What's up, Doc?
Beware, self-promotion ahead: My profile of the quirky Jewish M.D. who inspired Doc Hollywood appears in the new issue of AJL:
He looks like Groucho Marx mated with … Groucho Marx. He shows up shabbily dressed in black pants, a blue Oxford shirt, multi-colored vest, red bowtie, and a slightly disheveled top hat with his wild spindly hair (today, oddly painted pink) to our three hour visit. And if you’ve bumped into him at synagogue or the supermarket, he’d be wearing a similar outfit. He claims the outlandish style “makes it easy to connect with people.”
Shulman, who’s lived in Atlanta since 1967, gained national notoriety in 1991 when his semi-autobiographical memoir was turned into the Michael J. Fox romantic comedy Doc Hollywood. (“The good part was me,” he says. “The bad part was fiction.”) He has since parlayed the film’s success into C-list fame and a quirky string of career opportunities.
Full story here.
Dr. Shulman hits the nail on the head with his closing quote in the article.
We’re going to put this one in the next Big Apple Blog Festival.
Thanks for a good story, Benyamin.