Stars Fell on Spartanburg: Hub City's Celebrity Encounters

What happens when Hollywood celebrities, big-time sports figures, and national politicians make their way to a Southern city known for its cotton mills, chili cheeseburgers, and Baptist churches? A crazy new book called Stars Fell on Spartanburg: Hub City's Celebrity Encounters.

A searchlight in the sky will lead the way as the Hub City Writers Project hosts a Hollywood-style book launch Wednesday, Nov. 12, from 7-9 p.m., in the lobby of the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, where a multitude of stars frolicked over the years. On hand for this special event will be Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, Dale Earnhardt, three dozen authors, a big pile of books, and much, much more.


Spartanburg High School students are dressing up as characters for the book-signing event, including three who will perform as the Kingston Trio.

Stars Fell on Spartanburg presents eyewitness accounts of dozens of celebrity stopovers in the Hub City. These stories are told through personal essay, oral history, and, to spice it up, poetry, fiction, and song. Pop culture meets local history and creative writing in this entertaining, illustrated volume that has something for everyone.

Fifty writers and storytellers take you along on their adventures: fetching a soft drink for Elvis Presley at the Carolina Theatre, sharing a microphone with the Beach Boys, chauffeuring football legend Bart Starr. They invite you to go antiquing on Main Street with Martha Stewart, to sneak up on Julia Roberts at the local ballpark, to eat a fancy dinner with actress Joanne Woodward, and to visit heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey in the old Cleveland Hotel.

They take you on the tour bus with Hank Williams Jr., to a downtown poolroom with a barefoot Harry Connick Jr., and back in time to encounter baseball giant Ty Cobb, famous evangelist Billy Sunday, and renowned scientist George Washington Carver. You'll see the stars as you never have before and bear witness to a Southern city's dance with fame.

Stars Fell on Spartanburg is the 35th title published by Spartanburg’s Hub City Writers Project, a non-profit literary arts organization founded in 1995. The paperback book sells for $11.95 and is available at area stores or at http://www.hubcity.org/.