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Book Synopsis
Even celebrities die--and author Allan Abbott was the man who picked up the bodies! He ran the leading hearse, mortuary, and funeral services company in Hollywood and got an unprecedented glimpse of how celebrities really live and die.
The Forrest Gump of the funeral industry, Abbott was everywhere celebrities died, from helping to prepare Marilyn Monroe's body for burial to standing next to Christopher Walken at Natalie Wood's funeral. Now in his memoir Pardon My Hearse, Abbott tells the rags-to-shroud story of how we went from a young man with a hearse to the funeral driver to the stars--a rollicking, unexpectedly hilarious story of glamorous funerals, mishaps with corpses, and true-life glimpses of celebrities at their most revealing moments. Pardon My Hearse is an eye-opening look at secret Hollywood from the man who literally knows where the bodies are buried.
Review Quotes
An intriguing everyman account of Tinseltown from an unexpected perspective ... there are some anecdotes here that you'll never see anywhere else. From Marilyn Monroe to Natalie Wood, to his own triumphs and personal tragedies, I doubt I've read a biography as eclectic -- or as sincere -- as Pardon My Hearse." -Glenn Dallas, Manhattan Book Review
An eyebrow-raising memoir, unexpectedly humorous ... an at times tongue-in-cheek, at times somewhat gruesome, yet constantly fascinating tell-all. -Midwest Book Review
There's a lot to learn inside Pardon My Hearse. This book is like eavesdropping at a funeral director's convention, with each tale outrageously outdoing the last. -Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez
This highly readable volume is filled with delightful details, colourful characters and fascinating insights. Pardon My Hearse is a marvelous and lively memoir, one that manages to be both engrossing and surprisingly revealing at the same time. Abbott takes the reader through Hollywood funeral service history for the first time with a fair-minded, insightful and amusing command of the material that makes the journey rewarding every sober step of the way. -Thomas A. McPherson, Professional Vehicle Historian
This uniquely vivid portrait of the mysterious funeral industry proves that in life, as well as in death, truth is indeed stranger than fiction ... one of those books that you will read over and over again. -Professional Car Collector Magazine
