No comments about Warren Buffett - The Oracle of Omaha (Biography).

5 comments about Wheeling the Deal: The Outrageous Legend of Gordon Zahler, Hollywood's Flashiest Quadriplegic.

1. I rarely read biographies, but 'Wheeling the Deal' was an exceptional book. A fascinating, honest, and, at times bleak - but ultimately inspiring account of a determined man overcoming exceptional physical disabilities (quadriplegic), defying the odds to make it in Hollywood. The story was truly inspirational, and Chip Jacobs writing - entertaining and witty. The Hollywood backdrop only served to make it all the more intriguing.



2. "Wheeling the Deal" is a wonderful and cavorting tale about Gordon Zahler, the most unlikely of Hollywood players. His boyhood foreshadowed the rip-roaring life this soon-to-be quadriplegic would live. Every stop sign said "go." Every warning sign signaled an opportunity for a fresh surge of adrenaline. Then a gymnastics accident broke his neck at age 14.
   
   The prognosis was death. But Zahler was both too stubborn to die and too stubborn to let the wheelchair that would become his life-long attachment keep him from living with the fullness he considered his birthright.
   
   Cut off from the sense and pleasure of the rest of his body, Gordon Zahler lived entirely within the confines of his head. With little to do but think, wheelchair-bound Zahler rolled into Hollywood on the strength of his father's considerable collection of musical compositions. After several fits and starts, he eventually broke into Tinseltown in earnest, parlaying his father's musical collection into business relationships with the likes of horror-movie director Ed Wood.
   
   Intoxicated by his success, Zahler wanted more influence, riches and notoriety. In time he built the most active post-production movie and TV house in Hollywood. He and wife Judy's traveled the world and hosted cocktail parties attended by the A-list likes of Sidney Sheldon, Jerry Lewis and Nat King Cole.
   
   He also dreamed up many harebrained schemes that belly-flopped or never got off the ground.
   
   Not all of these recollections are endearing. Zahler was a skinflint, paying his people miserly wages even as his own fortunes piled up. His parsimony ultimately drove away devoted longtime employees. Even those who handled Zahler's most basic human functions were subjected to his volcanic temper. That included his demanding and acidic treatment of his care-giving mother.
   
   "Wheeling the Deal" also deals with family bonds, broken loyalties, cold-blooded murders and lost fortunes, right up to its heartbreaking finish.
   
   Author Chip Jacobs, Gordon Zahler's nephew, bares his insecurities regarding his own membership in a chromosomal lineage that gave rise to his eccentric uncle and a retarded brother - even writing of his own accidental entry into the world.
   
   This is the book Jacobs vowed he was never going to write, despite his mother's exhortations. Uncle Gordon's dying days were a freak show to the young Jacobs, making him about the most unsavory character he could imagine chronicling. Then the 1993 fire that swept the Altadena hills above Los Angeles turned a key Zahler family heirloom to ashes. Three years later, Jacobs covered the Malibu Canyon fire for the Daily News of Los Angeles and had an epiphany in its aftermath. A confluence of timing and events set his own imagination ablaze with the recognition of just how improbable and amazing a life his Uncle Gordon had led. The family lore was captured in newspaper clipping, oral histories, police records and legal documents that attested to the stamp Gordon Zahler put on Hollywood and the people around him.
   
   First-time author Chip Jacobs tends to over-throttle the language in the first 25 pages, but the book quickly settles into solid storytelling with remarkable and engaging scenes, punctuated with endless bursts of energetic and artistic wordplay.
   
   I'm already looking forward to this author's next book, which will tackle the history of smog.
   
   There is a hot new pistol in the publishing industry, and its name is Chip Jacobs.



3. The thing that struck me most about
   Chip Jacobs' fascinating biography of his
   "Hollywood Player" uncle was just how
   un-Hollywood it felt. Certainly there is the
   human interest aspect, involving the tragic,
   early childhood injury that left Gordon
   Zahler bound to a wheelchair for life. Yet
   Mr. Jacobs wisely avoids going overly maudlin
   upon his audience, choosing instead to offer
   up the portrait of a man, so driven by the
   desire to succeed, that a mere physical
   disability could not stand in his way.
   Throughout the course of reading this book, I
   never saw Gordon Zahler as an object of pity;
   there were in fact times when I found him an
   entirely unsympathetic character. But he
   always came across as a human being, with all
   the debilitating flaws, and ennobling traits
   that characterize our species. And that to me
   is what makes a great biography. I look
   forward to Mr. Jacobs' next work.



4. It's one of the most inspirational things one can see in the world - a man who is paralyzed from the neck down deciding that invalidism isn't for him and making something of themselves. "Wheeling the Deal: The Outrageous Legend of Gordan Zahler, Hollywood's Flashiest Quadriplegic" is the story of Gordon Zahler, a man who turned himself into one of Hollywood's fast talking and successful idea men who traveled the world, married, and so much more, disregarding his condition and living life to the fullest he possibly could. "Wheeling the Deal: The Outrageous Legend of Gordon Zahler, Hollywood's Flashiest Quadriplegic" is a brilliant and uplifting true story and is highly recommended for anyone in a similar position or has a relative there - to open their eyes to the possibilities.



5. A Remarkable Tale!
   
   Wheeling the Deal is a tale of "paraplegic conquers adversity." At first blush this seems like a cliché. After all, we live in an ADA, blue-parking-space, curb-cut world where public policy offsets such handicaps with a cornucopia of government programs and grants. But, wait! This was in the 1940s, when people in that condition didn't even survive, let alone strive. Gordon Zahler should be dead, not the subject of a biography a half century later. And yet, against all odds, he clung to life after his sports field accident, and after a black period of depression and self-pity contrived a plan for economic survival which turned him into an entertainment industry icon. It really is a story worth the telling, and his story is told by a gifted Southern California journalist and kinsman, Chip Jacobs. Jacobs tells the story poignantly and eloquently in a book well worth a night stand berth.
   
   
   
   
   
   

5 comments about Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines.

1. Overall this book gives an sufficent explantian on the events that led up to Eastern's Shutdown. However, it is bias toward the unions without exposing there arrogance. If you ignore this fact and simply rely on the facts given this is a fairly good book. And also, it ends before the shutdown of the company in January 1991. It does not show the final stage of the Eastern Airlines saga between where Frank Lorenzo loses power and the company shutsdown. 3 stars.



2. One of the most unfair treatments of the demise of Eastern Airlines ever written and the second worst book on the subject. Biased towards labor from the beginning, Bernstein paints Goya-like pictures of an evil Frank Lorenzo and his henchmen cackling over a cauldron late at night, thinking up ways to lie, cheat and steal Eastern away from the hearths of America. At the same time, Charlie Bryan is portrayed as some mythic hero who ". . .read Ghandi and Kahlil Gibran and even Sun-tzu. . .". Right. Bias shows in the fact that no Texas Air management are quoted; no personal attributes are ever given, making Lorenzo, Bakes et all appear as soulless corporate thugs, while the stalwart union defenders with defiant chins thrust forth, are given warm wonderful hearts and the purest of intentions. I'm surprised Bernstein didn't have pictures of Bryan petting a puppy and holding a baby. Of slight redeming value is the fact that the book does tell an accurate story. Eastern didn't have to die and maybe Lorenzo didn't have to kill it, but the interpretation and presentation are designed only to support an intransigent group of labor leaders in their refusal to see the reality of the world. This book is only marginally better than the worst book written about Eastern, "Freefall".



3. Excellent book, well researched and very well written. Accurately portrays the events that lead to Eastern's demise. I am no fan of unions. But, Lorenzo displayed a blatant calloused disregard for Eastern, it's people, and everything connected with it.



4. This is a study in an ego taken over. I view is that the games he played could almost be criminal. I would have liked more information for the company as the author does seem to set out to make Frank be the bad guy. I would also have liked more details on the business end of the airline industry. I thought the writing was above average, he moved the story along through some topics that could be considered dull, union negotiations etc. All and all not a bad book and if you find the airline industry interesting then you should read this book.



5. While I lived in Dallas, I read Bernstein's book around the same time time that filmmaker Oliver Stone was in town filming the movie "J.F.K.". I submitted Bernstein's book along with a detailed proposal that included optioning the book rights for a movie with actors Daniel J. Travanti as Lorenzo, Brian Dennehy as Charles Brian and Michael Douglas as Trustee Marty Shugrue. Stone responded 5 days later to me through his assistant Kristina Hare that while this was a meaty subject, the political bent of the book ran counter to his convictions. I found this response puzzling. The book details how Lorenzo, a brilliant financial manipulator, rose from Queens, New York to the heights of owning the world's largest commercial airline empire second only to Russia's Aeroflot. This book is clearly a portrayal of how Lorenzo's get tough tactics with Eastern's notoriously militant IAM led by Charles Bryan from 1980 forward led to a war with Texas Air Management. Lorenzo ended up dismantling the very asset he bought by striking blows against labor in a bitter showdown. Eastern under CEO Frank Borman had 43,000 employees. By the time the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York ousted Lorenzo as "incompetent to reorganize Eastern's estate", only 18,500 employees remained and over $700 million of assets were either sold or dubiously transferred at little or no cost to Texas Air's Continental Airlines. So, Oliver Stone's rationale is quite strange. He is pro-union and this book details how Lorenzo started an unnecessary war with Eastern's unions rather than allow a professional manager to run the airline. Bernstein had unprecedented access to Frank Lorenzo and former managers of Texas Air as he delivers a step by step cautionary tale of how a well educated albeit, a brutal minded executive became his own worst enemy. It is a well paced and well written book that should become required reading for any business school management class.

