Toots

New York, NY: Meredith Corporation, 1969. First Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. Eric Hedlund (Jacket photograph). [8], 214 pages. Illustrations. Index. DJ has some wear, tears, chips and soiling. Inscribed by Considine on half title page. Inscription reads: For Glenn Leach The collector's collector. Best Bob Considine. Robert Bernard Considine, known as Bob Considine (November 4, 1906 - September 25, 1975), was an American journalist, author, and commentator. He is best known as the co-author of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and The Babe Ruth Story. Considine was prolific, with a level of production few could match. "Considine's speed, accuracy, and concentration as a writer and his seemingly inexhaustible energy were legendary in the newspaper profession. He was known to work at two typewriters at one time, writing a news story on one and a column or book on the other. His colleagues at the Washington Post recalled that he wrote a column on the 1942 World Series in nine minutes--on a train with his typewriter on a baggage car and the conductor shouting, 'All aboard.'," according to the Dictionary of American Biography. Known from coast to coast, the name "Toots" calls up the smiling, rubicund face of the nation's most famous saloonkeeper and bum. Toots Shor, born in Philadelphia, had the good sense to migrate almost immediately to New York's bright lights. In the legendary speakeasy era he became a legend himself, as bouncer, guardian, and manager. He opened his own joint in 1940, and the rest is history. The greats of the sport world and of the stage and films his bar and delighted in his steak while trying (usually in vain) to match his prowess as imbiber and raconteur. Toots emerges, intact and unique, in this loving and unmistakably authentic portrait by Bob Considine, a fellow bum of long standing. Rich in names, humor and good stories, Toots provides a feast for any reader. During the 1940's and 1950's, Bernard "Toots" Shor was the proprietor of a legendary restaurant, Toots Shor's Restaurant, in Manhattan. He was known as a saloonkeeper, friend, and confidante to some of New York's biggest celebrities during that era. From Wikipedia: "Shor was a raconteur and a master of the "needle, " jibes or quips directed at the famous. Celebrity alone was not enough to receive first-class service in Shor's restaurant. According to David Halberstam in his book The Summer of '49, guests had to observe the unwritten "code" which prevailed in Shor's establishment. In one incident, Shor outdrank comedian Jackie Gleason, famously leaving Gleason on the floor to prove the point. (At Toots' funeral, the coffin had a spray of red roses with a card which read, "Save a Table for 2, " signed: Jackie Gleason. ) Shor cultivated his celebrity following by giving them unqualified admiration, loyal friendship, and a kind of happy, boozy, old-fashioned male privacy."