Another Day in Showbiz

Book excerpt: Well before the curtains drew on the first annual Grammy Awards ceremony, before the Nevada deserts were lit up by the casinos of Las Vegas, Pierre Cossette was just another Canadian kid, running around the rural town of Valleyfield, Quebec. Circumstances would bring the Cossette family to Pasadena, California; from there, a brazen determination and entrepreneurial savvy would hoist Pierre to the top of the world of glitz and glamour. Along the road, the entertainment industry in the United States would be forever changed by the kid from Valleyfield. In Another Day in Showbiz, Pierre Cossette tells his unique story for the first time -- from his days as a rookie MCA agent in Vegas, pedling the likes of Ann-Margret and Sammy Davis Jr. to wary casino bosses, to his current capers alongside Donald Trump and Celine Dion's extended family. Triumphs and trip-ups, Broadway hits and broadcasting battles, all recounted in a tale that is both the intimate story of one man's life and an unabashed account of the world's most watched industry. Few in Valleyfield, Quebec would have guessed that one of their own would go on to talk Ronald Reagan into doing a show at the Last Frontier Casino, or introduce the concept of the "lounge act" to Las Vegas. Few in the music business would have guessed it possible to start a major record label from scratch, or to televise the Grammy Awards to more than 100 million viewers. Yet Pierre Cossette has accomplished all this -- and plenty more. In Another Day in Showbiz, he tells us how. Book jacket.