5 comments about Jack Welch Speaks: Wisdom from the World's Greatest Business Leader.

1. This is the best single source of comments by Jack Welch, at least that I am aware of, as he approaches the conclusion of his illustriuous career at GE. Lowe deserves great credit for her editorial skills. Her selections are outstanding and well-organized. For me, this book offers a rare opportunity to share Welch's insights re subjects such as setting proper priorities, allocating resources, anticipating and then preparing for an uncertain future, responding to unexpected crises, healing self-inflicted wounds, eliminating deadwood, adjusting or abandoning ineffective strategies, and -- meanwhile -- remaining committed to non-negotiable core values. When Welch "speaks", all of us should listen very carefully. This book probably comes as close as any single source could to maximize the value of such an interaction.



2. I've read (studied) most of the books written about Jack Welch and felt this particular book was well worth a review too. As an inspirational children's book author I love books that inspire, teach and have messages that I can use to make life better. All of Jack Welch's wisdom, management messages and lessons are all packed into this book. In this book you'll learn about how managers shouldn't muddle but lead by exciting and inspiring their team. The importance of speed, simplicity and self-confidence. It goes into Sigma Six, Workout Sessions and more. My book shelf has just about every book ever written about Jack Welch. I call it my "Jack Pack." If you are like me you will want to read them all! I am looking forward to reading "Straight from the Gut" and would highly recommend you read Jack Welch's new book as well.



3. Janet Lowe does a great job of distilling the essence of Jack Welch's business wisdom. The quotes, which were often used by Welch for motivation, are very powerful. This makes for a more compelling book than Jack Welch's autobiography, Straight from the Gut.



4. It's easy reading and extremely informative. You can't go wrong with this book. Enrich your life by reading this book.
   Thank you Jack Welch for sharing your wisdom and experience.



5. The personal viewpoint of Jack Welch (former CEO of General Electric) on how the industrial world transitioned into a post-industrial network of commercial systems, led by those with passion to succeed at any cost. Here are a few favorite quotes:
   --Operating as a political democracy (or nearly so) with a capitalist economy. That, he said, gives a competitive advantage.
   --"You know, all of a sudden `manager' isn't the status word it has been for a century.
   --"Punishing failure assures that no one dares."
   --"Quality means literally providing something that's better than the best, not just better than most."

No comments about Everyone Comes to Elaine's: Forty Years of Movie Stars, All-Stars, Literary Lions, Financial Scions, Top Cops, Politicians, and Power Brokers at the Legendary Hot Spot.

2 comments about Management Innovators: The People and Ideas that Have Shaped Modern Business.

1. Every manager should read this illuminating and extremely important book. Daniel A.Wren and Ronald G.Greenwood give tomorrow's leaders indispensable lessons from 'the people and ideas that have shaped modern business.'

   They write that "our goal is to portray a selection of individuals whose ideas have made a difference in the way we teach and practice business management. In selecting these figures, we realize that it would be impossible to chronicle all of their activities; we could have chosen other individuals of equal stature as well. We have kept in mind an audience of contemporary managers, aspiring managers, and students of management who wish to gain a historical perspective on their profession by sketching the people and ideas that contributed to the formation of modern management" (from the Preface).

   In this context, Wren and Greenwood divide their book into two parts:

   * Part One- In this part, they trace the beginnings of American enterprise in inventing, manufacturing, selling, transportation, communication, and financing. They argue that these fourteen individuals set a pattern for others to follow as U.S. business enterprise grew.

   * Part Two- In this part, in order to portray the search for better ways to manage, they present stories of other influential individuals. Here, they argue that these representatives played a pioneering role in shaping modern managerial practices.

   Highly recommended.




