The sensational, lurid, and wickedly entertaining true story of the brothers who invented Hollywood to become the godfathers of cinema - movie moguls Nicholas and Joseph Schenck - studded with glamorous stars, scandals, mobsters, murders, and one legendary blond bombshell. . .

Groundbreaking pioneers of the Hollywood Dream Factory, Joseph and Nicholas Schenck may not have been household names like the Warner brothers or Louis B. Mayer, but they were infinitely more powerful, influential--and ruthless. A pair of Russian immigrants with giant ambitions, the Schencks turned their small nickelodeon business in New York's Bowery into a partnership with Loew's movie theaters and a controlling interest in three major studios: MGM, 20th Century Fox, and United Artists. They painted the silver screen silver, laid the foundations for the all-powerful studio system, and ruled a global movie empire from their Gatsby-sized mansions on the East and West coasts. The Schencks had become moguls.

Their story is the stuff of legends--and their scandals are among the greatest stories Hollywood never told. This riveting, behind-the-scenes account reveals the suprising truth about:

• The union-busting mob deal that landed Joe Schenck in federal prison for four years--on tax evasion charges including deductions for a menage a trois.
• The cutthroat and merciless political maneuvering that defined the Hollywood studio heads.
• The lurid murder charges against silent film star Fatty Arbuckle--whose legal defense was paid for by Joe Schenck.
• Joe's secret infatuation with Marilyn Monroe, even though Marilyn's mother named her Norma after Joe's wife!
• The brothers' ingenious creation of the Academy of Motion Pictures and the Oscars--and indomitable control over the entire film industry.

From the earliest days of silent films and the swinging era of the Roaring Twenties, through the Golden Age of the studio system and the patriotic call of WWII, to the Red Scare paranoia of the McCarthy years, the history of the Schenck brothers is the story of Hollywood itself--and the endurng power of the American Dream. Moguls is a must-read for film fans, history buffs, and anyone who loves the movies.

Now in paperback! The stunning true story of the rise of Nazism in America in the years leading to WWII--and the fearless Jewish gangsters and crime families who joined forces to fight back. With an intense cinematic style, acclaimed nonfiction crime author Michael Benson reveals the thrilling role of Jewish mobsters like Bugsy Siegel in stomping out the terrifying tide of Nazi sympathizers during the 1930s and 1940s.

As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups operating openly in the United States. Few Americans dared to speak out or fight back--until an organized resistance of notorious Jewish mobsters (Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Red Levine, and others) waged their own personal war against the Nazis in their midst, gangland-style . . .

Packed with surprising, little-known facts, graphic details, and unforgettable personalities, Gangsters vs. Nazis chronicles the mob's most ruthless tactics in taking down fascism--inspiring ordinary Americans to join them in their fight. The book culminates in one of the most infamous events of the pre-war era--the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden--in which law-abiding citizens stood alongside hardened criminals to fight against the Nazis for the soul of America. This is the story of the mob that's rarely told--one of the most fascinating chapters in American history and American organized crime.

So you think you're smarter than a fifth grader? Well, as many contestants have already discovered on the smash hit TV show hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, you may have either forgotten more than you realize about the three R's or simply never learned in the first place! How much do you really know about third grade math? Fourth grade social studies? Fifth grade science? First grade spelling?

You may have a high school diploma or a college degree hanging on your wall, but are you smarter than a fifth grader? You'll find out in this book, which includes brain-teasing ten-question quizzes (including million-dollar bonus questions) on information the average eleven-year-old is expected to know--plus there are great bits of fun and fascinating trivia sprinkled throughout. Go ahead--we dare you to prove you're as bright as that gum-chewing kid with the backpack who's waiting on the corner for that yellow bus every morning. School is back in session. And maybe you'll even learn a thing or two that you missed by not paying attention the first time around.

The definitive story of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, and of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke--a tremendous explication of a tremendous film....Breathtaking (The Washington Post).Fifty years ago a strikingly original film had its premiere. Still acclaimed as one of the most remarkable and important motion pictures ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted the first contacts between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence. The movie was the product of a singular collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke. Fresh off the success of his cold war satire Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick wanted to make the first truly first-rate science fiction film. Drawing from Clarke's ideas and with one of the author's short stories as the initial inspiration, their bold vision benefited from pioneering special effects that still look extraordinary today, even in an age of computer-generated images. In Space Odyssey, author, artist, and award-winning filmmaker Michael Benson delivers expert inside stuff (San Francisco Chronicle) from his extensive research of Kubrick's and Clarke's archives. He has had the cooperation of Kubrick's widow, Christiane, and interviewed most of the key people still alive who worked on the film. Drawing also from other previously unpublished interviews, Space Odyssey provides a 360-degree view of the film from its genesis to its legacy, including many previously untold stories. And it features dozens of photos from the making of the film, most never previously published. At last! The dense, intense, detailed, and authoritative saga of the making of the greatest motion picture I've ever seen...Michael Benson has done the Cosmos a great service (Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks).

