Publishing Portal--April 23, 2024

The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.

Last Comiskey

=Our newest book got a teaser in the Chicago Sun Times last week. Thanks to Jeff Agrest for this mention...First-time author Ken Smoller’s “Last Comiskey,” an adaptation of Matt Flesch’s 2023 documentary, will be released in May. It serves as a companion piece, combining Smoller’s photographs from the 1990 Sox season, content from the film and new material.

=So, who is author Ken Smoller, you may ask. 

    Ken Smoller (aka “Stadium Vagabond”) is a photographer and writer based in Brookline Massachusetts, with childhood roots in Chicagoland. In over three decades of extensive traveling, he has photographed more than 2,350 stadiums in 48 states and 24 countries. His mantra is that one of the best ways to understand the culture and fabric of a place is through its sporting arenas and stadiums. Today, Ken runs the “Stadium Vagabond” blog (www.stadiumvagabond.com and on social media @stadiumvagabond) to share his photographs and stories from years of sporting adventures around the globe. When he is not at the ballpark, Ken works as a commercial real estate attorney and lives with his wife, Jaime, and two sons, Simon and Charlie. He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Smoller also spent his college summers back in Chicago as a vendor at new Comiskey Park during its first three seasons, and on Sox off-days at Wrigley Field and Soldier Field. Despite living in the Boston area, his sporting loves remain the White Sox, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks.

=This week he appeared on WCIU, The U, with Kenny McReynolds.

EveryCubEver

=April (Opening Day), May (Mother's Day), June (Father's Day) and December (Christmas) are the four busy seasons every year for EveryCubEver. Two of those are coming up soon. If Mom and/or Dad are Cub fans, the all-new 6th edition is out now!

=This week in 2019, Rick Kaempfer appeared at the Orland Park Sports Card show to sign and sell the book. Randy Richardson was also there signing and selling his book Cubsessions. That's former Cubs catching great Randy Hundley in the photo with him below.

=This week in 2023, Rick Kaempfer appeared on the Andrea Darlas podcast to talk about it.

=This week's birthday boy (April 25), former Chicago Bull Dave Corzine, has a copy of the book.

=Two other significant birthdays this week are featured in the book, Hall of Famers Hack Wilson and Rogers Hornsby. They were teammates on the Cubs and hated each other. Rick's blog will feature their book write-ups on Thursday.

=Here's one more bonus Cubs feature. A home movie from this week in 1938. 

Monkey in the Middle

=Dobie Maxell was in the news this week in 2016. The Milwaukee Journal reviewed his book Monkey in the Middle and had this to say...

    There has been talk of turning "Monkey in the Middle" into a movie. The book opens with Maxwell sharing his rough start in life, which included having a drug addict mother who abandoned him and his siblings, and a father who was in a motorcycle gang. Maxwell was separated from his siblings — they have since reunited — and raised from age 5 months by his grandparents near 20th and Hampton.
    Maxwell calls himself a dented can and, sarcastically, Mr. Lucky. But he has made a life working on the radio in Milwaukee, Chicago, Reno and Los Angeles, and in stand-up comedy, now mostly as a regular at Zanies clubs in the Chicago area. He also teaches comedy.
    Maxwell's humorous approach to life comes through often in the book, even in his exchanges with federal agents and prosecutors. "I realize you're a comedian, but this is damn serious," one of them warns him.

=Just a year later, this week in 2017, Dobie threw out the first pitch at a Brewers game in Milwaukee.

 The Loop Files

=Two events coming up. May 1, from 7-8pm at the ELA library in Lake Zurich. Reserve your slot here. Here’s what the program says…

    Author Rick Kaempfer transports you to the good ole days of radio, the 1970s and 1980s, when “The LOOP”  reigned supreme, shaking up the airwaves and grabbing listeners with a unique brand of programming unlike anything heard before. Kaempfer shares stories from his book told through the eyes of those who were actually there.

=Also, May 11 at the Pollyanna Brewing Company in Roselle. I’ll be there along with fellow ex-Loopers (like WGN-TV’s Jeff Hoover) from 3-7pm signing and selling books. If you don’t have a copy of the book yet, or you’d like your copy signed, that will be a great opportunity. We haven’t had an event in that area yet.

=Two of the contributors to the Loop Files are celebrating birthdays this week. Happy birthday to Vince Argento (April 21) and Kathy Voltmer (April 27). Both contributed stories to the oral history. In the first picture, that's Vince on the far right. He and his wife Liz are among the couples who met at the Loop and later got married, just like Rick and Bridget Kaempfer (also in the photo)

=A frequent guest on the Loop, Mayor Richard M. Daley, is also celebrating a birthday this week (April 24). That's Hizzoner in a photo with Loopers Carol Harmon, Catherine Beckman, Colleen Colleton, and Sandy Stahl.

