They Call Me Supermensch: My Amazing Adventures in Rock ‘N’ Roll, Hollywood, and Haute Cuisine

In this entertaining memoir, record producer and artist’s manager Gordon warmly and graciously invites readers to gather around him as he regales them with tales of his life in the entertainment and restaurant industries and the lessons he’s learned. As a child growing up in Oceanside, N.Y., he stays in his room, hiding from the vicious family dog, or watches TV with his father. By the time he gets to college in Buffalo, he starts to develop his own personality, and after playing a college prank, Gordon learns a lesson about himself he carries through his life in show business: how to create history, not just wait for it to happen. He picks up stakes and moves to California, where he slips into his career as an entertainment manager by using his relationship with rock bands as a front for selling drugs. Before long, he’s moved on to managing Alice Cooper and launching the band’s career, helping Groucho Marx put his business back together, reinventing Raquel Welch’s career, producing movies, and creating the high profile of chef Roger Vergé. Gordon admits he’s disorganized and a poor administrator, but asserts that he excels at getting someone else’s career off the ground. Gordon focuses on doing “compassionate business” in which everyone can be a winner, and he lives by one simple rule: “don’t get mad; getting mad only hurts; use that energy to accomplish your goal.” At a time when people feel compelled to revel in and share their excesses—and Gordon does share a few of his—it’s refreshing to find a story in which the search for meaning trumps the search for mischief. (Sept.)