| Belushi | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 351504
Category: Book
Authors: Judy Belushi Pisano, Tanner Colby
Publisher: Rugged Land
Studio: Rugged Land
Manufacturer: Rugged Land
Label: Rugged Land
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 8.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 1590710487
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.7028092
EAN: 9781590710487
ASIN: 1590710487
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Release Date: November 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
On the day he turned thirty, John starred in America?s number-one movie (Animal House), starred in the number-one late-night show (Saturday Night Live) and had recorded the number-one album (Briefcase Full of Blues). All from a guy who was never supposed to make it out from behind the cash register of his family?s Chicago diner. How did this Albanian immigrant?s son capture a nation?s imagination and come to embody all the glory and tragedy of the American dream? It was one high-price, high-speed, short-lived wild ride.
BELUSHI is a whirlwind of a book, filled with never-before-seen photos and provocative, intensely personal testimonials by just about every major comedic figure of the last half century. Here is the remarkable and raucous story of a larger-than-life figure who danced out at the precipice of American fame.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Thank you Judy! June 18, 2008
For writing this beautiful book. I've been a fan of Johns work pretty much as far back as i can remember. i was only 9 when John passed on so i never got to see him perform live or really enjoy his work when he was here on this earth. I found this book to be a true showing of what John was like and what a good man he really was and not always this train wreck like the press (and another certain author who shall remain nameless) perceived him to be. you can tell that he was loved by many and that his death had a profound affect on many and that his work will be loved for many more years. If you are a fan of John you need to read this book!
A Truly Enlightening Experience July 7, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
John Belushi, a man of laughs, a man who lived for an audience's
approval and cheers, John Belushi was an entirely respectable man and deserved to be remembered as a man of great worth among friends and colleagues, this book harrowingly displayed him as both, they did not write from a biased point of view, but rather from many perspectives, of friends and family. Every comedian should allow the utmost respect for such a spectacular man, John, may you rest in peace, knowing that all of your fans will remember you forever, we love you.
 A rare and vulnerable spark January 14, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Most if not all of the facts of this book will not be new to John's fans. Especially those who have read the eight-or-so books already written about or by him and his friends and family.
And, title aside, it is not really a biography; it is an oral and pictorial history. But that is its strength. The voices of those friends & family come through, showing their love for the man.
But the interesting thing is, as awesome as some of the stories may be (especially to those who haven't read them before); the pictures do an even more excellent job.
Some of the photos were previously seen in SAMURAI WIDOW and WIRED, but most are never before published. And in them, you can see the buildup from Belushi's boyhood through the first three years of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Then the explosion when that show, ANIMAL HOUSE, and the Blues Brothers record all hit at the same time.
And then the fallout. Visually, I think you can mark the moment when the road turned hard for John; it's in a full-page picture, on page 172, of him in costume for 1941.
It's in his eyes. Look at most of the photos that precede this one, and there is a light in them, something that's growing, some kind of spark.
And though it's probably too simple to say that Hollywood stunted that growth and killed that spark, it's also, probably, accurate.
Because in most of the post-1941 photos, that spark is gone, with only a brief resurgence in the pictures taken during the filming of CONTINENTAL DIVIDE.
This was apparently a happy (if not always fun) time for John, and the pictures reflect that. Unfortunately, more so than the movie, which is enjoyable but instantly forgettable.
The key picture here for me is on page 222. It shows Belushi wrapped in a blanket, sitting on some cabin steps in his stocking feet. He's just sitting, and staring, and thinking of god knows what, but the image has an apparent vulnerability that the photogenic John rarely showed in pictures. He was a man who always seems to have known where the camera was and how to keep its eye on him. Not here.
But CONTINENTAL DIVIDE flopped, and in the photos that follow, he mostly looks wasted. I don't mean that with the drug connotation, I mean that spark was being denied again.
A note at the end proclaims, "This book is not objective," and it isn't, so bully for them for admitting it. It's an attempt to bring a loved one back to life by talking about him.
Biography Of A Decade December 30, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was in the library a week before surgery looking for light fiction to tide me over a week of recuperation, when I saw "Belushi" sitting on a new non-fiction shelf and picked it up on a whim. I never got to the fiction.
Well-collected and organized first-person interview quotes, personal photographs, behind-the-scenes stories...this is a wonderful, yet cautionary, tale of the 1970's in America. I laughed out loud; tears came to my eyes. Thank you, authors.
Disclaimer: John Belushi was born in the same hospital (a few years later) as I was; one of his father's restaurants was two blocks from where I did some of my growing up; I was in Second City audiences while John was there; I've watched SNL faithfully since its first year; I saw even John's bad movies. Prejudiced I am-this is still an admirable, accurate, caring biography.
finally, the TRUE story about John Belushi !! December 4, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Beautifully done...and now I really know, right from the start, how wonderfully talented John was. If you lived his fast paced life with tremendous pressures and being the best he could possibly be, you'd probably be hitting some drugs, too. Lets focus on who the man really was and about all of his close friends who really loved him. Judy Belushi Pisano does an excellent job putting this book together. What a talent she is a fantastic achievement. I couldn't put this book down and I have the rings on my ass to prove it !!! Now John would have appreciated that comment !
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