=One last Looper from this week. Former Loop program director Bill Klaproth's birthday is April 27. That's Bill in a photo with fellow Loopers Matt Bisbee and Rick Kaempfer.

Records Truly Is My Middle Name

=This week in 1954, Joseph Nye Welch appeared at the McCarthy hearings and famously declared, "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" That wasn't just a crucial moment in American history, it was a crucial moment in John Landecker's life. Joseph Nye Welch is the grandfather of his first wife. He tells that story in this free excerpt from Records Truly Is My Middle Name. 

 

 

Cameo

=This week in 2018, while Rick Kaempfer was down in New Orleans making Cameo available in jewelry stores that sell cameos, author Beth Jacobellis was on the Patti Vasquez show on WGN Radio talking about the book.

Always a Pleasure

=Three of the people featured in Chuck Swirsky's book are celebrating birthdays this week. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (April 25), the late Blackhawks great Tony Esposito (April 25), and Chuck's partner on Bulls broadcasts, Bill Wenningon (April 26)

The Balding Handbook

=This week in 2013, David Stern appeared on the Mancow television show on WPWR-TV. Who did he meet there? Chicago sportscaster Mike North, shown here taunting Dave with his full head of hair.

Brandwidth

=This week in 2018, Kipper McGee appeared on the Brandstorm podcast to talk about his book Brandwidth. 

 Inside Melania

=This week is the real Melania Trump's birthday (April 26). The fake one, Melania impersonator Lauren LoGiudice was in town recently. She does the world's best Melania impersonation, and wrote a whole book about it for Eckhartz Press.

 Best Seat in the House

=This week in 2015, Bruce Bohrer made the trek into enemy territory to promote his Cubs book about his years as a Wrigley Field usher. Penny Golden interviewed him on-stage at the Beverly Arts Center.

Turn it Up

=Bob Shannon's great book about radio personalities features an entire chapter about this week's birthday boy, the late Casey Kasem. Casey also makes an appearance in the Rick Kaempfer spy thriller set in 1976, Back in the DDR.

We Have Company

=Peter Frampton (born April 22) gets the full-chapter treatment in Bobby Skafish's great memoir about his rock and roll interviews...

Hospital, Heal Thyself!

=Congratulations to author Mark Taylor. We signed him to a deal at Eckhartz Press a few months ago, and his book was selling very well on our site. So well, in fact, that it caught the eye of a big publisher. When we sign our authors they maintain the copyright to their work, and we agree in advance that we won't hold them back if they get a better opportunity. That's what happened with Mark. He was very grateful for all we did for him...

“I was feeling pretty destitute when a friend referred me to Chicago’s Eckhartz Press in 2023. My first and only book, “Hospital, Heal Thyself,” had been rejected for several years by scores of publishers and book agents. They said it didn’t neatly fit into a marketing niche. Admittedly, it was a tough sell: part biography of Eugene Litvak, a math genius and Soviet émigré-turned- healthcare innovator, part jeremiad railing against a broken healthcare delivery system. But the very qualities that other publishers shied away from, Eckhartz Publisher David Stern embraced. He and his talented professional staff helped me to get my book into better shape and published it in early 2024.  

By mutual agreement, I maintained ownership of the copyright to my book. So when a large international publisher expressed interest in producing “Hospital, Heal Thyself” for a wider national audience, Eckhartz and Stern could not have been more supportive. He was kind, generous and totally helpful, a writer’s dream!  A few weeks later John Wiley & Sons, a publisher with deep contacts in business, academia and foreign language markets, agreed to publish my book. That never would have happened without Eckhartz’ help. I’m so grateful to David Stern and the Eckhartz staff for their support and assistance.”

 =Mark Taylor, April 2024    

Publishing Portal--January 9, 2024

The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.

*Happy Birthday!

=Eckhartz Press author Jeanne Bellezzo celebrated her birthday yesterday (January 8). Her book Rantings of a Bitter Childless Woman came out in 2016. I did a Q&A with her when it was released.  That's Eckhartz Press co-publisher Dave Stern with her at her Chicago book signing.

*Shoeless Joe

=This is a big month for our recently published book about the Shoeless Joe trial. That trial took place exactly 100 years ago this month, and until we published the transcript last year, it had been out of the public eye for nearly a century. Learn more about it here.

