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All Told: My Art And Life Among Athletes, Playboys, Bunnies, And Provocateurs
Book by Neiman, LeRoy
- GenresMemoir
352 pages, Hardcover
First published June 5, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 6, 2012
On the morning of December 7, 1963, twenty-two years after Pearl Harbor and exactly two weeks after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, LeRoy Neiman got into a limousine along with Shel Silverstein and Hugh Hefner. Their destination? The Cook County Courthouse, to face obscenity charges.
Elsewhere, the nation still reeled over the death of a President.
In Chicago, the legal system would express its concerns over what individual citizens do at home alone in the dark. It was The City of Chicago vs. Playboy, and Neiman was right there in the middle of it all. It was to become his first courtroom sketches drawn from life. According to Neiman, “The jury returned with their verdict: hung jury. No pun intended.”
LeRoy Neiman’s autobiography, All Told, is filled with similar stories from numerous and amazingly diverse settings. Readers will be surprised and pleased that this great artist is also a great story teller. From the ridiculous to the sublime, sincere to sensuous, this aficionado of the finer things of life tells his stories in a friendly conversational voice. Some of the best stories involve his encounters with provocateurs and raconteurs including both the rich and famous and those who were neither.
Any artist depends on contacts and exposure to propel his or her career (he was knighted in 1957). Networking and referrals are the lifeblood. Neiman had two of the best contacts an artist could hope to have: Hugh Hefner and Roone Arledge. Neiman’s work provided one of the (many) reasons for millions to say that they purchased Playboy for something other than the nude pictorials. ABC Sports put his work on display to 80 million people. Neiman’s sketching in venues where cameras either failed or were not allowed (think Bobby Fischer) helped expand his audience.
In every situation, Neiman delivered the goods. He turned sports into an art form. His work is appreciated and lauded by scholars and lay people, the wealthy and those not so. Neiman’s work graces the walls of famous museums, galleries, and collectors along with the dens of blue collar sports fans. And, of course, wherever you discover a copy of Playboy magazine, you’ll find Neiman’s work depicting man at play and Femlins being mischievous.
All Told includes a thorough sampling of Neiman’s work. With sketches, prints, and posters, there are almost as many images as there are stories. It hits the streets on June 8, 2012, the ninety-first birthday of the author/artist. It is available in both hardcopy and e-book. We enthusiastically recommend it for your collection.
Elsewhere, the nation still reeled over the death of a President.
In Chicago, the legal system would express its concerns over what individual citizens do at home alone in the dark. It was The City of Chicago vs. Playboy, and Neiman was right there in the middle of it all. It was to become his first courtroom sketches drawn from life. According to Neiman, “The jury returned with their verdict: hung jury. No pun intended.”
LeRoy Neiman’s autobiography, All Told, is filled with similar stories from numerous and amazingly diverse settings. Readers will be surprised and pleased that this great artist is also a great story teller. From the ridiculous to the sublime, sincere to sensuous, this aficionado of the finer things of life tells his stories in a friendly conversational voice. Some of the best stories involve his encounters with provocateurs and raconteurs including both the rich and famous and those who were neither.
Any artist depends on contacts and exposure to propel his or her career (he was knighted in 1957). Networking and referrals are the lifeblood. Neiman had two of the best contacts an artist could hope to have: Hugh Hefner and Roone Arledge. Neiman’s work provided one of the (many) reasons for millions to say that they purchased Playboy for something other than the nude pictorials. ABC Sports put his work on display to 80 million people. Neiman’s sketching in venues where cameras either failed or were not allowed (think Bobby Fischer) helped expand his audience.
In every situation, Neiman delivered the goods. He turned sports into an art form. His work is appreciated and lauded by scholars and lay people, the wealthy and those not so. Neiman’s work graces the walls of famous museums, galleries, and collectors along with the dens of blue collar sports fans. And, of course, wherever you discover a copy of Playboy magazine, you’ll find Neiman’s work depicting man at play and Femlins being mischievous.
All Told includes a thorough sampling of Neiman’s work. With sketches, prints, and posters, there are almost as many images as there are stories. It hits the streets on June 8, 2012, the ninety-first birthday of the author/artist. It is available in both hardcopy and e-book. We enthusiastically recommend it for your collection.
March 17, 2021
Leroy Neiman his life in his own words. A fan of his for decades. this book explains his ride to the top. The reluctance of the art world to accept him. This was a great bio. From nothing to $10m a year in cash-flow. Living the life in time and space others only can dream of. I am glad I display him in my Bunch Development Services (BDS) office in downtown Knoxville.
