- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBennett Alfred Cerf
- Nickname
- Bennett Snerf
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Best known as publisher and founder of Random House. Published many giants of 20th century American literature, including William Faulkner, James Michener, and Ayn Rand. Published James Joyce's Ulysses in the US after winning landmark Supreme Court obscenity case. Edited compilations of humor and joke books. Appeared regularly on "What's My Line?" and other TV shows.- IMDb Mini Biography By: D Vertes
- SpousesPhyllis Fraser(September 17, 1940 - August 27, 1971) (his death, 2 children)Sylvia Sidney(October 1, 1935 - April 9, 1936) (divorced)
- Children
- When he learned that all university students going to war (WW I) would be given full credit for any course they signed up for, he immediately signed up for all the subjects he was bad at.
- Named his publishing company "Random House" because he thought they would be printing "...a few books at random.".
- David Sarnoff, chairman of RCA when it owned NBC and Random House, urged Cerf to quit the CBS What's My Line? (1950) since it represented a conflict of interest. Cerf managed to change Sarnoff's mind, and continued to appear on the network show until its 1967 cancellation.
- Bennett was related to actress, dancer, and singer Ginger Rogers through marriage. Ginger was a first cousin to Bennett's wife, Phyllis Fraser.
- Volunteered for the U.S. Army in World War I.
- Censor: A self-appointed snoophound who sticks his nose in other people's business.
- [on What's My Line?] I loved it from the start because, as I've told you again and again, I have a streak of pure ham in me and this appealed to every part of it. Within about six weeks, I was a national figure. As a publisher nobody knew who I was. How many people do you think look at the name on the spine of a book that has been published? They don't know whether a book's published by Scribner's or Harper's or Doubleday or Random House. What do they care? They want to know what's in the book and who wrote it. What difference does it make who published it? Even when I started writing books, and some people came to know my name, they didn't know what I looked like. But after you've been on a national television show for a little while, a popular one like "What's My Line?" everybody recognizes you. Everywhere that I went, people would yell, "Hey, Bennett." Truck drivers would stop and yell. Every taxi driver would greet me by name, and I loved it. Anybody who says that he doesn't like it, I think is a liar.
- [Howard] Dietz was a friend whom I grew up with and he's one of the funniest men I know. One day at MGM Louis Mayer complained that Dietz was leaving too early in the afternoons. Dietz countered, "But you have to remember, Mr. Mayer, I get in very late in the mornings."
- When Joan Crawford became a star, the first time they brought her to the [MGM] New York office, she was taken around the office and introduced to all the executives. She gave them all the icy star treatment, very uppety and condescending. When they came around to [Howard] Dietz, she tried the same tactics with him. Dietz stopped her cold with, "Don't give me any of that crap, Miss Crawford. I named you." Which was true. He was the one who picked Joan Crawford for her name.
- To my mind, a bad editor is a frustrated writer himself. So many editors are only editors because they haven't made it as writers. Their temptation is always to rewrite books because they think that they can do it better. We have to watch every editor on that.
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