Michael Downs – författare

Fire sweeps along the wall of a circus tent while inside thousands of people enjoy a Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey matinee. Within minutes, flames consume the canvas and vast sections collapse, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more.Inspired by the 1944 Hartford Circus Fire, the interconnected stories in Michael Downs's The Greatest Show explore the aftermath of a disaster in a world of clowns, elephants, and childhood fantasies. In the opening story, Ania Liszak, a young Polish housemaid, steals circus tickets from her employer to take her three-year-old son, Teddy, to the matinee. The fire nearly kills both and leaves them scarred in different ways: Teddy's mother enjoys the beautiful strangeness of the scar on her face, but the patches across Teddy's body inspire cruel schoolmates to call him ""Lizard Liszak."" Over time, his mother transforms her pain into drama, while Teddy, having no memory of that day, seeks ways to return to it.These and other captivating characters appear throughout the book, creating a portrait of an American city and its people over five decades, raising questions about wounds and healing, memory and forgetting, and about the human capacity for kindness - with all its futility and power - in the midst of great loss.

In 2016, after twenty years in St. Louis, the Rams are back in their longtime home. Some call their return to Los Angeles a relocation, but it’s more the restoration of a city landmark.Hollywood’s Team follows the Rams of the 1950s. They were glamorous, glitzy, and most of all, they were exciting. Like the city itself, the Rams were comprised of both big stars and everyday workhorses like John Hock, father of the author—a quiet, humble, and stout offensive guard.They were the first major professional sports team west of the Mississippi River, the first to integrate, even before Jackie Robinson, the first team to reach a million fans, and the first team with a TV contract. The Rams of the 1950s were, in so many ways, the first modern sports franchise.Their roster is a who’s who of the NFL Hall Fame. Names such as quarterback Norm “The Dutchman” Van Brocklin, wide receiver Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, Bob Waterfield, Tom Fears, defensive back Dick “Night Train” Lane, and linebacker Les Richter. Other notables from the era include a wunderkind public relations man named Pete Rozelle who would go on to become the boy commissioner of the NFL at age thirty-three. Head coach Sid Gillman was an architect of the modern passing game. Owner Dan Reeves was a genius in business, but troubled by alcohol. Heck, even the iconic comedian Bob Hope was a partial owner of the Rams at the time.The Rams were Hollywood’s team. This is their story.