William Knoedelseder has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 18 ratings. The most-rated is I'm Dying Up Here.
I'm Dying Up Here
Summary
I'm Dying Up Here chronicles the collective coming of age of the standup comedians who defined American humor during the past three decades. Born early in the Baby Boom, they grew up watching The Tonight show, went to school during Vietnam and Watergate, migrated en masse to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, and created an artistic community unlike any before or since. They were arguably the funniest people of their generation, living in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams, and laughter. For one brief shining moment, standup comics were as revered as rock stars. It was Comedy Camelot but, of course, it couldn't last. In the late 1970s, William Knoedelseder was a cub reporter assigned to cover the burgeoning local comedy scene for the Los Angeles Times. He wrote the first major newspaper profiles of Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, and others. He got to know many of them well. And so he covered the scene too when the comedians--who were not paid for performing at the career-making-or-breaking venue called the Comedy Store---tried to change an exploitative system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. Now Knoedelseder has gone back to interview the major participants to tell the whole story of that golden age and of the strike that ended it. Full of revealing portraits of many of the best-known comedic talents of our age, I'm Dying Up Here is also a poignant tale of the price of success and the terrible cost of failure - professional and moral.
©2005 William Knoedelseder (P)2009 Tantor
Norse Mythology: Tales of Norse Myth, Gods, Goddesses, Giants, Rituals & Viking Beliefs
Summary
Before the tide of Christianity cast its influence over the greater part of the Western world, magic and tradition were rich in the lives of the Nordic people. These great men and women of lore speak to us of glorified battles, strong noble bloodlines, and honor in the face of adversity. We celebrate the incredible tales of Loki and Frigga and the mighty Thor and the all-powerful Odin. Now the annals of history have offered us the great gift of studying and understanding this magnificent culture. Listeners young and old alike have the opportunity to explore this fascinating and awe-inspiring collection of religious stories and rich traditions belonging to such a complex belief system. Discover for yourself the magic and mystery in the stories of Baldur, Heimdall, and Idun. Uncover the ancient tale of the fortification of Asgard, the great kingdom of the Nordic gods, and the chilling story behind the binding of Fenrir. Even though thousands of years have passed since these cultural stories were first shared around the forges and fires of the Nordic populations, they still entrance and inspire us with the great deeds of the human race and the incredible gods who watched over them. Find your own wealth of inspiration among the tales of the great gods and goddesses once worshipped by the Vikings.
©2018 Kory Aumont (P)2018 Kory Aumont
Bitter Brew
Summary
The engrossing, often scandalous saga of one of the wealthiest, longest-lasting, and most colorful family dynasties in the history of American commerce - a cautionary tale about prosperity, profligacy, hubris, and the blessings and dark consequences of success. From countless bar signs, stadium scoreboards, magazine ads, TV commercials, and roadside billboards, the name Budweiser has been burned into the American consciousness as the "King of Beers". Over a span of more than a century, the company behind it, Anheuser-Busch, has attained legendary status. A jewel of the American Industrial Revolution, in the hands of its founders - the sometimes reckless and always boisterous Busch family of St. Louis, Missouri - it grew into one of the most fearsome marketing machines in modern times. In Bitter Brew, critically acclaimed journalist Knoedelseder paints a fascinating portrait of immense wealth and power accompanied by a barrelful of scandal, heartbreak, tragedy, and untimely death. This engrossing, vivid narrative captures the Busch saga through five generations. At the same time, it weaves a broader story of American progress and decline over the past 150 years. It's a cautionary tale of prosperity, hubris, and loss.
©2012 William Knoedelseder (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers
Fins
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of Bitter Brew chronicles the birth and rise to greatness of the American auto industry through the remarkable life of Harley Earl, an eccentric six-foot-five, stuttering visionary who dropped out of college and went on to invent the profession of automobile styling, thereby revolutionized the way cars were made, marketed, and even imagined. Harleys Earl’s story qualifies as a bona fide American family saga. It began in the Michigan pine forest in the years after the Civil War, traveled across the Great Plains on the wooden wheels of a covered wagon, and eventually settled in a dirt road village named Hollywood, California, where young Harley took the skills he learned working in his father’s carriage shop and applied them to designing sleek, racy-looking automobile bodies for the fast crowd in the burgeoning silent movie business. As the 1920s roared with the sound of mass manufacturing, Harley returned to Michigan, where, at GM’s invitation, he introduced art into the rigid mechanics of auto-making. Over the next 30 years, he functioned as a kind of combination Steve Jobs and Tom Ford of his time, redefining the form and function of the country’s premier product. His impact was profound. When he retired as GM’s VP of Styling in 1958, Detroit reigned as the manufacturing capitol of the world and General Motors ranked as the most successful company in the history of business. Knoedelseder tells the story in ways both large and small, weaving the history of the company with the history of Detroit and the Earl family as Fins examines the effect of the automobile on America’s economy, culture, and national psyche.
©2018 William Knoedelseder (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers