San Diego City College hosts their 5th Annual International Book Fair. This year's festival features book signings, poetry and prose readings, and discussion panels. This year's scholars, authors and poets include: Paul Vanderwood, Justin Akers-Chac?n, Sharon Allen, and An?bal Y??ez, Rae Armantrout, Luis J. Rodr?guez, Benjamin Alire S?enz, and Danzy Senna.
Historian Paul Vanderwood tells story of "unscrupulous bordello, casino, racetrack, and cabaret owners in bawdy Mexican border towns" in his latest book, Satan?s Playground: Mobster and Movie Stars at America?s Greatest Gaming Resort. Reading, book signing for San Diego City College International Book Fair.
Satan?s Playground chronicles the rise and fall of the tumultuous and lucrative gambling industry that developed just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in the early twentieth century. As prohibitions against liquor, horse racing, gambling, and prostitution swept the United States, the vice industry flourished in and around Tijuana, to the extent that reformers came to call the town ?Satan?s Playground,? unintentionally increasing its licentious allure. The area was dominated by Agua Caliente, a large, elegant gaming resort opened by four entrepreneurial Border Barons (three Americans and one Mexican) in 1928. Diplomats, royalty, film stars, sports celebrities, politicians, patricians, and nouveau-riche capitalists flocked to Agua Caliente?s luxurious complex of casinos, hotels, cabarets, and sports extravaganzas, and to its world-renowned thoroughbred racetrack. Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Louis B. Mayer, the Marx Brothers, Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and the boxer Jack Dempsey were among the regular visitors. So were mobsters such as Bugsy Siegel, who later cited Agua Caliente as his inspiration for building the first such resort on what became the Las Vegas Strip.
Admission: FREE
San Diego City College
D-121 A/B San Diego City College Faculty Lounge
1313 Park Boulevard
San Diego, CA
Thursday, September 30 - 11:00 AM
For more information, please call: (619) 388-3596 or visit: www.sdcitybookfair.com
Historian Paul Vanderwood tells story of "unscrupulous bordello, casino, racetrack, and cabaret owners in bawdy Mexican border towns" in his latest book, Satan?s Playground: Mobster and Movie Stars at America?s Greatest Gaming Resort. Reading, book signing for San Diego City College International Book Fair.
Satan?s Playground chronicles the rise and fall of the tumultuous and lucrative gambling industry that developed just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in the early twentieth century. As prohibitions against liquor, horse racing, gambling, and prostitution swept the United States, the vice industry flourished in and around Tijuana, to the extent that reformers came to call the town ?Satan?s Playground,? unintentionally increasing its licentious allure. The area was dominated by Agua Caliente, a large, elegant gaming resort opened by four entrepreneurial Border Barons (three Americans and one Mexican) in 1928. Diplomats, royalty, film stars, sports celebrities, politicians, patricians, and nouveau-riche capitalists flocked to Agua Caliente?s luxurious complex of casinos, hotels, cabarets, and sports extravaganzas, and to its world-renowned thoroughbred racetrack. Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Louis B. Mayer, the Marx Brothers, Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and the boxer Jack Dempsey were among the regular visitors. So were mobsters such as Bugsy Siegel, who later cited Agua Caliente as his inspiration for building the first such resort on what became the Las Vegas Strip.
Admission: FREE
San Diego City College
D-121 A/B San Diego City College Faculty Lounge
1313 Park Boulevard
San Diego, CA
Thursday, September 30 - 11:00 AM
For more information, please call: (619) 388-3596 or visit: www.sdcitybookfair.com
