Books
Taboo
Journey with Club Owner and Restauranteur Nino Cutraro, from his humble beginnings growing up in southern Sicily to becoming the mastermind behind some of the most celebrated nightclubs and restaurants in America, including Taboo, Metropolitan Music Café, La Notte, Intermezzo, Mare Mediterranean, and Bella Piatti — all launched in metro Detroit.
Cutraro’s venues quickly gained a reputation for over-the-top music, sound, and lighting; Taboo and La Notte were the venues of choice for TV and cable productions like “Saturday Night Music Machine” by NBC-Channel 4, long before “American Idol.” The allure was further heightened by hosting celebrities, athletes, and entertainers like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Madonna, Prince, Joe Cocker, Wilson Picket, Robert Palmer, KISS, Alice Cooper, Vanessa Williams, Stevie Wonder, Sheila E., Anita Baker, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Mark Wahlberg, Sugar Ray Leonard, Magic Johnson, Gloria Gaynor, Francis Ford Coppola, Grace Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Bay, Sophie Myles, Gregory Peck, Pam Oliver, Clive Davis, Lou Rawls, and Jimmy Buffet, just to name a few.
Notably, "Taboo" reveals the historic moment when James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul,” and Aretha Franklin, “The Queen of Soul,” shared the stage for the first time as part of an original Cinemax (HBO) show — “Soul Sessions: James Brown and Friends” — that aired in May 1987.
It all left an extraordinary mark on the local and national music scene.
DETROIT: ENGINE OF AMERICA
This is the story of how, starting in 1701, a crude French settlement along the Detroit River became, in 1900, the birthplace of the automotive industry. Forging the first industrial powerhouse wasn’t easy. Scant inbound supplies from the English colonies took months, if they arrived at all. The first 100 inhabitants led by explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, with the guidance of Native American tribes, built a fledgling economy of fishing, farming, and hunting, the latter propelled mightily by the fur trade. As the populace sputtered and grew, they developed the machinery and skilled trades that produced in volume wagons, stagecoaches, steamships, hearths, locomotives, boxcars, furniture, stoves, equipment, marine engines, pharmaceutical drugs, and finally, the horseless carriage. Detroit’s grit and brawn ignited what is the first city in the Midwest, ingenuity and self-sufficiency thrust it on the world stage.
The First Mobile App
An argument between two strong-willed inventors — Bill Lear and Earl “Madman” Muntz — sparked the world’s first mobile app. Here, for the first time, is the story behind the development of the 8 Track tape player.
In late 1965, consumers had two ready options for listening to recorded music: a radio or a record player. But with baby boomers just coming of age in the 1960s, along with new advances in magnetic tape and an explosion of music, Lear and his team ignored the naysayers and developed the 8 Track.
Through a friendship with Henry Ford II, chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Co., Lear lined up his first customer. Lear also convinced David Sarnoff, chairman of RCA Victor, to dedicate 175 albums to the new medium. But none of the other record companies wanted to provide music for the new medium, while Muntz tried to thwart the 8 Track player at every turn because it was cutting into sales of the 4 Track players he had offered since 1962.
Passport to the Corner Office
The road to the corner office is long, grueling, and full of pitfalls. And once you make it inside, there’s no guarantee you’ll stay. Even a simple oversight, such as a botched apology, can cause untold harm. Years from now, as you reflect back on your business career, will it resemble a glorious sunset or a Category 5 hurricane?
Everyone dreams about running a major corporation. But getting to, and staying in, the corner office isn’t easy. Change is constant, decisions can turn on a dime, and there’s always someone angling or conspiring to get your job. To sustain long-term success requires ambition, street smarts, diplomacy, self-esteem, and a strong educational foundation.
“R.J. King offers a masterful roadmap to unlocking your full potential. With vivid examples and deep insights, he takes you on a journey to reaching the highest levels of success.”
Mystical
A hopeless romantic disappears after seeking out a strange and startling rite of passage, a Rembrandt is stolen from the Detroit Institute of Arts during a royal visit by Prince Phillip of Holland, and a ghost train engineered by a phantom threatens to kill off one of Detroit’s most prominent families. Dr. Lauren Thames, the world’s foremost paranormal investigator, uses her stunning powers of intuition to expose the horror that lurks in all of us. Here is your guide to the ultimate in spectral investigations from a city in which living is comparable to performing in an endless Hitchcock thriller.
This fictional book is available, please contact the author directly at rj@rjkingpublishing.com
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