56 | OCTOBER 31 • 2024 J
N
A
uthors
of three nonfiction
books about famous people are
among the many presenters
appearing Nov. 6-17 at this year’s
Detroit Jewish Book Fair at The J.
It is the 73rd season of the event.
Eddie Shapiro, with a love for
theater, chronicles conversa-
tions with top women stars on
Broadway in Here’s to the Ladies.
His discussion, at 7 p.m. Nov. 6,
will be followed by a live musical
program recalling the star-
presented songs.
Margalit Fox, whose base career
was writing obituaries for the New
York Times, takes readers into
the life of a 19th-century Jewish
woman heading up property
illegalities — The Talented Mrs.
Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall
of an American Organized-Crime
Boss. Her presentation is at 7 p.m.
Nov. 7.
Adam Nimoy, whose dad took
moviegoers into another world in
Star Trek productions, tells about
the difficulties and resolutions of
his father-son relationship in The
Most Human: Reconciling With My
Father,
Leonard
Nimoy. The talk,
presented at 7 p.m. Nov.
12, also covers his own ventures
into entertainment.
Shapiro, who wrote the simi-
lar books Nothing Like a Dame:
Conversations with the Great
Women of Musical Theater and
A Wonderful Guy: Conversations
with the Great Men of Musical
Theater, found work on his new
book went faster because it was
done during the pandemic when
he could often interview on
Zoom instead of during in-person
appointments.
“It was not a desire to immerse
myself in theater writing but a
desire to figure out a good way
to immerse myself in this world,”
said Shapiro, who had been a
stage actor in the early part of his
career. “I like the candor that all
of these people shared.”
As Shapiro was doing the
interviews, he got a sense of
the philosophies that the stars
believed and found them helpful
to his own life.
Some of the stars in his book
are part of a younger genera-
tion with Stephanie Block (The
Boy from Oz, Wicked) and Jesse
Mueller (On a Clear Day You
Can See Forever, Beautiful:
The Carole King Musical).
There are also people who’ve
been at it for a long time
but aren’t quite household
names like Mary Beth
Peil (Mirrors, The Stepford
Wives) and Faith Prince
(Guys and Dolls, Annie).
“What’s been most sur-
prising is true in all three
of the books,” he said. “You
might think that people who
have reached the pinnacle
are no longer insecure about
where they are. That is a myth.
The insecurity amazed me even
from the greats.”
Shapiro said he found 95 per-
cent of the interviews interesting
for different reasons. Some were
interesting because they defied his
expectations of them. Some were
interesting just because their sto-
ries were interesting.
Among the Jewish stars he
has interviewed are Judy Kuhn
(Titanic), Idina Menzel (Wicked)
and Judy Kaye (Phantom of the
Opera).
“It’s always nice when you’re
talking to a Jewish performer
because there’s a shorthand, and
you can drop Yiddishisms,” said
Shapiro, whose sister is a rabbi.
“It’s always nice when they under-
stand you.”
Fox is bringing her fifth mys-
tery book to The J. The first three
were written while she was still
working for the Times, and the
last two were written after her
retirement.
“I came across a reference to
Mrs. Mandelbaum, and she just
seized hold of me and wouldn’t
let me go,” Fox said. “I wanted to
answer the question that pretty
much underlies all of the topics
that I choose for my books, and
the question is: How can this be?”
Fox found the personal story
of Mrs. Mandelbaum interesting
because there were ways in which
Famous people are the
focus of three authors to
be featured at Book Fair.
Nonfiction
Spotlight
Spotlight
SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS
Eddie
Shapiro
Adam
Nimoy
Margalit
Fox