When El Matador opened in 1958, Bennett Cerf called it "the most attractive room in America." Part saloon, part salon, Barnaby Conrad’s night club, nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s nightlife district, was a spot one might find Noel Coward, Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, Frank Sinatra, or Ava Gardner or might hear Duke Ellington or André Previn take over the piano.

In Name Dropping, Barnaby Conrad vibrantly evokes this bygone era as he shares hilarious and surprising anecdotes, delightfully dropping famous names all the while.

Barnaby Conrad is the author of twenty-five books of fiction and nonfiction, including Hemingway’s Spain, How to Fight a Bull, and Matador, which has sold more than three million copies. He is an artist and former bullfighter and American vice-consul in Spain, founder and codirector of the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference, and a native San Franciscan.