Jazz-Age-Lawyer_letters_55

“Tells a fascinating story with insight and style.”

—Ben Yagoda, author of About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made

“This book is a great read!”

—Howard Suber, author of The Power of Film and Letters to Young Filmmakers

“This is both a first-rate story and a previously untold one.”

—Peter Jaszi, Professor Emeritus, American University Law School

“With its engaging characters and intriguing plot, this book reads like a literary novel.”

—Philip Furia, author of The Poets of Tin Pan Alley

"Captures the spirit of the age and paints a truly engaging portrait of a quite remarkable man.”

—Paul Goldstein, author of Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox (2d ed. 2019)

"The real treat is Rosen’s deft handling of Burkan’s life and times, plus the stories of his famous clients who managed to mess up their lives in outsized ways."

—Washington Independent Review of Books

"Rosen is a good writer with a fun story to tell, and his enthusiasm makes Jazz Age Lawyer a delightful read. He loves these characters."

—Mark Judge, Author of If It Ain't Got That Swing: The Rebirth of Grown-Up Culture

"Lively and revealing" story of the man "who transformed the business of music in America."

—Eric Felten, The Wall Street Journal

"Absorbing. A thoughtful and in-depth look at the substance of many foundational cases in entertainment history."

—Greg Young, Author of The Bowery Boys Adventures in Old New York

"Recites some great tales, some of them quite scandalous. This is legal history with spice."

—Pacific Historical Review

“A story so extraordinary that at times the reminder that the content is all true comes with a jolt.”

—Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice

Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and Nathan Burkan, circa 1918.
Ascap's Delegation to Congressional Hearings on Free Radio Music Bill, April 1924
Mae West and Nathan Burkan, March 17, 1930.
Nathan Burkan (2) and Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt (3) confer, October 17, 1934.
NYC Mayors Fiorello LaGuardia and James J. Walker, June 9, 1936.
The Burkan family, circa 1888. Nathan, age ten, is on the right.
The Music Publishers Association fetes Irish MP “Tay Pay” O’Connor, October 19, 1906.
Nathan Burkan in 1915.
Ascap’s first annual dinner, November 29, 1914.
The first annual meeting of the United Artists Corporation, April 1919.
Charlie Chaplin meets the press under Burkan’s watchful eye, January 22, 1927.
Nathan Burkans, Sr. and Jr., summer 1935.
Nathan Burkan before the House Patents Committee, February 25, 1936.
Nathan Burkan, circa 1932.
Times Square at Night, from the Continental Building, 1932

About Jazz Age Lawyer

Adventures of a Jazz Age Lawyer is the lively story of legal giant Nathan Burkan, whose career encapsulated the coming of age of the institutions, archetypes, and attitudes that define American popular culture. With a client list that included Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Frank Costello, Victor Herbert, Mae West, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, Arnold Rothstein, and Samuel Goldwyn, Burkan was “New York’s Spotlight Lawyer” for more than three decades.

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About Gary

“A born storyteller.”
—Peter Jaszi

“Leavens legal history with showbiz anecdote, and insight with amusement.”
—Ken Emerson

“I don’t know of anyone who writes about popular music more knowledgeably, penetratingly, and elegantly.”
—Ben Yagoda

FULL BIO

Latest Blog Post

CHARLIE IN THE HAREM

Charlie Chaplin’s films represented only a small fraction of the commerce being transacted in his name, image, and antics during the World War I era. Adventures of a Jazz Age Lawyer recounts how Chaplin’s lawyer, Nathan Burkan, chased down spurious Chaplin films that he considered “vulgar, suggestive, and obscene.”  …

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Also by Gary

Unfair to Genius is an enlightening and entertaining romp through 60 tumultuous years of legal, artistic, and economic change in the American popular music industry, as seen through the lens of one of its most prolific copyright litigants and legendary outsiders, Ira B. Arnstein.

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