In Why the Grateful Dead Matter, veteran writer and lifelong Deadhead Michael Benson argues that the Grateful Dead are not simply a successful rock-and-roll band but a phenomenon central to American culture. He defends the proposition that the Grateful Dead are, in fact, a musical movement as transformative as any -ism in the artistic history of this century and the last. And a lot more fun than most. From the street festivals of Haight-Ashbury to the cross-country acid tests with the Merry Pranksters, and from the sound-and-light show at the Great Pyramid at Giza to the ecstatic outpouring of joy at Soldier Field in the summer of '15, the Grateful Dead have been at the center of American life, music, and karmic flow for fifty years. In Why the Grateful Dead Matter, Michael Benson brings it all back to life and makes a compelling case for the band's lasting cultural importance.

The stunning true story of the rise of Nazism in America in the years leading to WWII--and the fearless Jewish gangsters and crime families who joined forces to fight back. With an intense cinematic style, acclaimed nonfiction crime author Michael Benson reveals the thrilling role of Jewish mobsters like Bugsy Siegel in stomping out the terrifying tide of Nazi sympathizers during the 1930s and 1940s.

Goodreads Top Nonfiction of 2022

[A] masterpiece. One of the most rivetingly relevant reads I've ever encountered. --Jon Land, Providence Journal

As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups operating openly in the United States. Few Americans dared to speak out or fight back--until an organized resistance of notorious mobsters waged their own personal war against the Nazis in their midst. Gangland-style. . . .

In this thrilling blow-by-blow account, acclaimed crime writer Michael Benson uncovers the shocking truth about the insidious rise of Nazism in America--and the Jewish mobsters who stomped it out. Learn about:

* Nazi Town, USA: How one Long Island community named a street after Hitler, decorated buildings with swastikas, and set up a camp to teach US citizens how to goosestep.

* Meyer Lansky and Murder Inc.: How a Jewish mob accountant led fifteen goons on a joint family mission to bust heads at a Brown Shirt rally in Manhattan.

* Fritz Kuhn, The Vest-Pocket Hitler How a German immigrant spread Nazi propaganda through the American Bund in New York City--with 70 branches across the US.

* Newark Nazis vs The Minutemen: How a Jewish resistance group, led by a prize fighter and bootlegger for the mob, waged war on the Bund in the streets of Newark.

* Hitler in Hollywoodland: How Sunset Strip kingpin Mickey Cohen knocked two Brown Shirters' heads together--and became the West Coast champion in the mob's war on Nazis.

Packed with surprising, little-known facts, graphic details, and unforgettable personalities, Gangsters vs. Nazis chronicles the mob's most ruthless tactics in taking down fascism--inspiring ordinary Americans to join them in their fight. The book culminates in one of the most infamous events of the pre-war era--the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden--in which law-abiding citizens stood alongside hardened criminals to fight for the soul of a nation. This is the story of the mob that's rarely told--one of the most fascinating chapters in American history and American organized crime.

A must-read. --Larry Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of Biggest Brother: The Life of Major Dick Winters, the Man Who Led the Band of Brothers

A fascinating and entertaining read. --The Epoch Times

A tremendous history lesson and essential reading for everyone in the Rochester area. You'll recognize the locations and find interest in how those places looked 140 years ago. Book tells the story of five murders, all taking place in the City of Rochester, N.Y., during the latter decades of the nineteenth century. The first story, which takes up the first half of the book, is about the home invasion murder of a young wife and mother. Her body is found in the cellar, a flour sack tied tightly around her neck and her skirts hiked up. At first, of course, the husband was arrested, amid rumors that he and his wife, along with another couple, were swingers. But he was released in favor of a preferable suspect, a damaged young tramp who'd been floating around the Hayward Avenue neighborhood looking for food. In another story, the resort town of Charlotte (that's Cha'LOT to Rochesterians) where the rich went to play along the crystal clear waters of Lake Ontario. At night it was where the pick pockets and the thugs went to fleece drunks who still had money in their pockets. After our victim checks into a hotel for the night complaining he'd been mugged, he dies overnight from brain swelling. Who bonked him on the head. The answer seems to come the next day when a man is going around trying to sell the victim's watch. In another story, brother kills brother. Book spans the last years of the gallows in Monroe County, and the first of the new-fangled electric chair.

