McNALL, Bruce 1950-

PERSONAL: Born 1950; married Jane Cody; children: Katie, Bruce. Education: University of California—Los Angeles, bachelor's degree and doctoral program studies.

ADDRESSES: Home—Malibu Beach, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Hyperion Books, 77 West 66th St., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10023.

CAREER: Movie financier, former sports team owner and dealer in antique coins. Numismatic Fine Arts Inc., Los Angeles, CA, founder and chair of board; Summa Stable, Inc., owner and chair of board; Dallas Mavericks (National Basketball Association team), Dallas, TX, former partner; Los Angeles Kings (National Hockey League team), Inglewood, CA, co-owner, 1986-87 and 1994—, sole owner, 1988-94; Toronto Argonauts (Canadian Football League team), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, owner, 1991—; former chair of board of governors of National Hockey League.

AWARDS, HONORS: Regents fellowship, University of California, c. 1971; named Owner of the Year, National Hockey League, 1987.

WRITINGS:

(With Michael D'Antonio) Fun While It Lasted: My

Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Bruce McNall first became famous as a dealer in antique coins, a career he began as a high school student. At the University of California, Los Angeles, McNall studied Roman history but continued to deal in coins. Through his professors he met media moguls who wanted him to help them deal in coins themselves, and McNall made a small fortune giving them advice. He used this money first to open his own rare coin store, Numismatic Fine Arts, and then to buy racehorses and sports teams. He made headlines across North America when he lured hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky away from the Edmonton Oilers to his own Los Angeles Kings. In 1994 it was revealed that much of McNall's sports empire had been paid for through fraud, and in 1997 he was sentenced to seventy months in prison.

Fun While It Lasted: My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune chronicles these events, as well as McNall's prison term and his life immediately after he was released in 2001. The book "offers lots of name-dropping of sports and entertainment figures and a very breezy writing style," Patrick J. Brunet wrote in Library Journal, "which make it a very good read." Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush particularly recommended the book "for readers who enjoy insider tales of financial skullduggery."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2003, Vanessa Bush, review of Fun While It Lasted: My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune, p. 1852.

Business Week, August 29, 1988, Patrick E. Cole, "The Man Who Paid a Kings' Ransom for Gretsky," p. 80.

Daily News (Los Angeles, CA), January 10, 1997, Bill Schlotter and Janet Gilmore, "Ex-Kings Owner Gets Seventy Months," p. N3.

Dallas Morning News, October 5, 2003, Anuradha Raghunathan, review of Fun While It Lasted, p. D5.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), July 26, 2003, Charles Foran, review of Fun While It Lasted, p. D4.

Hockey News, December, 2000, Helene Elliott, "McNall Seeks Halfway House in 2001 in Bid for Freedom," p. 13; August 26, 2003, Rudy Mezzetta, review of Fun While It Lasted, p. 7.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2003, review of Fun While It Lasted, p. 661.

Library Journal, June 15, 2003, Patrick J. Brunet, review of Fun While It Lasted, p. 81.

Maclean's, May 6, 1991, Brenda Dalglish, "Antiques and Athletes: Bruce McNall Has Always Taken Big Risks," p. 45.

New York Times, July 8, 2003, Rick Lyman, "The Rise, the Fall, and Now a New Day" (interview), p. E1.

Publishers Weekly, May 19, 2003, review of Fun While It Lasted, p. 61.

Sports Illustrated, May 13, 1991, Richard Hoffer, "The Collector: Bruce McNall Is an Acquisitive Owner Whose Tastes Run from Antiquities to the Priciest Athletes," pp. 82-90.

U.S. News and World Report, May 6, 1991, Tom Callahan, "A Savvy Collector of Passions," p. 67.

Vanity Fair, April, 1994, Bryan Burrough, interview with McNall, p. 72.

ONLINE

CNN.com,http://www.cnn.com/ (June 6, 2003), transcript of interview with McNall.

ESPN.com,http://www.espn.com/ (March 7, 2001),

Greg Garber, "Four Years of Club Fed Anything but Relaxing for McNall."

Slam! Sports,http://www.canoe.ca/ (June 15, 2004), Al Strachan, "The Last Word: Former Los Angeles Kings Owner Bruce McNall Knew Who His True Friends Were during His Stay in Prison, and He Had to Look No Further than Wayne Gretzky", Mike Ulmer, "The Last Word: Former Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Argonauts Owner Bruce McNall Struggles with Reality. But His Legacy in the NHL Continues to Live On."

TSN Online,http://tsn.tsnmax.ca/ (June 15, 2004), Reed Holmes, "He's out of Jail, but He Can't Take a Phone Call."*