Born in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood in the ’20s, Jerome Solon Felder—better known as Doc Pomus—was stricken by polio as a kid. That didn’t stop him from becoming a blues singer and the musical Michelangelo behind such perfect pop tunes as “A Teenager in Love” and “Viva Las Vegas,” or from marrying a knockout blond, running a poker den and schooling young scamps like Lou Reed. William Hechter and Peter Miller’s doc explores an artistic life well lived, combining interviews (Leiber & Stoller, Jimmy Scott, Ben E. King) and footage of the man at work beside kindred spirits like Dr. John, to construct a moving, un-mawkish portrait of a songwriting icon.
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