Dean Martin walked off stage. When Elvis arrived, Elvis applauded. Then Dean never performed in that venue again. Chapter 1. February 25th, 1961.…
Three years earlier, Frank Sinatra had called Elvis’s music the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune…
The Blue Note Jazz Club, New York City. March 12th, 1957. 340 people crammed into a venue built for 280. Cigarette smoke hanging…
In December 1978, a wig salesman from Long Island walked into a meeting in Miami and never walked out. His name was Marty…
February 10th, 1979. Worcester Civic Center, Massachusetts. 9:47 p.m. Jimmy Burke’s foot exploded through his television screen. Glass everywhere. Blood on the carpet.…
December 18th, 1978. 6:17 in the morning. A one-bedroom apartment in Ozone Park, Queens. Parnell Stacks Edwards is asleep when the front door…
April 7th, 1972. 4:30 in the morning. Alberto’s Clam House, 129 Malbury Street, Little Italy. Joseph Gallow sat with [music] his back to…
January 14th, 1979. A basement on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Tommy Desimon went down those stairs wearing a double- breasted black bill…
Picture this. It is 1990. A movie opens in theaters across America. A man in a tuxedo walks into a nightclub. The camera…
You know the sequence. Henry Hill in 1979 moving through a single frantic day in real time. The helicopters circling overhead. The source…