Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and

Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and William Knoedelseder is a veteran journalist and best selling author who honed his investigative and narrative skills during 12 years as a staff writer at The Los Angeles Times where his ground breaking coverage of the entertainment industry produced a long string of exposes His two year investigation of payola and other corrupt practices in the record business sparked five federal grand jury investigations across the country led to the arrest and conviction of a score of organized figures and formed the basis of his first best selling book Stiffed A True Story of MCA the Music Business and the Mafia Harper Collins 1993 Stiffed was named Best Non Fiction work of 1993 by Entertainment Weekly which called it the scariest book of the yearand the funniestThe two of the principal mob figures depicted in Stiffed New Jersey crime boss Gaetano Corky Vastola and Roulette Records founder Morris Levy subseuently served as the models for HBOs Tony Soprano and his music business mentor Herman Hesh Rabkin Since 2000 Knoedelseder has written three other books In Eddies Name Farrar Straus Giroux chronicles the brutal murder of a Philadelphia teenager that made national headlines when Knoedelseder as executive producer of the Knight Ridder news program Inuirer News Tonight pressed the city to make public the content of 911 tapes recorded the night of the killing which ultimately revealed a complete breakdown of Philadelphias emergency response system Im Dying Up Here Heartbreak and High Times in Standup Comedys Golden Era Public Affairs Perseus recounts Knoedelseders time as cub reporter covering the LA comedy club scene when David Letterman Jay Leno Robin Williams and Andy Kaufman were young and undiscovered It has been optioned for film by actor Jim Carrey Knoedelseders latest Bitter Brew the Rise and Fall of Anheuser Busch and Americas Kings of Beer tells the riveting story of one of our nations most colorful and longest lasting business dynasties Called intoxicating reading by The Wall Street Journal the book became a New York Times best seller and has been optioned by Lionsgate Television in association with Michael London the Oscar nominated producer of Sideways Knoedelseder is currently at work on his third book for Harper Collins Fins about the life and times of Harley Earl the visionary car designer who helped engineer the phenomenal rise of General Motors