Saloon Man

An intriguing, challenging read, packed with historical and familial minutia. -KIRKUS REVIEWS

One of our best and savviest documentarians about American culture brings his keen social insight and richly expansive vision to his family history. And what history! Saloon Man melds meticulous research with relentless narrative energy in bringing to vivid life Mugge's great-grandfather and namesake. The elder Robert Mugge, making his way in a turn-of-20th century America rife with both endless possibility and embedded bigotry, is shown throughout to be highly alert to injustice and just as inventive in his means of circumventing it. The lively and diverse supporting cast, from Black entertainers and radical activists to rapacious businessmen and intransigent prudes, enriches this tale of a life well-lived through both travail and triumph. -GENE SEYMOUR worked 18 years at Newsday as film critic and jazz columnist.

Robert Mugge steps out from behind the camera and proves himself a first-rate historian, part David McCullough, part Carl Hiaasen. Bursting with the cinematic flair of one of the country's greatest documentary filmmakers, Saloon Man tells the riveting story of Tampa's Gilded Age original buccaneer, the visionary saloon magnate and civil libertarian who "tapped" Tampa's untapped potential. -AIDAN LEVY is the author of Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins.

A great American immigration saga that takes as many dramatic twists and turns as an epic film. Author Mugge takes us along with his great-grandfather Robert Mugge, as the German immigrant turns himself into a Florida businessman of imagination, skill, and shrewdness. Along the way, Saloon Man shows its subject to be an American Everyman battling entrenched power, racism, and corruption. -KEN TUCKER is an author, editor, and cultural critic for Entertainment Weekly, NPR's Fresh Air, and other publications.

In Saloon Man, acclaimed filmmaker Robert Mugge turns a documentarian lens onto his own family, bringing the same attentive detail and storytelling acumen to this compelling and carefully researched biography that he has to countless musical luminaries. A fascinating and ever enjoyable portrait of the American entrepreneurial spirit, Saloon Man is a rollick of a read that reminds us how the immigrant experience has long shaped our country and national identity. -WILLIAM LEE ELLIS is a singer-songwriter, journalist, historian, Professor of Music, and Chair of Fine Arts at Saint Michael's College.