What Are You Reading ?

[Music Head]

Before I started reading this I was trying to recall songs I knew by Wayne Newton. I could come up with 3, Danke Schoen, Red Roses For A Blue Lady, and Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast. After reading the book, that is the only 3 songs that are ever mentioned. Amazing someone can take a 3 song career and turn it into a 50 year gig in Las Vegas. But that's what the man did. Gotta give him some credit. Of course he had to have some help along the way. The list of entertainers he has been associated with is pretty credible. Discovered by the Great One, Jackie Gleason in the late 50's, he was a regular on his show for awhile. Bobby Darin then stole him from Jackie with a recording contract. From there he's pretty much a self made man. Others that get a mention are Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and it sounds like he and Elvis were real tight. Most interesting to me was a lengthy part of the book where he describes his lawsut against NBC. Won a lible suit for around 20 million. Ended up getting a measley 6 million. Most of that was probably eaten up in lawyer fees. It was all about a hit job in one of those investigative journalism pieces where they associated him with some mob figure. Around the time he was trying to purchase a casino so it kind of damaged his reputation. None of it was proven other than Wayne did know the guy. Glad it came out it Waynes favor. Sometimes the media needs to be reigned in too.

Grade - A

next up - Rhett Butlers People by Donald McCaig