What do you think?
Rate this book
Bleeding between the lines
203 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 31, 2024
This is an example of what I will miss when the last used bookstore closes. I was checking the $3 tables at the Brattle Street Bookstore. The name "Eliot Asinof" rang a bell. I remembered that he had written "Eight Men Out", a wonderful book about the Black Sox scandal. That was enough to pick this book up and take a look.
The dust jacket said that this 1979 book was about Asinof getting sued by David Susskind for $1,750,000 over a dispute about making a TV show based on "Eight Men Out". It was a short book, and it seemed to be worth risking $3 on it.
(There was also an irrational preference that came into play. This is an ex-library book. It has the stamps from "Weston Public Library" and it still has the pocket in the back for the return card. I, for some reason, get a kick out of ex-library books that still have the pocket.)
Asinof had a contentious relationship with David Susskind over producing a TV show based on his book. The book had been optioned as a movie to someone else. That person wasn't moving forward on the movie but wouldn't release the rights. Susskind finally decided to make a TV show on the Black Sox story without getting Asinof's rights. Asinof said that Susskind was stealing his intellectual property. Asinof talked to IBM, the sponsor of the TV show. When they found out that Susskind didn't have Asinof on board, they pulled the plug. Susskind sues Asinof for wrongfully causing the show to die.
The story is complicated. Asinof is a difficult guy. Several lawyers and most of his friends urged him to accept a settlement from Susskind. He refused. He insisted that he had to have control over the script based on his show.
The legal shenanigans are interesting and Asinof tells a good story, but the best parts are his biography that he drops into the middle of the book. The book starts with a short section on the buildup to the lawsuit. He gets sued and goes to meet with a lawyer. Most of the book is Asinof telling the lawyer his whole life story so the lawyer can understand how he got to this point. The last 25 pages tell us what happened to the lawsuit.
Asinof has a bunch of good stories. He was a script writer in Hollywood and had some success as a writer. He married Marlon Brando's sister, before Marlon was a star. He has some good Marlon stories. He worked with Fidel Castro on a movie. He was on an army base in Alaska with Dashiel Hammett. He is a first-rate name dropper.
Asinof has a well-earned skepticism towards show business. The point of most of his stories is, you can't trust the guys with the money. I only knew David Susskind as a guy who hosted a long running boring interview show. Evidentially, he was also a very successful and feared TV and movie producer. Asinof paints him as a dishonest crook who was famous for trying to beat people out of money.
A good legal story, an interesting biography, a collection of first-rate celebrity anecdotes and a reminder of why you should listen to your lawyer; not bad for $3.
The dust jacket said that this 1979 book was about Asinof getting sued by David Susskind for $1,750,000 over a dispute about making a TV show based on "Eight Men Out". It was a short book, and it seemed to be worth risking $3 on it.
(There was also an irrational preference that came into play. This is an ex-library book. It has the stamps from "Weston Public Library" and it still has the pocket in the back for the return card. I, for some reason, get a kick out of ex-library books that still have the pocket.)
Asinof had a contentious relationship with David Susskind over producing a TV show based on his book. The book had been optioned as a movie to someone else. That person wasn't moving forward on the movie but wouldn't release the rights. Susskind finally decided to make a TV show on the Black Sox story without getting Asinof's rights. Asinof said that Susskind was stealing his intellectual property. Asinof talked to IBM, the sponsor of the TV show. When they found out that Susskind didn't have Asinof on board, they pulled the plug. Susskind sues Asinof for wrongfully causing the show to die.
The story is complicated. Asinof is a difficult guy. Several lawyers and most of his friends urged him to accept a settlement from Susskind. He refused. He insisted that he had to have control over the script based on his show.
The legal shenanigans are interesting and Asinof tells a good story, but the best parts are his biography that he drops into the middle of the book. The book starts with a short section on the buildup to the lawsuit. He gets sued and goes to meet with a lawyer. Most of the book is Asinof telling the lawyer his whole life story so the lawyer can understand how he got to this point. The last 25 pages tell us what happened to the lawsuit.
Asinof has a bunch of good stories. He was a script writer in Hollywood and had some success as a writer. He married Marlon Brando's sister, before Marlon was a star. He has some good Marlon stories. He worked with Fidel Castro on a movie. He was on an army base in Alaska with Dashiel Hammett. He is a first-rate name dropper.
Asinof has a well-earned skepticism towards show business. The point of most of his stories is, you can't trust the guys with the money. I only knew David Susskind as a guy who hosted a long running boring interview show. Evidentially, he was also a very successful and feared TV and movie producer. Asinof paints him as a dishonest crook who was famous for trying to beat people out of money.
A good legal story, an interesting biography, a collection of first-rate celebrity anecdotes and a reminder of why you should listen to your lawyer; not bad for $3.
May 10, 2020
The author of Eight Men Out tells the story of the writing of Eight Men Out through the lens of his getting sued during an attempt to bring the book to the screen in the 70's. An uneven work, but filled with excellent scenes with Abe Atell, Happy Felsch, Bill Veeck, Joe DiMaggio, John Wayne, and Marlon Brando! Definitely not a boring read!
September 30, 2020
An outrageous yet true and engaging tale of Asinof's travails in trying to bring Eight Men Out, his classic tale of the Chicago Black Sox scandal, to television in the 1970s
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews