Bowled Over: A Roll Down Memory Lane [Hardcover]

Gideon Bosker (Author), Bianca Lencek-Bosker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2002

This wonderful book harks back to an era when a night on the town meant heading to a gleaming bowling emporium for stiff competition, fine cuisine, & fancy cocktails. Leagues ruled the lanes & folks tuned in Saturday afternoons to see champs roll strikes, spares, & trick balls. Packed with chapters on bowling's history, fashion, champions, & alley architecture & featuring over 100 vintage images culled from the International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame s archives, this colorful compendium is a unique tribute to the ever-popular tradition & culture of bowling. The authors have long been avid bowlers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gideon Bosker is a writer, photographer, and devoted pop culture connoisseur who has collaborated on many fine books. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Bianca Lencek-Bosker is an observer of and participant in the world of popular culture. She lives in Portland, Oregon. This is her first book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756777356
• ISBN-13: 978-0756777357
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,280,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Bowling

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bowled but not quite over., November 17, 2002

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bowled Over: A Roll Down Memory Lane (Hardcover)

A pleasant enough short history of bowling, giving just enough detail to be interesting without getting too technical though in some cases I would have appreciated more information, in particular the development of the automatic pinsetter (surely the one item that pushed the sport into the big-time) and the architecture of bowling lanes, the work of the architectural company Powers, Daly & DeRosa helped pull in the customers to the flamboyant lanes of the fifties.

The book is a neat square shape (seven by seven inches) and well produced with over a hundred pictures but before you order your copy you have to know that (amazingly) none of the pictures have captions! Some of them clearly are just graphics to help the design along but I counted fifty-two that really should have some explanation for the reader, for instance page eleven shows actor Telly Savalas just about to bowl, when was it taken and where? Page forty-seven shows the outside of the streamline Tower Bowl in San Diego (designed by Charlie Lee) I think readers should be told this in a caption, page ninety-six has a bowling championship in progress, where, when? I'm surprised that the publisher did not pick up this rather fundamental flaw in the books presentation.

A book I enjoyed more than 'Bowled Over' is 'Bowl-O-Rama' by Thomas Steele, essentially a visual history with hundreds of pictures (all with captions) and short introductions to the nine chapters. Oh and the cover shows part of a bowling ball with three holes punched right though the stiff cardboard.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific!, November 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Bowled Over: A Roll Down Memory Lane (Hardcover)

I love this snappy, informative book with its vintage photographs, evocative memorabilia,great layout, and fact-filled text. The authors cover all aspects of the bowling phenomenon -- from the history of the sport to fashion, technology, and
architecture, and helped me understand the important social and cultural role of this sport. Two things really stayed with me: the authors' ability to connect bowling to American social history; and the fantastic design. This book puts me in a great mood! Intelligently written -- without being high brow--and full of entertaining anecdotes, Bowled Over makes a great present for bowlers and fans of popular culture.