April 18, 2013, Thursday - Neal Karlen Author of "Augie’s Secrets: The Minneapolis Mob and the King of the Hennepin Strip" at Mill City Museum

Time: 7:00pm

Location: Mill City Museum, 704 2nd Street South

Join author Neal Karlen for an illustrated presentation and book signing to celebrate the publication of "Augie’s Secrets: The Minneapolis Mob and the King of the Hennepin Strip" (MHS Press, April 2013). Augie Ratner, the proprietor of Augie’s Theater Lounge and Bar on Hennepin Avenue, was the unofficial mayor of Minneapolis’s downtown strip in the 1940s and ’50s. Augie Ratner knew everyone and everyone knew Augie and they told him everything. Mixing careful research with long suppressed family and community stories, Neal Karlen, Augie’s great-nephew, tells the real story of the seamy underside of Minneapolis, where mobsters, celebrities, comedians and politicians including Jimmy Hoffa, Henny Youngman, Kid Cann, John Dillinger, Jack Dempsey, Peggy Lee, Groucho Marx, Lenny Bruce and Gypsy Rose Lee mingled.

Following his presentation, Mr. Karlen will sign copies of the book which can be purchased in the Mill City Museum store.  A cash bar— including Manhattans, an Augie’s favorite- will open at 6 p.m.