happy you picked up on that because i did set out to write a four generation saga biography of sumner redstone. so, mickey redstone as he eventually became known is his dad and was born as rothstein. i'm from new york so i compare everything to new york. he was like a street kid selling papers and hustling and dropped out of high school and made friends with a dentist friend turned the bookie and they had a colorful youth. the bookie kind of put the money up and max who he still was was the front run who would go to the newspapers and drive-ins ran into a little bit of trouble in world war ii with tire rationing and stuff so they went to nightclubs for a while and about the last quarter because what is interesting is barbara walters dad started the first one and they sold it to him so they have this whole nightclub time in boston and there were organized crime figures bear. in the bucket has a whole section about what a crazy underworld that was that they came out of world war ii and started doing after the bookie was cutting off to jail, they started giving drive-ins again and that became a n

one of the aproblem rah fall stories about sumner be redstone is how he survivor vied a hotel fire -- survived a hotel fire in boston. and in your digging you found a whole lot more to that story than maybe sumner talked about in the his autobiography. could you tell us a little bit more about that fateful night? >> sure. so the only other book that's ever really been written about sumner redstone is his autobiography, for many reasons. and what's wild about that book is that it opens with this anecdote of the fire if. 1979, plaza hotel in boston, one of these fancy hotels in boston. everyone in l.a. knows the story. he, you know, smelled smoke around midnight under his hotel room door, went to the window, it didn't open -- sorry, he went to the door, opened it, was blasted by fire, went to the window, hung out counting to 10 over and over again while the flames licked his hands and burned him horribly. and so it's a pretty bold thing to start your own autobiography with this story. and in this story, you know, he's alone in the hotel room. and there have been -- people sort of knew b

. >>> here's a look at the life and career of media mogul sumner redstone. good evening, everybody. i'm the professor of the la press club. [applause] i will note that this is being recorded by c-span, which is exciting for us. a quick introduction a lot of you probably know sumner redstone already but we are here to talk about

and a look at the life and career of sumner redstone. all this and more on booktv. booktv.org for a complete television schedule and follow some instagram, facebook and twitter. >> hillary clinton mentioned at the atlantic forum that she recently read, the woman's hour by elaine weiss. a book that led her to a new project. >> a friend of mine, my good friend lissa muscatine, along with her husband on politics and prose. she sent me a book called the woman's hour.by historian i did not know, a woman called elaine weiss. i read it and it is about the absolutely, concluding fight for the 19th amendment. to give women suffrage in our country. which will be 100 years in 2020. i read it and i was so captivated, called the author and i said, i loved your book! and the characters just come alive, it is so hard for in the very end and only passed by one vote. i said you thought about maybe trying to get a movie made or a series made? she said, i wouldn't even know where to start. and i said can i help you? and she said sure. so, i called a few people including my longtime fr