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Shop nowCalifornia Characters
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Learn moreFor forty-six years, Charles Hillinger journeyed around the world writing human-interest stories for the Los Angeles Times. He also helped to create and produce special features for the popular NBC television show Real People.
From this work comes California Characters, a collection of stories of intriguing, eccentric, or simply amazing individuals profiled by Hillinger. Many of these people have strange occupations, live solitary lives in remote locations, or collect, build, or design an assortment of odd things. Characters like Down the Road Dugan, Sweetwater Clyde, Dr. Tinkerpaw, Spaceship Ruthie, and Warmly Ormly will delight, amuse, and perhaps inspire the listener with their tales and reasons why they’ve chosen to live the lives they do.
Charles Hillinger, a graduate of UCLA, roamed California, America, and the world for forty-five years writing some six thousand human-interest stories for the Los Angeles Times. His features and column were syndicated in more than six hundred newspapers. He is one of the creators of the television show Real People. He and his wife live in Los Angeles.
Dennis McKee is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.
Reviews
“Dennis McKee’s pleasant voice gives entertaining variations and accents to the California characters, and becomes beautifully appropriate for a couple of poems.”
“Climb aboard and join Chuck on his incredible odyssey throughout the Golden State as he revisits this wonderful cast of colorful characters. Take my word, you will be enchanted with every story that follows.”
“In the very best tradition of oral historical preservation, former Los Angeles Times reporter Hillinger has searched California from top to bottom (pausing mostly in the remote desert regions) to find some of the colorful kooks who bring a special flavor to our state. Every state needs a Hillinger, a ‘people laureate’ who is able to capture the unique, the different, and the oddballs who bring a love of life that most of us only dream about.”
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