THE WORLD I LIVED IN

by George & John Austin Jessel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1975

Like those perennial ""personalities"" who appear on talk and game shows, Georgie Jessel, to the present TV generation, seems to have been around the circuit forever, and seems to have come out of nowhere. This is his autobiography--glib, big-mouthed and very on mike--and it doesn't do much to clarify just what it was that made Georgie run. Jessel hit the Gus Edwards stable as a kid, from a poverty-stricken Harlem background (he was born in 1898), and he's been traveling ever since--acting (he scored what must have been a brass-lung success in the Broadway production of The Jazz Singer), in comic turns (remember the ""Hello Momma!"" telephone routines?); he produced, promoted, was on and off the radio. With all the name-dropping of show biz people who probably were his friends (Cantor, Jolson, Burns and Allen, etc.), trips abroad, sexual peccadilloes, three marriages and as many divorces, children in and out of wedlock--it still isn't clear exactly why he was asked to visit every president from Coolidge on (except for Ike). There seems to be so much mumbo in the gumbo. (Did George really at the age of seventythree spend ""three acrobatic weeks"" with Xaviera Hollander?) He must have had something, but judging by this book it could have been Jessel who invented, along with the Bloody Mary, the adage, ""If you don't have it, flaunt it."" Expect an inordinate amount of TV exposure.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Regnery

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION