In Media
Demara's story was recounted in the 1960 book, The Great Impostor, written by Robert Crichton and published by Random House; the book was a New York Times bestseller and adapted into a 1961 film by the same name starring Tony Curtis as Demara. A second book by Crichton, The Rascal and the Road, recounted Demara and Crichton's experiences together as Crichton conducted research for "The Great Impostor".
Other direct or indirect references to Demara include:
- The Band recorded a song called "Ferdinand the Imposter".
- The NBC drama The Pretender (1996–2000) was inspired by the life of Ferdinand Demara. Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) is a child prodigy who was abducted at a young age and raised in a think tank. In each episode, the character poses as a doctor, police officer, attorney, and various other figures in order to help those in trouble.
- The Season 1, episode of M*A*S*H, entitled "Dear Dad...Again", included a character impersonating a surgeon who was loosely based on Demara
Read more about this topic: Ferdinand Waldo Demara
Famous quotes containing the word media:
“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity—much less dissent.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why—but the editorialists forget it—terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)