Back in the 1960's and 1970's, when Chet was touring as a musician and living in a farm in eastern Kansas, the people on their farms became enamored with building saunas as a place where friends could gather, relax and socialize. Chet had learned to do carpentry work as a young boy and these skills made him in high demand to help others build their make-shift saunas and hot tubs. In fact, one of Chet's first carpentry jobs, was repairing the neck of his first guitar which had cracked in two after falling off the top bunk of his bunk bed.
Over the years, Chet helped to design and build sauna and hot tubs across the country. He actually built some beautiful saunas for some of Hollywood's most popular celebrities.
When he moved back to Chicago and began working in the commercial music and film industries as a producer servicing the major ad agencies, he decided he wanted to go back and write a book about building these saunas for people.
He met and befriended a writer from Leo Burnett, George Fels, who had sidelined writing body-building books and books about playing pool. Chet shared his idea for a "sauna building book" and George offered to take it to his publisher and see it they would agree to publish it, and they did.
So, Chet went to work writing the book, doing the research, producing the hand-drawn illustrations and the photos.
George went to work editing and writing the forward. They submitted the drafts to the publisher and the book was released.
Aside from the stories about building the saunas and hot tubs, Chet did extensive research about some of the well-known hot-springs areas in the US. This in included in the back of the book.
Enjoy!
