He’s at it again.
Yup, publicist-promoter John Cirillo is now a full-time author. His third book “Elvis, Aretha and The Babe: 8/16: Three Times the Bell Would Toll” – is now available on Amazon.
But this one, well, is based more on curiosity than his “Marbles on an Unpaved Road: An Ode to Sheepshead Bay,” which shared his love for the old neighborhood.
Now the kid from 2308 Jerome Ave. needed some questions answered.
“I was up early, sipping coffee, in bed at the Inn on Bellevue, in Rhode Island, while watching the morning news shows,” he writes in the prologue of his new book. “The talking heads are remembering the King of Rock and Roll on the anniversary of his passing.”
It’s Aug. 16, and for Cirillo and wife Fran at their favorite vacation spot in the state of Rhode Island, all they can hear are songs from the late Elvis Presley over the air.
The King passed away on Aug. 16, 1977.
“Hours later,” he continues, “the news out of Detroit in a stark reality is that the Queen of Soul is dead. When Aretha Franklin passed on Aug. 16, 2018, it was late morning in Newport, Rhode Island.”
“Now,” he tells the Brooklyn Eagle, “I’m curious. I google 8/16 death dates – and said at that moment, ‘This is a book.’”
Four years later — Aug. 16, 2022 — Cirillo was tuned in to Sid Rosenberg on the “Bernie and Sid in the Morning” show on 77 WABC Radio.
“Sid was talking about the Elvis anniversary, and I thought again about this amazing paradox,” Cirillo writes. “I texted Sid with the factoid that Aretha and the Babe — Babe Ruth — shared that somber date.”
John Cirillo holds up his book. Photo: John Cirillo
Sid, the Poly Prep grad, told his listeners.
Now, Cirillo is telling all in his book.
The 304-page book connects three American icons who all died on the same date, but in different years.
Sportscaster Bob Costas, Michael Kay, Christopher Russo and Larry Merchant, deejays “Cousin” Bruce Murrow, Ken Dashow, Mark Chernoff, Richard Neer and Mike McCann, baseball stars Carl Erskine and Ron Swoboda, musical artists Bobby Rush and Vaneese Thomas and sportswriters Bill Verrigan, Mike Vaccaro, Dan Shaughnessy, Ian O’Connor, Bob Klapisch, Jack Curry and Dominick Amore are among the dozens of contributors to insight on the iconic trio.
And Babe Ruth’s granddaughter, Linda Ruth Tosetti wrote the foreword.
“My husband, Andy, is among many who tell me I look just like my grandfather,” Tosetti writes, “actually, I’m much prettier.
“They’re still talking about him (Babe) 100 years after he played and his individual memorabilia pieces sell for $1 million a pop and that many of today’s sportswriters say he was the greatest who ever played, which is a testament to his legacy,” she concludes.
One of the highlights – the commonalities shared by Elvis, Aretha and The Babe – their affinity for fur coats, charitable endeavors, movie and television appearances, managers who lent a hand in their stardom and their love of Cadillacs.
The beloved New York Mets broadcaster, Ralph Kiner, writes Cirillo, a prolific homerun-leader as a slugger with the Pittsburgh Pirates, coined the famous, “Homerun Hitters Drive Cadillacs,” back in the ’50s during his playing days.
In fact, Kiner, a Hall of Famer, led the National League in home runs seven consecutive seasons — from 1946 to 1952.
And being the prolific home run hitter of their respective generations was not the only similarity of Ruth and Kiner, Cirillo uncovers.
Ruth was born Feb. 6, 1895; Kiner died Feb. 6, 2014. Ruth received 95% of the baseball writers’ votes in his selection to the Hall of Fame on the first ballet in 1936.
Kiner was selected to the Hall in his last year of eligibility by one more vote than the minimum in 1975. Ruth wore uniform No, 3; Kiner wore No. 4.
New York Yankee longtime public relations director and baseball historian Marty Appel says with a smile that “today’s players wouldn’t be caught dead in a Cadillac because they’re all driving Porsches and Lombardini’s,” Cirillo captures in his book.
“But the expression still resonates,” he says.
Cirillo learned his writing skills well at St. Marks Grammar School and later Nazareth Regional High School. He polished things up with his PR prose and broadcasting at Fordham University.
“I’m a good writer,” he says, “I like weaving traits together.” He did with three of the biggest names in our generation who stood the test of time.
“Elvis, Aretha and the Babe 8/16: Three Times the Bell Would Toll.”
Today is 8/17 – and we lived to write about all of it.
Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle, He may be reached at: [email protected]; X: @AndyFurmanFSR.