(lorf Eulogized NEW YORK (AP). Last December he underwent a ma jor abdominal operation at the hospital. He had the great ability for inspiring friendship, and he was, for ex ample, on close terms equally with John Hersey and John O'Hara. Cerf died from natural causes in Mount Kisco, on August 27, 1971, aged 73. Cerf was known to America as one of the erudite panelists on the Whats My Line? Every taxi driver would greet me by name, and I loved it. *Dermot McEvoy is the author of the The 13th Apostle: A Novel of Michael Collins and the Irish Uprising and Our Lady of Greenwich Village, both now available in paperback, Kindle and Audio from Skyhorse Publishing. Discover the real Ireland, how you can travel slow around the island, A journey through the historic pubs of Dublin, WATCH: 32 hours in Antrim, Northern Ireland, Catholic Church launches initiative encouraging young Irish men to consider priesthood, Ukrainian Ambassador calls on Irish people to boycott Jameson, Killarney National Park in "terrible state" after years of neglect, conference hears, Great Famine Voices 2023 Launch New Season of Films, Irish language to be spoken during King Charles III's coronation. Cronkite refused to allow his personal beliefs to affect his job of reporting accurate news. After Bennett Cerf died, his wife married former Mayor Robert Wagner, who also lived in the . There was, as well, a roster of Broadway play wrights. 1965 "RCA". And it was found rather not to suit the requirements because there were certain items in it which they wanted to take out and which this producer refused to be allowed to be taken out, so therefore they had no alternative but to cancel any arrangements they were entering into. In 1925 he acquired the Modern Library with Donald Klopfer, providing the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. Read More: James Joyce's Ulysses on trial, The case was appealed once, before Judges Augustus and Learned Hand and Judge Martin Manton. And youre not going to get the fifteen hundred back. . Only the most dedicated enthusiasts will be able to answer . These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Even when I started writing books, and some people came to know my name, they didn't know what I looked like. The easy part was stumping the panelconsisting of regulars Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis and guess panelist Vincent Priceabout his kosher meat company. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. The temperature on that dock must have been a hundred and twenty degrees, and the customs people wanted only one thing: to get returning passengers off and get the hell out themselves. Shields, who fought in the GPO in 1916, famously said that he did not want to have to say his prayers in Gaelic. So, there was some serious irritation among the players, but eventually the play went on and managed to cause the usual opening night riot at the Abbey. ^ Mitgang, Herbert (January 23, 1982). In other important respects Mr. Cerf also differed from both his ivorytower predeces sors and his contemporaries. The cause of death was not immediately determined, but Mr. Cerf had recently been dis charged from Lenox Hill Hos pital following surgery. Promix HP (High Porosity) is a popular choice for seedlings as it is very dry. Censor: A self-appointed snoophound who sticks his nose in other https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/29/archives/bennett-cerf-dies-publisher-writer-bennett-cerf-publisher-and.html. (September 17, 1940 - August 27, 1971) (his death, 2 children), (October 1, 1935 - April 9, 1936) (divorced), View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. in 1951 and continued until the show's CBS network end in 1967. He stepped down in De cember, 1970, and was succeed ed by Mr. Klopfer. At what times does Jacob Marley tell Scrooge he will be visited by the ghosts? It used as its logo a little house drawn by Cerf's friend Rockwell Kent. He was, for exam ple, a defender of Loyalist Spain and visited that country dur ing the Civil War. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. This was followed six years later by the purchase of the Random House complex by the Radio Corporation of America for about $40million. Bennett Cerf's Bumper Crop of Anecdotes and Stories V1, Mostly Humorous, about the Famous and Near Famous by Bennett Cerf 3.12 avg rating 8 ratings published 2007 8 editions History: Humorist Bennett Cerf was regular visitor to Palm Springs Cerf later presented the book in question to Columbia University.[8]. Two years later, on his 27th birth day, Mr. Cerf bought the Mod ern Library, a series of reprint ed classics that Mr. Liveright had set up in 1918. LOVED listening to that interview. Dietz countered, "But you have to remember, Mr. Mayer, I get in very late in the mornings.". The plane landed and the general wasn't there. Samuel Beckett was prepared to submit Krapps Last Tape. , , 150 . had led to its being found "a work of obscenity", "Bennett Cerf Dies; Publisher, Writer; Bennett Cerf, Publisher and Writer, Is Dead at 73", "Modern Library Giant, 80 Today, Still Active", "The Good Old Days Of The Future Of Publishing", "The Original Elite High School in New York City: Townsend Harris Hall Baruch College Archives and Special Collections", "George Foster Peabody Awards Board Members", "What's My Line? When his audience looked puzzled, he continued: "Il nous ailes en culer a la gloire," which he translated immediately as "They have buggered us into glory!". Son of Gustave Cerf and Frederika Wise Published many giants of 20th century American literature, including William Faulkner, James Michener, and Ayn Rand. A Mount Kisco street named Cerf Lane runs from Croton Avenue and is named after him. Bennett was related to actress, dancer, and singer Ginger Rogers through marriage. Does Optimus Prime die in Transformers 3? 53% 47% . Did Bennett Cerf and John Daly get along? - Short-Fact These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. In 1933, Cerf won United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, a landmark court case against government censorship and published James Joyce's unabridged Ulysses for the first time in the United States. [9] Cerf was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa in 1967 at Florida Southern College. His mother died when he was only 15, leaving Cerf $125,000 that his maternal grandfather had placed in trust for him. Bennett Cerf, the publisher and television personality who died last Friday at the age of 73, left an estate valued at more than $1million, according to his will, which was offered for. [1], Cerf was born on May 25, 1898, in Manhattan, New York, to a Jewish family of Alsatian and German origin. There is plenty of gossip and rather surprisingly, he goes on about not liking Dorothy Kilgallen. [on What's My Line?] It is hard to imagine the chutzpah of McQuaid ordering a playwright of OCaseys esteem to make structural alterationsbut that was the Catholic Ireland of 1958. With her warmth,. When he came to publish a book about the Federal Bureau of Investi gation, its agents, without tell ing him until afterward, inves tigated his career, apparently lest he harbored what in the F.B.I. It had whores, looters and drunks. Geni requires JavaScript! / And the agent said Aha! as he produced our copy of Ulysses. With a flair for commerce and advertising promotion, Mr. Cerf was something of a blithe spirit in the book worlda man quite different from the staid, tweedy gentlemenpub lishers who dominated Ameri can book houses prior to the nineteentwenties. He married Hollywood actress Phyllis Fraser, a cousin of Ginger Rogers, on September 17, 1940. , , , , , , , . What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Cerf graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1916, the same public school as publisher Richard Simon, author Herman Wouk, and playwright Howard Dietz. Yet, in 1960, Mr. Cerf bought out Mr. Knopf for about $3million, and the two men got along well, with Mr. Knopf operating his fiefdom under Random House overlordship. Connect to the World Family Tree to find out, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2766686, week as a replacement for Nixon. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". [6], Cerf's talent in building and maintaining relationships brought contracts with such writers as William Faulkner, John O'Hara, Eugene O'Neill, James Michener, Truman Capote, Theodor Seuss Geisel, and others. He was married to former Hollywood actress Phyllis Fraser, a cousin of Ginger Rogers, from September 17, 1940, until his death. Shields, who fought in the GPO in 1916, How you can learn Gaelic literature and culture online with a top Irish university, The story behind Ireland's favorite song, The Cranberries "Zombie", How the Irish (and Welsh) invented romantic love. One thing that has changed is personal - there isn't anti-Semitism in the profession, Mr. Klopfer said. One of these was his avid en gagement in nonpublishing ac tivities, chiefly What's My Line?, on which he started in 1951. Sylvia Sidneym. How Bennett Cerf got James Joyce's Ulysses into the US - IrishCentral.com 2007 [5]. Highlights of Edward R. Murrow's visit with publisher Bennett Cerf and his wife, columnist Phyllis Cerf (cousin of Ginger Rogers) in this 1958 edition of "Pe. Bennett Cerf, one of the country's foremost book publishers, died late Friday night at his estate in Mount Kisco, N.Y. BENNETT CERF, the late cofounder and for many years head of Random House, was my friend, but that was no particular distinction because he had thousands of them. Read More: Paparazzi hounded James Joyce after his late marriage to Nora Barnacle. At lunch one day in 1923 with Richard L. Simon, a Columbia contemporary who was on the staff of Boni & Live right, the book publishers, Mr. Simon confided that he was about to leave his job and, with Max Schuster, set up a new publishing venture. As a publisher nobody knew who I was. In 1944, Cerf published the first of his collection of joke books, Try and Stop Me, with illustrations by Carl Rose. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. His father, Gustave Cerf, was a lithographer; and his mother, Frederika Wise, was an heiress to a tobacco-distribution fortune. Reproved by his wife, who pointed out that he didn't need the money, Mr. Cerf replied: Everyone needs money. TV BANTER . . . with Joanne Madden OCasey, at that point the most important Irish playwright of the 20th century, withdrew his play in a pique of anger. An old Connecticut Ag Experiment. In 1959, Maco Magazine Corporation published what has since become known as "The Cream of the Master's Crop." Bennett Cerf | Dorothy Kilgallen That has always been my credo. He was 73 years old. Perelman's feuilleton "No Dearth of Mirth, Fill Out the Coupon" describes Perelman's fictionalized encounter with a jokebook publisher named Barnaby Chirp, who is a caricature of Cerf. This included a towns house on East 62d Street and his 42acre estate in Mount Kisco. Morris Ernst has been getting royalties on Ulysses ever since, but he richly deserved them. S. J. Perelman's 1945 feuilleton "No Dearth of Mirth, Fill Out the Coupon", describes Perelman's fictionalized encounter with a jokebook publisher named Barnaby Chirp. Featuring 22 questions on a wide range of Bennett Cerf topics, it's not for the casual fan. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Looking for Irish book recommendations or to meet with others who share your love for Irish literature? We bid you welcome. Raised in New York City, Cerf attended Townsend Harris High School, the same public school as composer Richard Rodgers, publisher Richard Simon, and playwright Howard Dietz; and he spent his teenage years at 790 Riverside Drive, an apartment building in Washington Heights that was home to two other friends who became prominent as adults, Howard Dietz and the Hearst newspapers financial editor Merryle Rukeyser. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Edited compilations of humor and joke books. 2005 " ' '' ", " , "[3]. This kind of censorship especially stuck in Becketts craw. Appeared regularly on "What's My Line?" Yet he was an extraordinari ly industrious and shrewd pub lisher, who actually read many of the books he issued and who was liked and respected by most of his authors. Dont you think this is indefensible? Yet his importance was surely greater as a publisher than it was as a retailer of quips and puns, for it was his Random House that broke the Federal censorship ban on Ulysses in a landmark court case, pub lished Marcel Proust and under wrote the career of William Faulkner. - Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy; Tony Randall [panel] (Aug 13, 1961)", "Shucks, we've got glamour girls too! Woolseys famous decision, which took him some time to write concluded that Ulysses is a sincere and serious attempt to devise a new literary method for the observation and description of mankind. He ruled that it was not obscene and could be admitted to the United States. On Bloomsday, its always enlightening to remember what James Joyce went through to get Ulyssesthe ultimate dirty bookpublished. He appeared at colleges, clubs and conven tions, speaking on such topics as Modern Trends in Litera ture and Humor and Authors I Have Known. Describing the publisher at the lectern, Mr. Hellmann wrote in The New Yorker in 1959: He chats in a confidential nasal drawl, easy of stance, hands in pockets, feeding his audience puns, anecdotes and such teasing remarks as (in toto) John O'Hara was in our office the other day. The will, dated Aug. 15, 1968, was filed for probate by the law firm of Weil, Gotshal and Manges. She was 93. In order to get all the evidence into the trial, everything had to be contained in an edition of Ulysses. to expand it to its maximum.. Bennett Cerf was an outrageous character with a passion for creating good books, finesse for dealing with authors (Ayn Rand, Gertrude Stein, Eugene O'Neill, among many others), and an unbeatable sense of humor that will make you laugh out loud. Bennett Alfred Cerf (1898 - 1971) - Genealogy https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/03/archives/cerf-left-estate-of-over-1million-some-small-bequests-made-to.html. Person to Person--Phyllis and Bennett Cerf - YouTube The customs man said, Oh, for Gods sake, everybody brings that in. 1 2 3 4 -1927 "Modern Library" (Bennett Cerf), (Christopher Coombes) (Donald Klopfer). As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He was, after all, Bennett Cerf, and he made very few pretenses about his love of pleasure and fun. We published Ulysses in January 1934, with Woolseys landmark decision in itand it is still included in our edition. What are the physical state of oxygen at room temperature? How many people do you think look at the name on the spine of a book that has been published? Bennett Cerf was born on May 25, 1898, in Manhattan, New York, to a Jewish family of Alsatian and German origin. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. One day at MGM Louis Mayer complained that Dietz was leaving too early in the afternoons. In it, he tells wonderful stories about his authors, ranging from Ayn Rand to John OHara, to Eugene ONeill and William Faulkner. Jokes concocted or recounted by him appeared in Saturday Review for many years and until his death in, newspapers that bought his syndicated columns. Richard Tregaskis, Author, Dead at 56 - The New York Times Bennett Cerf/Wife. Burning fossil fuels for energy rel, Honour Nursing Professionals and Support American Farming Heritage with The Nightingale Project & True North 2022, The Nightingale Project and True North 2022: Celebrating Nurses and Preserving American Farming Heritage CERF LEFT ESTATE OF OVER 1MILLION - The New York Times Be sides, I like the publicity and I'm all dressed up in a dueling outfit in the ad.. During his time on What's My Line?, Cerf received an honorary degree from the University of Puget Sound, and an honorary doctorate of letters in November 1965 from William Jewell College, in Liberty, Missouri. - sneered about Truman and MacArthur something to the effect of, As Georges Clemenceau said, "War is too important to be left to the generals. Early Random House books included a Kentillustrated Candido and a lavishly print ed Adventures of Tom Saw yer. But by 1933 the Depres sion put an end to the market for such luxuries, and Random House turned to trade books by acquiring the rights to Eu gene O'Neill's plays and the works of Robinson Jeffers. When he learned that all university students going to war (WW I) would / , Phyllis Fraserm. It does not store any personal data. He appeared to run a happy shop, which was housed, until 1969, in the palatial old Vil lard House, a landmark on Madison Avenue just behind St. Patrick's Cathedral. At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf by Bennett Cerf | Goodreads Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. on Nov. 9, 1942; accepted by Random House for publication two days later, and chosen as a . She's an express elevator, and doesn't stop on your floor.. So in March1932, I had lunch with Ernst and said, If I can get Joyce signed up to do an American edition of Ulysses, will you fight the case for us in court? I added, We havent got the money to pay your fancy priceshe was a very high-powered lawyerbut Id like to make you a proposition. Copyright 2023 Irish Studio LLC All rights reserved. [7], In 1933, Cerf won United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, a landmark court case against government censorship, and thereafter he was the first in the United States to publish James Joyce's unabridged Ulysses.