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 media no longer ask those who know something ... to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.”
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)