The Man I Love: The Autobiography of Larry Adler

Fluently, irreverently, outspokenly, Baltimore-born harmonica player Adler, who admits to being the world's greatest, recalls his appearances with Fred Astaire, Eddie Cantor and George Gershwin, tours with Jack Benny, his dislike of Humphrey Bogart and reverence for Al Jolson, and commissioning works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and other composers for the mouth organ. Mainly in a series of wise-cracking anecdotes, he describes life in Hollywood, London and Paris, his affairs with Ingrid Bergman and other glamorous women, and his several marriages. Two long, forthright chapters deal with the question of whether he was a communist (he was not), his experiences during the McCarthy era when he was blacklisted and his passport confiscated. ""British justice isn't flawless but I reckoned I'd get a squarer deal in England than anywhere else,'' so he moved to London, where, famous and appreciated, he regularly writes book reviews for magazines and newspapers. Photos not seen by PW. (May 28)