*The Loop Files

=I’ve been blown away by the great reviews of my latest book The Loop Files. This may be my favorite one. Thanks so much, Christopher Sutter.

=The publicity tour continued last week with an appearance on The Average Joe podcast. I'll post a link when I get it.

=I'll be out and about for another book signing on January 21st. Really looking forward to this one. I'll be at the Chicagoland Record show from 10am--2pm. 

*Leaving Glory for Greatness

=Lou Macaluso will be signing and selling his Eckhartz Press book Leaving Glory for Greatness at the Thornton Distillery Book Fair, 400 E. Margaret Street, Thornton, IL on February 4th from Noon to 5pm. Mark it on your calendar now.

*Surviving Sue

=Author Vicki Atkinson is now part of the CWA Speaker's Bureau. To find out what her presentation is all about, click here.

=She is also appearing at a virtual event. Register here. Details below.

*Righteous Might

=In 2020 Eckhartz Press published the debut novel of Keith Conrad, Righteous Might. It's a science fiction exploration of the Pearl Harbor attack. Well, Keith has a new audio project to share, Dimension of the Lost. Here's the description.

    Pop culture over the past twenty years or so is riddled with stories about pioneering scientists visiting new worlds. In the 1990’s there was Sliders, there was also Stargate SG-1 with a different planet every week. In this week’s story "Dimension of the Lost," three scientists visit three different dimensions. Two of them have life-changing experiences, while the third ends up solving a mystery that has haunted humanity for generations.

*Doin the Cruise

 =This week in 2018, West Suburban Living reviewed Mitch Michael's book.

=Rod Stewart is celebrating a birthday this week. You may not realize that Doin The Cruise author Mitch Michaels played a key role in Rod's song "Maggie Mae" becoming a big hit. He tells that story in the book. (That's Mitch in the middle of the pic below)

*We Have Company

 =Bobby Skafish's 2016 Eckhartz Press book We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters is a rock and roll lover's dream. Bobby has met and interviewed them all. Two of them have birthdays this week; the late David Bowie and Dave Matthews. Their stories (and these photos) are in the book.

*Behind the Glass

 =Randy Merkin's 2021 book Behind the Glass: Stories from a Sports Radio Producer is the sports equivalent of Bobby's book. For instance, three Hall of Famers who were born this week in history, Bruce Sutter, Bart Starr and Dick Enberg, are featured.

*Monkey in the Middle

 =Dobie Maxwell's gripping personal story about a bank robbery was reviewed this week in 2017. Dobie's book remains one of our best sellers. 

 *Records Truly Is My Middle Name

 =John Records Landecker's book was a finalist for CWA Book of the Year in 2013. When John was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2017, we re-released the book with additional stories and photos. Among the new photos...this one of John and his daughter Amy with the richest man in the world (at the time), who happens to be celebrating a birthday this week.

*Back in the DDR

 =My latest novel came out for Christmas of 2022. This week in 2023 (that was already a year ago?) I made my first book club appearance. Excellent snacks, if I recall correctly.

*The Balding Handbook

 =We sold out of the book, but before it went out of print, The Balding Handbook helped countless balding souls. Eleven years ago this week author David Stern was on Mancow's television show talking about it.

*The Living Wills

=12 years ago this week, Rick and Brendan discuss the tricky collaboration that led to the first Eckhartz Press book, The Living Wills.

 *Truffle Hunt

=Eckhartz Press author Brent Peterson is now a podcasting star...

The Loop Files: Bobby Skafish

 I'm working on a special project this year about a certain radio station, so I've been going back into my files and pulling out some old interviews with former Loop colleagues and pals. I'll feature one a week here on the blog. This week, it's Bobby Skafish. Bobby's arrival at the Loop in 1983 (From WXRT) was a key move, announcing a new direction at the station, away from the hard-rocking black t-shirt Loop. Bobby did the lion's share of musical interviews on the station, including virtually every major rock and roll star of the era.

Bobby's book We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters came out in 2016. There are dozens of stories in the book from his Loop days. This is just one of them. His brush with Jackson Browne. Today it appears in the Loop Files.

Jackson Browne 1986

I think radio air personalities can hold a false sense of the importance of our musician encounters. Because it looms so large in our minds to have interviewed so and so and perceive that he actually likes us, we think that the next time around with the artist we’ll be greeted warmly like the old friends we imagine we are.

