William Karl Thomas Livres

From polio poster child to charismatic activist, the inspiring life of Wendy Wolf. Wendy Wolf entered an iron lung at the age of four and emerged a polio survivor whose life illustrates the challenges of opportunity and acceptance people with disabilities face and the triumphs and successes this extraordinary woman achieved. Though she came close to death, she survived the iron lung and 7 subsequent surgeries, ultimately suffering almost total loss of use of all four limbs. She went on to earn 3 degrees, improve the lives of hundreds of children through her services as a Speech Therapist in New York and Mexico and Arizona, found the first Independent Living Center in Arizona, found a unique introductory service for people with disabilities, raise two foreign born special needs children largely as a single parent, advocate for many issues to improve the lives of people with disabilities, and become Ms. Wheelchair Arizona 2006 and, at the Ms. Wheelchair America 2007 Pageant, win the Nicki Arde award for her lifelong history of advocacy.

"The Candy Butcher" is an old fashioned term for the guy with a basket full of candy, fruits, magazines, and newspapers he sells walking through your train to make your journey more enjoyable. Frank Ray Perilli’s first job was as a Candy Butcher, and his show biz career began in his teens as a nightclub comedian and film actor, and continued through Hollywood as a screenwriter and film producer. Almost all of his offbeat Felliniesque films cross the threshold of bizarre and are richly flavored with "The Doberman Gang," "Little Cigars," "The Other Cinderella," "Adult Fairy Tales," "Dracula’s Dog," "The End of the World," "Laserblast," "Alligator," "Invasion of the Star Creatures," but to name a few. Even his more serious films, such as "Harlow," and his plays, such as "Stompin’ at he Oval Office," touch upon aspects of history uncharted by others. With a weird offbeat perspective, Frank Ray Perilli enriches our journey through life with the sweetness of comedy and the challenge of thinking outside the box.

During the ten years William Karl Thomas collaborated with comedian Lenny Bruce on screenplays and comedy material in the 1950's and 60's, one of his bread and butter jobs was as a private investigator working for a leading Hollywood agency. His misadventures there included everything from being a bodyguard for damsels in distress to bugging the homes of suspected unfaithful spouses, dealing with snakes and coyotes that got in the way, and occasionally saving a life. While names are changed to protect the innocent and the guilty, these stories are based on actual cases and told in the first person voice of a man who just wanted to be an artist and was reluctant to invade the privacy of Hollywood's 'A' list celebrities.