Among the compelling subjects with whom David Fisher has collaborated are William Shatner and the late Johnnie Cochran.
“Oscar Goodman,” Fisher said, “is a combination of Cochran and Shatner. He loves the showmanship, and he loves the drama.”
Fisher is tapping into the ever-fertile brain of Goodman for the former Las Vegas mayor’s upcoming autobiography, which at the moment is being referred to as, “The Untitled Oscar Goodman Memoir.” An apt title to match the salacious nature of the book will doubtless be chosen, but first Fisher and Goodman need to find a publisher.
And there is a lot of interest.
“We’re talking to different publishers, looking at a deal that makes sense. We know what kind of book we want to do,” Fisher said during a phone interview Thursday from New York. “Oscar is truly a larger-than-life character. The book needs to reflect that, and it needs to reflect all aspects of his career. We’re now a finding a publisher who buys into that.”
A best-selling author who most recently co-wrote financial analyst Harry Markopolos’ tale of exposing Bernie Madoff, “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller,” Fisher began working with Goodman a few months ago, as Goodman was leaving his third and final term as mayor.
The two have conducted what amounts to a series of interviews leading up to Fisher’s writing of Goodman’s memoirs, dating to the days when Goodman worked for then-Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Arlen Specter.
“His approach to the legal system is terrific,” Fisher said. “You know, I worked with Buddy Cianci (on Cianci’s memoir, “Politics and Pasta”), who was mayor of Providence and one of the most successful mayors in the country. He went to jail (having been found guilty on a charge of racketeering conspiracy in what came to be known as the Operation Plunder Dome case). Oscar told me that if he’d been Cianci’s attorney, he would not have been convicted of what he was found guilty of.”
Fittingly, one of Goodman’s post-mayoral projects is the TV show in which he presides over a mock Las Vegas courtroom. The pilot was shot at the Las Vegas Hilton (now LVH) Theater.
“There is this great X-factor with Oscar, this whole Perry Mason-esque character in the courtroom,” Fisher said. “He’s told me of the hours he would spend working on a case and find that one little thing to bring to the courtroom.”
Soon after the two agreed to collaborate on the project, Goodman led Fisher on a tour of Las Vegas. It was not the Las Vegas that Fisher had anticipated.
“He wanted me to get to know Las Vegas, and we went downtown and toured the whole new area there,” Fisher said, referring to the new business development on Fremont East. “We, in New York, think that Vegas is only the Strip. But what impressed me about Oscar is that, while the Strip is certainly important, it is not the place he was mayor of.
“He is so proud of what has happened downtown during his time as mayor. That was very clear.”
Fisher was impressed by the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the soon-to-be-completed Smith Center for Performing Arts, which Goodman views as twin towers of achievement during his three terms in office.
What also impressed Fisher was Goodman’s magnanimity and the response from those who readily recognized the man who is still mistakenly identified as the current mayor of Las Vegas (who now is, of course, his wife, Carolyn).
“I was staying at the MGM Grand and he came down to meet with me, and it is genuinely fun being with him,” Fisher said. “He clearly is someone who enjoys being recognized. They say, in politics, you have a lot of friends and a lot of enemies. But with him, people always stop and smile. If you’re a politician and people stop and smile at you, you’ve done something right.”
Fisher found Goodman to be acutely self-aware.
“He has such a sense of humor,” Fisher said. “He’s a great Las Vegas story, and he can talk of his career with just the right amount of humor and seriousness. He takes himself seriously, but he gets the joke as much as anyone.”
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
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