Book Finds Found: Will Anderson's Regional Imprint

So I'm in used bookstore heaven for a couple days, and among my finds was a brood of oversized illustrated books by Maine author Will Anderson, whose self-publishing family imprint Anderson & Sons' Publishing Co. is based in Bath, Maine. One shop had a stack of Anderson's books, all signed by the author, which are all regional delights -- lotsa beer histories and overviews.

The one that caught my eye (and left the shop with me) is Anderson's delightful Those Were the Days!: Drive-ins, Dance Halls, Fried Clams, Summer & Maine (2002), a heavily illustrated overview and history of Maine's drive-in spots. The whole book is entertaining as hell, but the drive-in movie theater section is especially engaging.

I didn't know the first Maine drive-in dated back to (gulp) 1913, in Bangor. "The Theatre Without a Roof" was an error in judgment -- it closed down after a month for renovations, and reopened later that year as a hardtop standard theater -- but so it began. Anderson provides an overview town by town, theater by theater, including some marvelous newspaper and herald ad reproductions. Nice to know roadshow exploitation goona-goona like Love Life of a Gorilla and vintage sexposes like Ecstasy and Tomorrow's Children once packed 'em in up north!

A little early morning websearching turned up the family publishing biz's state business listing, here,

and the Bookcost website listing for most of Will's books is here,

providing this handy-dandy venue list for copies of Those Were the Days, here.

There's more here, heavy on the brewskies, which doesn't list Those Were the Days -- but don't fret.

Used copies are listed online here

and here.

More book spelunking to be done today. I'll be having some fun -- Have a great Tuesday!