August 15, 2018
This book was very inspirational with many colorful characters that Neiman has met and painted very insightful on many fronts.
October 25, 2025
Great writing. Amazing life and work.
February 4, 2013
Meh. Got this on a whim from the newly acquired shelf at the library. The book itself looked good. Lots & lots of images of his art as well as with various celebrities. However, the writing doesn't live up to the layout of the book.
I knew nothing about Neiman before I read this memoir. I still feel like I know nothing about him. At the very end of the book he writes that after spending a life looking outwards, observing others, he feels that he is an enigma to himself. Uh, yeah, I agree. And an enigma to the readers of this memoir.
The book reads like a cross between calendar entries and a travel diary. Nothing personal. No mention of feelings or relationships with other people other than his superficial relationships with celebrities he hung out with. And not one-on-one hanging out, but in a pack. And not in the middle of the pack but the periphery. Granted, they are cool packs - Sinatra's Rat Pack, Muhammad Ali's pack, Hugh Hefner's pack - but they are superficial relationships.
It is telling what he leaves out of this memoir. There are a total of about three sentences mentioning his brother. His brother who was his only other sibling and only a year apart in age. A few sentences about his dad. A few paragraphs on his mom. A few sentences scattered throughout the book about his wife. Who knows if he has kids. His assistants over the years each merit a sentence each in a paragraph at the end of the book. Like someone told him, "Hey, you should really mention these people who have worked with you over the years." Did he have lovers while gallivanting around the world for work? Who knows. Did he own a dog or cat? Who knows. Did he have close friends? Who knows. I also found it bizarre that in the final chapter he has a throwaway sentence mentioning his leg getting amputated. What?! That seems like a subject worth more than one sentence.
Honestly, I'm not sure how he filled up all these pages in the book because nothing stands out about him. Oh, he has some entertaining stories about hanging out with celebrities. Very good cocktail party chatter but to have an entire book of nothing but cocktail party stories gets old.
I think my favorite part of the book was towards the beginning when he is discussing his experiences in WWII. He includes about 3 paragraphs telling of his great love affair at the time with a German woman named Annie. It is such an interesting story. Him going awol with her, living with her, having to be hidden by her in a basement for about a week when the Nazis retake the town they are living in, eventually getting arrested by an American MP and then once he is free going awol again looking for her in war-ravaged Germany. And finally finding her in a bread line! And both being so overcome with emotion when they find each other after thinking they'd never see each other again. He finishes the story by saying eventually he had to go back to the States but stayed in touch with her over the next 50 years. She married a British soldier and moved to England. I found myself wishing the entire book was about this relationship. It'd make a great novel. It was the one bit of human-ness in the entire memoir.
I knew nothing about Neiman before I read this memoir. I still feel like I know nothing about him. At the very end of the book he writes that after spending a life looking outwards, observing others, he feels that he is an enigma to himself. Uh, yeah, I agree. And an enigma to the readers of this memoir.
The book reads like a cross between calendar entries and a travel diary. Nothing personal. No mention of feelings or relationships with other people other than his superficial relationships with celebrities he hung out with. And not one-on-one hanging out, but in a pack. And not in the middle of the pack but the periphery. Granted, they are cool packs - Sinatra's Rat Pack, Muhammad Ali's pack, Hugh Hefner's pack - but they are superficial relationships.
It is telling what he leaves out of this memoir. There are a total of about three sentences mentioning his brother. His brother who was his only other sibling and only a year apart in age. A few sentences about his dad. A few paragraphs on his mom. A few sentences scattered throughout the book about his wife. Who knows if he has kids. His assistants over the years each merit a sentence each in a paragraph at the end of the book. Like someone told him, "Hey, you should really mention these people who have worked with you over the years." Did he have lovers while gallivanting around the world for work? Who knows. Did he own a dog or cat? Who knows. Did he have close friends? Who knows. I also found it bizarre that in the final chapter he has a throwaway sentence mentioning his leg getting amputated. What?! That seems like a subject worth more than one sentence.
Honestly, I'm not sure how he filled up all these pages in the book because nothing stands out about him. Oh, he has some entertaining stories about hanging out with celebrities. Very good cocktail party chatter but to have an entire book of nothing but cocktail party stories gets old.
