Maurice Zolotow
| Maurice Zolotow | |
|---|---|
| Born | United States |
| Died | March 14, 1991 (aged 77) |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Biography |
| Spouse | Charlotte Zolotow |
| Children | Crescent Dragonwagon |
Maurice Zolotow (November 23, 1913 - March 14, 1991) was a show business biographer. He wrote books and magazine articles. His articles appeared in publications including Life, Collier's Weekly, Reader's Digest, Look,Los Angeles, and many others. His book Marilyn Monroe was the first written on the iconic actress and the only one published during her lifetime.
Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he met his future wife, Charlotte Shapiro. In 1936, after graduation, Zolotow took a job at Billboard, then a publication covering not just the music business, but all aspects of show business. Zolotow was an early jazz lover and gave Duke Ellington his first national review. Zolotow remained devoted to pop culture, literature (one of his closest friends was poet Delmore Schwartz), politics, and magic. As a child, Zolotow recalled seeing Harry Houdini perform at Coney Island and based his novel, The Great Balsamo, on the famous magician. In later life, Zolotow befriended contemporary magician Ricky Jay.
Strangely enough, one of Zolotow's first books, published only in London in 1948, was about Dr. Maurice William, a Russian-born New York dentist and former Socialist, whose 1920 critique of Marxist economics had supposedly influenced Chinese statesman Sun Yat-sen, shortly before his death, to rethink his earlier sympathy for Communism.
Other biographies by Zolotow include Shooting Star, about John Wayne,Stagestruck: The Romance of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, concerning the husband and wife Broadway legends, and Billy Wilder in Hollywood, about the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter. He also wrote shorter celebrity profiles on such entertainers as Tallulah Bankhead, Walter Matthau, Grace Kelly, and Milton Berle. A collection of Zolotow's profiles was published in 1951 as No People Like Show People, including pieces on Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny, Oscar Levant, Frank Fay, Fred Allen, Ethel Merman, Jed Harris, as well as Bankhead and Berle.
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