2. Wren and Greenwood have written one of the most informative I have read in recent years. With brevity but precision and insight, they examine 30 people who have indeed "shaped modern business." The excellent material is presented within 12 chapters which range from "Inventors" (Eli Whitney and Thomas Alva Edison) to "Guru" (peter F. Drucker).. Along the way, they discuss a number of especially influential persons about whom many readers probably know little (if anything), such as Alexander T. Stewart, James J. Hill, Ezra Cornell, Lillian and Frank Gilbreth, Chester I. Barnard, and Mary Parker Follett.

   All by itself, the Introduction is well worth the cost of the book. Near its conclusion, Wren and Greenwood observe: "Taken as a whole, there is no single theme to this book; rather, it is a narrative with multiple themes as a story of American business enterprise unfolds. Beginning with the selection of inventors, we see how the process of invention and innovation changes the way we live, creates entirely new industries, and must be continuous as the competitive environment changes. Makers [e.g. Henry Ford] are those who who change ideas into markets for the marketplace -- an evolutionary process that accompanies the shift from small-to-large-scale manufacturing and then to the assembly line. Sellers [e.g. Richard W. Sears] take those products to market and allow us to see the sales and distribution innovations that have enabled modern consumers to live better than the monarchs of centuries before. Inventors, makers, and sellers need the movers [e.g. Edward H. Harriman], those who create the time and place utility; and all need the communicators [e.g. Alexander Graham Bell], who connect the parts into a whole."

   Because this book was first published in 1998, many readers (I among them) would have expected the inclusion of other "management innovators" such as Donald Dell, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, and Jack Welch. Perhaps they will be among those discussed in a sequel to this volume. Nonetheless, each of the 30 whom Wren and Greenwood do include is eminently worthy. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Stuart Crainer's The Management Century, James Tobin's Great Projects: The Epic Story of the Building of America, from the Taming of the Mississippi to the Invention of the Internet, and Andrea Gabor's The Capitalist Philosophers: The Geniuses of Modern Business -- Their Lives, Times, and Ideas.

1 comments about Chasing the Green.

1. William Devane said, "Chasing the Green is an engaging and inspiring story about human ambition, drive, and spirit. The book demonstrates the energy of young entrepreneurship and illustrates the obstacles facing small businesses when challenging the bottom line of major corporations."
   
   This is a story about two brothers who started a successful technology company which was devastated by their larger competitors and the FTC. This is the first EVER federal case filed by the Federal Trade Commission. The case settled for over 23 million dollars, which forced the brothers to sell their company.
   
   This is an excellent book for those interested in inspirational stories, business, or how people build small businesses into larger companies. The lessons and stories in Chasing the Green are entertaining and insightful.
   
   This story was made into a motion picture!

No comments about Samurai Purchasing: The secret of Japanese manufacturers success.

2 comments about Skyscraper Dreams: The Great Real Estate Dynasties of New York.

1. Never buy a building. That's the rule which allowed penniless refugee families to create the New York skyline over two centuries. People with more money than sense should read Schactman's excellent history of making and keeping family wealth. The obvious message is that land currently not in its "highest and best use" is the fundamental investment vehicle. REIT's are vivid proof that the Wall Street mentality does not comprehend the difference between real and financial assets. We will see a switch from absurd PE's to neglected urban locations . Re-print this important book!



2. Skyscraper Dreams
   
   The book Skyscraper Dreams; The Great Real Estate Dynasties of New York by Tom Shachtman covers the dreams and despair of the visionary real estate moguls that built and traded the skyscrapers of New York like Monopoly properties in the board game.
   
   The book visits most big name real estate operators starting with the nineteenth century's John Jacob Astor and the Roosevelts, Beekmans and Rockefellers to the Tishmans, Rudins and Roses who came to this country penniless. Then it moves into the flamboyant developer "Big Bill" Zeckendorph, who they say was the model for Donald Trump. Then there is the master of the real estate universe Harry Helmsley and the Kennedys, Tisches, LeFreks and many others dynasties that made and sometimes lost fortunes in the violent cycles of the New York real estate market.
   
   The concept that hit me the hardest and stayed with me was how Harry Helmsley danced through the decades while building an empire, counting on inflation to make his fortune. He would scoop up properties in tough recessionary markets and count on a turn around that he knew would inevitably come to lift prices and build fortunes. While many of the empire builders in this group stretched and overextended by taking on more projects than could be carried during a slowdown, Harry was slow and steady, over the course of several decades, constantly accumulating income producing properties and running a tight ship, always chipping away at expenses. Many of the names above ran into financial squeezes, even bankruptcy during a real estate slump, often to reinvent themselves, and make remarkable comebacks.
   
