Steve McQueen: In His Own Words

Steve McQueen: In His Own Words

The star of some of the most beloved films of Hollywood’s golden age—including Bullitt, The Great Escape, and The Magnificent Seven—Steve McQueen’s unflappably roguish persona earned him the nickname “The King of Cool” and the highest salary of any movie star of his time. Marshall Terrill’s new book draws on more than five decades of media coverage, memorabilia, and research to serve up a slew of quotations straight from the mouth of the man himself. Steve McQueen in His Own Words lets us hear directly from this iconoclastic actor through a wide array of sources: interviews, published articles, personal letters and audiotapes, providing an intimate view of McQueen as an actor, filmmaker, racer, pilot, husband, and family man. Accompanying the hundreds of quotes are an equally impressive number of photos, illustrations, personal documents, and memorabilia, many of which are published here for the first time. Steve McQueen in His Own Words paints a portrait of a complex, contradictory man who managed to become one of the greatest icons in cinema history while never sacrificing the passions and beliefs that drove him.

The China Clipper, Pan American Airways and Popular Culture

The China Clipper, Pan American Airways and Popular Culture

The Pan American clipper ships of the 1930s and 1940s were technological marvels of their time. The years before World War II found the United States faced with international challenges of an economic as well as a military nature. Aided by government regulations and contracts, the Pan Am clippers were, for a time, the only international craft to carry the U.S. flag. Commercially, they rivaled the comfort and popularity of passenger trains and luxurious cruise ships. Militarily, they were unmatched by anything the Germans, Russians, Italians or French could produce. The only long-range aircraft capable of carrying transoceanic payloads, clippers became instantly valuable with the onset of the war. Marketed as the ultimate in commercial–or military–airfare, these flying boats became as much an American icon as the Pan Am logo itself. From the movie screen to the bookshelf, this volume examines the multitude of ways in which the values inherent in Pan American Airways’ clipper ships played out in popular culture. The book discusses the strategies Pan Am used to represent the clipper as a paragon of U.S. interests, values and beliefs. Mirroring the moods of the times, the clipper became a consistent American icon, being associated with the Statue of Liberty and the American eagle. The main focus of the work is the variety of ways in which this iconographic status manifested itself through toys, movies, pulp fiction, comic books and music. Clipper influence is also examined in other unlikely places such as the name of an available car color, car models, restaurant menus and lounge names. An appendix explains different models of the clipper flying boats.

Bugatti Type 57 Grand Prix: A Celebration

Bugatti Type 57 Grand Prix: A Celebration

This work examines the Type 57 Grand Prix cars, the creation of Jean Bugatti, Ettore’s eldest son. The late Hugh G Conway wrote in Bugatti – Le pur sang des automobiles, that, after 1935, ‘Bugatti’s racing programme became involved and very confusing to the humble historian, without accurate factory records.’ The T57G’s story is complex and has taken more than forty years to draw together, study and evaluate. Revealing new material, Tomlinson takes the view that existing records can be reinterpreted with a revised mindset, challenging conformist beliefs and dismissing many conventions. The book describes the 57G’s racing career and evolution through its siblings, the Types 57, 57S and 59. Type 57G characteristics are identified, with race-to-race body and chassis details described, and the Type 57G, 57S45, 57 ‘Sport’ and 57C Le Mans cars are defined, and their enigmatic history revised.

This book celebrates the Bugatti T57 Grand Prix racing cars: their origins, triumphs, failings, trivia, trinkets, and a little about the personalities behind them, interwoven with the social and political influences of those times.