History of the James-Younger Gang traces the history of the outlaws.