| . |
History remembers Arnold Rothstein as the
man who fixed the 1919 World Series, an
underworld genius. The real-life model for
The Great Gatsby's Meyer Wolfsheim and
Nathan Detroit from Guys and Dolls,
Rothstein was much more--and less--than a
fixer of baseball games. He was everything
that made 1920s Manhattan roar. Featuring
Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs,
speakeasies, showgirls, political movers and
shakers, and stars of the Golden Age of
Sports, this is a biography of the man who
dominated an age. Arnold Rothstein was a
loan shark, pool shark, bookmaker, thief,
fence of stolen property, political fixer, Wall
Street swindler, labor racketeer, rumrunner,
and mastermind of the modern drug trade.
Among his monikers were "The Big
Bankroll," "The Brain," and "The Man
Uptown." This vivid account of Rothstein's
life is also the story of con artists, crooked
cops, politicians, gang lords, newsmen,
speakeasy owners, gamblers and the like.
Finally unraveling the mystery of Rothstein's
November 1928 murder in a Times Square
hotel room, David Pietrusza has cemented
The Big Bankroll's place among the most
influential and fascinating legendary American
criminals.
"Rothstein paints a fascinating, engrossing
portrait of a modern-day Professor
Moriarity, set in a Roaring Twenties universe
of crime and corruption, violence and greed.
Only Arnold Rothstein dared to fix a World
Series, or his own trial for shooting two
policemen. Only David Pietrusza could have
so vividly recreated his life, his death, and his
era."
--Dick Thornburgh, former United
States Attorney General and Governor
of Pennsylvania
"Arnold Rothstein was the Thomas Edison of
modern crime, inventing much of it and
streamlining the rest. Investment houses,
credit-card issuers, and lottery hawkers have
been enriched by his legacy. David
Pietrusza's monumental biography of this evil
genius is astonishingly detailed and grippingly
narrated; there's a revelation in every
chapter. Only Rothstein could have spun so
tangled a web; only Pietrusza, seventy-five
years after his subject's death, could have set
it straight."
--John Thorn, sports historian and editor
of Total Baseball
"David Pietrusza's research opens the
wonderous underworld that lurked below the
Roaring 20s. Rothstein is witty, amusing,
original, and ultimately very informative."
--Donn Rogosin, author of Invisible
Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues
"David Pietrusza's Rothstein: The Life,
Times, and Murder of the Criminal
Genius who Fixed the 1919 World Series
is brilliant--a vivid, superbly researched
portrait of the boss who ruled Broadway in
its heyday."
--Kevin Cook, author of Tommy's Honor
"Excellent."
--Rose Keefe, author of Guns and
Roses: The Untold Story of Dean
O'Banion and The Man Who Got Away:
The Bugs Moran Story
"It doesn't matter how much you know or
have researched the 1919 Black Sox
Scandal, you must read Rothstein. Pietrusza
pulls it all together and--or the first time--the
pieces of the ongoing mystery saga fall into
place. "
--Susan Dellinger, Ph.D. , author of Red
Legs and Black Sox (Emmis Books,
2006)
man who fixed the 1919 World Series, an
underworld genius. The real-life model for
The Great Gatsby's Meyer Wolfsheim and
Nathan Detroit from Guys and Dolls,
Rothstein was much more--and less--than a
fixer of baseball games. He was everything
that made 1920s Manhattan roar. Featuring
Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs,
speakeasies, showgirls, political movers and
shakers, and stars of the Golden Age of
Sports, this is a biography of the man who
dominated an age. Arnold Rothstein was a
loan shark, pool shark, bookmaker, thief,
fence of stolen property, political fixer, Wall
Street swindler, labor racketeer, rumrunner,
and mastermind of the modern drug trade.
Among his monikers were "The Big
Bankroll," "The Brain," and "The Man
Uptown." This vivid account of Rothstein's
life is also the story of con artists, crooked
cops, politicians, gang lords, newsmen,
speakeasy owners, gamblers and the like.
Finally unraveling the mystery of Rothstein's
November 1928 murder in a Times Square
hotel room, David Pietrusza has cemented
The Big Bankroll's place among the most
influential and fascinating legendary American
criminals.
"Rothstein paints a fascinating, engrossing
portrait of a modern-day Professor
Moriarity, set in a Roaring Twenties universe
of crime and corruption, violence and greed.
Only Arnold Rothstein dared to fix a World
Series, or his own trial for shooting two
policemen. Only David Pietrusza could have
so vividly recreated his life, his death, and his
era."
