Surprising as it sounds, there is a big market for Celebrity Death Certificates by M.F. Steen. From Bud Abbott to Frank Zappa, 170 "Hollywood notables" have their death certificates reproduced (the original document), one per page.

While this is fascinating material, I think the author makes a serious booboo not adding notes about each document. Some are hard to understand, and some explanatory notes would have clarified any problems readers might have. There are biographical notes at the end, but these are useless. Notes about their deaths, the circumstances, the rumors (Marilyn Monroe, Albert Dekker, Ramon Novarro, James Dean), news reports, etc. would have added immeasurably.

However, the documents still hold a lot of interest, so I do recommend. I just feel there was a missed opportunity with what could have been covered.

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