Rothstein (54 page)

21 Stuss was the Jewish version of the then-popular card game of faro. In faro, cards are drawn from a dealing box and matched against an enameled set of the thirteen ranks of the spade suit. Stuss differs from faro in that cards are dealt from a pack held facedown by a dealer and not from a dealing box. Faro, one of the oldest of gambling card games (it was played in the court of Louis XIV), had virtually disappeared by 1925.

22 “Not only … crime everywhere.”: Cohen (Tough Jews), p. 52.

Chapter 3: “Everyone Gambled”

23 “Gambling itself … more its sale.”: Alexander (Jazz Age Jews), pp. 24-25.

24 Theft of watch: Rothstein, pp. 19-20; Katcher, p. 20.

25 “Is there any … almost nothing else?”: Kohout, p. 27.

25 “The percentage … any player has.”: Among the West 40s more colorful operators was oldtime major league umpire Honest John Kelly, so named for once refusing a $10,000 bribe. Kelly moved from baseball to saloonkeeping and officiating at boxing matches. Kelly smelled a rat. Tammany leader Big Tim Sullivan had $13,000 on “Sailor Tom” Sharkey and warned Kelly to proceed. Kelly cancelled the fight anyway, and Sullivan ordered Honest John’s West 41st Street gambling house raided and ransacked by New York’s Finest. Despite such interruptions, Kelly operated his West 41st Street establishment until 1912 when a particularly violent police raid forced relocation to 156 W. 44th Street, an establishment christened the Vendome Club. There Kelly remained until 1922, the last of the old crowd, so revered that in his last four years of operation a uniformed policeman guarded his front door around the clock. When Honest John finally retired, he sold the property to the local Republican organization. (Asbury, Sucker’s Progress, pp. 428-29, 432-34; Sante, p. 174; Lansche, pp. 40-41, 138, 144; Ivor-Campbell, p. 89)

27 “It is the finest … their incipiency.”: Asbury (Sucker’s Progress), pp. 419-67; Chafetz, pp. 310-12; Davis, pp. 207-20; Sante, pp. 171-14; Morris (Incredible New York), pp. 259-72; Burns and Sanders, p. 203; Wolfe, pp. 247-48, 201, 207; Bloom, pp. 293-95; Jackson, p. 545. When the 5,300-seat Hippodrome opened in 1905, its owners proclaimed it the world’s largest theater. It featured not only a huge stage but two circus rings and a good-sized water tank for aquatic extravaganzas. Its immensity proved a handicap, it was too large for patrons to view theatrical productions comfortably, and leaving it increasingly dependent on circuses and the like. It closed in 1939.

28 “Get the hell …” … “… So-and-So, didn’t you?”: Rothstein, p. 21; Sunny Smith’s eventually became a saloon operated by heavyweight “Sailor Tom” Sharkey (see Chapter 6).

28 “I knew my … I couldn’t beat.”: Clarke, p. 305.

29 Leaves home: Crouse, p. 135. Financier Jim Fisk was shot to death on the Broadway Central’s grand staircase in 1872. Baseball’s National League was founded there on February 2, 1876. The Broadway Central eventually degenerated into a welfare hotel. It collapsed in 1973, killing four persons and injuring nineteen.

29 Early gambling, cheating: Clarke, p. 17.

29 “Right away he … a lot from him.”: ibid. p. 296.

30 Meeting celebrities: ibid. p. 296. Among Rothstein’s earliest Broadway haunts was Gentleman Jim Corbett’s cafe, where he rubbed elbows with such stage people as now-forgotten vaudevillian Sam Bernard, (1863-1927) one of the premier vaudeville and stage comedians of his day. Englishborn, he reversed the usual pattern of anglicizing names, his original surname being Barnett. He enjoyed a brief film career in the 1910s.

