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Curtis and Wisdom memoirs boosted

26.10.10 | Philip Stone

Sales of the memoirs of actors Tony Curtis and Norman Wisdom have rocketed since their deaths at the end of September/early October respectively.

According to Nielsen BookScan data, sales of Curtis' American Prince (Virgin) have jumped 2,500% over the past three weeks. During the seven days to 25th September, Curtis' 288-page memoir sold just 12 copies at UK booksellers, compared to 314 during the week ending 16th October.

Comparatively, sales of Wisdom's 2003-published My Turn (Arrow) have jumped 2,200% over the same three-week period, from 16 copies sold to 370. It brings life sales of Curtis' memoir to 40,930 copies, while Wisdom's My Turn has just passed the 70,000 mark. The latter is currently number 207 overall on the Amazon.co.uk bestseller list, and number 36 within the "biography" category.

There was also a small sales boost for Curtis' inside-story on "Some Like it Hot", Me, Marilyn and the Movie (also Virgin), with sales of the October 2009-published film memoir up 600%.

Sales of the DVD have been boosted too. The MGM "Special Edition" of the 1959 movie is currently 87th in Amazon.co.uk's "Comedy DVD" bestseller list, ahead of 2009 releases "In the Loop" and "Up in the Air".

The "Norman Wisdom DVD Collection", meanwhile, is currently number eight overall in the Amazon.co.uk DVD chart, ahead of the likes of "Paranormal Activity", "Eclipse" and "How to Train Your Dragon".

• Charts
• Philip Stone