I think my favorite part of the book was towards the beginning when he is discussing his experiences in WWII. He includes about 3 paragraphs telling of his great love affair at the time with a German woman named Annie. It is such an interesting story. Him going awol with her, living with her, having to be hidden by her in a basement for about a week when the Nazis retake the town they are living in, eventually getting arrested by an American MP and then once he is free going awol again looking for her in war-ravaged Germany. And finally finding her in a bread line! And both being so overcome with emotion when they find each other after thinking they'd never see each other again. He finishes the story by saying eventually he had to go back to the States but stayed in touch with her over the next 50 years. She married a British soldier and moved to England. I found myself wishing the entire book was about this relationship. It'd make a great novel. It was the one bit of human-ness in the entire memoir.
June 13, 2012
An Autobiography As Colorful As His Paintings
In celebration of his 91st birthday on June 8, 2012 Lyons Press has publish a lavishly illustrated autobiography of LeRoy Nieman. Appropriately titled ALL TOLD: MY ART AND LIFE AMONG ATHLETES, PLAYBOYS, BUNNIES, AND PROVOCATEURS the book begins at his beginning in 1919 told with the raucous humor that vibrates in his art, The journey through his life to date includes his associations with Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Dizzy Gillespie, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, Peter Jennings, Howard Cosell, Jim McKay and Hugh Heffner. A wild range of consorts? Well, that is how Nieman lived his life.
His art, which is generously reproduced in this volume, is instantly recognizable for its splashy color and expressionistic style. His innumerable paintings of sports events including the Olympics, images of such places as the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Leonard Bernstein conducting, and presidents and athletes, personalities from the arts - all pepper the stories he tells that accompany these images. And the stories and events of his life are no less colorful than his art.
One aspect of Nieman that too few people recognize is that his popular works (and the vast number of prints of his works that are for sale in nearly every airport and mall galleries through out the world) are only a part of his output. Included here are his very fine drawings of the human form, such as his truly significant Conte crayon drawing '18th Century Nudes after Boucher, 1956' ad his own possessions such as the Crucifixion (reproduced far too small to appreciate here). For all the wild and explosive color of his popular works there are almost an equal number of fine sketches and small works in pen and ink that reveal his training as a fine artist.
Whether the reader will find the art of LeRoy Nieman mundane and non-sophisticated at the start of this book, by book's end the viewer will have a different perspective on the works of LeRoy Nieman. He may not go down as a great painter but he will always be known as a famous populist who seems to paint as much for his public as he does for his muse.
Grady Harp
In celebration of his 91st birthday on June 8, 2012 Lyons Press has publish a lavishly illustrated autobiography of LeRoy Nieman. Appropriately titled ALL TOLD: MY ART AND LIFE AMONG ATHLETES, PLAYBOYS, BUNNIES, AND PROVOCATEURS the book begins at his beginning in 1919 told with the raucous humor that vibrates in his art, The journey through his life to date includes his associations with Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Dizzy Gillespie, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, Peter Jennings, Howard Cosell, Jim McKay and Hugh Heffner. A wild range of consorts? Well, that is how Nieman lived his life.
His art, which is generously reproduced in this volume, is instantly recognizable for its splashy color and expressionistic style. His innumerable paintings of sports events including the Olympics, images of such places as the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Leonard Bernstein conducting, and presidents and athletes, personalities from the arts - all pepper the stories he tells that accompany these images. And the stories and events of his life are no less colorful than his art.
One aspect of Nieman that too few people recognize is that his popular works (and the vast number of prints of his works that are for sale in nearly every airport and mall galleries through out the world) are only a part of his output. Included here are his very fine drawings of the human form, such as his truly significant Conte crayon drawing '18th Century Nudes after Boucher, 1956' ad his own possessions such as the Crucifixion (reproduced far too small to appreciate here). For all the wild and explosive color of his popular works there are almost an equal number of fine sketches and small works in pen and ink that reveal his training as a fine artist.
Whether the reader will find the art of LeRoy Nieman mundane and non-sophisticated at the start of this book, by book's end the viewer will have a different perspective on the works of LeRoy Nieman. He may not go down as a great painter but he will always be known as a famous populist who seems to paint as much for his public as he does for his muse.
Grady Harp
Read
December 16, 2012The racy memoir of iconic Manhattan painter LeRoy Neiman released today, marking the artist's 91st birthday. Check out the Muhammad Ali excerpt at http://frontrowlit.com/?p=2142.
The book is on virtual tour through the end of June 2012 and the schedule is posted at www.stephaniebarko.com/blog.
The book is on virtual tour through the end of June 2012 and the schedule is posted at www.stephaniebarko.com/blog.
September 6, 2016
I was attracted to his paintings only to find out he was born in my hometown of Duluth, MN, that's why I picked up the book. I found it to be very intriguing and quite a life he led as an artist/ story writer for Playboy, etc.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews