Albert Goldman

Early life

Albert Goldman was born in Dormont, Pennsylvania and raised in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

Academic career

Albert Goldman briefly studied theater at the Carnegie Institute of Technology before serving in the U.S. Navy from 1945–1946. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago in 1950; under the chancellery of Robert Maynard Hutchins, students who were not enrolled in the generalist "Chicago Plan" undergraduate degree program were designated as master's students and received the higher degree. While enrolled in the English doctoral program at Columbia University, Goldman taught literature courses at the City College of New York. He completed his PhD in 1961 with a dissertation on Thomas de Quincey. Goldman argued that de Quincey had plagiarized most of his acclaimed journalism from lesser-known writers; the dissertation was subsequently published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1965. From 1963 to 1972, Goldman was an adjunct associate professor of English at Columbia; among his course offerings was the University's first class on popular culture.

Bestseller dealing with Lenny Bruce

Goldman's breakthrough bestseller, Ladies and Gentlemen – Lenny Bruce!! won praise from the likes of Norman Mailer and Pauline Kael, who called the book "brilliant." The book was largely positive in its appraisal of Bruce's talent, though it was attacked by many of Bruce's friends for allegedly distorting his character and for claims that Bruce had had homosexual experiences.

Elvis Presley biography

Goldman's critical 1981 biography Elvis was much more controversial. In this book, Goldman drew on more than four years' research into Elvis Presley's life. But for many fans and some critics, his research was undermined by his intense personal dislike of Presley. For instance, Goldman dismissed Presley as a plagiarist who never did anything of note after his first records at Sun Records, insisting that he was inferior as an artist to Little Richard and other early rock'n'roll singers. He also portrayed Presley as nearly insane, using stories that some might see as innocuous (such as Presley taking his friends halfway across the country to buy them peanut-butter sandwiches) to "prove" that the singer had lost his grip on reality.

On the other hand, the book includes several newly discovered facts. For instance, in the course of his research, Goldman discovered that Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was not a Southerner but a native of the Netherlands. Parker had successfully covered this up to the degree that Presley himself allegedly never learned of it. (The book is harshest on Parker out of all the figures in Presley's life with whom it deals.) Furthermore, the book critically deals with the singer's weight problems, his diet, his choice of performing costumes, and his sexual appetites and peculiarities. The author even suggests that Presley's promiscuity masked latent homosexuality. Discussing Presley's personal life, Goldman concludes: "Elvis was a pervert, a voyeur." Some critics found comments like these overly biased and judgmental.

Defending himself against his critics, Goldman told an interviewer: "People were scandalized by my use of humor and ridicule in (the Elvis biography). Elvis was someone they were accustomed to taking in a very sentimental way. But I feel he was a figure of the most bizarre and grotesque character. . . . The humor is a mode of perception. Of making things vivid."

Article on Bruce Lee

In 1982, Goldman wrote a very unflattering article on actor Bruce Lee which was divided into two parts for Penthouse magazine (Jan, Feb 1983 issues).

Second book on Presley

In 1990, Goldman published a second book, entitled Elvis: The Last 24 Hours, on the circumstances and events of Presley's death, arguing that the singer had committed suicide. The book drew some attention for its sensational thesis but was largely ignored.

The Lives of John Lennon

Goldman's next biography arguably aroused even more controversy than the Elvis biography. In The Lives of John Lennon, a product of years of research and hundreds of interviews with many of Lennon's friends, acquaintances, servants and musicians, Goldman describes John Lennon as both talented and neurotic. The book reveals a very personal side of the musician who was prone to faults, such as anger, violence, drug abuse, adultery, and indecisiveness, but who was also a leader of "Peace and Love." It deals with Lennon's childhood and the impact others had on the life of the sensitive little boy, among them his aunt, Mimi Smith, his father, Fred Lennon, and Johnny Dykins. The author implies that strong women ruined Lennon, starting with Smith, and that he was later being held prisoner by his wife, Yoko Ono.

Centering on the mistakes or mean things the musician did, Goldman made many controversial allegations, among them the charge that he may have had something to do with the death of his friend Stuart Sutcliffe, an early member of The Beatles. The author also says that Lennon had a homosexual affair with The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, whom Goldman characterizes as a dishonest, incompetent businessman who hid behind the image of a "gentleman". Half of the book covers the personality of Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, who is portrayed in a very bad light; Goldman alleges that, among other things, she hated Paul McCartney, neglected her children and brainwashed and pulled Lennon away from everyone who ever meant something to him. Goldman also alleged that the two carried on constant affairs throughout their marriage and he substantially revealed that no record exists of the phone calls Yoko Ono claims to have made to McCartney and Mimi Smith the night Lennon was murdered.

Concerning Goldman's account of Lennon's consumption of LSD, Luc Sante, in The New York Review of Books, said: "Goldman's background research was either slovenly or nonexistent." The author replied:

What is the basis for this sweeping and defamatory assertion? Absolutely nothing save for my quoting only one book about LSD. Yet if Sante knew anything about drugs, he would recognize that the only serious problem about Lennon's consumption of LSD was one that has no literature; namely, the question of what effect this drug has upon a man who takes it every day, eating it 'like candy.'

Death

Goldman died of heart failure on March 28, 1994 while flying from Miami to London. He left unfinished a biography of Doors singer Jim Morrison.

In popular culture

U2 lead singer Bono referenced his disdain for Goldman in the song "God Part II" from the album Rattle and Hum:

The American television program Saturday Night Live had a season-14 sketch in which it was revealed that Albert Goldman, portrayed by Phil Hartman, was the fifth member of the Beatles, and played the trombone. The band, supported by Elvis Presley, decides to fire Goldman—a task they leave to John, with Elvis backing him up. This ostensibly fueled Goldman's lifelong hatred of the two.