There is only one casino game in which a player, if he plays perfectly, can gain a mathematical advantage over the house. That game is blackjack. Blackjack Strategy teaches you everything you need to know to fatten your wallet and have a good time at the tables. At last, here is an easy-to-understand guide to blackjack's basic strategy and card counting. Michael Benson explains when to take a hit, when to stand, when to split, and when to double-down-and how all these decisions are influenced by the card count. Included are: a comprehensive list of blackjack rules, including those particular to specific casinos, regions, and foreign countries; how to avoid the surveillance techniques houses use to weed out card counters; inside tips from the professionals; a money management guide to maximize winnings and minimize losses; and 40 strategy charts. Blackjack Strategy is entirely up-to-date for today's casino play and, unlike many other blackjack guides, doesn't require a mathematician's skill to comprehend.

This encyclopedic listing of every man who played on or coached the New York Knicks from the team's inception in 1946 to the present is jam-packed with details on everything from a player's careers statistics to his height, weight, and jersey number. Included is information about a player's life before and after the NBA, college career, and dates of birth and death. Relive the glory days of Bill Bradley, Walter Cylde the Glide Frazier, Patrick Ewing, Bob McAdoo, Dave DeBusschere, and all the other Knickerbockers in this comprehensive guide to Madison Square Garden's most famous denizens.

What grandstand collapsed during a game, killing twelve? How high is the Green monster in Fenway? In what park was the outfield fence only 187 feet from home plate?

Ballparks of North America is a comprehensive encyclopedia of the grounds, yards and stadiums used for organized baseball from the invention of the sport in the 1840s to the year 1988. Entries, listed alphabetically by community, cover everything from cornfields to Yankee Stadium. Each entry gives the location of the park, who played there and when, home run dimensions, seating capacity, architectural comments, attendance records, and anecdotes. More than 100 photos and drawings are included, some rare.

Comprehensive, accessible and unprecedented, Who's Who in the JFK Assassination presents vital information on each of more than 1,400 individuals related in any noteworthy way to the murders of President John F. Kennedy, Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit and alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22 and 24, 1963. Based on years of research, a wealth of sources and a long study of the Warren Commission's twenty-six volumes, this encyclopedic book includes:

A-to-Z entries on virtually all the suspects, victims, witnesses, law enforcement officials and investigators.

Quick identification of each person followed by biographical facts, testimony, evidence and more.

Detailed listings of sources.

Explorations of the puzzling theories and countless sides of the case.

Extensive cross-referencing of entries, allowing readers to follow their own investigations and construct their own conclusions.

This all-new who's who will prove an essential companion to the many best-selling books, documentaries and feature films about the JFK assassination. Bound to be referred to again and again, it is the complete resource for anyone who wants to know more about-- or wants to keep better track of-- the key players involved in one of the most infamous chapters in American history.

Rochester, N.Y., is known for many things, great food, lilacs, innovative supermarkets, minor league baseball, and-unfortunately-crime. This heavily-illustrated book covers some of the most spectacular crimes in the Rochester area's history, written by true-crime master Michael Benson, who grew up in the town of Chili. Read about serial killers Arthur Shawcross and Robert Bruce Spahalski, the savage murders of Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formicola, the all-in-the-family murders of Tabatha Bryant and Jim Tan, the hunt for Bucky Phillips, the disappearance of Flossie Wilbur, plus much more. Many shocking photos.

Thirteen new insomnia inducing murder stories from True Crime master Michael Benson, including: Monster of the Low Country, Born to Raise Hell, The Hollywood Ripper, The Murder of Craig Rideout, Call Me Daddy, Savage Waitress, King Creep, A Dark Stretch of Road, Family of Terror, The Tell-Tale Knot, Vengeance is Mine, Breckenridge, and A Few Thoughts on the Black Dahlia. Dozens of photos! An excerpt from the book's final story: It is the most famous American murder case not involving a celebrity-a crime so horrible that it changed the tone of an entire city. Before, throughout Los Angeles, women routinely walked home alone. After, they required escorts-and all because of the mind-bogglingly bizarre ordeal of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, a celebrity only in death. The twenty-two-year-old raven-haired beauty, a show-biz wannabe, was found on the morning of January 15, 1947. She was naked, severed into two pieces below the ribcage, and arranged on the ground like a piece of surreal art, arms above her head, legs spread, her upper body parallel but to the side of her lower body, a Sardonicus smile carved into her face with a knife, and portions of a breast and a thigh cut out. The missing piece of thigh flesh was found inserted in her rectum. The skin attached to that piece contained a rose tattoo.She's been tortured for days, tortured till dead, drained of blood and dumped, no presented, at the edge of a vacant lot, left foot only inches from the sidewalk, hair freshly washed, in the Leimert Park section of L.A. The cause of death was drowning. She'd drowned on her own blood.

More than 100 award-winning art photographs of candid and staged scenes of the human story

Launched in 2008 by the Pictet Group, the Prix Pictet has become the world's leading photography and sustainability award. The latest volume, Prix Pictet: Human, features more than 100 outstanding works of contemporary photography by many of the world's most acclaimed photographers.

