When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy
A portrait of an unstable genius and a cultural history of a medium coming to life. Margolick writes in vibrant detail not only of the Caesar shows but of the early-TV world around them ... The book, ardent yet measured, is unsentimental in a way few show-business bios are ... Margolick makes the achievements of Caesar and his gang shine through.
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Caesar died in 2014, at 91, his best work decades behind him. But his legacy, Margolick persuasively argues, is everywhere ... Margolick is an industrious researcher and skillful writer. He tends to empty his notebooks, rarely settling for one anecdote when many will do ... When Caesar Was King might have benefited from being shorter.
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Mr. Margolick’s analysis of Caesar’s off-screen personality—if he may be said to have had a personality—is most interesting ... Mr. Margolick brilliantly summarizes Sid Caesar’s fall.
