King of the Sunset Strip: Hangin' With Mickey Cohen and the Hollywood Mob

Who would have thought that an acting career that began as a teenage star in the "Annette" series on "The Mickey Mouse Club", Walt Disney's "Zorro", "The Roy Rogers Show", and "That's My Mom" would lead to the role of confidante and assistant to Southern California crime-boss Mickey Cohen?

"King of the Sunset Strip" is a pistol-to-the-side-of-your-head Hollywood story. Beginning with the parties, boozing, and sex and the "good-time" macho whoring and gambling of the mob, the story covers the action Sunset Boulevard penthouses, Beverly Hills mansions, Brentwood estates, and across state lines to Las Vegas. Steve Stevens takes his readers down the palm-lined streets of Hollywood to meet film and entertainment giants like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Louis Prima, Robert Mitchum, and many more.

Stevens's relationship with Cohen began as a friendship and deteriorated into witnessing bloody beatings by Cohen, crimescene drive-bys, and much more. Peppered with familiar celebrity names and faces from film, TV, and organized crime, this classic Hollywood tale reads like a box-office script.

After Mickey Cohen was arrested on charges of income-tax evasion, gangsters hustled Stevens out of California to a remote ranch in Nevada and ordered him to stay in hiding. During Cohen's trial, Stevens remained quiet while Cohen was eventually sentenced to Alcatraz.

Beginning with the casting call that resulted in Stevens's association with Cohen, "King of the Sunset Strip" takes readers through the exciting story to the curtain call that eventually led him out of the life of crime.