264 West 40th Street - Tapa blanda

264 West 40th Street is about a life lived in New York City by a young man in the mid 1970’s. The memoir begins with author Jim Gath’s arrival in New York, an uninitiated newcomer to the fountain business. It follows him through the years as he encounters some of the remarkable, some famous and some not so famous people one meets in New York City. The memoir follows the author as he interacts with the different characters and how he ultimately impacts the growth of a family business as well as his personal growth. This is a very personal and entertaining story set against the backdrop of a massive city of unmatchable energy and personalities. As Jim Gath says, “We were living the life of urban cowboys. We didn’t answer to anybody. Did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. No rules. No barriers. No concrete expectations and no regrets. Just a constantly changing horizon. No real vision for the future. And that was good. And bad. It was taking life as it comes and bring it on. We’ll deal with it when it gets here.

Jim Gath has had a fairly long and - some would say – rather strange life. He manufactured water display fountains, submersible pumps, underwater lighting, electric wheelchairs and cloisonné picture frames. He was a founder of USA TODAY and stayed with it until it turned a profit. He wrote the marketing platform for Ted Turner’s 1998 Goodwill Games. He produced post-season college football bowl games, major events and festivals and concerts in Las Vegas. And he’s quite proud of the fact that he’s done all of that without the benefit of a college degree. In 2005, he met his true calling when he founded Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary, a ‘forever home’ to dozens of horses that had been previously abandoned, neglected, injured or abused. And he’s been at it ever since. Today, he lives with his dog, Lee, in an apartment in his barn, alongside his equine ‘kids’.