The Nine Lives of Billy Rose

Billy Rose was one of the most fabulous personalities of our time. His nine amazing careers and his five tangled marriages made headlines—and legends—around the world. And for many months after his death in 1966, the contest over his burial and over his will made major news items in the newspapers and magazines of the country. In his teens he was a stenography champion, a wizard at shorthand. Then he became a top-ranking songwriter. He wrote over a hundred popular songs, many of which have retained their great popularity, and are played and sung today. He was a famous showman (Jumbo, Carmen Jones, Crazy Quilt, and others), a World's Fair producer, (he invented the Aquacade), a nightclub operator (Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe), a newspaper columnist, syndicated in hundreds of newspapers all over the world. He became a Wall Street tycoon, and owned more shares of A.T.&T. than any other individual. He was a director of New York Central, and had large blocks of shares in other companies. In his later years he turned to art, studied it thoroughly, and as an art collector amassed one of the world's most notable collections of paintings and modern sculpture. And finally, he was a worker for charitable causes, a philanthropist who donated more than a million dollars' worth of sculpture to Israel, as well as the Billy Rose Art Garden in Jerusalem. His wives were Fanny Brice, Eleanor Holm, Joyce Mathews (twice), and Doris Warner Vidor. All his marriages ended in divorce. A great success in his nine careers, he was, in the main, a failure at marriage. His friends and associates constituted a fantastic array. From Bernard Baruch, his dear friend, mentor and guide for more than forty years, to David Ben-Gurion, through whom he donated his sculptures to Israel. Billy's sister, Polly Rose Gottlieb, who was close to him all the years of his life, tells his story with intimate knowledge, warm affection, complete honesty and unqualified frankness.