Here's to the Friars: The heart of show business

Joey Adams (1911-1999) was an American comedian who wrote "Strictly for Laughs" - a column in the New York Post. His widow, Cindy Adams, is a society/gossip columnist for the same paper. He was the author of many books, including "Borscht Belt". From KIRKUS REVIEW: "I'll tell you one thing about Sinatra,"" Milton Bede shouts at a Friars Club celebrity roast, ""no one has ever been turned away from his door--if--you're over 21 and have big knockers. . . Everything Sinatra touches turns to gold. I'm afraid to go to the toilet with him. . . What a crowd! I would say mob--but you know how sensitive Frank is."" Adams provides a field day of insult humor and boozy camaraderie in his history of the posh Manhattan club for entertainers, their agents and writers (current membership about 1,040). Born in 1904 as The Press Agents Association, it quickly hit upon the guest-of-honor dinner where the guest was boosted and knocked. Famed members tend to be deeply sentimental about their club and its parties for various charities. Mainly quotations from roasts, the book has some very funny pages, especially Jack Benny's, and many that are mere melted chicken fat--or worse, like an all-night booze with Dean Martin spluttering verbal hotfoots over his glass."