Cecily Wolfe's Blog: The Start of Something New - Posts Tagged "mace-bugen"

The Little Gate-Crasher

Mace Bugen might have been an achondroplastic dwarf, 43 inches tall with an average size head and torso set on small, twisted legs—but that didn’t mean he was an idiot or a pushover. In truth, he was smarter than most; over the years, he learned to effectively turn what society in those days called a handicap into a powerful tool he could use to his advantage.
“When I was a kid,” he once said, “I’d ask myself, Why is that guy on the football team? Why can’t I be on the team? Why didn’t God give me the height so I could be the hero?”
“Then at some point I figured it out: I gotta do something special to let ’em know I’m me.”
In The Little Gate Crasher: The Life And Photos Of Mace Bugen, I remember my amazing great-Uncle Mace Bugen through his journey as a first-generation Jewish-American kid in working class Philipsburg, NJ to becoming the first celebrity selfie-artist—way ahead of his time.
Featuring vintage photos of Mace with his exploits, The Little Gate Crasher captures three decades of American pop culture, seen through the unique lens of Mace and his gate-crashing exploits.
Underneath his antics, we meet a complex man who continually defies others expectations and meets life on his own terms. Mace becomes a successful businessman and devoted son to his aging parents. But in his gate-crashing antics, we best get to see Mace’s unique combination of guile, cunning and sense of entitlement, which he used to engineer photos of himself with some of the biggest celebrities of his day. If people were going to stare at him all of his life, he would give them something to see.
The Little Gate Crasher features over 50 vintage photos of Mace with celebrities, athletes and politicians, including Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Muhammed Ali, Richard Nixon, Jane Russel, Joe DiMaggio and more.



Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Little-Gate-Cr...
Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Gate-...



Author Bio – Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer is an experienced educator, author and speaker. At Jewish Learning Venture, she works as Director of Whole Community Inclusion and leads disability awareness programs for the Philadelphia Jewish community. Her most recent book The Little Gate Crasher, a memoir of her Great-Uncle, who overcame society’s prejudices about dwarfism to lead a remarkable life, was one of the national book selections for 2017 Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month. Gabby writes for and edits The New York Jewish Week’s The New Normal: Blogging Disability and is also a featured Philly parenting blogger for WHYY’s newsworks. Gabby holds a B.F.A. in theatre and creative writing from Emerson College and an M.A. in Jewish Studies from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.



Social Media Links –
www.gabriellekaplanmayer.com
@gabkaplanmayer
https://www.facebook.com/littlegatecr...
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Author Interview:

1. What is your latest book about?

My latest book is “The Little Gate-Crasher,” a memoir of my amazing Great-Uncle Mace Bugen. When my Great-Uncle Moishe “Mace” Bugen was born in 1915, it became quickly apparent to my great-grandparents Sarah and Jakie that something was different with their fourth child. Mace had a normal size head and limbs but his skeleton was curved and there was a hump on his back. He was diagnosed as a dwarf and ultimately grew to be 43 inches tall.
In those days, parents were instructed to send away children with any kind of disability--but my great-Grandparents would never dream of treating Mace any differently from his siblings. He worked in the family grocery store, went to school, became Bar Mitzvah. Mace was raised with the confidence that he could do and become whatever he wanted—despite society’s prejudices against people of small stature and his own mobility challenges.
My Great-Grandmother expected Mace to become a success and he never disappointed his mother. Besides becoming a real estate tycoon and a leader in the Jewish community, Mace was known for an unusual hobby—over 30 years, he would overcome the limitations of his size to stage photos of himself with some of the biggest celebrities, athletes and politicians of his day. Mace was frequently seen on RKO newsreels and was even named by gossip columnist Walter Winchell as the “little gate crasher.”
In The Little Gate-Crasher, I capture the life lessons from Mace’s grand adventures: his unstoppable spirit that shows there’s value in every person and his courage to face whatever obstacles life sends your way.


2. What inspired you to write it?

My Grandmother Minerva, my Great-Uncle Mace’s older sister, was a wonderful storyteller and told me many stories about her childhood as I was growing up—she had grown up in a completely different circumstance, as a daughter of immigrants who had recently come to America and who worked hard in their grocery store to make a living. It was the Great depression and every penny counted. My Grandma shared many stories about her brother Mace and how impressed she was by his ability to not pity himself for being a dwarf and to not think less of himself—even though others teased or jeered at him.

When my Grandmother died, Mace’s photo album with his amazing celebrity photos was passed down to my Mom. My family and I would look at it and marvel as the unique history Mace created of pop culture from the mid-40s to the mid-70s—he had “celebrity selfies” with Ella Fitzgerald, Joe DiMaggio, Nixon, Ali—all of the famous athletes, politicians and entertainers of the era.

As I looked at the photos, I thought of Mace’s story and wondered not only how did he manage to get these photos considering his limited mobility—but why? What did these photos mean to him and what we can learn from there? A great story emerged—of a confidant man given a significant challenge who viewed himself as no less than anyone else, despite the message that society continually gave him.


3. How long did it take you to research and write “The Little Gate-Crasher”?

It took me about a year from when I began to completion of the final draft. I was really blessed to have an amazing editor Mike Sager, who also wrote the forward to the book and was an enormous help in shaping the story.

4. What’s it been like to promote your book?

It’s been really fun! I love to be out talking about the book and hearing people’s reactions to Mace’s story. I’m working on a total of 18 big book events in 2018 and also do smaller events for book groups. I Skype or facetime in to book discussion groups right in people’s living rooms all over the world from my home in Philadelphia. It’s so much fun—and costs no fee to the book group.

5. How can people purchase the book and get in touch with you?

The Little Gate-Crasher is available on amazon and I love to connect with readers on twitter (@gabkaplanmayer) and facebook. You can also reach me via my website www.gabriellekaplanmayer.com