Peter Benjaminson

Peter's latest book, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BETTY BOOP: THE 100-YEAR HISTORY OF AN ANIMATED ICON, will be released by Applause Books on November 15, 2023, only four days before the only musical about Betty ever staged, BOOP: THE MUSICAL, will open at the CIBC Theatre in Chicago on its way to Broadway. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BETTY BOOP is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Peter's previous nine books include CRAZY MAN CRAZY: THE BILL HALEY STORY, which Peter co-wrote with Bill Haley Jr. and THE STORY OF MOTOWN, REVISED EDITION, with a foreword by nationally acclaimed rock critic Greil Marcus. Also by Peter are SUPER FREAK: THE LIFE OF RICK JAMES, MARY WELLS: THE TUMULTUOUS LIFE OF MOTOWN'S FIRST SUPERSTAR, the only biography of Mary "My Guy" Wells ever published, which was greeted with an enthusiastic full-page review on the front page of the Entertainment Section of The Wall Street Journal, and THE LOST SUPREME: THE LIFE OF DREAMGIRL FLORENCE BALLARD. Both the Mary Wells bio and THE LOST SUPREME were based on Peter's exclusive hours-long one-on-one taped interviews with the subjects of each of those books. Peter was born in Washington, D.C., and was a reporter for the DETROIT FREE PRESS from 1970-76. While at the Free Press, he wrote the book INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, with David Anderson, the first how-to book in that field. It was in print for 20 years. From 1979 to 1981 he was a reporter for the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. In 1984, he wrote DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON: AMERICA'S NEWSPAPER GIANTS STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL, the first and only book about the death of afternoon newspapers in America's big cities, for which he received the Jim Andrews Communicator Award. Peter lives in New York City.