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Capsule Profile: ROBERT S. LEVINSON
Author:
IN THE KEY OF DEATH, WHERE THE LIES BEGIN, ASK A DEAD MAN, 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 "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 "Hot Paint." His newest novel, "The Traitor in Us All,"
is scheduled for 2010 publication.
He won the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Best Short Story Derringer Award this
year for "The Quick Brown Fox," a short that originally appeared in Alfred
Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The short is also among those featured in the
forthcoming 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," will appear next year in "Orange County Noir."
#
Levinson was an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award choice three
consecutive years. To date, his short stories have been selected for inclusion
in "year's best" anthologies four 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."
#
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. In
2008, "Murder Times Two" was nominated for "Angie" award honors and published in
the On Stage Press/Samuel French anthology, "Scripts."
#
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 more recently the inaugural and 2nd Annual Thriller Awards
shows of the International Thriller Writers organization (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."
#
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.
#
Levinson's novels have been praised by, among others, Nelson
DeMille, Clive Cussler, Joseph Wambaugh, Jeffery Deaver, 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, Tom Nolan, 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, 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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June, 2009
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