Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin - Hardcover

Evanier, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594860106 ISBN 13: 9781594860102

Publisher: Rodale Books, 2004

Synopsis

A sensitive, startling portrait of the legendary singer-timed to hit stores just as the Kevin Spacey movie Beyond the Sea has kindled intense new interest in every aspect of Darin's life and tragically early death.

By age 8 Bobby Darin knew he was doomed to die young. So he set out to become a showbiz legend by age 25. From his Grammy-winning smash hit "Mack the Knife" to his Oscar-nominated supporting role in Captain Newman, M.D., Darin left his mark on every aspect of show business that he touched. Now, 32 years after his death at age 37, we finally have an elegantly written, multilayered portrait of this brash, gifted artist.

Author David Evanier has:
o Interviewed all the key principals in the Darin saga and culled rare photographs from the singer's closest friends
o Pored through scores of videotapes, audiotapes,
recordings, documents, and films
o Re-created the rock-and-roll and Broadway show-
business milieus of the 1950s that Darin emerged from, and the sharply changing musical, political, and cultural world of the 1960s that had such a profound impact on him.

The result is a moving, insightful portrait of one of the greatest-and most complex-performers in the history of American entertainment, whose restless voice and spirit seem as alive today as ever.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Compelling and revealing ... Roman Candle gives us the many lives of one of the great entertainers of all time, whose flame was extinguished way too soon."
-- Kevin Spacey

A performer who rivaled Sinatra, Bobby Darin rose from dire poverty to become one of the biggest stars of his generation. Dogged by chronic illness, he knew that time was not on his side, and so, in a career full of dizzying twists and turns, he did it all, moving from teen idol to Vegas song-and-dance man, from hipster to folkie and back. In Roman Candle, David Evanier offers a multilayered portrait of this brash, gifted artist, including the dark side of his celebrated marriage to America's sweetheart, Sandra Dee, and the incredible family secret that tore him apart at the end.

About the Author

DAVID EVANIER is a prizewinning writer; former senior editor of The Paris Review; author of Making the Wiseguys Weep, a biography of Jimmy Roselli that became a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and coauthor (with Joey Pantoliano of Sopranos fame) of the bestselling Who's Sorry Now. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1594860106
• ISBN 13: 9781594860102
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272