A Windsor author's new book drops names like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and more.
Dropping famous names is a fixture of show business biographies, and Windsor author Joel Brokaw's book about his father, Hollywood agent Norman Brokaw, is packed with them.
"If you're under 50, the names of celebrities you're going to recognize most are Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley," Brokaw said.
Readers with longer memories will recognize a lot of other names in the book: Natalie Wood, Clint Eastwood, Kim Novak, Donna Summer, Loretta Young, Motown founder Berry Gordy, Bill Cosby and Danny Thomas, among many others.
Before you ask, television journalist and author Tom Brokaw is not one of those names. There's no relation.
"His family background is apparently French Huguenot. Our family name was changed from Abreshkov to Brokaw at Ellis Island," Brokaw said.
The Abreshkovs, renamed Brokaw, immigrated to New York from Ukraine around 1890. Their son Norman was born in New York in 1927. He started work at age 15 at the famed William Morris Agency in the mail room and spent more than 70 years there, ultimately rising to CEO and chairman. He died in 2016 at age 89.
His son's book, "Driving Marilyn: The Life and Times of Legendary Hollywood Agent Norman Brokaw," was published in October.
The book's title is based on one of Norman's early jobs at the agency, which involved him escorting a young and not-yet-famous Marilyn Monroe.
In the early 1950s, Norman took Marilyn to the celebrated Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, a block from NBC's television studios, where she had just appeared on a show called "Lights, Camera, Action."
Publicists commonly took their clients to the restaurant, even calling ahead to make sure they'd be paged while they were there, sure to noticed and seen.
Not long after Norman and Marilyn were seated, actor William Frawley -- who played neighbor Fred Mertz on "I Love Lucy" -- walked over. Frawley was at the restaurant with New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio.
"He would like to meet the young lady," Frawley said. That's how Norman was present at the first meeting of Marilyn and Joltin' Joe, who married a year and a half later.
Later on, Colonel Parker, Elvis Presley's renowned manager, insisted that all matters related to Elvis go through Norman and his then-boss Abe Lastfogel.
One detail from the book focuses on Elvis' desire to play a more serious screen role than he had in his earlier movies. He had the chance to star opposite Barbra Streisand in "A Star Is Born," but the Colonel discouraged it.
The film, ultimately released in 1976, featured Kris Kristofferson co-starring with Streisand.
While celebrities abound in the book, it is not a standard tell-all expose.
"You can have a good intimate history without dirt," Joel Brokaw said. "I don't (think) I would've done that kind of book. I wanted to tell the story without scandal."
Part of that comes from Norman Brokaw's personal ethics.
"He was so emphatic about not embarrassing his clients," Joel said. "A lot of these people needed somebody who was on their side. He believed in relationships. He had a spirit about him of selflessness."
Norman was discreet above all.
"I feel like to get any stories out my father, you would've had to use power tools," Joel said.
However, the book includes Joel's own memories and impressions as a young boy in the background, as well as research from interviews with his father's surviving colleagues.
"I was in a race against time," Joel said. "Two of these people died while I was working on the book."
What raises Norman Brokaw's story above the average tale of a Hollywood agent is not just his client list but the fact that he was a leader and innovator in his field.
In the early days of television in the '50s, much of the programming was still filled with live variety shows. Norman saw that this new medium was an opportunity for established film stars to increase their fan bases while also solidifying their images and furthering their acting options.
Many of the A-list women actors of that era chose Norman to represent them, including Marilyn, Kim Novak, Natalie Wood, Loretta Young, Barbara Stanwyck and Susan Hayward.
Loretta Young was one of Hollywood's top leading ladies from the 1940s. Norman told her that if she moved to television, she could start her own production company and get top money.
"I'm staying with Morris Agency on one condition," Young told the firm's leadership at the time. "Norman is young enough to be my son, but I like the way he does business."
"The Loretta Young Show," a weekly drama anthology, was a success, running from 1953 to 1961.
During his long career, Norman never stopped innovating.
In the '70s, he was the first to expand the agency's client list beyond professional entertainers. He began representing politicians and sports heroes and signed President Gerald Ford and Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz.
Joel Brokaw is no stranger to show business or writing books. He has worked with his older brothers David and Sandy, who are twins, at their own advertising and promotion agency, The Brokaw Company.
"Driving Marilyn" is his ninth book. Two of his previous books made the New York Times bestseller list -- "Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea's Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life" with Tyler Perry, and "Life Is Not a Stage: From Broadway Baby to a Lovely Lady and Beyond" with actress Florence Henderson.
With the biography of his father, Joel has written the book that his father never would have — even though he had more than half a dozen offers for his memoir.
"He felt like he would've been betraying his clients," Joel said.
You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On X @danarts.
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