Background
Widett, Irving was born on May 21, 1913 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Phillip and Annie Widetzsky.
(The story of a Hollywood publicity agent and his sleazy d...)
The story of a Hollywood publicity agent and his sleazy dealings with his clients.
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(autobiography)
autobiography
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(After being released from the Elmira reformatory Mitch (t...)
After being released from the Elmira reformatory Mitch (the central character of Cry Tough) has two ways to go. He could return to his family who loved him dearly, find a job and marry the girl who loved him. His other choice is the flashy, dangerous life as a hood with big risks and big rewards- cars, women, rich food and fancy apartments. Would he settle for the security of a job and family or would he take the road from which there was no turning back? In a classic story, Irving Shulman presents the struggle of one man. The allure of his life in the underworld, the sobering reality of his home life, what he really loves, what he really wants and how each element in his fragmented reality draws on him.
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(The Big Brokers is an explosive novel of America's jungle...)
The Big Brokers is an explosive novel of America's jungle. Here is the story of three New York boys, Mitch, Larry and Bull, who took Las Vegas by storm-and then turned their guns against their bosses' bosses. Authentic and shocking, The Big Brokers exposes the inner workings of the syndicate. It is a masterful chronicle of men and women who choose crime as a way of life.
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Widett, Irving was born on May 21, 1913 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Phillip and Annie Widetzsky.
AB magna cum laude, Ohio University, 1937. AM, Columbia University, 1938. Doctor of Philosophy, University of California at Los Angeles, 1972.
His books included The Amboy Dukes, Cry Tough, and The Square Trap, all of which were adapted into movies. Shulman wrote the early film treatment for Rebel Without a Cause. Stewart Stern did the screenplay based on the story concepts of Shulman and director Nicholas Ray.
Later, Shulman used his treatment as the basis for his 1956 novel Children of the Dark. Published in 1947, The Amboy Dukes examined the grim, and sometimes short, lives of teenage street criminals in Brooklyn during World War II. Notably, its primary characters were described as being Jewish.
It sold five million copies and led to his being hired as a screenwriter by Warner Bros. Two subsequent novels, Cry Tough! Cry Tough! In The Devil's Knee, former Amboy Dukes Larry and Bull (now called by his proper name, Simon) and Joyce take up residence in Beverly Hills, where they deal with Joyce's spectacularly wayward daughter Verney. Shulman's message in the first three books is that crime does not pay.
The message in the fourth installment seems to be that crime can also be entertainment. In 1951, a film based on The Amboy Dukes, titled City Across The River, was released. Tony Curtis made his second on-screen appearance in this film, which is believed to have provided at least a partial model for Elvis Presley's early image.
In 1959 the movie Cry Tough based on Shulman's novel was released. However, in the transition from print to film the Jewish Brooklyn gang of the novel became a Puerto Rican gang in Spanish Harlem. In the 1960s, Shulman wrote biographies of Jean Harlow and Rudolph Valentino, and a novelization of the film West Side Story.
Shulman died of Alzheimer's disease in 1995.
(Harlow, An Intimate Biography, is the biography of Jean H...)
(After being released from the Elmira reformatory Mitch (t...)
(The story of a Hollywood publicity agent and his sleazy d...)
(The Big Brokers is an explosive novel of America's jungle...)
(Stated first edition bound in yellow cloth. A near fine c...)
(The Square Trap. This is the story of an underage son of ...)
(autobiography)
In The Amboy Dukes, two members of the gang accidentally shoot and kill one of their teachers. A third member of the Dukes kills one of them before the story is over. Has another member of the Dukes, Mitchell Wolf, return from prison and, after trying unsuccessfully to "go straight," become a member of an organized crime family.
In The Big Brokers, Wolf and two other former members of the Dukes are sent to Nevada to run one of the crime family's casinos in Las Vegas.
Married Rose Rubenstein Widett. Children: Neal, Arleen. Married Joanne S. McCarthy Widett, December 28, 1980.