   The book gives you a refreshing insight into not only the actions of many real estate icons but the thoughts behind those actions. Sometimes cut thought competitiveness played in pushing architectural limits to add another 100 feet on a building so it's taller than a competitor; other times great compassion played in setting the tone for modern day philanthropy.
   
   It's always a boost to read about an immigrant who came to America on borrowed boat fare and rose through this countries capitalistic society to own some of New Yorks most prized possessions.
   
   I loved the book, it's about doers, people that made it happen!
   
   By Kevin Kingston author of, "A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate"
   
   (...)

3 comments about Memoirs of Lorenzo Da Ponte (New York Review Books Classics).

1. The best thing about this book is the preface by Charles Rosen. The rest it hugely disappointing. It is amazing how a poet can be so non-descriptive! How can any writer has been friends with both Mozart and Casanova and yet have nothing to say about them? One gets no sense of what life was like during the end of the 18th century at all. Even Da Ponte's own thoughts and motives do not come across. All that is left are petty political games at an assortment of different opera houses. Da Ponte's story is less amusing than the description of a single flirtation in the truly interesting and picaresque memoirs of his friend Casanova.



2. Da Ponte's Memoirs are a worthy, if eccentric, addition to the NYRB catalog, but the NYRB provides almost no help in situating it. This translation first appeared, I believe, in 1929 and has been available in recent years from both Dover and Da Capo. One, (or was it both?), carried an excellent preface by the distinguished scholar of the Renaissance, Thomas Bergin. NYRB does not republish Bergin. It does republish the original 1929 introduction (by Arthur Livingston, once a teacher of Italian at Columbia) but with no hint of its provenance and, so far as I can discern, no mention of the date (the biblio page gives you a hint when it mentions a "renewal copyright" dated 1957). There is also an LC entry identifying "Livingston, Arthur, 1883-" but I doubt very much that Livingston was still alive when NYRB published in 2000. There is a preface by the distinguished music-scholar Charles Rosen, but it is beneath him: a slapdash affair that does little aside from assuring us that Italian olive oil is now available everywhere in America.

   Aside from these matters of production - the text itself is absorbing and instructive if you understand what you are getting. Da Ponte's only real claim to fame is, of course, that he is the librettist of Mozart's three great comic operas. Da Ponte cheerily declares that Mozart was the greatest composer of his time - perhaps the greatest ever - yet he gives this greatest of all composers perhaps a half dozen pages out of the entire 472-page text, less than any of a dozen other drifters and dreamers or down-market impresarios whom he met along the way.

   Rather than reading it as a work of music criticism, you can take it as a loose-jointed adventure story, in the tradition of Casanova (Da Ponte claims him as a friend) or Benvenuto Cellini. A perhaps more interesting comparison would be to Stendhal's "Charterhouse of Parma": readers who are scandalized that Da Ponte gives such short shrift to Mozart will recall that Stendhal's hero trekked all unknowing through the Battle of Waterloo. I suppose it is just possible that Stendhal read Da Ponte: I have no idea whether he did in fact. But it doesn't matter; the comparison adds a gratifying resonance anyway.

   Moreover, even if this book is not remotely useful as direct criticism of Mozart, I think it does cast the great libretti in a new light: you come to understand the schemers and seducers of the Mozart operas were not a mere nonce creation: they accompanied Da Ponte throughout the whole of his long and rumbustious life. "I trusted them and they betrayed me..." would be a pretty good title for the whole. You can certainly tire of his preening, his score-settling his tale-telling. Indeed you come pretty quickly to realize that not 100 percent of it can possibly true. How much, then? 80 percent? 50? 20? Of course I have no idea: maybe 50 will do as a guess. But I don't think that matters either. Recall what Goethe said about Livy: yes, they are just stories, but they are good stories. At the end, I think you can give Da Ponte credit for his most (nearly) disinterested passion: his desire to spread Italian culture to the Anglo-Saxon world. In this light, we can greet him on his own terms: se non e vero, e ben trovato.

   Four stars for the book, one for the presentation. Compromise on three.




3. I trawled my way through this book as I usually like to start what I finish, but, my, it was hard going. The first half particularly is basically a lot of score settling which comes across as being so irrelevant especially now two centuries later. Half the time, my mind wandered and I just found the whole thing difficult to follow. Da Ponte seems full of self-pity and perhaps a justified sense of victimhood. Anyone would think he was a failure!