Should I Write a Book?
I am a big-mouth with lots to say on lots of subjects (“talks too much” is a typical criticism,) often entertaining or enlightening, but just as often spouting a lot of “quatsch” [nonsense in German]. But some people insist that I should write a book.
I have been a lawyer, a federal prosecutor, a movie producer, a businessman, a classical music company executive, a political campaign organizer, a member of several charitable boards. I am blessed with a very good memory.
But write a book? Who would publish it? And, crucially, who would read it?
If I did write a book, here is a list of what I might cover.
“Die Geschiste von Amerika” [The Story of America} is the name my father gave to the odyssey from Germany to New York via London and Surrey. He was very careful to never refer to the reason for the emigration! The story he told emphasized my behavior at various locations, i.e., in Southampton “very bad,” on the ship “very good.”
While in England, I was evacuated to Mrs. Sibley’s boarding house with my mother and sister for fear of bombings in London. Mrs Sibley scared the crap out of me when I had my little elbows on the dining table: “all joints on the table must be carved,”she said.
PS 173, Humboldt Junior High and Bronx Science. The Board of Education made me do three years in two resulting in my graduating college at 16 when I looked like a young 13.
College. Mostly a blank. Too young, too immature, smart and funny but socially inept. I don’t think anybody really liked me and I know I didn’t like them.
Yale L:aw School. I was miserable until a summer stint as a student assistant in the United States Attorney’s office in Manhattan when Steve Kaufman told me that my work was “outstanding.” I realized that I could be a lawyer and a good one, something that never happened at Yale.
Law clerk and thereafter assistant United Staes attorney, Southern District of New York. Bob Morgenthau! My fellow assistants became close, life-long friends. My good memory really helped on cross examination and I did spot-on imitations of most of the judges.
Law practice. A mixed bag. Some wonderful, some gruesome. Big success.
Hollywood. Convinced to go there to finance and produce movies by a famous lawyer and founder of United Artists and not wishing to die at my desk as a lawyer, I went. One word description of my time in tinsel town: MISTAKE!!! I made nine movies. Many producers think of their movies as their children. I hate them all.
Humorist Fred Allen said that all the sincerity in Hollywood could fit in a flea’s navel and still leave room for an agent’s heart! Nightmares: the loaded Peter
O’Toole!! Joy: Carl Reiner.
Politics and campaigns. National Conventions. Produced two inaugurals for television on behalf of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. The inaugural is the Super Bowl of politics. It has platoons of “producers.”
Very few understand who runs it and why. I do.
Ed Koch! A book in itself.
East Hampton and Aspen. I ate them up when I was there. I don’t miss them at all.
I am enjoying my work now. It’s largely entrepreneurial. But there are some old clients (and some new clients) who think of me as a lawyer and seek my advice and judgment. I like representing them so long as they know the mission statement of the lawyer: to perform legal services for the PROMPT payment of a fee. I enjoy my colleagues and see them regularly at the office.
Retire? Never!