Maurice Zolotow

Maurice Zolotow (November 23, 1913 - March 14, 1991^[1]) was a show business biographer^[2]. He wrote books and magazine articles. His articles appeared in publications including Life, Collier's Weekly, Reader's Digest, Look ^[3], Los Angeles, and many others. His book Marilyn Monroe ^[4][5] 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)^[6], 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.

Other biographies by Zolotow include Shooting Star, about John Wayne^[7], Stagestruck: The Romance of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, concerning the husband and wife Broadway legends^[8], and Billy Wilder in Hollywood, about the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter^[9][10]. He also wrote shorter celebrity profiles on such entertainers as Tallulah Bankhead, Walter Matthau, Grace Kelly, and Milton Berle. References to his magazine work and his compilation of shorter profiles, It Takes All Kinds, may be found in Wikipedia under entries for Jack Webb, Samuel Sorenson Adams, and Richard Himber.

Zolotow also wrote occasionally on food and alcohol, including several articles on the latter for Playboy. One, a 1971 piece on absinthe^[11], has been widely reprinted. His book, Confessions of a Race Track Fiend, describes Zolotow's own experiences playing the horses at Southern California tracks.

He lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, for much of his adult life, but moved to Los Angeles, California, after his divorce. He had two children, poker enthusiast Steve Zolotow^[12] and author Crescent Dragonwagon^[13]. His former wife, to whom he was married from 1938 to 1969, is children's author and editor Charlotte Zolotow^[14].

References

1. ^ Listing from the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ New York Times obituary of Zolotow
3. ^ Reprint of 1944 Look article quoting Zolotow
4. ^ Amazon page on Zolotow's Monroe book, which lists 23 subsequent Monroe biographies which reference it
5. ^ Series of 1955 articles on Monroe
6. ^ Amazon link to James Atlas's biography of Schwartz, in which Zolotow is interviewed
7. ^ Link to Booksellers page on Shooting Star
8. ^ Link to HK Books Online
9. ^ Link to Amazon page on Billy Wilder in Hollywood
10. ^ Scholarly article on Wilder's film Sunset Boulevard, which cites Zolotow's book
11. ^ The Virtual Absinthe Museum
12. ^ Profile of Stephen Zolotow on Poker Pages
13. ^ Link to Crescent Dragonwagon's website
14. ^ Charlotte Zolotow's website, which includes many photographs of the couple

Persondata
Name	Zolotow, Maurice
Alternative names
Short description	American writer
Date of birth	November 23, 1913
Place of birth
Date of death	March 14, 1991
Place of death