Through an examination of World War II era Frank Sinatra fan communities in the United States, The Business of Bobbysoxers considers celebrity following, fan behavior, and popular music culture as a window into the lives of wartime female youth.

Hortense Calisher’s revelatory novel of celebrity, small-town values, and a young woman’s coming of age Famous playwright Craig Towle has decided to return to his New Jersey hometown, a suburb of New York City. He arrives with his world-renowned reputation and a new wife who is half his age. It is the 1950s, and the new couple raises plenty of eyebrows—in particular, those of the narrator, an adolescent girl who is full of observations, but not judgments. At the center of this layered novel is the narrator’s unconventional family and their odd fixation on Towle, which goes beyond his mere celebrity. The secrets of their past and the potential involvement of Towle in the family’s lineage intertwine in a potentially devastating turn.

THE STORY: Margaret Turner is a happy and successful woman, with few regrets that she has chosen a legal career in place of marriage and a family. She occupies a respected judgeship; provides a good home for her teenaged sister, Susan; and enjoys t

Images of teenage girls in poodle skirts dominated American popular culture on the 1950's. But as Kelly Schrum shows, teenage girls were swooning over pop idols and using their allowances to buy the latest fashions well beforehand. After World War I, a teenage identity arose in the US, as well as a consumer culture geared toward it. From fashion and beauty to music and movies, high school girls both consumed and influenced what manufacturers, marketers, and retailers offered to them. Examining both national trends and individual lives, Schrum looks at the relationship between the power of consumer culture and the ability of girls to selectively accept, reject, and appropriate consumer goods. Lavishly illustrated with images from advertisements, catalogs, and high school year books, Some Wore Bobby Sox is a unique and fascinating cultural history of teenage girl culture in the middle of the century.

1950's music sensation, Drew Suede, has a serious problem. Even though his fame is growing, a secret haunts him at every turn. Ignoring the advice of his manager, Drew reaches out to an unsuspecting hero. This is an enjoyable production for theaters of any talent level. With a flexible script and an engaging story, this show can be adapted to many theater types. Production of this show is NOT allowed without a properly executed "Agreement to Produce" on file with the publisher.

Machine generated contents note: -- 1. Introduction: Speaking of the Generations -- 2. The Republican Generation - (born 1742-1766) -- 3. The Compromise Generation - (born 1767-1791) -- 4. The Transcendental Generation - (born 1792-1821) -- 5. The Gilded Generation - (born 1822-1842) -- 6. The Progressive Generation - (born 1843-1859) -- 7. The Missionary Generation - (born 1860-1882) -- 8. The Lost Generation - (born 1883-1900) -- 9. The G.I. Generation - (born 1901-1924) -- 10. The Silent Generation - (born 1925-1942) -- 11. The Boom Generation - (born 1943-1960) -- 12. The Thirteenth Generation, or Generation X - (born 1961-1981) -- 13. The Millennial Generation, or Generation Y - (born 1982-2004) -- 14. The Homeland Generation - (born 2005-current).

'In my dreams, I was always in some vast landscape on a long, straight road. Driving. Always driving.' Gwenda had always loved the open road, but her home town of Newcastle didn't really offer the sort of adventure she longed for. So, in 1957, with friend and fellow nurse Pat in tow, she left the dismal British winter behind, and embarked on an amazing American adventure. After a year nursing in Cleveland, Gwenda, Pat and three new friends set off on a road trip around North America, driving in a rickety 1949 Ford. What follows is the charming true story of five remarkable young women. Over the course of eighteen months, the girls go to a 4th July rodeo, visit San Francisco and Las Vegas, learn to surf in Hawaii, spot movie stars in Hollywood and celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Wherever they go, the travelling nurses cause a sensation. This is a delightfully nostalgic memoir of friendship and the romance of the open road.

Studies of millinery tend to focus on hats, rather than the extraordinarily skilled workers who create them. American Milliners and their World sets out to redress the balance, examining the position of the milliner in American society from the 18th to the 20th century. Concentrating on the struggle of female hat-makers to claim their social place, it investigates how they were influenced by changing attitudes towards women in the workplace. Drawing on diaries, etiquette books, trade journals and contemporary literature, Stewart illustrates how making hats became big business, but milliners' working conditions failed to improve. Taking the reader from the Industrial Revolution of the 1760s to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and from Belle Epoque feathers to elegant cloches and Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hat, the book offers a new insight into the rise and fall of a fashionable industry. Beautifully illustrated and packed with original research, American Milliners and their World blends fashion history and anthropology to tell the forgotten stories of the women behind some of the most iconic hats of the last three centuries.

A comprehensive resource that will prove invaluable to fashion historians, this book presents a detailed exploration of the breadth of visually arresting, consumer-driven styles that have emerged in America since the 20th century. What are the origins of highly specific denim fashions, such as bell bottoms, skinny jeans, and ripped jeans? How do mass media and popular culture influence today's street fashion? When did American fashion sensibilities shift from conformity as an ideal to youth-oriented standards where clothing could boldly express independence and self-expression? Street Style in America: An Exploration addresses questions like these and many others related to the historical and sociocultural context of street style, supplying both A–Z entries that document specific American street styles and illustrations with accompanying commentary. This book provides a detailed analysis of American street and subcultural styles, from the earliest example reaching back to the early 20th century to contemporary times. It reviews all aspects of dress that were part of a look, considering variations over time and connecting these innovations to fashionable dress practices that emerged in the wakes of these sartorial rebellions. The text presents detailed examinations of specific dress styles and also interrogates the manifold meanings of dress practices that break from the mainstream. This book is a comprehensive resource that will prove invaluable to fashion historians and provide fascinating reading for students and general audiences.