This was confirmed for me by reading Jacob Slichter’s 2004 autobiography, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star. Jacob who? Mr. Slichter was the drummer for one hit wonder band Semisonic, from Minneapolis, who clicked big with 1998’s “Closing Time”. At WXRT in 2001 the band performed live and we chatted when they were promoting their next album All About Chemistry. The session went well and when the man’s autobiography/music business reality check came out in 2004 I bought the book and probably scanned the index to see if XRT got a mention. Nope.

Not only that, but reading the thing hammered it home to me that bands are subjected to a massive amount of meeting people while promotionally or musically touring, all in the name of “working it.” Fleeting and superficial episodes they usually are and, with exceptions, the artist might draw a total blank on you next time around.

So why should I have been surprised that after what I felt was a meaningful encounter with Jackson Browne in July, 1986, at Poplar Creek Music Theatre (suburban outdoor venue, 1980-1994, capacity 20,000), that three years later he seemed to have no recollection of having met me at the same venue? Heck, backstage he had even introduced me to his girlfriend, actress Darryl Hannah, and her actress sister Page. Let me one up myself: when I went backstage post-gig for a meet and greet in 1989, he gave no indication that he remembered our interview just hours earlier.

The 1986 on-air situation began from the Poplar Creek broadcast booth from where I did dozens of Loop radio shows. I would do my rap while the songs and commercials were played back at the Hancock by a “board op,” usually Bob Heymann. On this day, as I broadcast on the Loop FM, Steve Dahl and Garry Meier were doing their talk thing on the Loop AM. As Steve & Garry would be cruising out after their show to the Jackson Browne concert they took a particular interest in what was going on out in Hoffman Estates, at the venue. There was some pre-Jackson Browne arrival banter with them and when Jackson did arrive, running a bit late, we were briefly all on the air together.

Once I had Mr. Browne to myself I told him that I had recently seen him on TV performing at the last stop of the Amnesty International Tour: A Conspiracy of Hope held at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, along with other superstars such as Peter Gabriel and U2, and including speeches by the likes of Robert De Niro.

I complimented him that, unlike De Niro, who would get a 10 for sincerity but a lower mark for knowledge of the subject, he scored 10s in both. With this, basically, Browne was off and running: he spoke of a book he held up on the broadcast and gave a tour of Central America Human Rights violations: Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, massacres of entire villages, people held in prison without charges, etc.

I was out of my depth here but the guy was obviously speaking passionately and informatively, so I let him go. Finally, when I had the chance I jumped in with a topic I knew a bit about:

Bobby Skafish: “It’s publicized that you took drugs; it’s publicized that you gave up drugs. Did that help you get out of the introspective (songwriting) thing? Did it help you see people around you a little more clearly? “

Jackson Browne: “It helped everything. A lot of things stopped hurting. For people who grew up in the 60s it was sort of an accepted idea that you could get a lot of self- exploration and a lot of understanding of the world by experimenting with drugs, and of course, there are a lot of casualties from that attitude. And I feel very fortunate that I’m not completely screwed up (laughs).”

We talked about his band and I mentioned the Sun City anti-Apartheid record and the Bread and Roses fair wages causes he had given his time and talent to, concluding “I’d like to thank you publically for thinking about people other than yourself.”

Three years later Jackson and I had a second go-‘round, before his 1989 Poplar Creek Theatre gig. I led, after thanking him for coming on with us live on the Loop, by saying that a lot of people were dissatisfied with his concert three years previous because they wanted to “freeze frame” him the 70s before his music became more political. I supposed I thought I was trying to line up on his side by throwing in “but time moves on, doesn’t it?,” but the whole question was a fail, I can now see. You don’t tell an artist that some people didn’t dig aspects of his show that took place three years ago! Rude. Uncool. Unnecessary. And trying to buddy up by implying those people were the squares, unlike me, was self-serving.

JB: “You know, that might have been happening three years ago. I find it’s always difficult to play the new songs from the album in this kind of setting. Maybe it’s just because it’s beautiful weather and shows they attended ten years ago at Ravinia or places like this. Audiences are more willing to hear songs that they know than songs they haven’t heard, and if the album has just come out as it did then (Lives in the Balance) or has now (World in Motion) it’s a challenge for them and a challenge for me to play the new songs. I actually think it’s going really well. People are receiving the new songs really well.”

BS: ”So you got a mixed bag…”

JB (cutting in): Always. Always. That’s what a show like this is for me, a chance to do songs from all my albums.”

We next touched on a benefit concert Jackson had given recently in Black Hills, South Dakota, benefitting Native Americans. After speaking knowingly about problems on the reservations as well as the friction with white people of the area, he proudly said that it was a sober concert and that the Red and White folk enjoyed it, peacefully, together.

