When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man

Here is the story of Jerry Weintraub: the self-made, Brooklyn-born,  Bronx-raised impresario, Hollywood producer, legendary deal maker, and  friend of politicians and stars. No matter where nature has placed  him--the club rooms of Brooklyn, the Mafia dives of New York's Lower  East Side, the wilds of Alaska, or the hills of Hollywood--he has found a  way to put on a show and sell tickets at the door. "All life was a  theater and I wanted to put it up on a stage," he writes. "I wanted to  set the world under a marquee that read: 'Jerry Weintraub Presents.'"

 In When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead,  we follow Weintraub from his first great success at age twenty-six with  Elvis Presley, whom he took on the road with the help of Colonel Tom  Parker; to the immortal days with Sinatra and Rat Pack glory; to his  crowning hits as a movie producer, starting with Robert Altman and Nashville, continuing with Oh, God!, The Karate Kid movies, and Diner, among others, and summiting with Steven Soderbergh and Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen.

 Along the way, we'll watch as Jerry moves from the poker tables of  Palm Springs (the games went on for days), to the power rooms of  Hollywood, to the halls of the White House, to Red Square in Moscow and  the Great Palace in Beijing-all the while counseling potentates, poets,  and kings, with clients and confidants like George Clooney, Bruce  Willis, George H. W. Bush, Armand Hammer, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bob  Dylan, Led Zeppelin, John Denver, Bobby Fischer . . .well, the list goes  on forever.

 And of course, the story is not yet over . . .as the old-timers say, "The best is yet to come."

 As Weintraub says, "When I stop talking, you'll know I'm dead."

 With wit, wisdom, and the cool confidence that has colored his  remarkable career, Jerry chronicles a quintessentially American journey,  one marked by luck, love, and improvisation. The stories he tells and  the lessons we learn are essential, not just for those who love movies  and music, but for businessmen, entrepreneurs, artists . . . everyone.