To mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Barry's first book, A Death in White Bear Lake (still in print!), the White Bear Press (the local newspaper in White Bear Lake, MN) has just published an extended Q&A interview.
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Now Available
"A fascinating tale about a man with so much confidence and enthusiasm that he 'literally imagined the L.A. Games into being.'" —New York Times Book Review
Dreamers and Schemers chronicles how Los Angeles's pursuit and staging of the 1932 Olympic Games during the depths of the Great Depression helped fuel the city's transformation from a seedy frontier village to a world-famous metropolis. Leading that pursuit was the "Prince of Realtors," William May (Billy) Garland, a prominent figure in early Los Angeles. In important respects, the story of Billy Garland is the story of Los Angeles.
After arriving in Southern California in 1890, he and his allies drove much of the city's historic expansion in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Los Angeles' First Olympics Changed It Forever: A city that had seen its population double in a decade was the center of the world for a few weeks, and both the athletes and movie stars took full advantage. Here, the Daily Beast excerpts Barry Siegel's latest book, Dreamers and Schemers.
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Author Barry Siegel Shows LA Chops with Dreamers and Schemers; Ably Takes Readers on a Tour of Yesteryear's Los Angeles
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Imagining Los Angeles: New book by Barry Siegel traces rise of metropolis to the 1932 Olympics (UCI School of Humanities)
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"Occasionally journalists like Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe come along...whose work
transcends traditional standards of reportage and, when gathered in book form, earns for
its creators a literary cachet as lasting as that of any author. Barry Siegel is in that league."
—Steven Kane, L.A. Style