LEADER 00000cam  22004698i 4500 
001    ocn944956227 
003    OCoLC 
005    20160608123721.0 
008    160304s2016    nyua          000 0beng   
010      2016010868 
020    9780399161476|q(hardback) 
020    0399161473|q(hardback) 
035    (OCoLC)944956227 
040    DLC|beng|erda|cDLC|dOCLCO|dBDX|dGK8|dOCLCO|dOCLCQ|dOCLCO
       |dZHI 
042    pcc 
043    n-us-ny|an-us---|ae-gx--- 
049    WHPP 
050 00 F128.9.J5|bS47 2016 
082 00 338.092|aB|223 
084    BIO006000|2bisacsh 
100 1  Shapiro, Walter. 
245 10 Hustling Hitler :|bthe Jewish vaudevillian who fooled the 
       Führer /|cWalter Shapiro. 
264  1 New York :|bBlue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Random
       House,|c2016. 
300    432 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates :|billustrations ;
       |c24 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
520 2  "From acclaimed journalist Walter Shapiro, the true life 
       story of how his great-uncle--a Jewish vaudeville 
       impresario and exuberant con man--managed to cheat 
       Hitler's agents in the run-up to WWII. Vaudeville manager,
       boxing promoter, stock swindler, card shark and self-
       proclaimed 'Jade King of China, ' Freeman Bernstein was a 
       master of exuberant excess and no stranger to the hard-
       hand of the law. But the charges he was arrested for on 
       the evening of February 18, 1937, outside of a Hollywood 
       starlet's home, were more serious than those he had ever 
       encountered before. The most powerful and feared man in 
       the world--Adolf Hitler--claimed that Bernstein had 
       committed fraud against the German government. While 
       living in Shanghai in 1936, Bernstein had been asked to 
       procure a large quantity of nickel for the Germans. Nickel
       was essential to make stainless steel for armaments, and 
       impossible at that time for Germany to openly buy on the 
       international markets. When the shipments arrived from 
       Canada, bearing Bernstein's stamp of approval, the Germans
       found only huge, useless quantities of scrap metal and tin
       : a huge blow to their economy and war preparations. All 
       his life, journalist Walter Shapiro assumed that the 
       outlandish stories about his great uncle Freeman were 
       exaggerated pieces of family lore; a cockamamie Jewish 
       revenge fantasy dreamt up to entertain the kids and 
       venerate their larger-than-life relative. But in recent 
       years, Shapiro decided to search for the truth, and in 
       this fascinating exploration of Bernstein's life, he 
       investigates the incredible possibility that a New York 
       Jew--born in 1873 to Polish immigrants--may have been 
       responsible for a critical shortage of Nazi resources in 
       the early years of World War II. Shapiro's easy narrative 
       naturally evokes Bernstein's colorful world: from the 
       smell of the grease paint backstage in a seedy turn-of-the
       -century vaudeville house in Bayonne, to the roar from the
       ringside seats of a top-rated 1923 middleweight bout in 
       Mexico City, and the ominous sense of what it must have 
       been like for an American Jew to be arranging shady 
       business dealings in Germany in 1936. A thrilling and page
       -turning read, Hustling Hitler is the untold story of the 
       larger-than-life, eternal hustler who changed the course 
       of history"--|cProvided by publisher. 
600 10 Bernstein, Freeman,|d1873-1942. 
600 10 Shapiro, Walter|xFamily. 
650  0 Jews|zNew York (State)|zNew York|vBiography. 
650  0 Swindlers and swindling|zUnited States|vBiography. 
650  0 Businessmen|zChina|zShanghai|vBiography. 
650  0 Nickel|xHistory|y20th century. 
650  0 World War, 1939-1945|zGermany. 
650  0 Entertainers|zNew Jersey|zBayonne|vBiography. 
650  7 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY|xHistorical.|2bisacsh 
651  0 Germany|xCommerce|xHistory|y20th century. 
655  7 Biographies.|2lcgft 
994    C0|bWHP