Thursday, May 29, 2014
NEWSMAKERS
Paperbacks pioneer Oscar Dystel dies at 101
NEW YORK
Oscar Dystel, a leader of the paperbacks market who transformed Bantam Books into a prolific powerhouse that released best-selling editions of “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Jaws,” “Ragtime” and many others, died Wednesday at age 101.
He had been in failing health and died at his home in Rye, just north of New York City, said his daughter, literary agent Jane Dystel.
Millions of people who loved to find quick reads for the airport or beach could thank Dystel, who had been a magazine editor when he was hired in 1954 to take over the then-struggling Bantam imprint. Alert to the growing appeal of cheap and portable books, Dystel soon presided over popular paperbacks of Leon Uris’ “Battle Cry” and John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” and made Bantam the dominant publisher of mass-market paperbacks.
Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock testifies: ‘We like sports’
NEW YORK
Beastie Boys rapper Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz had an easy answer for a New York lawyer asking why the hip-hop group refuses to endorse products but licensed its music for a watch company’s snowboarding video.
Horovitz told a lawyer for beverage-maker Monster Energy Co., “We like sports.” He said snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing are all hits with the band he started with two others in the 1980s when he was a teenager.
The testimony came Wednesday at a trial stemming from a lawsuit the band brought against the Corona, Calif.-based Monster.
The company admits it violated the Beastie Boys’ copyrights by including its songs in a video that was online for five weeks. But it insists it should owe no more than $125,000. The band wants more than $2 million.
Associated Press