30 Birth of Times Square: Taylor, pp. 305, 326; Laas, pp. 42-71; Wolfe, pp. 246-58; Eliot, pp. 75-79; http://www.nycsubway.org/irt/irthaer/impact-irt- 2.html.

30 Hammerstein’s Victoria: Bloom, pp. 389-90; Hynd, pp. 101-2; Clarke, pp. 14-15; Katcher, pp. 22-24. The Victoria presented an incongruous mix of class and vulgarity. It might offer a play by Tolstoy or a performance by Eleanora Duse. But it also presented “performances” by scandal-plagued Evelyn Nesbit, heavyweight champ Jack Johnson, or the atrocious Cherry Sisters; various jugglers; a man with a seven-foot-long beard; whistling monkeys; Siamese twins-and worse. On the theater’s rooftop, the Venetian Terrace Garden featured the city’s first singing waiters, milkmaids, and live barnyard animals. “The ducks are even more blase than last year,” noted the New York Dramatic Mirror, “but the chickens are most condescending and communicative.”

Note: Leo Katcher implies that A. R. dropped out of Boys High School in 1898 to hang out in such places as the Victoria. However, the Victoria did not open until March 1899.

32 “I guess … on his side.”: Katcher, p. 20. “It was always the biggest, toughest boys whom he treated [to favors],” brother Edgar recalled of Arnold’s school days.

32 “When he … than anything else.”: Clarke, pp. 19-20.

33 “He loved … later years.”: NY World, 18 November 1928, p. 18.

33 Algonquin Circle: George S. Kaufman coauthored such Broadway hits as Beggar on Horseback, The Coconuts, Animal Crackers, The Royal Family, Dinner at Eight; Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing, and The Solid Gold Cadillac. Edna Ferber’s novels included So Big, Showboat, Cimarron, Giant, and The Ice Palace. Sherwood scripted the Humphrey Bogart vehicle, The Petrified Forest. In 1938 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography Abe Lincoln in Illinois. During World War II, Sherwood served as a speechwriter for FDR. Adams wrote a widely read column in the Tribune (and later the World) and created the phrase “Tinker to Evers to Chance.” Harold Ross founded The New Yorker. Heywood Broun penned crusading columns for the Tribune and later the World. Wolcott reviewed the theatre for the Times and later became a major radio personality. Benchley’s gentle humor, written originally for numerous magazines and newspapers eventually filled over a dozen hardcover volumes. He later moved on to a modestly successful movie career. The Algonquin Hotel’s “Vicious Circle” often partied at Herbert Bayard Swope’s Long Island estate. We shall soon meet Swope-as A. R.‘s best man.

34 Jack’s circle: Rothstein, p. 34. A. R. wasn’t the only gambler at Jack’s. Bald Jack Rose, Tom Shaughnessy, the always-entertaining Vernie Barton, and A. R.‘s future partner Willie Shea (see Chapter 7) also attended. “Arnold waited for prospective players either in Jack’s or Rector’s, and had Willie Shea, as partner, to help,” noted Carolyn Rothstein.

34 “a handsome, irresponsible … with his friends”: Clarke, p. 16. Actress Louise Brooks claimed that Mizner stole many of his best witticisms from Grant Clarke, who created the phrase “Take him for a ride” for the first alltalking feature film, 1928’s The Lights of New York. (Paris, p. 201 fn)

34 “There was …” … “… in Jack’s restaurant.”: Clarke, p. 16; NY Times, 20 October 1932, p. 21.

34 “balance a seidel … and sundry.”: Katcher, p. 43; NY Times, 7 December 1945, p. 22.

34 Clarke, Lessing: Katcher, p. 43; NY Times, 30 October 1940, p. 21.

35 Dorgan: NY Times, 2 February 1945, p. 19; Kahn (A Flame of Pure Fire), p. 318.

35 “Mizner had … homes and houses.” Johnston, p. 70.

