AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW. PUBLICATION DATE: JUNE 15, 2015
Even celebrities die — and he was the man who picked up the bodies!
Allan Abbott ran the leading mortuary in Hollywood and got an unprecedented glimpse of how celebrities really live and die. The Forrest Gump of the funeral industry, Abbott was everywhere celebrities died, from helping to prepare Marilyn Monroe’s body to standing next to Christopher Walken at Natalie Wood’s funeral. Now in his new memoir Pardon My Hearse, Abbott tells the rags-to-shroud story of how he went from a young man with a hearse to the funeral director to the stars — a rollicking, unexpectedly hilarious story of glamorous funerals, mishaps with corpses and true-life glimpses of celebrities at their most revealing moments.
When he wasn’t transporting celebrity corpses, Abbott used his funeral limos to transport living celebrities to Hollywood parties and rented his vast collection of cars and funeral props to movie and TV productions. Pardon My Hearse presents a dazzling A-List of celebrities, living and dead, whom Abbott encountered during his career, including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Joe DiMaggio, Robert Redford, Frank Sinatra and others.
Pardon My Hearse takes readers behind the scenes to tell the secrets of Marilyn Monroe’s funeral (where Abbott acquired the most unlikely souvenir of Monroe’s falsies) and dishes the inside story of disgraced crematorium operator David Sconce, who ordered an attack on Abbott’s business partner Ron Hast to cover up Sconce’s criminal mishandling of bodies and remains. Abbott also shares gruesome details of removing corpses from the devastation of the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, reburying corpses dislodged from the 1978 mudslide that swept through the Verdugo Hills Cemetery and more.
A treasure trove of insight and gossip you can’t get anywhere else, Pardon My Hearse is an eye-opening look at secret Hollywood from the man who literally knows where the bodies are buried.
About the Authors: Allan Abbott is the co-founder of Abbott & Hast Mortuary, Inc., Southern California’s leading funeral service accommodation company. Abbott has participated in the funerals of numerous celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Clark Gable and Karen Carpenter. Gregory Abbott is the former managing editor of Abbott & Hast Publications, producers of Mortuary Management magazine.
$16.95 ($17.95 Canada) • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 270 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-248-2
BIOGRAPHY/Entertainment • BISAC BIO005000
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW.
PUBLICATION DATE: JUNE 15, 2015
|
|
$49.95 $29.97 |
The largest and most comprehensive checklist on the Indian Mutiny since the publication, in 1966, of The Revolt in India by Janice Ladendorf. Includes approximately 1160 entries with author, publisher, date and place of publication, annotation, and the institution holding a copy. An extensive 24 page index is included.
|
|
$15.95 $9.57 |
|
|
$14.95 $8.97 |
On The Run is Douglas McHardie?s amazing tale of adventure and survival at the dawn of the modern era. The year is 1898 in northern California, and after a melee with his drunken father, 16 year old McHardie flees the lumber town of his youth. He soon becomes entangled with an outlaw gang, and is then seemingly propelled through a series of astounding adventures where his ability to simply survive is repeatedly put to the test. From gold prospecting in Alaska to smuggling guns to tribes in Afghanistan, he exists on the sharp edge of destiny, with life on one side and death on the other.
|
|
$19.95 $11.97 |
Step into the vibrant past of San Juan Bautista and encounter gentle Mustune Indians, hardworking Franciscan Monks, fierce outlaws and a host of other fascinating characters.
|
|
$24.95 $14.97 |
Subtitle: "Building a Tradition of Excellence in Clovis Unified Before, During and After Unification" Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Clovis Unified School District, 50 Unified Years is the authoritative history of the district?s growth and transformation from a group of small rural schools to one of the finest public education systems in the nation. The history of Clovis Unified School District is a dynamic story of teachers, administrators, and parents working together to fulfill a vision ? to equip every child to be the best they can be in mind, body, and spirit. 50 Unified Years includes the history of every school in the district, from the one-room schoolhouses of the 1870s whose names still live on, to the schools you attended as a child, to the state-of-the-art facilities your children attend today. 50 Unified Years is more than the story of a school district. It?s your story and it?s our story. It?s a story of unparalleled achievement. It?s a story about building a community and a way of life that is the heart of why Clovis is a great place to live.
|
|
$16.95 $10.17 |
Choose Your Weapon: The Duel in California, 1847–1861 describes in graphic detail the major figures, causes, and means by which the Golden State’s 75 “affairs of honor” of that timeframe were fought. The number of shootouts between these “gentleman” was greater than that of any other state during those years. Because so many duels were fought over politics, the book reveals much about the major politicians and newspaper editors of that era. In addition, there is a great deal of irony. For example, in 1850 Assemblyman George Penn Johnston crafted a bill that provided severe penalties for anyone convicted of dueling. Still, it remained impossible to empanel a jury that would convict a duelist. Eight years later this same legislator sent a challenge to a member of the State Senate, and, in the shootout that followed, killed him. Though found not guilty, he was the first duelist to be tried under the very statute he had written. New evidence also reveals there was far more paradox than previously imagined regarding the infamous duel between U.S. Senator David C. Broderick and State Supreme Court Justice David Terry. One of the most grueling duels ever to take place on the frontier was the 1853 faceoff between U.S. SenatorWilliam Gwin and Congressman Joseph W. McCorckle. Fought in the hills above bucolic San Mateo with 54 caliber Mississippi Yagers at forty paces, by dint of several miracles neither was killed. In summary, Choose Your Weapon provides readers with an invaluable historical primer on California’s Golden Era, as well as the tumultuous temperament of its pioneer politicians and newspaper editors. Audience: California history readers. About the Author: Christopher Burchfield has been researching and writing about the Gold Rush Era of California for more than thirty years. Over this period he and his wife, Genendal, have traveled up and down the state, scouring its libraries and history centers, from Barstow to Yreka, often camping out under some very inclement weather conditions. He has had over 100 articles published in various magazines. $16.95 ($21.95 Canada) • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 260 pages ISBN 978-1-61035-277-2