TED TURNER: The Man Behind the Mouth

The abrasive, elusive, brash, Southern, and stupefyingly rich captain of the 1977 America's Cup winner, Courageous, is the subject of this lengthy--and ultimately disjointed--scrutiny. Ted Turner owns a vast communications network (it was he who first saw the possibilities in Cable TV) built on the somewhat shaky foundations of his father's billboard company. He owns the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Braves, which he hypes to the nth degree, the author tells us, to increase the gate: mass weddings are performed annually at first base; Chief Wannahoma whoops it up on a contract basis. Turner sits on top of the dugout, chewing tobacco and spitting. He throws punches at cocktail parties, makes tasteless remarks to sailing's grande dames, and flings his business as well as sailing expertise in the face of his critics. This is a catalogue of Turner's character traits, written by an ex-classmate at Brown (from which Turner was expelled), and it centers around the 1977 America's Cup, the culmination of Turner's obsessive drive to win the biggest prize in yachting. ""People like to attempt anything so grandiose as to be asinine,"" explains one participant in the race. Which pretty much sums up Turner as pictured by his friends and enemies here.