Saturday, September 19, 2009

Danny Gans' ghostwriter: "Norm Clarke got it wrong! I did so complete Danny's autobiography the day before he died!"


The ghostwriter for the upcoming autobiography of the late Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans insists the book was completed the day before Danny Gans died, and that Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke was "wrong" in reporting on September 6th that he had only completed a "rough draft."

R.G. Ryan, the musician, poet and, according to Norm, former minister, who collaborated with Gans on his memoirs before the musical impressionist died suddenly at age 52 after taking the powerful opiate hydromorphone, emailed the Tabloid Baby offices to insist that this Danny Gans legend is true:

"Just read your report regarding my interview with Norm Clarke. Contrary to what he said, and what you subsequently reported, the final draft was, in fact, completed at eleven AM on Thursday, April 30, 2009. It is a well-documented fact that Norm, unfortunately got wrong. I'd appreciate a correction in your report and wished you would've asked me about it. I've been pretty open with you, don't you think?"

Ryan has indeed responded to our questions on more than one occasion, and gave his blessing for us to post the prologue to the Gans book, The Voices In My Head (we used screen grabs of the chapter from Ryan's site, which he has since removed. He also told Tabloid Baby that he finished the book at 11 am the day before Gans died.

Although he's failed to answer several queries we've emailed him in the time since, we're happy to publish anything he's got to say.

The story that Danny Gans had completed his autobiography hours before his shocking death was one of several image-burnishing stories that were circulated by his friends in the days after the tragedy. The book is set for October release. Norm is on vacation in Spain. No word whether he's issued a retraction, as he's done for past Danny Gans myths that he had floated.

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