Still supporting himself by working nights in the music industry, he began to write during the day for the Queens Tribune, a weekly newspaper in Flushing, New York.
In 1983, he was hired as a full-time feature writer for The Fort Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel, and eventually promoted to columnist.
[10] In a column printed in the April 3, 2005, edition, Albom described two former Michigan State University basketball players, both then in the NBA, attending an NCAA Final Four semifinal game on Saturday to cheer for their school.
A later internal investigation found no other similar instances in Albom's past columns, but did cite an editorial-wide problem of routinely using unattributed quotes from other sources.
[11] Carol Leigh Hutton, publisher of the Detroit Free Press at the time of these events, later told Buzzfeed that she regretted the way it was handled.
[citation needed] Albom's breakthrough book came about after he was rotating the TV channels and viewed Morrie Schwartz's interview with Ted Koppel on ABC News Nightline in 1995, in which Schwartz, a sociology professor, spoke about living and dying with a terminal disease, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
Albom, who was close to Schwartz during his college years at Brandeis University, felt guilty about not keeping in touch so he reconnected with his former professor, visiting him in suburban Boston and eventually coming every Tuesday for discussions about life and death.
[citation needed] Oprah Winfrey produced a television movie adaptation by the same name for ABC, starring Hank Azaria as Albom and Jack Lemmon as Morrie.
In 2004, it became a television movie for ABC, starring Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Imperioli, and Jeff Daniels.
Directed by Lloyd Kramer, the film was critically acclaimed and the most watched TV movie of the year, with 18.7 million viewers.
[full citation needed] It is about Charley "Chick" Benetto, a retired baseball player who, facing the pain of unrealized dreams, alcoholism, divorce, and an estrangement from his grown daughter, returns to his childhood home and attempts suicide; there, he meets his long dead mother, who welcomes him as if nothing ever happened, and in this way, the book explores the question, "What would you do if you had one more day with someone you've lost?".
[citation needed] The hardcover edition of For One More Day spent nine months on the New York Times Best Seller list after debuting at the top spot, and reached No.
[citation needed] Burstyn received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her performance in the role of Posey Benetto.
[citation needed] Albom has said his relationship with his own mother was largely behind the story of that book, and that several incidents in For One More Day are actual events from his childhood.
[21] The book is written in the same vein as Tuesdays With Morrie, in which the main character, Mitch, goes through several heartfelt conversations with the Rabbi in order to better know and understand the man that he would one day eulogize.
his own sense of faith was reawakened leading him to make contact with Henry Covington, the African-American pastor of the I Am My Brother's Keeper church in Detroit, where Albom was then living.
[citation needed] Covington, a past drug addict, dealer, and ex-convict, ministered to a congregation of largely homeless men and women in a church so poor that the roof leaked when it rained.
[citation needed] On November 27, 2011, ABC aired the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie based on the book.
His longest book at almost 400 pages, it chronicles the life and mysterious death of the fictional musician Frankie Presto, as narrated by the voice of Music.
It featured original songs written and performed by Albom and other artists including Sawyer Fredericks, Mat Kearney, Ingrid Michaelson, John Pizzarelli, and James Brent, interpreting Frankie Presto's "greatest hits", along with such older favorites featured in the novel such as Tony Bennett's "Lost in the Stars" and Dionne Warwick's "A House is Not a Home.
It is a memoir and a tribute to Chika, a young Haitian orphan who arrived at Albom's Have Faith Haiti Orphanage in Port Au Prince before being diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor and dying two years later.
[29] An excerpt was read by Albom on the new Lit Hub/Podglomerate Storybound (podcast), accompanied by an original score from musician Maiah Wynne.
[36] The book is historical fiction following Nico, an eleven-year-old boy during Germany's occupation of Greece in World War II.
His follow-up to the stage adaptation of Tuesdays were two original comedies that premiered at the Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan, started by actor Jeff Daniels.
An opening night review in The Detroit Free Press describe an "audience roaring for most of the 90 minutes"[41] Albom is an accomplished songwriter, pianist and lyricist.
[45] The ebook combines essays, fiction, musings, candid email exchanges, and conversations, compromising photographs, audio, and video clips, and interactive quizzes to give readers a view into the private lives of the authors.
[citation needed] His most recent effort, A Hole in the Roof Foundation, helps faith groups of different denominations who care for the homeless repair the spaces they use.
Webber and three others players—the remainder of "Fab Five" were not implicated—were alleged to have received over $290,000 in improper loans from a man considered to be a booster of the University of Michigan, although the amounts were never verified.
[60][61] Albom and his wife adopted an orphan named Chika Jeune, who came to his attention as a result of his work with his Haitian orphanage.