Everyone has heard a story too outrageous to be true. Tall Tales, Legends, and Other Outrageous Lies explains how these popular misconceptions began. Inside this fascinating book, you will be entertained by the truth behind some of our favorite stories, from the real models for mythical heroes like Paul Bunyan, to the source for urban legends like the alligators in the sewers of New York City. Packed with fascinating explanations of popular un-truths and half-truths, this book will please anyone looking for great trivia and the real stories behind American folklore. It Internet hoaxes, such as the e-mail tax and the Good Times virus Modern urban legends, such as the Hitler diaries and the Roswell incident Entertainment intrigues–from the suicide of George Reeves, the actor who played Superman, to Elvis sightings Consumer frauds, such as pyramid schemes and stock swindles Folk tales about heroes such as Johnny Appleseed and John Henry And much, much more!
Author
Nat Segaloff is a writer-producer-journalist. He covered the film industry for The Boston Herald, but has also variously been a studio publicist (Fox, UA, Columbia), college teacher (Boston University, Boston College), and broadcaster (Group W, CBS, Storer). He is the author of twenty books including Hurricane Billy: The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin, Arthur Penn: American Director and Final Cuts: The Last Films of 50 Great Directors in addition to career monographs on Stirling Silliphant, Walon Green, Paul Mazursky and John Milius. His writing has appeared in such varied periodicals as Film Comment, Written By, International Documentary, Animation Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Time Out (US), MacWorld and American Movie Classics Magazine. He was also senior reviewer for AudiobookCafe.com and contributing writer to Moving Pictures magazine. In 1996 he formed the multi-media production company Alien Voices with actors Leonard Nimoy and actor John de Lancie and produced five best-selling, fully dramatized audio plays for Simon & Schuster: The Time Machine, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World, The Invisible Man and The First Men in the Moon, all of which feature Star Trek casts.
