Staff Pick: When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead

When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: useful stories from a persuasive man
By: Jerry Weintraub

Weintraub is one of those guys you probably haven't heard of (unless you're a Hollywood insider), but you know his work. As a talent manager and agent, he handled Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Led Zeppelin, among many others. As a movie producer, he was instrumental in getting Robert Altman's masterpiece Nashville made, and he also produced Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 and its sequels. His memoir, written with coauthor Cohen, takes us all the way back to Weintraub's early days as an entrepreneurial youth; it's written in a personable, anecdotal style, as though Weintraub were just chatting with us about his life. In style and structure, the book is reminiscent of Sit, Ubu, Sit (2008), by television producer—and Weintraub's fellow Brooklynite—Gary David Goldberg. It's not a tightly organized, chronological recounting of a man's life but, rather, a series of episodes that illuminate the life of a very interesting fella.
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