(26) Liverpool, England – With immense honour, for more years than he cares to remember, and with promotions for Marilyn taking a very short respite, Keith once more took change of the 11-hour video presentation at Liverpool’s Annual Beatles Convention, Europe’s biggest, by far! Prior to the start of it, our Mr Badman (after several years of trying) finally got round to partaking in an interview with Pete Dicks, of the great radio show, Beatles And Beyond. (A big thanks must go to Bill, Dave, Ray, Victoria, Ian e al of Cavern City Tours for a most wonderful weekend. Thank you all!)
(18) Boston, Massachusetts, USA – Keith’s interview with Lauren Daley is published in the ‘Booklovers’ section of today’s edition of the South Coast Today newspaper. The lengthy, two-page, cover-story piece, entitled, “Biography reveals more about Marilyn,” unsurprisingly focused on his book about the actress. (Thanks, Lauren! Top work all round.) Click here to read it.
(18) Meanwhile, on the same day – Keith’s book on the screen legend returned to the Number One spot in the ‘Biographies & People’ section on Amazon Canada!! (What an absolute honour!!) The good news didn’t end there. Concurrently, the publication was also to be found at No.5 in both the ‘Movies & Biographies’ and ‘History & Criticism’ sections on the site.
(10) Book Charts – Canada: Impressive sales in the country result in the UK paperback edition of The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe – The True Story reaching the No.2 position in the 'Marilyn Biographies' section on Amazon Canada.
(6) Book Charts – Canada: A truly triumphant day in the country for Keith’s book when charts on Amazon Canada reveal Marilyn Monroe: The Final Years is at No.1 (yes, Number One!) in both the ‘Film, History & Criticism’ and ‘Movie Biographies’ section and No.2 in the ‘Marilyn Monroe Biographies’ section.
(5) USA, various – The 50th Anniversary of Marilyn’s tragic death naturally focused in numerous papers and magazines, unsurprisingly, most in America and Canada; many of which chose the event to review the latest batch of books on the actress, including Keith’s.
With immense honour, his book, Marilyn Monroe: The Final Years received a mention by Adam Tschorn, the Staff Writer of the highly-respectable, Los Angeles Times. It didn’t end there; a review of the publication (by Mindy Aloff) also appeared today, in the mighty ‘Book World’ section of The Washington Post. “The effect of Badman's meticulous spadework,” Aloff wrote, “is that the reader feels compelled to give him the benefit of the doubt when he makes some of the book's more salacious claims and assertions…” (Just how cool is that?)
Reviews (and mentions) also appeared in Vanity Fair and in syndications by the Associated Press (AP). Further praise for the Marilyn book came in The Library Journal newspaper: “He painstakingly examines day-to-day events, sorting through fact and myth to uncover the real story.”
While in the UK, a plug for the publication also appeared in the Grazia Entertainment magazine (in the edition dated, July 31 – August). At the same time, in China today, Keith’s, full-page interview with Sylvia Gong was published in Modern Weekly, the country’s first and only full color, glossy, newspaper and fashion magazine, which boasts a 1.5 million circulation and a 1.99 million readership. Modern Weekly is China’s most popular print media of the elite.
MSNBC TV Studios, New York – Due to logistical problems, Keith’s last-minute appearance on the MSNBC breakfast show this morning, to talk about both Marilyn and his book, failed to materialise.
(4) Detroit, USA – On the eve of Monroe’s landmark anniversary, Keith was a special guest on WJR Talk Radio’s, Warren Pierce Show in Detroit. Immensely influential, WJR is heard in 38 States and half of Canada. (The 25-minute interview began place at 8:10am Local Time/ 1:10pm London. Thank you Gents, for your hospitality and truly kind invite!)
(3) USA online – Keith’s piece, ‘Marilyn Monroe: Fifty Years On...And Still An Icon’ was published online today by the highly-respected, Huffington Post. With immense honour, he was chosen to be the paper’s guest-blogger about the 50th anniversary of the actress’s tragic passing. Read it here. (Many thanks to Keith’s American publicist, Stephanie for arranging this.) The Huffington Post’s actual review of Keith’s book was equally good: “A meticulously detailed look at the year and a half leading up to Marilyn's death.”
Craig Wilson’s interview with Keith, along with a plug for his book was syndicated across America and appeared today in various papers (both online and in hardcopies), including (the mighty!) USA Today, The Winnipeg Free Press, The Sun Times, WBIR.Com News, The Province.Com, The Spec.Com, Guelph Mercury.Com, The Mercury.Com, The Record.Com, amongst others. All of which, contained one of Keith’s quote, most notably, “Many women wanted to be her, and many men wanted to be with her.”
(2) USA online – With the 50th Anniversary of Marilyn’s death edging ever nearer, newspaper and magazine coverage of her passing begins to intensify, with Keith’s book featuring (most proudly and prominently) in much of the coverage, beginning today with Tony Mostrom’s review of the tome in The LA Weekly.
“Badman's book,” he writes, “prides himself on both debunking and confirming several decades-old rumors and conspiratorial chestnuts, particularly the Kennedy kind. While acknowledging that Monroe most likely had a Don Draper-worthy one-night stand with the president in Palm Springs in 1962, he proves the impossibility of other alleged liaisons between the two, with well-documented specifics that earlier biographers should have caught. The author's triumphant verdict: one bonk but no affair.” The succinct piece, entitled, “New Marilyn Monroe Biography Says Her Death Was an Accident and JFK Was Just a One-Night Stand,” summed-up Keith’s book quite brilliantly.
Book Charts – America: On the same day, the 2nd, the two versions of Keith’s book cracked the Amazon.com charts; the hardback edition reached No.2 and the kindle version No.7.
(1) Book Charts - Italy – Impressive pre-orders on Amazon in Italy of that country’s hardback version of the book, Gli ultimi giorni di Marilyn Monroe: Le relazioni pericolose, le trappole, il presunto suicidio: tutta la verità sulla fine sees the publication reach the No.6 position in the ‘Bestseller in Cinema e Television’ section.
