Marc Eliot

Background

Marc Eliot was born in New York City, New York, the United States.

Education

Eliot received a bachelor's degree from City College, in New York. Eliot attended Columbia University and received a Master of Arts degree and a Ph.D.

Career

Marc Eliot made a niche for himself writing about the popular music business, television and authorized and unauthorized celebrity biographies. According to Eliot, the biographies Death of a Rebel, Down Thunder Road, and To the Limit form a trilogy about important performers from the 1960s to the 1980s. His Rockonomics is a closeup look at how the money is made and distributed in the popular music industry. In Walt Disney, Eliot tried to portray a Disney little known to the general populace.

Eliot’s first full-length biography. Death of a Rebel told the story of Phil Ochs, a mid-1960s protest singer who, after a brief period of fame, committed suicide. Critics disagreed widely on the quality of the work. Eliot’s duo of books on television, American Television, and Televisions: One Season of American Television were collections of miscellany relating to prime-time television shows. The books were harshly reviewed by many critics.

Rockonomics, Eliot’s look at moneymaking in the popular music industry, fared better with critics. In this work, Eliot described how contracts are made, how incomes are distributed, and how incomes are spent. He portrayed business managers, agents, record producers, and musicians - all of whom are out to make it rich with music as a business, not an art.

In his biography of rock superstar Bruce Springsteen, Down Thunder Road, Eliot also focused on the business aspects of music, particularly Springsteen’s difficult relationship with his producer, Mike Appel, which led to a lawsuit in 1976. Reviews varied dramatically.

In Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince, Eliot showed the less laudable side of the movie mogul. According to Eliot, Walt Disney was ruthless, egotistic, insecure, antisemitic, anti-union, as well as being an alcohol abuser and an FBI informant. Again, reviews ran the gamut of extremes.

Working with celebrities who want to write autobiographies is another of Eliot’s specialties. When Roy Clark, the host of the television show Hee Haw, wanted to pen a work about his life, he turned to Eliot. Together they wrote My Life - In Spite of Myself! in which Clark told his rags-to-riches story, highlighting his music, family relationships, and ability to be in the right place at the right time. Carol Burnett look-alike Vicki Lawrence also went to Eliot for ghostwriting. The result was the tell-all memoir, Vicki!

Another celebrity who called on Eliot was Kato Kaelin, O. J. Simpson’s house guest at the time of Nicole Simpson Brown’s murder. After granting Eliot seventeen hours of tape-recorded interviews, Kaelin pulled the plug on the biography project. Eliot nevertheless went on to write Kato Kaelin: The Whole Truth, which contradicts much of the testimony that Kaelin later gave during OJ. Simpson’s trial. Kaelin sued both Eliot and his publisher for the publication of the book.

Eliot drew on scores of interviews with band members, family members, friends, and music business people for To the Limit, a chronicle of the highly successful 1970s band the Eagles.

Achievements

• Eliot is a talented biographer. His works are highly praised by readers and critics all over the world. His books often become bestsellers.

Works

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  • Rockonomics: The Money Behind the Music

    (In Rockonomics you will discover how Al Jolson, Bing Cros...)

    1989
  • Charlton Heston: Hollywood's Last Icon

    (This is the definitive biography of one of the most iconi...)

    2017
  • Steve McQueen: A Biography

    (Steve McQueen is one of America’s legendary movie stars b...)

    2011
  • To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles

    (A full-scale biography of the Eagles offers an unauthoriz...)

    1997
  • I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul

    (The Godfather of Soul shares his own journey from a humbl...)

    2005
  • Down 42nd Street: Sex, Money, Culture, and Politics at the Crossroads of the World

    (A social history of New York's 42nd Street explores the v...)

    2001
  • Take It from Me: Life's a Struggle But You Can Win

    (Chronicles Brockovich's life, discussing her marriages, d...)

    2001
  • Vicki!: The True-Life Adventures of Miss Fireball

    (Vicki Lawrence, the comic co-star of The Carol Burnett Sh...)

    1995
  • Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince

    (Based on four years of intense research and exclusive int...)

    1993
  • Down Thunder Road: The Making of Bruce Springsteen

    (The book 'The Boss' hoped would never be published - an e...)

    1991
  • American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood

    (In American Rebel, bestselling author and acclaimed film ...)

    2009
  • American Titan: Searching for John Wayne

    (From the veteran New York Times bestselling biographer co...)

    2014
  • Jimmy Stewart: A Biography

    (Jimmy Stewart’s all-American good looks, boyish charm, an...)

    2006
  • Michael Douglas: A Biography

    (A groundbreaking portrait of one of Hollywood’s most succ...)

    2012
  • Life in the Kornfield: My 25 Years at Hee Haw

    (The producer of the popular television variety show offer...)

    1996
  • Reagan: The Hollywood Years

    (Ronald Reagan was one of the most powerful and popular Am...)

    2008
  • Paul Simon: A Life

    (The definitive biography of legendary singer-songwriter P...)

    2010
  • Nicholson: A Biography

    (For five decades, Jack Nicholson has been part of film hi...)

    2013
  • Cary Grant: A Biography

    (Cary Grant is Hollywood’s most fascinating and timeless s...)

    2004
  • Kato Kaelin: The Whole Truth

    (Interviews with Kato Kaelin offer his perspective on the ...)

    1995
  • Televisions: One Season in American Television

    (Televisions is an in depth examination of a single season...)

    1983
  • American television, the official art of the artificial 1981
  • Song of Brooklyn: An Oral History of America's Favorite Borough 2008
  • James Stewart: A Biography

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 189
  2001