Not Bad for Delancey Street: The Rise of Billy Rose (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life) - Hardcover

"Highly recommended for readers interested in Jewish American culture and New York show business in the mid-20th century."--Starred review, Library Journal "Cohen has a fascinating tale at his disposal, and he recounts it with relish."--Wall Street Journal "Although Cohen doesn't ignore Rose's penchant for tough dealing . . . he focuses on Rose's successes and affectionately captures Rose's outsize personality. Readers will find Rose entertaining company."--Publishers Weekly "It was his showmanship that most distinguished him. He was bold, bordering on shocking, unafraid of controversy, and seemed to have an innate sense of what the public wanted to see."--Washington Jewish Week "Cohen does a good job of presenting Rose's life as a 'mixed and rich and complex and confusing and thrilling experience of the American Jew.'" --Choice "Mark Cohen believes that his biography shares the upbeat judgment of Billy Rose that is implicit in the title of [Saul] Bellow's book [The Bellarosa Connection]. 'Billy Rose, with all his flaws and pettiness and occasional brutality, is . . . bella rosa: 'beautiful rose.' This is a fine summation of Cohen's rightful claim of Broadway Billy Rose for the Jews."--Ruth Wisse "Jewish Review of Books "

If you've ever seen the movie Funny Lady or read about the fantastic extravagance of the 1939 New York World's Fair, ever visited Jerusalem, sung along to "It's Only a Paper Moon," or strolled through Times Square, then you have most likely heard about the tiny titan Billy Rose. Showman, songwriter, impresario, cultural arbiter, tough guy, visionary, wiseacre, and secret Jewish rescuer when Jews were struggling for survival in Europe, Billy Rose was a major figure in American life. Not Bad for Delancey Street: The Rise and Rise of Billy Rose is the first biography to tell the whole story of Rose's life, and the only one to portray him as an exaggerated exemplar of a version of the American Jewish experience that came to predominate after World War II: secular, intermarried, bent on financial success, in love with Israel, and wedded to America. The life of Billy Rose was set against the great events of the twentieth century, including the Depression, when Rose became rich entertaining millions; the Nazi war against the Jews, which Rose fought with theatrical pageants that urged the American government to act; the postwar American boom, which Rose rode to attain extraordinary wealth; and the birth of Israel, where Rose staked his claim to immortality. Mark Cohen tells the unlikely but true story, based on exhaustive research, of Rose's single-handed rescue in 1939 of an Austrian Jewish refugee stranded in Fascist Italy, an event that Rose never spoke of but which surfaced fifty years later as the core of Saul Bellow's short novel, The Bellarosa Connection.