The
Birthplace Book: A Guide to Birth Sites of Famous People,
Places, and Things ,
by Chris Epting
The title of Chris Epting's latest book
is a bit of a departure from the light-hearted puns
on the covers of his earlier books: Led
Zepplin Crashed Here, Elvis
Presley Passed Here, or my personal favorite,
Marilyn
Monroe Dyed Here. I wondered a little about
what I would find in this latest compendium of American
pop culture,The Birthplace Book: A Guide to Birth
Sites of Famous People, Places & Things. I needn't
have worried -- this new book is great fun and chock
full of stories and factoids great for entertaining
and impressing your road trip companions. Unlike Chris
Epting, I've never been particularly taken with learning
about the birth place of any of the presidents, or any
other celebrity. But the birthplace of ideas and companies
- now that's something I will always find fascinating.
The book is divided into eight regions:
New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Mid-South, Midwest,
Central, West and Pacific. There's at least one "birth"
from each state. I think it interesting that some states,
like Ohio, have as many as 20 notable nativities, while
my home state of Nevada has only one. Clearly, Mr. Epting
needs to do some more research here -- if his book has
room to detail the creation of the Kermit the Frog (in
Leland, Mississippi) perhaps there will be room in a
future edition for a discussion of the origins of the
top-secret Area 51 or the birth of the world-famous
Hoover Dam.
But I digress… I loved finding out
that "motel" concept was dreamed up and brought
into reality by architect Arthur Heinemen in 1925 in
San Luis Obispo, California. Basketball and volleyball
came on the scene in Massachusetts over a century ago
and share a common lineage with the YMCA. One of my
favorite toys of all time was invented by accident in
Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Back in 1943, Richard James
conducted some experiments with tension springs, and
ended up creating the Slinky. I was surprised to learn
that the very first cellular phone call was made on
April 3, 1973, in New York City-seems like that technology
has existed a lot longer than that, even if it wasn't
always so ubiquitous.
Do you have any idea when the first public
school was born? Read this book, and you'll discover
that it happened all the way back in 1635. Did you know
that there really was a "Murphy" that led
to the infamous "Murphy's Law?" Captain Edward
A. Murphy was an engineer for the Air Force in 1949
at Edwards Air Force Base in California. A single curse
levied against a technician led to his long-lasting
legacy. Dozens more fascinating creation stories pack
the pages of this book. I know I said earlier that I
didn't care about celebrity birthplaces, but the truth
is that I really enjoyed reading about the places where
such famous folks as George Custer, John Wayne, and
Loretta Lynn arrived on the planet.
Epting's new book is fantastic for "random
paging" anywhere, but I'm going to be keeping my
copy in my car. A road trip is infinitely more enjoyable
when you can check out a location as you're driving
by and see if anyone or anything notable was born or
created there. An ordinary garage door in Menlo Park,
California, for example, is suddenly riveting when you
learn that Google was born behind it!
This really is a fun book. Buy several,
because they make great gifts. Just don't forget to
keep one for yourself.
Mark
Sedenquist
6/26/09
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