Publisher's Weekly Review

Most people know where Lincoln was shot and where Jaws was filmed. But what about the site where Hugh Grant picked up hooker Divine Brown (it was the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Courtney Avenue in Hollywood) or the venue where The Clash's 1980 album London Calling was photographed (it was The Palladium, on 14th Street in Manhattan)? The U.S. embraces its own pop culture like no other country does, says advertising veteran Epting, and he shows exactly where to find American cultural hotspots in this absorbing guide. Epting divides the book thematically, with chapters such as "Crime, Murder, and Assassination" and "Celebrity Deaths and Infamous Celebrity Events," and gives exact addresses, brief descriptions and sometimes even phone numbers. Although he does include a fair amount of generally well-known information (e.g., that the Gettysburg Address was given in Gettysburg, Penn., and that Elvis lived at Graceland), Epting's quirky factoids are most appealing. Some examples: Apple Computer was born in a garage in Los Altos, Calif.; the bank Butch Cassidy robbed on August 13, 1896 is in Montpelier, Idaho; and Daryl Hall and John Oates, of the R&B-influenced pop duo Hall & Oates, first met in a Philadelphia freight elevator, where they were hiding from a gang fight that broke out at a doo-wop show. Photos. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved