When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man

This fraud bribed the Mayor of Chicago to get his first hockey stadium deal, but 'got' Elvis to tour? Jeez, it was a nice run, culminating in his ruinious public offering that stiffed investors for a couple hundred million.

Heard the CD version of WHEN I STOP TALKING, YOU'LL KNOW I'M DEAD--written and read by Jerry Weintraub. He's the legendary Hollywood producer, deal maker, and friend of politicians and stars . . . as he notes: * All life was a theater, and I wanted to put it up on stage. I wanted to set the world under a marquee that read: "Jerry Weintraub Presents." And present he did, beginning at age 26 with Elvis Presley, whom he took on the road with Colonel Tom Parker's help . . . through his days with Frank Sinatra when he was at the height of his career . . . and including his role in such hits as OH, GOD!, THE KARATE KID, DINER, and OCEAN'S ELEVEN, TWELVE AND THIRTEEN. Along the way, the author shares his experience with such other personalities as George Clooney, Bruce Willis, George W. Bush, Brad Pitt, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Bobby Fischer and a whole host of others too numerous to name . . . but you don't get the feeling that he's merely name-dropping; rather, it almost feels like you are having a one-on-one conversation with Weintraub. I also liked the advice that he shared throughout the book, including: * People will pay you to make their lives easier. * Never get paid one when you can get paid twice. * Every 10 years, something new is coming . . . a big hand comes down and pushes the dishes off the table. * An idea is only crazy until somebody pulls it off. * To be successful, you need to have a certain "screw 'em" attitude . . . in politics, entertainment, sports, etc. There were some great stories, too . . . one I especially remembered involved Weintraub having difficulty selling Presley scarves; i.e., until he got Elvis to ask all those in the concert to wave their scarves so he could see them better . . . the scarves sold like crazy during an intermission.

A very interesting book. You simply can't stop reading it as every story has a meaning and a lesson. It's a glimpse into the world that many people only envy. Read it .... you'll enjoy it.

Jerry Weintraub was born in 1937 in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx. He was what he and I term a street-wise Jewish New Yorker who wound up as one of Hollywood's true elite impresarios'. Jerry was blessed with two wonderful loving parents... but along with playing stickball and stoopball (which of course... as any New York kid would know included a Spalding!)... Jerry knew he didn't want to go to college... and even though his Dad taught him about the jewelry business he knew he didn't want to become part of his Dad's business. He didn't really know what he wanted but he knew it wasn't that. When he was fourteen-years-old he and a friend ran away from home and with very little money started hitch hiking to Florida. They made it as far as Myrtle Beach before giving up. When he was seventeen-years-old and before he graduated high school he had his parents sign a consent form and he joined the Air Force. He started his training at Keesler Air Force Base (Note: The author mistakenly calls it Kessler Air Force Base. I should know the correct name since I was stationed there approximately sixteen-years after Jerry.) in Biloxi, Mississippi. Jerry discusses the anti-Semitism he encountered there... including circumstances that resulted in him having breakfast with a Klansman. (Note to Jerry: Sixteen years later I ran into the same anti-Semitism and though I didn't have breakfast with a Klansman... I did witness crosses being burned on the lawn of the base... and also was subjected to anti-Semitism by NCOs' very similar to yours.) The author's first person narrative is enticing and near hypnotic as it becomes obvious Jerry has unmatched drive... and a truckload of *CHUTZPAH*... and never hesitated in taking advantage of every opportunity... whether it was offered... or if his inner drive created it himself. After Mississippi Jerry was assigned to Alaska and when he took a part-time job while he was still in the service he came up with the idea of selling complete tropical vacation packages including clothing to freezing locals. After getting out of the service Jerry's life is a world-wind of mostly self-created opportunity and riches. Just like in a movie... one of his early jobs is in a major talent agencies mailroom. From there in dizzying sequences that you won't be able to keep in chronological order... nor do you need to... he takes Elvis Presley on nationwide concert tours working with one of his marketing idols the legendary Colonel Tom Parker... handles Frank Sinatra... confronts the Mafia... discovers John Denver and molds him into one of the highest paid entertainers in the world... and as they say "SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS"... and he winds up in business with... and lifelong friends with... and advising... everyone from Presidents... to Prime Minister's... to a who's-who of the world's richest men... and marrying one of his early clients Jane Morgan who at that time was one of the most famous entertainer's in the world. He proceeds to not on

Everybody knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy -- but Jerry Weintraub knew or knows EVERYONE. He managed Elvis AND Sinatra before he was thirty; he made John Denver a star; he produced Led Zep's first U.S. concert tour; he made George Burns 'God' and he pals around with two other Georges: Clooney and G.H.W. Bush. This book's not only a Who's Who -- it's a How To. It's the story of how this kid from the Bronx used a combination of hard work and luck and charm and King Kong-sized cojones to make it to the top of both the music and the movie biz. It's funny, it's engaging -- an effortless read -- and let's hope this is just Volume I -- I want to hear more of this guy's stories.

Rich Cohen--I've been reading him for ten years--is one of the country's best writers. Jerry Weintraub--film producer, musician manager, deal maker--is one of the nation's best livers. (Mention an event, a celebrity, the man has a story.) Cohen can write anything; Weintraub has done nearly everything. Which is what makes this book such a perfect match. Weintraub is the real deal--came up without money or the helping hands than can do the work of money; produced the three "Ocean's Eleven" pictures, also "Nashville" and "Diner" (two decades' great classics), also managed Elvis, also Sinatra, also the chess-champion Bobby Fischer at Reykjavik. It's an amazing story. Weintraub goes everywhere and does everything; he heads someplace, arrives, finds himself at the center. A gift, which he discovers in himself and develops. He found a way to take Elvis on the road at 26, to bring Sinatra's career back at 35; when he's watching the Fischer chess championship on TV, he just buys a ticket, flies to Iceland, and more or less enters the screen himself. (That's one lesson Weintraub teaches from his kind of life. Find what you love, trust it. Then act.) The story is filled with advice, plus advice-by-example: hustling in the beginning, finding the angle, picking your allies--"If you work with people you love, which, of course, is not always possible, the hard times become an epic adventure"--then getting to a place where your own work functions as an ad, as the attraction: "I did not have to hustle quite as much. Once you've established yourself, you can, to some extent, let business find you. You become a beacon, a door into a better life." Weintraub's own life swings into the rat pack and Sinatra (first call to Weintraub: "Look, kid, when I say I want to meet that means now"), the White House, Hollywood, Palm Desert: the five great gambling cities (Peking, Moscow, Las Vegas, Washington, Hollywood). Because of his gifts, Weintraub goes everywhere and does everything. His story is a chronicle, a great life, one giant path through the last fifty years. And Cohen, who loves to write lives like this (the corporate big shoulders in "Sweet and Low," the resistance fighters in "The Avengers") helps him tell this story. An incredible mix: Weintraub's friendships, destinations, experiences, lessons, voice, advice; Cohen's speed, words, eye. You feel you're there, which is the first requirement of any writing, and still the hardest one to bring off. You live Weintraub's incredible life alongside him. So the thing reads like a great Saul Bellow novel that also happens to be true--the skinny kid who chucks home, finds the center, makes it big. And there's the great thought that somehow, on some reclining chair with a phone at his ear and some big pending deal and expensive view, Weintraub is living the next chapter. A great mix, a great read. As Sinatra might say, You don't read it; you breathe it.