If Archie Bunker had TiVo, he'd be the Kid from Brooklyn. --VH1

The perpetually pissed off and potty-mouthed Kid from Brooklyn, famous for classic video rants like Starbucks and Bat Day, is back for more, spewing contempt for virtually everything in twenty-first-century American culture, unabashedly letting you know why the world is comin' to a f*ckin' end. Now in his second book of unedited outraged observations, the Kid mouths off on all that America holds dear--or not:

The Kid On Marriage:
I been married and I been in prison. There's no f*ckin' difference. Except sometimes the food is better in prison.

The Kid On Men Versus Women:
I'd rather be a man than a woman any day. Guys in hockey masks don't attack you, all your orgasms are real, and if you retain water, it's in a canteen.

The Kid On Gun Control:
The liberals are crying, '100,000 people were killed by handguns last year.' Would it make the liberals feel any better if them 100,000 people were pushed out of friggin' windows?

The Kid On Men Wearing Sandals:
I don't even wanna look at my own feet, and I sure as hell don't wanna look at someone else's. What we need is Foot Police--you got ugly feet and wear sandals in public, it's a $250 fine.

The Kid On Britney Spears:
She's like the chick you had the hots for in high school and see at the ten-year reunion. She's gained sixty pounds, smokes unfiltered Camels, she's divorced with two bratty kids, and works at a take-out joint.

The Kid On This Book:
Buy it or don't buy it, what the hell do I care?

And a buttload more about the good old days of growing up in Canarsie and the cast of screwballs, crazies, perverts, gangsters, retards, losers, and whack-jobs who made Brooklyn the garden spot of the world.

Anyway, think about it, you mook.

Mike Caracciolo, aka the Kid From Brooklyn, was born in Canarsie, a tough-as-nails blue-collar neighborhood. He's worked at number of professions, most notably as a ticket broker for sporting events and Broadway shows. He's appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and two episodes of The Sopranos and his videos have been featured on YouTube and VH1. One of the Kid's most popular videos, Starbucks 2, has been chosen as one of the top fifty best online videos by VHI's WebJunk.com. He's author of Go F*** Yourself: The Kid from Brooklyn's Book of Rants and Other Stuff, and lives in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Visit his website at www.thekidfrombrooklyn.com. You got a problem with that?

Examines what happened to Dr. William Petit, his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters in the early morning hours of July 23 in the quiet town of Cheshire--and how their community rallied bravely around the sole survivor of this vicious home invasion.

Discover the darker side of Wexford with this collection of spine-chilling tales from across the county.This spooky selection features stories of unexplained phenomena, ghostly apparitions and poltergeist activity and includes tales from well-known locations such as Enniscorthy Castle and Duncannon Fort as well as those from private dwellings, Drawing on historical and contemporary sources and including many first-hand experiences and previously unpublished tales, Haunted Wexford will enthrall anyone interested in the unexplained

Today you'd call Ballantyne suburban, but back then, at the start of the summer of 1966, it was country -- just a cluster of houses, some of them shacks, on or near Ballantyne Road, in the Town of Chili, NY. And while June 25 started like any other day it would end in a nightmare. In The Devil at Genesee Junction, veteran crime writer, Michael Benson, returns to his formerly rural hometown to take on the double homicide of his friends Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formiciola that took place that night.

The two girls were missing for a month and then found in the bushes horribly mutilated. The double homicide changed the author's childhood suddenly, and drastically. He went from living in a rural playland, to being encased in fear, wondering who among them was the werewolf who cut up Kathy and George-Ann.

This heinous crime was never resolved, and didn't go away. In recent years, the author has teamed up with a victim's mom, and a local private investigator to delve deep into the 6/66 murders, developing along the way some strong new leads and shocking details. Together they have heated up this icy cold case, and their investigation has led them in a startling new direction.

It was one of the biggest crime stories of the decade--two deadly killers, desperate and on the run. After months of planning, Ricky Matt and David Sweat cut, chopped, coerced, and connived their way out of a maximum-security prison in the wilderness of upstate New York and managed to elude police for three weeks, sending the region into lockdown and keeping the entire country on edge. The media called it a bold escape for the ages, and veteran true-crime writer Michael Benson leads us along the story's every wild path to dig out a tale of adventure, psychology, sex, and brutality. Escape from Dannemora examines the strange case of Joyce Mitchell, the long-time prison employee who had a sexual relationship with at least one of the killers, and who smuggled them tools and aided in the escape, while they cooked up a plan to kill her husband. In the end, Benson looks closely at conditions at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY, a crumbling Gothic pile now under investigation for charges of drug trafficking and brutality.

The Devil at Genesee Junction recalls the mutilation murders of George-Ann Formiciola and Catherine Ann Bernhard that happened in June 1966 in the backfields of Chili, NY. The author, along with the help of a mother of one of the victims and a private detective, heats up the cold case, and sends the investigation in a startling new direction.