Meyer Lansky

 

Whoever said that crime doesn’t pay didn’t know about Meyer Lansky, the Jewish bootlegger, gambler and all around criminal, who, in 1970, was worth $300,000,000. He hid his money in a Swiss numbered bank account, whose anonymity was assured by the 1934 Swiss Banking Act.

            Unlike most criminals, Lansky reached the ripe old age of 81, while my bootlegging father, who was Lansky’s contemporary, was killed at 29 -- and whatever money was left to my mother was lost in the Great Depression.

            Lansky was born Meyer Suchowljansky in Russia to a Jewish family who, he claimed experienced vicious anti-Semitic pograms. In 1911 he immigrated to the US with his mother and brother. He met Bugsy Siegel on the Lower East Side when they were teenagers. They became lifelong friends—Bugsy saved Lansky’s life more than once -- and became partners in the bootlegging trade along with Lucky Luciano. Lansky was instrumental in Luciano’s rise to power by organizing the 1931 murder of Mafia powerhouse Salvatore Maranzano. (Get ready for that story, Boardwalk Empire fans!)

            By 1936 he had developed a gambling empire that stretched from Saratoga, New York, to Miami, to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Las Vegas. He was into narcotics, pornography, prostitution, labour racketeering and extortion and also got control of legitimate hotels, golf courses and a meat-packing plant

            He organized mob funding for Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. But when he kept its losing money, Lansky ordered his friend’s execution.

            Like Arnold Rothstein and Bugsy Siegle, he captured the imagination of authors, television producers and moviemakers. The character Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part 11 was based on Lansky. Max Bercovicz, the gangster played by James Woods in Once Upon A Time In America was inspired by Meyer Lansky, as well as in Havana, staring Robert Redford. Dustin Hoffman played Lansky in The Lost City

            Does that say something about our culture’s values?

            Lansky died of lung cancer on January 15, 1983, after spending a quiet respectable life in Miami. He was buried there in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony.

            He left behind a widow and three children.

 

 

Interview with Meyer Lansky, 1971

 

 

Next: Bugsy Siegel

Arnold Rothstein

When I was two years old, my bootlegging father, Louis Rosen, was murdered along with my innocent uncle in a turf war with the Mafia. They were ambushed and shot in our driveway as they arrived home from a card game at Taback’s Cigar Store. Although the killer got away, it was well known not only who he was but that he would never be identified. The impact on my family and on my life-- amid the drama of Prohibition and the Great Depression-- has animated my memoir and novels.

            My father was among a Whose Who of Jewish bootleggers, whose histories are varied, interesting and complicated. For example. Arnold Rothstein’s background made him an unlikely “kingpin of the Jewish underworld.” His brother became a rabbi and his father, who served as chairman of the board of New York’s Beth Israel Hospital, was a pious and wealthy businessman known for philanthropy and honesty,

            In Rothstein’s late 20’s he opened a gambling parlor; by 1912, when he was thirty, he was a millionaire. He captured the imagination of his time-- Damon Runyan modeled the character Nathan Detroit in “Guys and Dolls” after Rothstein. And in “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald created a Rothstein-based character, named Meyer Wolfsheim.

            In 1919 Rothstein arranged, through an intermediary, to pay the Chicago White Sox players $80,000 on the condition that they lose to Cincinnati. They did, and Rothstein made a fortune betting against Chicago. In 1921 eight players, led by first- baseman Chick Gandill, were convicted of trying to fix the Series. Rothman, who never met the players and could say that he never approved the intermediary’s scheme, was acquitted.

            He was murdered by a fellow gambler in 1928 at the age of 46 without revealing his assailant’s name. Because of his father, he received an Orthodox Jewish funeral with the renowned rabbi, Leo Jung.

            Next: Meyer Lansky

Downton Abbey, Season 3 Finale

According to an interview with Julian Fellowes, creator and writer of Downton Abbey, the theme of  the series is about people confronting change whether they like it or not. The show started in 1912, just before the Great War, but in the 1920’s there was an accelerated rate of change. It was actually the end of the Second World War that was the coup de grace for Crawley type people.

Jessica Brown Findlay who played Lady Sybil, and Dan Stevens who played Mathew Crawley wanted to leave after season three, so they had to be killed off—Sybil in childbirth and Mathew in a car crash.

The back story about Robert and Cora is how she came to England as an American heiress and met Robert who married her for her money and then fell in love.

The ending of season 3 has left enough loose ends for season 4 and beyond. Mary, now a young widow, is poised for new love and maybe a comeuppance for her snobbery. Thomas’ revelation that he is gay is another interesting story line. The introduction of  “difficult” Rose, who has left her mean mother and moved in with the Crawleys, provides more potential drama. And what about Lady Edith on the threshold of finding love and becoming (gasp!) a mistress!  But all the characters in Downton Abbey are so richly drawn in their humanity, that as I write, I am in withdrawal.

