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The hospitable history of an attempt at “the finest hostelry in the Southwest.”  Determined to build the city’s finest hotel, Joplin’s first millionaire spared no expense on the magnificent Connor. The lobby, with its Italian marble rotunda and grand staircase, served as the city’s main gathering spot for the next 50 years. Thousands flocked to the rooftop garden, which became known as the “most pleasant spot in all Joplin.” The Connor hosted hundreds of conventions, outlaws such as “Pretty Boy” Floyd and more reputable guests including star athletes, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gene Autry, and Robert Wadlow – the world’s tallest man. Local residents rallied to “Save the Connor” in the 1970s, but couldn’t stop its demolition and the tragic ending that caught the nation’s attention. Author Chad Stebbins details the fascinating history.

In the Ozarks, music frames everything. The Ozark Opry was a focal point of that cultural tradition for over fifty years, playing to sold-out audiences and influencing the course of the American entertainment industry in vital ways hitherto untold. This behind-the-scenes story of Lee and Joyce Mace's incredible venture by historian and former Opry performer Dan William Peek reawakens the foot tapping and fiddle scraping still clinging to the shores of the Lake of the Ozarks. This story also spotlights some of the most fascinating characters of the times, the Nashville stars, Chuck Foster, the Mabe Brothers, Albert Gannaway, Seymour Weiss, Scott O. Wright, Sarah Gertrude Knott and Cyrus Crane Willmore.