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David Merrick - The Abominable Showman
Howard Kissel
The Unauthorized Biography
Applause Books
April 2000
On Sale: April 1, 2000
565 pages ISBN: 1557831726 EAN: 9781557831729 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
David Merrick is the most astonishing showman of our time,
and perhaps of all time. No other producer, not even
Florenz Ziegfeld nor the combined lights of the Shubert
brothers, has equalled his percentage of hits or his
demonic flair for publicity. In this first-ever biography,
Howard Kissel from his decade-long investigation reveals
the man, the mask, and the myth of David Merrick. The
charismatic and reclusive mogul emerges as a Broadway
version of Howard Hughes, with his own panoply of
eccentricities, genius and neuroses. Merrick's much
publicized and oftentimes staged battles and feuds are re-
ignited here full force with such major personalities as
Barbra Streisand, Jackie Gleason, Ethel Merman, Lena Horne,
Woody Allen, Peter Ustinov, Andy Griffith, Anthony Newley,
Peter Brook, and Carol Channing. Over a hundred interviews
with the major players in Merrick's drama - from his pre-
Merrick St. Louis childhood as David Margoulies to his
latest divorce - has yielded the first serious
interrogation of a life that until now has been the sole
creation of Merrick's own invention and press wizardry.
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