35 Mizner career: Johnston, pp. 66, 107; Berton, pp. 376-77; Fowler (Skyline), p. 68.

37 “Always be nice … something”: http://www.quotegeek.com/Literature/Mizner_Wilson; http://www.cp-tel.net/ miller/BilLee/quotes/Mizner.html; http://www.thinkexist.com/english/Author/ x/Author_4400_l.htm; http://www.chesco.com/artman/mizner.html.

38-39 McGraw’s billiard parlor: Doyle took over operation of McGraw’s pool hall, moving it to Times Square (1456 Broadway) in 1917, where it remained until 1937. “In the ’20s and ’30s,” wrote author Larry Ritter, “John Thomas Doyle was the nation’s leading setter of betting odds on sporting events .. (Ritter, East Side, West Side, p. 144)

40 “I’ll have you … of us do.”: NY World (thrice-a-week edition), 1 October 1920, p. 1; Clarke, pp. 21-22; Rothstein, pp. 105-06; Katcher, pp. 53-56; Alexander (John McGraw), pp. 119, 142.

Chapter 4: ‘Why Not Get Married?”

41 Hotels, lake houses: Heimer, pp. 122-29.

42 Cavanagh: Alexander (Jazz Age Jews), pp. 28-29; Hotaling, pp. 165-66; http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Mar-27-Mon-2000/business/ 13240801.html; Katcher, pp. 47-48.

42 Attell early career: Attell fought 168 times, winning 91 bouts (including 47 knockouts), losing 10 (3 knockouts), with 17 draws and 50 no-decisions. He last fought in 1917, just two years before helping fix the World Series. His greatnephew, Eric Matthew Thomsen, notes that Attell was not born “Albert Knoehr” as Eliot Asinof contends in Eight Men Out. The family name was indeed Attell.

43 Attell stranded: Bradley, p. 316.

43 Meets Carolyn Green, pp. 15-22.

43 Carolyn’s background: 1900 NYC City Directory, p. 512; 1907 NYC City Directory; 1910 NYC City Directory, p. 572. Hollywood twice filmed silent versions of The Chorus Lady-in 1915, featuring the tragic Wallace Reid in his first role for Famous Players Lasky, and in 1924. In 1912 The Chorus Lady producer Henry Birkhardt Harris traveled to London to promote the career of its star, Rose Stahl. Return passage was aboard the Titanic. As it sank, Harris was refused entrance to a lifeboat. “All right, boys,” he responded, “I must take my medicine. Women and children first in a game like this.” His body was never recovered.

44 “I remember as … ill or well.”: Rothstein, p. 16.

44 “Arnold, at that … with me.”: ibid, pp. 18-19.

45 “He sent me … any presents.”: ibid, p. 22.

45 “How dare you ask …” … “… them after all.”: Katcher, pp. 43-45. The Casino, where Carolyn played in Havana, was at Broadway and West 39th Street. The Chorus Lady opened at the Savoy at 112 West 34th Street. The play soon moved to the Garrick at 67 W. 35th Street. In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the theater district ran much farther down Broadway than it does today.

46 “an intensely … zealot.”: Rothstein, p. 44. Leo Katcher indicates that Abraham and Esther Rothstein then lived on West 84th Street. This is unlikely. They lived at 174 West 79th Street circa 1903-8 and at 127 Riverside Drive circa 1909-10.

46 “I was brought up … “… “… refuge and help”: Rothstein, pp. 45-46. Meyer Greenwald was born in New York City in 1854 to Jonas and Hannah Greenwald, immigrants from Prussia. Jonas Greenwald, as well as Meyer’s younger brother Isaac, were also butchers. Carolyn was presumably named after Meyer’s younger sister Caroline.

46-47 “My son … man,” … Will … me?”: Katcher, pp. 43-45.

47 Swope background: Kahn (Man of the World), pp. 83-116; Lewis (Man of the World), pp. 4-14.

48 “She was … I know.”: Kahn (Man of the World), p. 122; Lewis (Man of the World), p. 122.

