About this item
Now a Showtime original seriesIn the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot-but it couldn't last.William Knoedelseder was then a cub reporter covering the burgeoning local comedy scene for the Los Angeles Times. He wrote the first major newspaper profiles of several of the future stars. And he was there when the comedians-who were not paid by the clubs where they performed- tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community.
About the Author
William Knoedelseder is a veteran journalist and best-selling author who honed his investigative and narrative skills during 12 years as a staff writer at The Los Angeles Times, where his ground breaking coverage of the entertainment industry produced a long string of exposes. His two-year investigation of payola and other corrupt practices in the record business sparked five federal grand jury investigations across the country, led to the arrest and conviction of a score of organized figures and formed the basis of his first best-selling book, Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business and the Mafia (Harper Collins 1993) . Stiffed was named Best Non-Fiction work of 1993 by Entertainment Weekly, which called it "the scariest book of the year...and the funniest." The two of the principal mob figures depicted in Stiffed--New Jersey crime boss Gaetano "Corky" Vastola and Roulette Records founder Morris Levy--subsequently served as the models for HBO's Tony Soprano and his music business mentor Herman "Hesh" Rabkin.
Since 2000, Knoedelseder has written three other books.
In Eddie's Name (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) chronicles the brutal murder of a Philadelphia teenager that made national headlines when Knoedelseder, as executive producer of the Knight Ridder news program Inquirer News Tonight, pressed the city to make public the content of 911 tapes recorded the night of the killing, which ultimately revealed a complete breakdown of Philadelphia's emergency response system;
I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Standup Comedy's Golden Era (Public Affairs/Perseus) recounts Knoedelseder's time as cub reporter covering the L.A. comedy club scene when David Letterman, Jay Leno, Robin Williams and Andy Kaufman were young and undiscovered. It has been optioned for film by actor Jim Carrey.
Knoedelseder's latest, Bitter Brew: the Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer, tells the riveting story of one of our nation's most colorful and longest lasting business dynasties. Called "intoxicating reading," by The Wall Street Journal, the book became a New York Times best seller and has been optioned by Lionsgate Television in association with Michael London, the Oscar-nominated producer of Sideways.
Knoedelseder is currently at work on his third book for Harper Collins, Fins, about the life and times of Harley Earl, the visionary car designer who helped engineer the phenomenal rise of General Motors.
