Happy Friday!

I have one message this week. VOTE. Tuesday is the most import midterm election in my lifetime. I'm sure a lot of you reading the blog this week can say that. Tuesday, we decide the direction of this country for the next two years and beyond. Tuesday we decide if we're a nation of inclusion or of racism and white nationalism. Tuesday we decide if truth and the rule of law matter. Tuesday we decide if sexual assault is something we tolerate and if women are to be treated as equal members of this society. Tuesday we decide if health care is a right or only a privilege afforded the waelthy.

On Tuesday, VOTE. And while you're at it, drag the Millennials in your life to the polls with you and make sure they vote too.

Here's what I got to this week...

READING

THE DEATH OF AN HEIR: Adolph Coors III and the Murder That Rocked an American Brewing Dynasty by Philip Jett

The Coors kidnapping story was one I hadn't been aware of until I heard author Philip Jett on a true crime podcast earlier this year. In February of 1960, forty-four year old Adolph Coors III (known by family and friends as Ad), CEO of the Coors Brewing Company and grandson of its founder, was murdered during a botched kidnapping attempt as he headed to his Golden, Colorado office. The kidnapper, a thirty-one year old career criminal named Joseph Corbett Jr., had spent months stalking his prey and meticulously planning for what he believed would be a key to bettering his life circumstances; a fortune in ransom money. The story of the crime and its aftermath (a manhunt the size of which hadn't been seen since the Lindbergh Kidnapping in 1932) is a page turner that, to the chagrin of the Lady Love, kept me up until the wee hours a few nights this past week. If you like true crime stories READ IT.

SAW

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

I first heard of Lee Israel a few years back when I read her critically acclaimed 1979 biography on columnist and What's My Line panelist Dorothy Kilgallen. Through meticulous (and since verified) research, Israel was the first one to make a factual case that Kilgallen's mysterious 1965 death was not in fact the result of natural causes, that her post mortem toxicology report had been doctored and that a file she had chock full of research on the Kennedy Assassination vanished on the night of her death, never to be seen again. It's a fascinating read. I highly recommend it. In fact, I may just read it again.

The Kilgallen book was a New York Times bestseller and... the highlight of Israel's literary career. By the early 1990s, she was broke, unable to get a book contract and in dire need of cash for rent and the vet for her sick cat. So, Lee Israel did what anybody would do in that situation: she started forging literary letters and selling them to autograph dealers. 

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (based on Israel's memoir of the same name) tells the story of how this once respected biographer (Kilgallen, Estee Lauder, Tallulah Bankhead) and bestselling author was reduced to forging letters by such luminaries as Noel Coward and Dorothy Parker, and selling them for hundred of dollars each to autograph dealers who in turn sold them to collectors. Israel is said to have forged over 400 such letters, many of which are today in the possession of collectors who have no idea they spent a good chunk of change on fakes. In an odd twist, if a collector does in fact have a Lee Israel forgery, it's actually worth more than it would be if the letter was authentic. She was that good.

In a rare dramatic role, Melissa McCarthy is absolutely marvelous as the desperate, cranky, alcoholic Israel. She's been in such light fare recently (The Happytime Murders anyone?) it's been easy to forget that she is an actress who can create a layered character with great emotional depth. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she got an Oscar nod as the result of this performance. Richard E. Grant is fun to watch as her flamboyant, amoral drinking buddy and partner in crime, Jack Hock. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Best Supporting Actor nomination here either.

I was surprised to see that one of the producers is my friend Bob Balaban who directed me in Not A Genuine Black Man when it was Off Broadway. He was a friend of Lee Israel's.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Is in limited release and DEFINITELY worth hunting down to see. GO.

LISTENING TO

It's been a week for hearing stories I'd never heard before. Spiro Agnew was Richard Nixon's Vice President from 1969 until 1973. He resigned the vice presidency ten months before Nixon left the White House. In the new podcast, Bag Man, Rachel Maddow tells the jaw dropping true story of one the most (if not the most) corrupt men ever to hold the office of VP.

Agnew was a GOP flamethrower. He was a name calling bully who demonized groups who didn't agree with him, used racially and ethnically “insensitive language” (did anybody really think it was okay to use the word “Japs” in 1970??) and when he was called out, refused to ever admit mistakes or apologize to anyone. Sound familiar? What the world didn't know at the time was that Agnew was a part of a criminal enterprise that began when he held his previous position as governor of Maryland, taking cash bribes to award state contracts. He continued the scheme as Vice President, and actually had his co-conspirators bring him envelopes stuffed with cash a couple of times a year in the White House.

The story didn't get much play at the time because the country was engulfed by Watergate. If you ask most people today, if they remember the name Spiro Agnew at all, they'll tell you that he resigned over some tax issue. It was much more than that. The scary thing is, if federal prosecutors and the Justice Department hadn't done their job and obtained incontrovertible evidence of Agnew's crimes in time to force him from office, he would have become the President of the United States in August of 1974 upon Nixon's resignation.

In what is her first podcast, Maddow does a great job of combining archival sound from the period, interviews with the former federal prosecutors who broke the case and putting the whole affair in context with effective analysis. She chronicles the crime, the investigation and the attempt by Agnew to escape responsibility by demonizing the Justice Department. Again, sound familiar?

Get Bag Man on Stitcher, iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

EATS

Didn't make it out for my cheeseburger this week, but will grab one over the weekend to tell you about. Lots of you have sent me recommendations as I look for the best burger and fries in the nine Bay Area counties and I plan to hit them all! Keep the recommendations coming.

If you've got a recommendation for a good cheeseburger place in the Bay Area I should check out on my quest, send it to me at copie@briancopeland.com. 

SHOWS

My friend and solo show legend Charlie Varon (Rush Limbaugh in Night School, Rabbi Sam) is joining me in a theatrical experiment. I told you a few weeks back about the fifteen minute “mini-play” I did for director David Ford's recent Times Unseen festival where performance artists did short pieces on how the current political climate affected them personally. My piece, There's Something In The Air, was about how you deal with a close friend who's a Trump supporter when you loathe the man. It was so well received that people asked me to expand it into a full show. To that end, Charlie and I are collaborating on a special show that deals with our thoughts on the state of the country today. We'll each do a handful of new monologues (I'm working on a piece on #MeToo, Kavanaugh and Cosby) and present them as a new play we call The Great American Shit Show. Our longtime collaborator David Ford is directing. The show will have a “one night only” performance on Saturday, November 24 at 5 at the Marsh in San Francisco. Tickets will be on sale shortly at themarsh.org. Come on out and join us. If the show is a success, Charlie and I will mount it for a full run in 2019. I will send you a Copie's Choice EXTRA with a ticket link the second they're available. They're expected to go fast!

THE NOISY AMERICAN

By popular request, I've been doing almost daily livestreams on Facebook Live. I call the commentaries THE NOISY AMERICAN because some on the right have said that critics of this administration need to “sit down and shut up.” As Americans, I think it's just the opposite. We need to be LOUD. Weekdays, I spend a few minutes commenting on the news and politics of the day then we discuss and debate through Facebook posts. What started as a lark is really growing into something. We're prepping two YouTube channels, THE NOISY AMERICAN CHANNEL and CopieTV, that we'll launch soon. We've also just launched a website. Check it out at TheNoisyAmerican.com. Check out my daily videos and follow me on Facebook where I'm briancopie1.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Copie

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