This was one of the many escape routes portrayed in "Escape from Saigon - a Novel" by Michael Morris and Dick Pirozzolo that chronicles the fear and desperation in Saigon during the final 30 days of the Vietnam War.
The first person who posts correct answers to all three questions in comments wins a FREE copy of this epic novel—delivered directly to you by AMAZON before the holidays—ideal gift for anyone who loves modern history, intrigue and danger in a fast read.
What was the name of the building? What is the street address? Who shot this iconic photo?
Family members and employees of Skyhorse Publishing, New York and its affiliates are ineligible to participate.
Image links to "Saigon Cho Lon Then & Now" Published by Saigoneer
“Escape from Saigon is a sweeping saga that places you dead center in the tumultuous final days of the war in Vietnam. During this time of great uncertainty, danger and death - lines are crossed, allegiances questioned, souls collide and heroes are born. Authors Mike Morris and Dick Pirozzolo carry on the grand tradition of Michener and Clavell in that they make history come alive through rich, compelling characters in a pulsating narrative that is both timely and timeless.”
~ Casey Sherman, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Finest Hours, now a major Disney motion picture,and Boston Strong
Terrific to see that a film version of Miss Saigon will be screened on IMAX worldwide and the live stage performance will return to Broadway this winter in the same theater where the tragic musical first opened in the US. The IMAX version, filmed during a recent 25th anniversary performance, includes commentary by Lea Salonga, the original Kim from the London staging of Miss Saigon who, after much union-managements wrangling, played the starring role on Broadway.
The pubic awareness and interest created by the Miss Saigon revival in New York and on film is great news for "Escape from Saigon - a Novel" whose story unfolds during the same moment in history and recounts the behind-the-scenes decisions, struggles and fears of those trapped in a besieged city once known as The Paris of the Orient.
The novel (272 pages hardbound) is being published by Skyhorse Publishing, New York, and will be available for preorder on Amazon by December 16, in time for the holidays. For excerpts, information and to preorder please click on: AMAZON.
Preorder before December 16 and get 25% off the retail price.
Michael Morris and Dick Pirozzolo, coauthors of “Escape from Vietnam” visited Vietnam as part of a Boston Global Forum delegation of scholars, journalists and writers. They discovered that ties between the two nations—encompassing business, travel, academic programs, cultural events and foreign policy—have grown stronger since the fateful days of April 1975, chronicled in their novel.
The lifestyle has become more international. There are signs of prosperity with millenials frequenting shops and cafés on Dong Khoi Street. This is a far cry from when it was named Tu Do Street and was known to American GIs for beer, bargirls and brawls instead of trendy fashions and lattés. Save for airline, hotel and event greeters, the traditional flowing Ao Dai is rarely seen today, having been supplanted by hip Western fashions.
During the 1990's Pirozzolo played a prominent role in fostering US reconciliation and opening trade with Vietnam. Entrepreneurs and American corporations, such as IBM, Pepsi, United Technologies and Gillette rushed in to establish their brands among 70 million Vietnamese consumers—a population that has grown to 90 million today.
Change continues. In addition to the Ao Dai disappearing, the once familiar pedicabs are all but gone. Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is building a subway . The skyline is changing with the blade-shaped Bitexo Financial Tower, designed by New York architect Carlos Zapata, becoming the iconic structure in the new and modern Ho Chi Minh City.
The Caravelle Hotel, that housed the bureaus of numerous news outlets during the war, The Hotel Continental that figured into Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" and The Rex Hotel where war correspondents hung out at its rooftop bar are all fixtures in “Escape from Saigon.” They have been largely modernized to international, four-star standards to accommodate Vietnam's new life as a travel destination for young Westerners who are discovering the nation for the first time.
Doing its bit to keep history alive, The Rex rooftop bar, once a hangout for foreign correspondents, has named one of its cocktails, "The Five O'Clock Follies," sobriquet for the official daily press briefing held throughout the Vietnam War.
Though the war ended over four decades ago, interest in Vietnam continues to grow
"Miss Saigon," the American musical that tells the tragic tale of Kim and Scott's ill fated love during April of 1975 returns to Broadway in March. The musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr. is thematically based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madam Butterfly in which an Asian woman is abandoned by her American lover, only this time the tragedy is set Vietnam during the 1970s.
For a video of Lea Salonga, the original Kim, auditioning in London some 30 years ago please visit: The Big Break
Recent Comments