--Dick Thornburgh, former United
States Attorney General and Governor
of Pennsylvania
"Arnold Rothstein was the Thomas Edison of
modern crime, inventing much of it and
streamlining the rest. Investment houses,
credit-card issuers, and lottery hawkers have
been enriched by his legacy. David
Pietrusza's monumental biography of this evil
genius is astonishingly detailed and grippingly
narrated; there's a revelation in every
chapter. Only Rothstein could have spun so
tangled a web; only Pietrusza, seventy-five
years after his subject's death, could have set
it straight."
--John Thorn, sports historian and editor
of Total Baseball
"David Pietrusza's research opens the
wonderous underworld that lurked below the
Roaring 20s. Rothstein is witty, amusing,
original, and ultimately very informative."
--Donn Rogosin, author of Invisible
Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues
"David Pietrusza's Rothstein: The Life,
Times, and Murder of the Criminal
Genius who Fixed the 1919 World Series
is brilliant--a vivid, superbly researched
portrait of the boss who ruled Broadway in
its heyday."
--Kevin Cook, author of Tommy's Honor
"Excellent."
--Rose Keefe, author of Guns and
Roses: The Untold Story of Dean
O'Banion and The Man Who Got Away:
The Bugs Moran Story
"It doesn't matter how much you know or
have researched the 1919 Black Sox
Scandal, you must read Rothstein. Pietrusza
pulls it all together and--or the first time--the
pieces of the ongoing mystery saga fall into
place. "
--Susan Dellinger, Ph.D. , author of Red
Legs and Black Sox (Emmis Books,
2006)
| "Terrific" --The New York Times |
| Meet Arnold Rothstein and meet the legends of decades ago--con artists Nicky Arnstein and Wilson Mizner; legal mastermind Bill "The Great Mouthpiece" Fallon; crooked cops Big Bill Devery and Charles Becker; baseball's John "Mugsy" McGraw and the Black Sox; boxers Abe "The Little Champ" Attell, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, and Benny Leonard; politicians Jimmy Walker, "Big Tim" Sullivan, and Fiorello LaGuardia; ganglords Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Legs Diamond, Lepke Buchalter, and Little Augie Orgen; newsmen Damon Runyon, Herbert Bayard Swope and William Randolph Hearst; show business's Fanny Brice, George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Billy Rose, Marion Davies, and Fats Waller; speakeasy owners Larry Fay and Texas Guinan; gambler "Nick the Greek" Dandalos. Rothstein is the epic story of Manhattan in the Roaring Twenties as its never been told before. |
| It's All Here-- in Rothstein:
|
- Available from:
- amazon.com
- Barnes & Noble
- Book House (Albany, NY)
- Borders
- Boulder Bookstore
- buy.com
- Cody's Books (Oakland)
- Powell's (San Francisco)
- Chapters/Indigo
- Dartmouth Bookstore (New
Hampshire) - amazon.co.uk
- amazon.ca
- amazon.co.jp
- amazon.fr
- amazon.de
- Wal-Mart
- 1bookstreet.com
- The Book Den (Santa Barbara)
- A Clean Well-Lighted Place for
Books - Stacey's Booksellers
- Merritt Bookstore (Millbrook)
- The Northshire Bookstore (Vermont)
- Books-a-Million
- Target.com
- Blackwell's
| . |
| ISBN: 0-7867-1250-3 $27.00 hardcover $16.00 paperback 496 pages Biography/True Crime |
| . |
Excerpted in
Matt Silverman
and Greg Spira's
USA Today
Sports Weekly's
Best Baseball
Writing 2005
Matt Silverman
and Greg Spira's
USA Today
Sports Weekly's
Best Baseball
Writing 2005
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Rothstein's audiobooks version has won the
Golden Headphone Award and been rated
as One of Booklist's Top Ten, chosen from
titles reviewed in Booklist from June 2003
through May 15, 2004, these outstanding
biographies and memoirs are about
individuals, both famous and infamous, who
through their stories reveal much about the
culture and society of their respective eras.
have a lasting impact.
Golden Headphone Award and been rated
as One of Booklist's Top Ten, chosen from
titles reviewed in Booklist from June 2003
through May 15, 2004, these outstanding
biographies and memoirs are about
individuals, both famous and infamous, who
through their stories reveal much about the
culture and society of their respective eras.
have a lasting impact.