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Capsule Profile: ROBERT S. LEVINSON
Author: PHONY TINSEL, A RHUMBA IN WALTZ TIME, THE TRAITOR IN US ALL, IN THE KEY
OF DEATH, WHERE THE LIES BEGIN, ASK A DEAD MAN, THE ANDY WARHOL AFFAIR (HOT
PAINT), THE JOHN LENNON AFFAIR, THE JAMES DEAN AFFAIR, THE ELVIS AND MARILYN
AFFAIR
Robert S. Levinson is the bestselling author of the
stand-alone novels �Phony Tinsel,� �A Rhumba in Waltz Time,� �The Traitor in
Us All,� "In the Key of Death," "Where the Lies Begin" and "Ask a Dead Man,"
as well as the Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner series of mystery-thrillers,
which to date comprises "The Elvis and Marilyn Affair," "The James Dean
Affair, "The John Lennon Affair," and "The Andy Warhol Affair (Hot
Paint)�.
He won the Short Mystery Fiction Society's
Best Short Story Derringer Award for "The Quick Brown Fox," a short that
originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The short is
also among those featured in the anthology, "Between the Dark and the
Daylight and 28 More of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. An
original short, "Down in Capistrano," appears in "Orange County Noir,"
and another,
The Night of the Murder,� in the 2012 anthology �Crime Square.�
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Levinson, a Shamus award nominee, was an
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award winner three consecutive years.
To date, his short stories have been selected for inclusion in "year's best"
anthologies seven consecutive years, including 2009 as the cover title piece
(from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine) in �A Prisoner of Memory and
24 of the Year�s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories.�
Another original short, "And the Winner is�" is included in the anthology "Hollywood
and Crime: Original Crime Stories Set During the History of Hollywood."
Earlier Levinson short stories appear in "The Deadly Bride and 21 of the
Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories; "The Adventure of the Missing Detective
and 19 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories;" the 5th annual "World's
Finest Crime & Mystery" anthology; and "Flesh & Blood: Guilty as Sin."
Many of his novels and short stories are now
available at Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Smashwords and other eBook
sites. The list includes a number of new short stories as well as an eBook
original novel, �The Ending We Deserve.�
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Plays by Levinson were featured at the
inaugural and second annual International Mystery Writers Festival of RiverPark
Center in Owensboro, KY. The first, "Transcript," was presented
out-of-competition and subsequently developed by RiverPark in radio show format
for international distribution. "Murder Times Two" was nominated for "Angie"
award honors and published in the On Stage Press/Samuel French anthology,
"Scripts."
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Levinson served four years on the Mystery
Writers of America national board of directors, as well as two years as
president of MWA's Southern California chapter. He wrote and produced the 2003
and 2004 Annual Edgar Awards gala of the MWA and the inaugural and 2nd Annual
Thriller Awards shows of the International Thriller Writers organization I 2006
and 2007).
In addition to MWA, ITW, Sisters-in-Crime,
Private Eye Writers of America and the International Association of Crime
Writers, Levinson is a member of the Writers Guild of America-West (past board
of directors member) and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is past
chairperson f the editorial board of the WGAw's monthly magazine, Written By,
and served six terms as president of the Hollywood Press Club, which years later
voted "The Elvis and Marilyn Affair" "Best Novel About Hollywood" in its
annual HPC Awards of Distinction.
With publication of his first novel, "The
Elvis and Marilyn Affair," Levinson embarked upon a fifth career, following
decades of success as a newspaperman, a public relations executive, and a
writer-producer of more than three dozen television specials
He was a newspaperman (Riverside, CA, Press
Enterprise, Los Angeles Times) before entering the field of public
relations, where he represented a diverse roster of major corporate, industrial
and financial accounts, among them the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, Mattel Toys, 21 Brands, Waste King Corporation, Filon Corporation, and
General Brewing Corporation.
His company, Levinson Associates, created and
pioneered "independent PR support services" in the music industry and at one
time was the largest rock-contemporary music PR firm in the world. The company
made Esquire Magazine's first "Hot 100" rock-and-roll list of music
industry headliners and he was the first to be honored by Billboard Magazine
as "Publicist of the Year," for his innovative international campaigns.
Any catalog of Levinson Associates clients--comprising more than 700 major star
names--would include Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Three
Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jimmy Buffett, The
Osmonds, Olivia Newton-John, Ike & Tina Turner, Bee Gees, KC and the Sunshine
Band, Tanya Tucker, Bread, Kinky Friedman, Shaun Cassidy, David Cassidy, David
Essex, John Entwistle, Sparks, and Tom Petty, as well as the National Academy of
Recording Arts & Sciences, Arnold Kopelson Productions, Dick Clark Productions,
Mike Curb Enterprises, the Actors Studio, Lee Strasberg, Richard Harris, Suzanne
Somers, Marcel Marceau, Roger Clinton; Motown Records, Capitol Records, MCA
Records, RSO Records, Island Records, Jobete Music, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI),
the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas; the Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas; and, the Friars
Club.
Later, he formed Levinson Entertainment Ventures, Inc., developing, writing and
producing some 40 comedy, musical, variety and awards specials for the world
marketplace, among them the Annual Soap Opera Awards, the first and second
annual Beach Music specials, and shows starring major artists such as Glen
Campbell, David Soul, Jerry Lee Lewis, the late Marvin Gaye, Blood, Sweat &
Tears, WAR, America, Anne Murray, Charlie Rich, Charley Pride, the Jacksons, and
others. Two Suzanne Somers one-hour variety specials for CBS Television were
created and developed by Levinson, supervising production for Hamel-Somers
Entertainment. "Here Comes Didi!" was a series of half hour comedies produced in
Hollywood and West Germany and starring one of Europe's major entertainers,
Dieter (Didi) Hallervorden.
Levinson's freelance writing over the years included four years as art columnist
and critic for Coast Magazine, where he wrote the first major consumer
cover story dealing with Andy Warhol, a feature that anticipated Warhol's
significant role in art history. He wrote for publications such as the Los
Angeles Times West Magazine, Rolling Stone, Westways, Los Angeles Free Press,
Written By Magazine, and Los Angeles Magazine.
References to him appear in more than a dozen books about the art world, the
music business, and show business in general, among them: "Legal Aspects of the
Music Industry;" "Praise, Vilification & Sexual Innuendo or, How to Be a
Critic/The Selected Writings of John L. Wasserman;" "Liberty Records. A History
of the Recording Company and its Stars, 1955-1971;" "One is the Loneliest
Number/On the Road and Behind the Scenes with the Legendary Rock Band Three Dog
Night;" "The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul;" "Oscar Dearest: The Unofficial
History of the Academy Awards;" "Ken Tyler-Master Printer and the American Print
Renaissance;" "Gemini G.E.L./Art and Collaboration;" "Teen Idols;"
"Robert Rauschenberg;" "Technics and Creativity."
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For the Writers Guild of America West,
Levinson created a School Literacy Program that brought writers into classrooms
on an ongoing basis, to inspire youngsters to read and write and give them a
sense of the real world outside the schoolyard.
For the Hollywood Press Club, he has developed and produced a series of special
events that include a Life Achievement Gala for Milton Berle, an evening
honoring retired Daily Variety Editor Tom Pryor, stage plays dealing with
historical Hollywood figures such as Orson Welles and Harry Cohn, legendary
founder of Columbia Pictures, and a Lifetime Achievement gala for Broadway
composer Jerry Herman ("Mame," "Hello, Dolly!").
Other fund-raising event involvements have included Friars dinners honoring Burt
Reynolds, Roseanne and Charlton Heston; a Bette Midler opening night concert for
the Colette Chuda Fund; SHARE's Annual Boomtown Show; benefit performances of
"Love Letters" for Tuesday's Child; a luncheon hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis, Sissy
Spacek and Edward James Olmos to benefit the AIDS Orphan Adoption Project of the
NCFA (National Council for Adoption); and, a Gateways Hospital Humanitarian
Award dinner honoring philanthropist Sybil Brand.
Levinson has been honored in the past, by the
California State Senate, whose resolution recognized his "outstanding record of
dedicated and highly-effective performance to the entertainment through the
force of public relations, as well as to the growth and economic good of the
State of California." The Los Angeles City Council recognized Levinson for
creating and implementing an anti-drugs program designed to show young people
that "the road to real success is easier to achieve in a drug-free community."
The Governor of Kentucky in 2008 commissioned him a "Kentucky Colonel," in
recognition of his cultural contributions to the state.
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Levinson's novels have been praised by, among
others, Nelson DeMille, Clive Cussler, Joseph Wambaugh, Jeffery Deaver, William
Link, Margaret Maron, Joe R. Lansdale, John Lescroart, David Morrell, T.
Jefferson Parker, James Rollins, Heather Graham, F. Paul Wilson, Michael Palmer,
Dick Lochte, Gayle Lynds, Peter Lefcourt, Digby Diehl, Jon L. Breen, Christopher
Reich, Tom Nolan, Joseph Finder, and Ernest Lehman.
"The Elvis and Marilyn Affair" earned him the first in a series of rave
trade and consumer reviews. "The James Dean Affair" opened at the #1 spot
on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list and also was the
book-of-the-month choice of the MSNBC Book Club. "The John Lennon Affair,"
another Los Angeles Times best-seller, was succeeded by "Hot Paint," a
Gulliver & Marriner thriller built around Andy Warhol that was a Hollywood
Inside Syndicate book-of-the-month selection.
The LA Times best-selling "Ask a Dead Man" received a coveted
starred review from Publishers Weekly, which observed: "A novel that not
only stands alone but stands tall. Writing with considerable invention, grace
and energy, (Levinson) tells an intricate and emotionally potent tale of murder
and double-cross�This is a dense, dark, beautifully wrought tale of love and
betrayal, sin and retribution, offering serious suspense, terrific twists and
full-blooded characters. Levinson may not have an Irish name but he carries the
soul of the Irish poets in his pen and in his heart�only a dead man wouldn't
relish this read."
"Ask a Dead Man" also was hailed by Kirkus Reviews for its "guilty
pleasures," and Booklist raved, "Genuinely exciting�It sinks its
narrative claws into our skin and drags us along on what proves to be an
exhilarating ride�" The Chicago Tribune called it "a book full of enough
treachery and paranoia to light up a small city."
The Chicago Tribune singled out "Where the Lies Begin" as
"(Levinson's) latest tough and funny new book (with) a gang of Federal double
dealers who make the Hollywood Press corps look like a church choir," while the
Baltimore Sun hailed the novel as "(An) ever-surprising, character-rich
thriller," and the Midwest Book Review described it as "A complex and
exciting espionage thriller�fun to read as the audience tries to determine who's
on whose side."
Kirkus Reviews observed that the LA Times bestselling "In the
Key of Death" was "stuffed with action, violence, sex, music-business savvy
and plot." Crimespree Magazine called it "�an ass-kicker that unravels the music
industry�Fast-paced, funny and dark, this is a whirlwind in a bottle and turning
that first page is going to let it loose."
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An in-demand public speaker, Levinson resides
with his wife, Sandra, and their rescue pooch, Rosie, in Los Angeles. He
welcomes contact at
boblevinson@robertslevinson.com as
well as Post Office Box 292393, Los Angeles, CA 90029. Appearances, other
activities, photographs, and special features, are updated frequently at his
website,
www.robertslevinson.com.
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January, 2013
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