Waterman

Author: David Davis
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803254776
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
Waterman is the first comprehensive biography of Duke Kahanamoku (1890–1968): swimmer, surfer, Olympic gold medalist, Hawaiian icon, waterman. Long before Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz made their splashes in the pool, Kahanamoku emerged from the backwaters of Waikiki to become America’s first superstar Olympic swimmer. The original “human fish” set dozens of world records and topped the world rankings for more than a decade; his rivalry with Johnny Weissmuller transformed competitive swimming from an insignificant sideshow into a headliner event. Kahanamoku used his Olympic renown to introduce the sport of “surf-riding,” an activity unknown beyond the Hawaiian Islands, to the world. Standing proudly on his traditional wooden longboard, he spread surfing from Australia to the Hollywood crowd in California to New Jersey. No American athlete has influenced two sports as profoundly as Kahanamoku did, and yet he remains an enigmatic and underappreciated figure: a dark-skinned Pacific Islander who encountered and overcame racism and ignorance long before the likes of Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and Jackie Robinson. Kahanamoku’s connection to his homeland was equally important. He was born when Hawaii was an independent kingdom; he served as the sheriff of Honolulu during Pearl Harbor and World War II and as a globetrotting “Ambassador of Aloha” afterward; he died not long after Hawaii attained statehood. As one sportswriter put it, Duke was “Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey combined down here.” In Waterman, award-winning journalist David Davis examines the remarkable life of Duke Kahanamoku, in and out of the water. Purchase the audio edition.

Feasting on the Spoils

Author: Seth Hettena
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429917113
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
Randy "Duke" Cunningham was an ace fighter pilot and Top Gun instructor. He came back from battle as Vietnam's most famous pilot—a Navy hero in an unpopular war. In his political life, Cunningham was an eight-term United States representative who never lost an election. So how did this powerful politician, one of the Vietnam War's most highly decorated pilots, become the most corrupt congressman in U.S. history? In 2005, Cunningham shocked the nation by pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, fraud, and tax evasion. A federal judge sentenced him to more than eight years in prison, the longest sentence handed down to a member of Congress in 40 years. And even as Cunningham was led, weeping, to prison, investigators continued to uncover a deep-rooted scandal, reaching the cozy nexus between Congress and lobbyists, military contractors, the Defense Department and the upper ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency. Cunningham's bribes were seemingly endless. They included a yacht, a Rolls-Royce, and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of antiques. Defense contractors flew him aboard private chartered jets to luxury destinations, picked up the tab at expensive restaurants, and paid for his daughter's graduation party. In total, he collected at least $2.4 million in five years, a series of acts unequaled in the long, sordid history of congressional corruption. An ongoing investigation is even exploring allegations that prostitutes were hired by Cunningham's associates to entertain the congressman. His corruption and that of his cohorts was a decisive factor in the 2006 elections, as Democrats retook control of the House for the first time in more than a decade. What led a man who showed such strength and resolve in battle to show such moral weakness later in life? Had he become a prisoner of greed or was he manipulated by others far more cunning than he? What happened to Randy Cunningham? In Feasting on the Spoils, Hettena offers a probing look at deception and avarice. He paints an unforgettable portrait of a life publicly unraveled, and of a man for whom the mysteries—and the history of fraud—only seem to deepen.

The Life and Times of a Duke

Author: Martyn J. McGinty
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1456777963
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 125

Book Description
This is the story of a quarter-century struggle to rebuild from scrap condition a unique locomotive, it being an essential part of the British engineering heritage. It covers the unusual and efficient Caprotti valve gear in depth and solves the mystery of why the locomotive did not work properly in service. It was never improved until it was restored and its secrets revealed with a surprising conclusion.

Duke

Author: Terry Teachout
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698138589
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description
A major new biography of Duke Ellington from the acclaimed author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century—and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world’s most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style. He wrote some fifteen hundred compositions, many of which, like “Mood Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady,” remain beloved standards, and he sought inspiration in an endless string of transient lovers, concealing his inner self behind a smiling mask of flowery language and ironic charm. As the biographer of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout is uniquely qualified to tell the story of the public and private lives of Duke Ellington. A semi-finalist for the National Book Award, Duke peels away countless layers of Ellington’s evasion and public deception to tell the unvarnished truth about the creative genius who inspired Miles Davis to say, “All the musicians should get together one certain day and get down on their knees and thank Duke.”

