THE NINE LIVES OF MICHAEL TODD

by Art Cohn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 21, 1958

The fabulous showman, Mike Todd, rolled up his ""nine lives"" with aplomb, if one counts his career, from childhood-through his Chicago career as a construction millionaire at eighteen, a bankrupt at twenty, an entrepreneur of a strip tease act at the Exposition, a big-time producer run out of town by the gangsters he refused to cooperate with, a success, a failure, a success on Broadway and in Hollywood and finally in Cinerama, with the world favorite Around the World in Eighty Days. The book ends with his marriage to the young lady he referred to as Lizzie Schwartzkopf (better known as Liz Taylor). The Epilogue is written by Art Cohn's wife, for Cohn too was killed in the crash of Todd's private plane. Not a whitewash, and certainly not an expose, this is a lively story of Broadway and Hollywood, and a biography of a man who meets the author's sole test for biography -- would the subject make a good novel? He wrote earlier the bouncy biography of Joe E. Lewis, The Joker is Wild. Lively reading

Pub Date: Oct. 21, 1958

ISBN: 1163818046

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION