This is a great story of a strange man. Someone who got power, defined the celebrity personal interest story, exploited the influence he developed, thought he was God, and ruined his own life. It is especially compelling reading when it becomes clear that our fascination with famous people and their love lives and personal faults is really whipped up by these media people. It is also great when talking about Lucille Ball and how the public embraced her. When you see Winchell making the fateful mistake when siding with McCarthy, it seems like karma. This is a fantastic book.

Although most of us remember Walter Winchell fo rhis rapid-fire narration for the old "Untouchables" television show, he was much more than that. Neal Gabler chronicles Winchell's career and life, but it's his analysis of Winchell's affect on his times and culture that makes this book transcend routine biography. Winchell's became a powerful voice for a time: businessmen wanted to be his friend, celebrities needed him, and politicians feared him. In fact, most people feared him. But somehow, Winchell created a definition of celebrity that has endured even today. Although he may be forgetton in our conscious memories, Winchell still looms large in our cultural memory. This is a stunning biography of a man who fought hard to get it all and fought equally hard to keep his fame and recognition as lost it in a blaze of self-destructiveness. One of the best books I've read in years.

One has to admire Walter Winchell for he had it all: fame, power, money and beautiful women. Everything a man could want. And he had it for a long time (from the 1930s to the 1950s).

He also had an enormous ego which fostered many feuds with others he feared.

An outstanding book.

After reading Dispatches and Kubrick, my expectations for a Michael Herr book were so high that Walter Winchell would have had to be a masterpiece to satisfy them. Unfortunately, although it's entertaining, interesting, and educational, Winchell isn't a masterpiece. Herr's screenplay-styled prose -- complete with character names in all caps, cinematic devices like spinning newspaper headlines, and a story driven almost entirely by dialogue -- may constitute a unique blend of styles, but it's also a good reminder of why most people don't walk around reading screenplays. (William Goldman's creed that screenplay is structure, not dialogue, isn't followed here.) Herr may have used lots of cliches on purpose -- the better to evoke a period movie feel -- but the countless cliches nevertheless wear thin. We see Walter rise through vaudeville, lower journalistic standards, make and break stars, and throw tantrums, but everything feels vaguely predictable -- down to a description of Sinatra as a "skinny little Italian kid from Hoboken", and a final tear-jerking scene of defeated Winchell watching the hoisting of an American flag.

Having said all this -- Winchell is still a good fast read. It's more colorful than a traditional biography, and the endless patter gives a good sense of the rhythms of Winchell's life. If Dispatches and Kubrick hadn't been so brilliant perhaps I'd have given it four or even five stars. That may not be quite fair to Mr. Herr. But that's the price of creating such classics as Dispatches -- expectations go through the roof.

Herr calls it prose fiction, & it's funny & fast paced; Herr seems to be parodying the very people he's writing about. Winchell spoke & wrote (Larry King's USA Today "column" is a 3d-rate parody of Winchell), & Runyon & Hemingway wrote the way this book reads. Who needs 500-page researched biographies? It's almost all dialogue, quips, & jokes. And where else can you discover that Hemingway nailed Josephine Baker?

Michael Herr, author of the incredible 'Dispatches', again takes on the challenge of altering the nature of narrative, and creates a new type of book, part screen play, part novel. Amazing character development. I had hardly heard of Walter Wenchall before I read this. It's amazing that a figure of this magnatude could become a forgotten footnote in our culture. Rush should read this.