Larry Sloman

Larry "Ratso" Sloman (born 1950) is a New York-based author. Larry "Ratso" Sloman is best known as Howard Stern's collaborator on what were then the two fastest selling books in publishing history, Private Parts and Miss America. His most recent book, The Secret Life of Houdini, written with magic theorist William Kalush, was a New York Times best-seller and made international news when Houdini’s relative called for an exhumation of the dead magician’s body to test for poisoning, based on evidence of a plot against Houdini uncovered by Sloman and Kalush. Sloman’s previous two books, Mysterious Stranger, a collaboration with the magician David Blaine, and Scar Tissue, the autobiography of Red Hot Chili Pepper lead singer Anthony Kiedis, both made the Times best-seller list. Sloman is currently working with the boxer Mike Tyson on his autobiography. Sloman, along with his partner Emmy-award winning director/producer Jeff Lieberman, recently founded Shallow Entertainment Inc., a production company that will develop television, movie and direct-marketing videos. Their first production DV Divas – Las Vegas appeared on various pay-per-view platforms. Sloman wrote an early draft of the Private Parts movie for Rysher Productions. Along with a writing partner, George Barkin, he wrote Sexual Studies, a comedy for USA Films, produced by Ellen Barkin. Sloman amassed a massive social history of the Sixties in the form of an oral biography of Abbie Hoffman for Doubleday called Steal This Dream that was published in September of 1998. Larry is the author of three books prior to the Hoffman book: the award-winning On the Road with Bob Dylan, an account of Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue; Reefer Madness, a social history of marijuana in America; and the best-selling Thin Ice, an account of one season in the life of the New York Rangers ice hockey team. He had been the Executive Editor of the National Lampoon magazine for six years until he took a leave to do the Hoffman book. In that capacity, he wrote numerous articles and wrote and edited a number of special one-shot magazines. Larry also writes song lyrics and owns Ratso Music, a BMI affiliated music-publishing company. He has collaborated on over thirty songs with rock stars Rick Derringer and John Cale. Working with famed art director George Lois, Larry produced an award-winning music video Jokerman for Bob Dylan. In 1986, Larry and Ed Subitzky produced a series of humorous radio spots for WNBC's Statute of Liberty celebration. For many years Sloman wrote and performed the humorous Ranger Playoff Reports for WFAN's Don Imus radio show. Along with director Jesse Dylan, Larry co-wrote the short film Coney which starred Vincent Gardenia and won a HBO competition. Larry is the co-author along with Andy Simmons of National Lampoon's Festival which was developed by Warner Brothers. He contributed additional dialogue for National Lampoon's European Vacation and he was one of the writers for National Lampoon's Class of '86. Along with Ed Subitzky, he wrote the screenplay Washington B.C. for Robert Schnitzer Productions. In 1992, Sloman made his big screen debut playing a "cynical, alcoholic journalist" in Primary Motive, a Fox film starring Judd Nelson, Justine Bateman and John Savage. After filming was completed, Sloman and director Dan Adams co-wrote Adams next film, a black comedy called A New York Minute. Sloman returned to the silver screen to play the mayor of a town terrorized by Satan in Jeff Lieberman’s horror film Satan’s Little Helper. When he's not writing, Larry can be found on the ice, scoring goals at local area skating rinks. Larry attended Queens College in New York where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Sociology. After a year in Vista, he accepted a National Institute for Mental Health fellowship at University of Wisconsin at Madison where he earned a Masters Degree in Deviance and Criminology, a discipline that has informed his work since.