Author Michael Callahan: "I Let Cher Have It"

Show Notes

Dennis goes to the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood to chat with Philadelpia-based author Michael Callahan about his fun new novel "The Night She Won Miss America." Michael recounts the amazing true story that inspired his novel; of Betty Cooper, Miss America 1937, who ran away with her male escort on the same night she won the crown. He also discusses his lifelong obsession with beauty pageants, his favorite Miss America, bullshit talents like giving a speech and playing the marimba, the pageant songs that need to die, the return of Vanessa Williams and that time he got to walk the Miss America runway. He also talks about his obsession with mid-century Americana, the coffee table book he's currently working on about the legendary L.A. restaurant Musso & Frank, the death of magazines, high school pranks, his most unfortunate haircut, his favorite Cassidy, the Charlie's Angel he was so nervous to interview, taking a ride with Mike Tyson, writing for Vanity Fair, hearing back from Cher and the Dirrty pop diva who drove him to distraction in the Bahamas.