Queen Bess
An Unauthorized Biography of Bess Myerson
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Narrated by:
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Suzanne Toren
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By:
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Jennifer Preston
About this listen
This "fascinating" biography details the rise of the first Jewish Miss America, TV star, and political player - and the scandal that toppled her career (The New York Times).
When Bess Myerson, the Bronx-born daughter of Jewish immigrants, was crowned Miss America in 1945, she was determined to break down gender barriers and be more than a beauty queen. Amid rampant anti-Semitism, she took advantage of her reign to call for an end to bigotry and hate. Then, after more than two decades as a glamorous television personality, Myerson took on corporate America, applying her celebrity as a consumer advocate to become an influential New York City political figure credited with helping elect Mayor Edward I. Koch. But behind the glittering public image, Myerson struggled with unhappy marriages. Then, in her early sixties, she found love with a much younger married man. The romance put her at the center of a political corruption scandal that led to federal charges brought by US Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, ending the reign of Queen Bess, New York's favorite daughter, after more than forty years.
Award-winning investigative journalist Jennifer Preston reveals Myerson's fascinating life story in this engaging biography. Featuring interviews with Myerson herself and a new introduction from the author, Queen Bess remains the most comprehensive account of this ambitious and talented woman who inspired, entertained, and shocked millions.
©1990 by Jennifer Preston. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Heiress to the nearly 40-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the 14th wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At 94, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city - and involving the most glamorous industry - in the world.
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A Juicy Chronicle
- By Jean on 10-24-17
By: Tom Sancton
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Being Oscar
- From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas
- By: Oscar Goodman, George Anastasia
- Narrated by: Oscar Goodman
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In Being Oscar,one of America’s most celebrated criminal defense attorneys recounts the stories and cases of his epic life. The Mafia’s go-to defender, he has tried an estimated 300 criminal cases, and won most of them. His roster of clients reads like a history of organized crime: Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, and "Lefty" Rosenthal, as well as Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King, along with a midget, a dentist, and a federal judge. After 35 years as a defender, he ran for mayor of Las Vegas, and America’s greatest Mob lawyer became the mayor of its sexiest city.
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Not as good as I expected
- By Eric Schurr on 11-16-14
By: Oscar Goodman, and others
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Nine Days
- The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life and Win the 1960 Election
- By: Paul Kendrick, Stephen Kendrick
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Less than three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, 31-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested at a sit-in at Rich's Department Store in Atlanta. That day would lead to the first night King had ever spent in jail - and the time that King's family most feared for his life. Based on fresh interviews, newspaper accounts, and extensive archival research, Nine Days is the first full recounting of an event that changed the course of one of the closest elections in American history.
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a fascinating, detailed, blow-by-blow approach
- By D. Littman on 01-29-21
By: Paul Kendrick, and others
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The Price of Justice
- A True Story of Greed and Corruption
- By: Laurence Leamer
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This nonfiction legal thriller traces the 14-year struggle of two lawyers to bring the most powerful coal baron in American history to justice. Don Blankenship, head of Massey Energy since the early 1990s, ran an industry that provides nearly half of America’s electric power. But wealth and influence weren’t enough for Blankenship and his company, as they set about destroying corporate and personal rivals, challenging the Constitution, purchasing the West Virginia judiciary, and willfully disregarding safety standards in the company’s mines - mines in which scores died unnecessarily.
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A good story
- By Mr. on 10-06-13
By: Laurence Leamer
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The Fall of the House of Zeus
- The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer
- By: Curtis Wilkie
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The Fall of the House of Zeus tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, arguably the most successful plaintiff's lawyer in America. A brother-in-law of Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senate majority leader, Scruggs made a fortune taking on mass tort lawsuits against "Big Tobacco" and the asbestos industries. He was hailed by Newsweek as a latter-day Robin Hood and portrayed in the movie The Insider as a dapper aviator-lawyer.
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The title says it all - The fall of Scruggs
- By Placeholder on 03-11-12
By: Curtis Wilkie
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My Grandfather's Son
- A Memoir
- By: Clarence Thomas
- Narrated by: Clarence Thomas
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Provocative, inspiring, and unflinchingly honest, My Grandfather's Son is the story of one of America's most remarkable and controversial leaders, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told in his own words.
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Wonderful read
- By Amazon Customer on 10-17-21
By: Clarence Thomas
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A Cold-Blooded Business
- Adultery, Murder, and a Killer's Path from the Bible Belt to the Boardroom
- By: Marek Fuchs
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1959, Olathe, Kansas was made famous by the murder of the Clutter family and Truman Capote's ground-breaking book on the crime, In Cold Blood. But fewer know that Olathe achieved notoriety again in 1982, when a member of Olathe's growing Evangelical Christian population, a gentle man named David Harmon, was bludgeoned to death while sleeping - the force of the blows crushing his face beyond recognition.
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GOOD TRUE CRIME STORY
- By The Louligan on 08-17-14
By: Marek Fuchs
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The Lynching
- The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan
- By: Laurence Leamer
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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On a Friday night in March 1981, Henry Hays and James Knowles scoured the streets of Mobile in their car, hunting for a black man. The young men were members of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America. They were seeking to retaliate after a largely black jury could not reach a verdict in a trial involving a black man accused of the murder of a white man. The two Klansmen found 19-year-old Michael Donald walking home alone.
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Very Readable
- By Jean on 06-10-16
By: Laurence Leamer
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Contempt
- A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation
- By: Ken Starr
- Narrated by: Ken Starr
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty years after the Starr Report and the Clinton impeachment, former special prosecutor Ken Starr finally shares his definitive account of this period in American history. Now Starr finally shares his unique perspective on the investigation that began with the Whitewater land deal and spread to a wide range of President Clinton's actions, including accusations of sexual harassment and perjury in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Starr's narrative includes behind-the-scenes details that have never before emerged as well as a new analysis from the perspective of history.
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Thought provoking and honest!
- By Sarah on 09-13-18
By: Ken Starr
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First
- Sandra Day O'Connor
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her law school class in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O’Connor’s story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings - doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness.
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Remarkable woman, well served in this book.
- By KathrynVB on 04-05-19
By: Evan Thomas
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Dead Certain
- A Novel
- By: Adam Mitzner
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Ella Broden is living a double life. By day, Ella works as a buttoned-up attorney on some of the city's most grueling cases. By night, she pursues her passion for singing in the darkest clubs of Manhattan. No one knows her secret, not even Charlotte, the younger sister she practically raised. But it seems she's not the only one in the family with something to hide. When Charlotte announces she's sold her first novel, Ella couldn't be more thrilled...until she gets a call that her sister's gone missing.
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Mixed Review
- By Amazon Customer on 06-16-17
By: Adam Mitzner
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A Woman in Charge
- The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton
- By: Carl Bernstein
- Narrated by: Dick Rodstein
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Carl Bernstein's stunning portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton shows us, as nothing else has, the true trajectory of her life and career, with its zigzag bursts of risks taken and safety sought. Marshaling all the skills and energy that propelled his history-making Pulitzer Prize reporting on Watergate, Bernstein gives us the most detailed, sophisticated, comprehensive, and revealing account of Hilary Rodham Clinton yet.
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in depth and well-written
- By Katherine on 07-20-07
By: Carl Bernstein
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The Matriarch
- Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty
- By: Susan Page
- Narrated by: Kate Levy
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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A vivid biography of former first lady Barbara Bush, one of the most influential and underappreciated women in American political history.
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Insightful
- By Jean on 04-14-19
By: Susan Page