I told Mr. Browne that I had read David Crosby’s autobiography, 1988’s Long Time Gone, and said that Browne “went through hell and high water to try to get David Crosby off drugs, in what’s called an intervention, and he wasn’t ready for it at the time but you put in a very noble effort.”

JB: “A lot of us did. It’s difficult sometimes to remember someone’s better qualities. I mean, he was a mess, in very bad shape, and he continually disappointed people, the friends who loved him the most and his family. He just did some terrible things, self-destructive things, things that were destructive to others.”

BS: “You basically dragged him onto a plane and flew him away and tried to…”

JB: “We basically ambushed him. He was coming home from a small tour he did acoustically and he walked through the door and the house was full of everybody who still cared about him. And after a few hours of trying to sort of wriggle out of it he agreed to go to a hospital and get well. And even as he was agreeing to do that he was sort of planning his escape. It was a pretty fruitless attempt (by his friends). Finally in the end another friend of his and I agreed to fly him down there because we couldn’t get him down there any other way because he was so strung out…and he ended up walking (out) that day.”

BS: “The good news is we eventually had a happy ending on that.”

JB: “The great news is that you should never write anybody off. You should never really give up on people even though I had to stop trying to straighten him out and deal with my own life”  

Jackson Browne had participated, as a background singer, on a 1988 long form video Roy Orbison: A Black and White Night. It was Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Roy Orbison (1936-1988) performing a taped concert backed by an all-star band assembled by musical director T-Bone Burnett: Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt and Elvis Costello, among others.

As an aside, I recall Chicago photographer Paul Natkin telling me about a Roy Orbison Park West concert during which Orbison was cheered on enthusiastically by David Bowie, members of the Grateful Dead and the Buckinghams, whose schedules somehow allowed them all to be there.

BS: “Was that (making A Black and White Night) as much of a thrill as it appeared to be to us watching?

JB: “It was. It was an incredible experience. Everybody came together with such a feeling of reverence for the guy, and awe, really, to be working with him. At the same time it was not a super-high budget production, it was something people did out of love. Nobody had to be paid –there was some kind of basic fee everybody got, across the board. These were some of the best musicians in America with Elvis’ (Presley) old band. And the thing was, meeting him and rehearsing the little bit we did with him you didn’t really get a sense of the man’s power. I mean you’re rehearsing his old hits but the guy was sort of sand bagging it, sort of playing possum. He wasn’t going to blow his throat out at rehearsal; he looked at the situation and he was such a pro. He’d been there. I think they re-edited it so you didn’t really get to see it quite that much, but people were just blown away by his first song, people on the stage! He opened up and people were just really amazed at the power of the guy’s voice, because he hadn’t been singing that way during rehearsals.”

Funny thing, Jackson Browne was at his most animated while talking about others during the course of our two interviews: Roy Orbison, Central American peasants, Native Americans, David Crosby – those were subjects that made him really come alive.

Note: In the photo of Bobby & Jackson above, that's engineer Kent Lewin looking on in his red and white striped shirt.

Next Week in the Loop Files: Brendan Sullivan

Eckhartz Everyday

 *Four celebrities featured in Eckhartz Press books were born on this day in history. They don't have anything else in common with each other...

Marianne Faithful is in Bobby Skafish's book We Have Company.

Mary Tyler Moore is in John Landecker's book Records Truly Is My Middle Name

Dr. Sam Sheppard (the original inspiration for The Fugitive) is in Joel Daly's book The Daly News

Theo Epstein is in Randy Merkin's book Behind the Glass, and of course, my book EveryCubEver.

Eckhartz Everyday

It's a Father Knows Nothing classic, and today's the day to post it...

*Today is also guitarist Adrien Belew's birthday. Adrien rates a chapter in Bobby Skafish's great rock and roll interview book, We Have Company.

*Two other celebs have birthdays today, and both of them make it into the pages of Randy Merkin's book Behind the Glass. Happy birthday to Eddie Vedder & Jim Harbaugh.

Eckhartz Everyday

 

*On this day in 2013, Eckhartz Press author Chuck Quinzio (Life Behind the Camera) appeared on the radio with the late Dick Kay (WCPT).

*On this day in 2016, Eckhartz Press author Brent Petersen (Truffle Hunt) wrote this piece about saving truffles.

*On this day in 2018, Eckhartz Press author Beth Jacobellis (Cameo) tried out for a role on WGN Radio's Christmas Carol.

*Today is also Peter Buck's birthday. The guitarist from REM is featured in the pages of Bobby Skafish's book, We Have Company. (Photo: Buck, Skafish, Mills)