A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf, and Armed RobberyIt says a lot about Leigh Montville that I read a book about golf just because he wrote it. I have no interest in golf at all, but luckily this is more than a book about golf. It's also a book about 1930s crime and Hollywood stars. John Montague was thought by some to be the best amateur golfer in the world, yet no one could figure out why he never played professionally. That had something to do with the fact that he was wanted for armed robbery and didn't want his pictures in the paper. Despite that, he was a friend of Bing Crosby, Humphrey Bogart, Oliver Hardy, and other famous Hollywood stars, all because he could play golf like nobody else.
Montville's previous books were bestsellers about Ted Williams and Babe Ruth. Now, he's decided to write about an obscure golfer from the 1930s that few remember. I hate it when authors pander to the public like that to make a quick buck.
I first read Montville when he wrote for The Boston Globe in the 1980s. My father would pick me up an hour late from school, so that I could spend the time in the school library doing my homework -- or, as the case may be, read The Boston Globe sports page instead of doing my homework. The Globe back then featured an all-star cast including Gammons, Ryan, McDonough, Collins, and Montville. Montville was not as heralded as the others, but he may have been the best. He wasn't strictly a humor writer, but he nevertheless taught me how to write a humor column. Alas, he didn't help quite so much with algebra.
He now writes biographies, though they always have funny moments. And the man clearly loves to tell a good yarn. His books are full of little nuggets that often have nothing to do with the book as a whole, except that they are entertaining. He'll even occasionally include stories that are probably not true -- with proper warning, of course -- just because they are good stories. And that's just the kind of biography I like.
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