Overweight Sensation The Life And Comedy Of Allan Sherman

Examines the comedian's life, discussing his rapid fame and decline into obscurity.

Allan Sherman was the Larry David, the Adam Sandler, the Sacha Baron Cohen of 1963. He led Jewish humour and sensibilities out of ethnic enclaves and into the American mainstream with explosively funny parodies of classic songs that won Sherman extraordinary success and acclaim across the board, from Harpo Marx to President Kennedy. In Overweight Sensation, Mark Cohen argues persuasively for Sherman's legacy as a touchstone of postwar humour and a turning point in Jewish American cultural history. With exclusive access to Allan Sherman's estate, Cohen has written the first biography of the manic, bacchanalian, and hugely creative artist who sold three million albums in just twelve months, yet died in obscurity a decade later at the age of forty-nine. Comprehensive, dramatic, stylish, and tragic, Overweight Sensation is destined to become the definitive Sherman biography.

A merry case history in the American success syndrome.

The first full-scale biography of a major Jewish leader and financier.

This absorbing biography chronicles the life and work of one of the most important entertainers of the twentieth century. Eddie Cantor (1892-1964) starred in theater, film, radio, and television. His immense popularity across a variety of media, his pride in his Jewish heritage, and his engagement with pressing political issues distinguished him from other headliners of his era. Paying equal attention to Cantor's humor and politics, Weinstein documents his significance as a performer, philanthropist, and activist. Many show business figures quietly shed their Jewish backgrounds or did not call attention to the fact that they were Jewish. Cantor was different. He addressed the vital issues of his times, including acculturation, national identity, and antisemitism. He was especially forceful in opposing Nazism and paid a price for this activism in 1939, when a sponsor cancelled the actor's radio program. In this carefully researched book, Weinstein uncovers sketches and routines filled with Jewish phrases, allusions, jokes, songs, and stories. Cantor frequently did not mark this material as "Jewish," relying instead on attentive audiences to interpret his coded performances. Illustrated with thirty photographs, The Eddie Cantor Story examines the evolution, impact, and legacy of Cantor's performance style. His music and comedy not only shaped the history of popular entertainment, but also provide a foundation for ongoing efforts to redefine Jewish culture and build community in contemporary America.

Discusses the history of the final century of the Jewish community of Monastir (now Bitola) in Macedonia, which originated in the Ottoman Empire and ended its days under occupation by Nazi-allied Bulgaria. Ch. 9 (pp. 169-189), "The Holocaust", recounts the nazification of policies toward the Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia, where Nuremberg-like laws and ghettoization were introduced, followed by Aryanization of businesses and robbery by taxation. Registration of all Jewish adults in Bulgaria facilitated deportation which, due to protests by prominent Bulgarian non-Jews, was limited to stateless residents of Bulgarian-occupied territories. Almost all of Monastir's Jews were deported to Treblinka, where 3,276 of them were gassed. The small number who escaped deportation were spared as doctors or foreign nationals. Some Jews managed to flee and join partisan groups. Pp. 203-250 contain a list of names (with addresses, ages, and occupations) of the Jews from Monastir who were killed in Treblinka.

A True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal and how a Ruthless Beverly Hills Socialite Became the Ultimate Momager and Raked In Billions Dirty Sexy Money: The Unauthorized Biography of Kris Jenner is the definitive account of how a Beverly Hills socialite with little formal education built herself a global empire. This tell-all tome unravels the family’s meteoric rise to fame and the dark secrets they’ve struggled to hide . . . until now. Together, Howard and Griffin delve behind the headlines and social media hype to tell the true story of Kris’s life—rather than the rosy picture she likes to paint. Dirty Sexy Money is an unflinching look at Kris’s triumphs and losses, her crises and celebrations, her famous friendships and family conflicts. It examines in unprecedented detail Kris’s troubled two decades with Bruce Jenner and the end of their marriage as Bruce transitioned to Caitlyn; it exposes the truth about her current affair with a much younger man . . . and it reveals what she really thinks of her daughter’s very public marriage to Kanye West. Inside are a wealth of previously untold stories, including intimate details of how Kim’s sex tape jump-started her career, of the real reasons Kris sold her long-running television reality series—as well as shocking, never-before-heard revelations about her friendships with O.J. Simpson and murdered wife Nicole. The result is a dramatic narrative account of Kris’s real story as you’ve never heard it before . . . in all its dirty, sexy glory.