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Sign up todayRothstein
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Learn moreThe model for Meyer Wolfsheim from The Great Gatsby and Guys and Dolls' Nathan Detroit, Arnold Rothstein was an underworld genius, racketeer, rumrunner, political fixer, and criminal mastermind who, as F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, played "with the faith of fifteen million people with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe."
David Piertrusza unearths the canny way Rothstein fixed the 1919 World Series and unravels the mystery of Arnold Rothstein’s murder in November 1928 in a Times Square hotel room.
Transporting listeners onto Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs, bookies, denizens of the race tracks, showgirls, political movers and shakers, and stars of the Golden Age of sports, this is a biography of the godfather of organized crime in America, who reigned supreme when the fast buck ruled and violence stalked the streets of Gotham.
David Pietrusza has written or edited over three dozen books. An expert on the 1920s, he works as a public information officer. He lives in upstate New York.
Grover Gardner has recorded more than 650 audiobooks since beginning his career in 1981. He's been named one of the "Best Voices of the Century" as well as a "Golden Voice" by AudioFile magazine. Gardner has garnered over 20 AudioFile Earphones Awards and is the recipient of an Audio Publishers Association Audie Award, as well as a three-time finalist. In 2005, Publishers Weekly deemed him "Audiobook Narrator of the Year."
Gardner has also narrated hundreds of audiobooks under the names Tom Parker and Alexander Adams. Among his many titles are Marcus Sakey's At the City's Edge, as well as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Gardner studied Theater and Art History at Rollins College and received a Master's degree in Acting from George Washington University. He lives in Oregon with his significant other and daughter.
Reviews
“Colorful biography…True crime, evil doings, and monumental double-crossing by the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, and the Machine in a savory account of the legendary bad old days.”
“Pietrusza does a terrific job capturing Rothstein’s colorful career.”
“No other narrator could lend as much substance to this gripping account as Gardner; his gruff, straightforward baritone voice has an in-your-face quality, perfect for the subject matter.”
“Dazzling! Rothstein is nonstop fiery journalism, finely researched and colorfully written, read with truly impressive panache by the inimitable Grover Gardner. Gardner tears into the material with vigor and intelligence, a knowing insider’s edge, and a smirk in each syllable. His style here is reminiscent of period radio announcers, conjuring vivid images of the streets and denizens of old New York in every breath…A must listen, must own audiobook. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
“Puts real flesh on the story of how the new machinery of mass entertainment…created and brought together the culture of celebrity, politics, big-time sports, stock market fortunes, and organized crime in the 1920s.”
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