Season Three, Episode Six

Watching Downton Abbey last night I was reminded of wisdom given in writing workshop I attended namely, that without conflict there is no story. Which may be one of the reasons we’re riveted each and every week.

For example: conflicts between physicians leading to Sybil’s death…between Mathew and Robert about running the estate…….between compassion and bias regarding an ex-prostitute trying to change her life…..between guilt and forgiveness of Sybil’s parents…between the generations as Robert Crowley and Mr. Carson cling stubbornly to changing times……between religions……between names for the baby.


There has to be good news, too. Mr. Bates’ final release from prison. A new baby girl. The promise of Daisy’s release from service into a new and promising future.

Have you ever seen such gorgeous mourning clothes? And those magnificent hats! 


When did ladies stop wearing hats? 

DOWNTON ABBEY: SEASON THREE, EPISODE FOUR

A birth and a death. A former prostitute. Kitchen and estate conflicts. The continuing saga of Mr. Bates’ murder conviction. The old guard represented by Grandmamma; the new by Mathew’s mother, Mrs. Crowley. These themes and more were all layered deliciously in the fourth segment of Downton Abbey.

            But two doctors arguing vehemently and loudly about life and death treatment for a woman in labor? In front of the family yet? Please. Now I know Downton Abbey is a fairy tale!

            But what a fairy tale. And how interesting and surprising as each doctor proves to be right-- and then wrong-- about their diagnosis of Lady Sybil, leading to her death. The baby survives, as everyone upstairs and downstairs in Downton Abbey mourns Lady Sybil— no doubt among millions of viewers all over the world.

            Meanwhile there is a conflict about running the estate—with more foreshadowed to come—between young Mathew, whose money saved Downton Abbey, and Lord Crowley, the head honcho-- also illustrating the generational conflict between the status-quo and moderninity.

            Here’s what I especially like about Downtown Abbey:

            * It’s gentleness amidst all the violence in television and movies-- and in life.      

            *The classically trained actors.

            *The depiction of a unique time and place that is gone forever, never to return.

            *It’s awareness of the changes in society and the world.

            *The beauty of the production.

            * The pleasure of living vicariously with dozens of servants (cooks, drivers, footmen. Ladies maids! Valets! Who dress you!)

            *I love stories and this is a good one!

Downtown Abbey: Season 3, Episode 2

Confronted by a letter Lavinia sent from her deathbed endowing her wealth to Mathew, he finally relented and used his inheritance to save Downton Abbey. (Surprise surprise)

After keeping us—and the Abbey staff --in suspense about whether Mrs. Hughes is sick we learn with relief before the hour is up that she doesn’t have cancer.

Anna, in her search for information that can prove her husband’s innocence and obtain his release from a lifetime in prison, learns that the woman he is convicted of killing was afraid of him! Could our nice Mr. Bates really be a murderer? If so, I think it could put some interesting teeth into the story.

And poor Lady Edith! As if being outshone by her prettier sisters for her entire life wasn’t enough of a humiliation, she is jilted publicly by the groom as she stands at the alter in her wedding gown. Only a total jerk would do something that horrible to a woman so maybe she is well rid of him.

My favorite character in Downton Abbey is Mathew’s mother, Mrs. Crawley. Unlike her fellow aristocrats she believes that the privileged have responsibilities to the less fortunate. In this episode she is helping prostitutes and reaching out to a particular young woman who, viewers of previous episodes will recognize as having been formerly involved with the Crawley family.

When someone is the family wonders how to help Lady Edith, who is so devastated she can’t eat or sleep, Mrs. Crawly, always a voice of reason, replies, “Get her some work to do!”

I love the hats...

 

DOWNTON ABBEY, Season 3, Episode 1

Last night money reared its vulgar head among the gentle aristocrats of Downton Abbey’s third season. It almost wrecked the marriage of Mathew and Lady Mary when he refused to use his inherited windfall to save Downton Abbey, suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy. Cora’s wealthy American mother, Martha, arriving for Mary’s and Mathew’s wedding, also refused to help. Daisy downstairs hasn't received her promotion from kitchen maid to kitchen assistant. The place is understaffed. The formidable Lord Crawley of Downton Abbey is brought down to tears. No one has the faintest idea how to survive without valets, ladies’ maids, footmen, butlers, cooks, chauffeurs. Who knows what pitfalls remain as the Crawlely’s are brought kicking and screaming into the real world? And who cares?

            I do! And according to the New York Times I am not alone. More than 120 million viewers in Sweden, Russia, South Korea, the Middle East and dozens of other locales are also addicted.

            We wait to see what happens to Mr. Bates in prison for murdering his wife; Mrs. Hughes’ cancer; Tom’s dirty tricks; Martha’s American maid’s kisses. But unlike in real life, the plotting is too deliciously predictable to have to really worry about the Crawleys’ fate. All we have to do is relax in vicarious luxury and watch.