The colorful history of illegal booze in America-making it, running it, shipping it and stopping it. “Filled with the exploits of shifty-eyed moonshiners tending backwoods stills; daring bootleggers hustling cars laden with ‘tax-free’ whiskey over rural highways; revenuers pursuing their quarry on foot, in cars and from airplanes; and rumrunners and Coast Guard ships engaging in the occasionally fatal ‘booze ballet.’” With a cast of characters that includes “Scotch-Irish immigrants, Revolutionary War heroes, blockade runners, pirates, hard-drinking pioneers, wealthy and vicious gangsters, devil-may-care adventurers, and ludicrously incompetent amateurs.” GR

Publisher: Classic Motorbooks
Paperback: 192 pages
Illustrated

Kings of Kustom Kulture: See Nick Matranga’s chopped coupe, painted royal maroon with a gold iridescent finish. Von Dutch’s pinstriping on a flamed Ford woody wagon. The “Mandarin,” nosed and decked with an oval grille shell and frenched Ford headlights. Kool Kars. In the ‘50s you could see their work in movies like High School Confidential and Hot Car Girl. Later, in the ‘60s, you could see Barrismobiles on TV’s The Green Hornet and Batman. “Sam and George Barris… epitomized customizing, and in the ‘50s they were at the leading edge of their craft. This portfolio of their work in that lively decade lets you examine the range of their creativity. They produced vehicles that were shapely and subtle, and also created cars whose customizing was colorful, loud, and extreme.” Fully featured—in color—are the Barris brothers’ legendary kustoms including the “Golden Sahara,” a remade 1953 Lincoln Capri, complete with television in the front seat and a full bar in the back. It was the Barris version of a GM Dream Car, and Detroit had to take notice—they were being upstaged by “a bunch of guys in California.” GR

Publisher: Classic Motorbooks
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

“Custom Cars of the 1950s lets you see how some of America’s most innovative customs looked as they rolled out of the shops. Andy’s photos include rare shots of the early East Coast custom scene and views of trendsetting West Coast customs being built and painted. Radical grills, louvered hoods, chopped tops, pinstripes galore, and characters like Ed Roth, George and Sam Barris, and Dean Jeffries. And there’s Andy himself, laying down smooth pinstripes when he’s not behind the camera.” 130 photographs, most of them color.

Publisher: Classic Motorbooks
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

General Motors’ Motorama was a trade show which toured numerous major cities in the U.S. between 1953 and 1961. It grew out of a 1949 event staged at the Waldorf-Astoria that was billed as “Transportation Unlimited.” From the very beginning, these shows had an obsessive quality about them. When it was discovered, for instance, that the Waldorf’s freight elevator wouldn’t hold a full-size automobile, crews were called in to disassemble and reassemble cars for display on the second floor. By the time these exhibitions had evolved into the touring Motorama shows, it was as if the presenters were attempting to transport the whole of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland from city to city and staffing it with Broadway-style casts and circus performers. This is one of America’s great, unique, contributions to the mass psyche of the arts. Elements of stagecraft, lighting, choreography, storytelling and multimedia effects collided into a curious spectacle the likes of which have yet to be matched. This book is a visual feast. The cars which starred in these pageants frequently resembled spaceships on wheels. The giddy enthusiasm of the performers is set into utterly moderne pavilions. Every detail from the cantilevered platforms to the bursting-atom light fixtures conveys an optimism about “things to come” that verges on hysteria. Besides the auto enthusiasts who will immediately respond to the dream cars featured here, there is a larger audience of sociologists, set and stage designers, and futurists who will find a lot between the covers of this book. SA

Publisher: Classic Motorbooks
Paperback: 136 pages
Illustrated

Two eyeballs are the logo for this famous racing-car parts company of the ‘50s and ‘60s, and all the hot rods and race cars of the time could be seen sporting the two eyed decal of Moon Equipment. Dean Moon started by building hot rods behind the family restaurant (Moon Cafe) at a young age. He began hanging out at the Hula-Hut Drive-in in Whittier where the Hutters hot-rod club started, and became a member. Hot rodders from all around L.A. would go there to learn speed secrets from Moon, and eventually he officially opened shop behind the cafe, and Moon Automotive was born. With his brother Buzz he started tuning cars for money, then began working on a line of high performance car parts such as a first big seller the Moon aluminum racing fuel tank. Other big sellers were a foot-shaped gas pedal and the famous Moon disc wheel covers. In 1957, Moon had a Disney commercial artist draw the eyes as we know them today. Then, in the early ‘60s, he started on a series of race cars for which the Moon name would become immortal. DW

Publisher: Classic Motorbooks
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated