NCW Libraries

When Tony Lip, a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on a book to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger, as well as unexpected humanity and humor, they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey...

Examines entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.'s journey to create his own identity, as a black man who embraced Judaism, through the shifting tides of civil rights and racial progress; a veteran of increasingly outdated show business traditions, he strove to stay relevant, even as he found himself bracketed by the bigotry of white America and the distaste of black America. Features new interviews with Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg,...

Maurice loved to share his music with everyone, and the crowds loved him, but times changed, his audience drifted away, and without anyone to share with Maurice became sad and lonely--until one day, his heart remembered and he found a new audience.

"Lucy was not a proper little girl. She was sassy. She was bold. She was funny. She was a rule-breaking, chance-taking, comedy pioneer. Can't act? Can't sing? Can't dance? Lucy proves them all wrong - and then has the last laugh when she finally lets her inner funny girl shine. In 1951, the hit show I Love Lucy took television by storm, and has made millions laugh ever since. Lucy! is the true story of how Lucille Ball overcame the odds to become...

Josephine Baker (1906--1975) was nineteen years old when she found herself in Paris for the first time in 1925. Overnight, the young American dancer became the idol of the Roaring Twenties, captivating Picasso, Cocteau, Le Corbusier, and Simenon. In the liberating atmosphere of the 1930s, Baker rose to fame as the first black star on the world stage, from London to Vienna, Alexandria to Buenos Aires. After World War II, and her time in the French...

The frontman of the classic rock band Aerosmith tells his story, including his rise to rock stardom in the 1970s, the band's drop in popularity, and their comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s.

A singing-dancing sister act is helped by a mysterious "somebody" who buys them an empty warehouse, where they can open up an ideal canteen to entertain the servicemen. Courtship by the Army & Navy, the mystery of who "somebody" might be, and a multitude of musical numbers occupy their time at the canteen.

An iconic figure in the history of rock and pop culture (inducted not once but twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Neil Young has written his eagerly awaited memoir.

"Annie Oakley's Wild West Americana and time travel come together in this genre-defying novel that explores trauma and the cost of female revenge. Ruth McClintock is obsessed with the past. For nearly a decade, she has been studying Annie Oakley, convinced that the legendary sharpshooter experienced a scarring event in adolescence that led her to fight for the right of every American woman to own and operate a gun. This fruitless search has cost Ruth...

Presents the life of the comic actress, discussing her childhood, marriage to and divorce from Desi Arnaz, and her career on the successful television hit series "I Love Lucy."