Duke

Author: Ronald L. Davis
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806186461
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Book Description
Almost two decades after his death, John Wayne is still America’s favorite movie star. More than an actor, Wayne is a cultural icon whose stature seems to grow with the passage of time. In this illuminating biography, Ronald L. Davis focuses on Wayne’s human side, portraying a complex personality defined by frailty and insecurity as well as by courage and strength. Davis traces Wayne’s story from its beginnings in Winterset, Iowa, to his death in 1979. This is not a story of instant fame: only after a decade in budget westerns did Wayne receive serious consideration, for his performance in John Ford’s 1939 film Stagecoach. From that point on, his skills and popularity grew as he appeared in such classics as Fort Apache, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Searches, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, and True Grit. A man’s ideal more than a woman’s, Wayne earned his popularity without becoming either a great actor or a sex symbol. In all his films, whatever the character, John Wayne portrayed John Wayne, a persona he created for himself: the tough, gritty loner whose mission was to uphold the frontier’s--and the nation’s--traditional values. To depict the different facets of Wayne’s life and career, Davis draws on a range of primary and secondary sources, most notably exclusive interviews with the people who knew Wayne well, including the actor’s costar Maureen O’Hara and his widow, Pilar Wayne. The result is a well-balanced, highly engaging portrait of a man whose private identity was eventually overshadowed by his screen persona--until he came to represent America itself.

Action Figure!

Author: G. B. Trudeau
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Book Description
Faster than the speed of speed, Doonesbury's Duke has shown up for every major world conflict since he first leapt from Trudeau's pen some 17 years ago. Action Figure! is a complete retrospective of Duke's reign of malfeasance. And to celebrate the occasion, this anthology is accompanied by a fully articulated five-inch action figure, modeled by George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic.

A Duke in Time

Author: Janna MacGregor
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN: 1250761603
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
"If...looking for something new with Austen’s spirit, humor, and dashing heroes, they can’t do better than MacGregor." - Entertainment Weekly A Duke in Time is the first book in a three-story arc that will have you rooting for leading heroines, searching for lost dowries, and falling for swoon-worthy heroes. Katherine Vareck is in for the shock of her life when she learns upon her husband Meri's accidental death that he had married two other women. Her entire business, along with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a royal supplier, is everything she's been working for and now could be destroyed if word leaks about the three wives. Meri's far more upstanding brother, Christian, Duke of Randford has no earthly clue how to be of assistance. He spent the better part of his adult years avoiding Meri and the rest of his good-for-nothing family, so to be dragged back into the fold is...problematic. Even more so is the intrepid and beautiful Katherine, whom he cannot be falling for because she's Meri's widow. Or can he? With a textile business to run and a strong friendship forming with Meri's two other wives, Katherine doesn't have time for much else. But there's something about the warm, but compellingly taciturn Christian that draws her to him. When an opportunity to partner in a business venture brings them even closer, they'll have to face their pasts if they want to share each other's hearts and futures.

A Duke of a Time

Author: Tamara Gill
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780645417715
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
They're complete opposites. Society would never approve. But that doesn't stop them from wanting more?Greyson Everett, future Duke of Derby, has been exiled. Cut off financially and banished to the country by his disapproving father, he's expected to repent and work like a commoner. If he has any hope of getting back to his real life, he'll have to stay the course-and stop kissing his employer's bossy, opinionated, and entirely too lovely daughter. It should be easy. But it's not?Hailey Woodville is grateful for all the hands that make light work of the chores on her father's modest estate. Well, she's grateful for most of them. Greyson is one of the worst workers she's ever seen. His ineptitude at manual labor is exceeded only by his arrogance-and his beauty. She should stay away. Unfortunately, she cannot?But soon, Greyson will need to determine if the price of happily ever after with Hailey is one that he's able (and willing) to pay-and Hailey will need to decide if she can forgive Greyson the sins of his rakish past?

The Life and Times of Duke Ellington

Author: John Bankston
Publisher: Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 1612289290
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 52

Book Description
More than any other musician in the early twentieth century, Duke Ellington brought jazz into nightclubs and later into the living rooms of America. The music he played sprang in part from the blues and gospel rhythms of the plantation slaves living in the mid-nineteenth century, infused with the sounds of ragtime from the turn of the century. Jazz has been called the first musical form created in the United States. It was a type of sharp improvisation for which band members played anything they wanted along a chosen key or set of chords, so every night the music was different. Duke led with his piano playing, but he allowed various other members of his band to shine, too. Embracing new technologies such as radio receivers and record players, Duke Ellington was an early pop star.

The Duke of Duval

Author: Dudley M. Lynch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Duval County (Tex.)
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description