Asbury Park, New Jersey early years of Springsteen's career in Asbury Park. Daniel Wolff's "4 July Asbury Park" examines the social, political and cultural history of the city with a special emphasis on the part that music played in the city's development, culminating in Springsteen. "Beyond the Palace" by Gary Wien is a comprehensive look at the local music scene that Springsteen emerged from, and includes many photographs of musicians and clubs. Against the backdrop of the fading resort, Alex Austin's novel "The Red Album of Asbury Park" tracks a young rock musician pursuing his dream in the late 60s/early 70s, with Springsteen as
Asbury Park, New Jersey hall. At the same time, Asbury Park launched a first-class education and athletic program with the construction of a state-of-the-art high school overlooking Deal Lake. On September 8, 1934, the wreck of the ocean liner SS "Morro Castle", which caught fire and burned, beached itself near the city just yards away from the Asbury Park Convention Hall; the city capitalized on the event, turning the wreck into a tourist attraction. In 1935, the newly founded Securities and Exchange Commission called Asbury Park's Mayor Clarence F. Hetrick to testify about $6 million in "beach improvement bonds" that had gone into default.