The Godfather—The Coppola Restoration

5-DVD set (retail $72.99)



The ultimate gift for fans of moviedom’s most famous crime dynasty, this collection includes all three Godfather films, each newly restored and featuring tell-it-like-it-was commentary by director Frances Ford Coppola. Two full bonus discs pack serious heat with a documentary on the making of the sagas, a spotlight on the films’ memorable music, scenes that didn’t make the final cut and a look at the wide-ranging pop-cultural impact of this cinematic milestone. Leave the gun, take the cannoli…and gift-wrap this box for the gangster-movie lover in your life.

—Neil Pond, American Profile





Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain: Tales of Romance and Tragedy

By Robert K. Oermann

Hardcover, 403 pages

(retail $23.99)



Legends, superstars and newcomers share the spotlight in this well-researched, intimately detailed stargazing into the lives, loves and losses of performers affiliated with the world-famous Grand Ole Opry. Author Oermann, a renowned music historian, finds fresh angles for dozens of riveting stories, including the mysterious death of Hank Williams, the romance of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood and the reason many Opry stars wondered, back in 1963, if they were living—and dying—under a curse.

—Neil Pond, American Profile





Night Gallery—Season 2

DVD (retail $59.98)



After TV’s The Twilight Zone, creator Rod Serling opened Night Gallery, a weekly series of fantasy, horror and sci-fi tales, each built around a painting. This collection of 61 episodes from 1971-72 will give you nearly 19 hours of spine-tingling, class-act, retro-TV chills—plus a look-back documentary, a closer examination of the paintings used in the series and commentary from Night Gallery historians and acclaimed fantasy-film director Guillermo Del Toro.

—Neil Pond, American Profile





The New York Times: The Complete Front Pages 1851-2008

Hardcover, 456 pages (retail $60)



This heavyweight history-at-your-fingertips collection starts with a book, which assembles 300 reproductions of historic front-page news from America’s pre-eminent “newspaper of record.” Then it continues on three DVD-ROMs, which present the remaining 54,267 front pages. And finally, it leads online to the complete New York Times archive, containing every story, start to finish, ever printed in its pages. This journalism juggernaut is perfect for newshounds, history buffs and anyone just curious about what was going on in the world on any given day of the past 157 years.

—Neil Pond, American Profile