48 “Arnold Rothstein” … “I’m an abolitionist,” Lewis (Man of the World), p. 20; Rothstein marriage license, Saratoga Springs Clerk’s Office.

49 Justice Bradley: 1908 Saratoga City Directory, 86; 1909 Saratoga City Directory, p. 89. Justice Bradley’s former home remains remarkably well preserved. The color has changed, but it is very easy to picture it as Arnold and Carolyn viewed it on their wedding day.

49 “I was wearing … rather long”: Rothstein, pp. 24-25.

49 Rothstein wedding: Rothstein, pp. 24-25; Kahn (The World of Swope), pp. 122. Perhaps out of professional courtesy, the Telegraph excluded Swope and Pearl from its account.

50 “I don’t … I’m paying.”: Katcher, p. 51.

50 “I had this … Gambling did it.”: NY American, 5 January 1934.

50 “I don’t feel well.”: Rothstein, pp. 30-32, Clarke, p. 25; Katcher, p. 51.

Chapter S: “I’ve Got Plans”

52 “Rats … around a stable.”: Rothstein, pp. 30-34. Rothstein respected not only Farley’s loyalty but his intellect, and paid his way through Columbia University. (NY World, 23 November 1928, p. 16)

53 Sullivan: Rothstein wisely maintained his strongest political ties with New York City’s dominant political party, the Democrats, but also transacted business with Republicans. As early as 1912 he loaned money to local Republican activist Billy Halpin-with Halpin’s notes witnessed by longtime Secretary of the United States Senate and former Brooklyn Republican Congressman Charles Goodwin Bennett.

54-55 “When you’ve voted … four votes.”: Harlow, p. 505, Katcher, p. 74.

54 Sullivan career: Harlow, pp. 487-508; Sante, pp. 268-73; Werner, pp. 438-40; Connable and Silberfarb, pp. 221, 224-25; Allen (The Tiger), p. 181. Sullivan controlled a national entertainment network. He owned numerous vaudeville, movie, and burlesque houses, as well as a racing stable and part of Dreamland, Coney Island’s spectacular but short-lived amusement park.

55 Rothstein meets Sullivan: Logan, p. 60; Fried, pp. 23-24; Arnold Rothstein: A Chronology of His Life and Gambling Career, p. 23.

56 “I used to sit … long stops.”: Rothstein, p. 34.

57 “Bet-a-Million” Gates: Gates made his fortune in barbed wire, but made even more in the Spindletop oil field, in railroading, and developing Port Arthur, Texas. His 1911 funeral was held in the grand ballroom of the Plaza Hotel.

57-58 “I wouldn’t … “… “… Arnold and me.”: NY World (thrice-a-week edition), 1 October 1920, P. 1; Katcher, pp. 52, 59-62; Bauchle denied Shea’s allegations vigorously: “You can say for me that I have not been in Rothstein’s house since last September. Prior to that I played there a few times, but if I had any privileges that other players didn’t have I didn’t know it.”

58 “Shea’s on the …” … “… to do that.”: NY American, 8 November 1910; Katcher, pp. 59-63; Rothstein, pp. 36-37; Clarke, pp. 25-26. “Okay, Coakley,” was a favorite Rothstein expression, a variant on the universally popular “okey dokey.”

60 “The house … we could quit.”: Rothstein, pp. 37-38.

61 Rothstein’s patrons: Katcher, p. 63.

61 Lillian Lorraine: Katcher, p. 63; Carter, pp. 18-19, 42, 44, 64; Higham, pp. 82-84; Spitzer, p. 30; Louvish, p. 194.

62 Practical joke on Lorraine: Rothstein, pp. 140-01; Clark, p. 187. On another occasion Rothstein phoned Reuben’s, impersonating a famous actress. He ordered 300 sandwiches and a barrel of herrings to be delivered to an address on West 49th Street. Reuben took personal direction of the order-and found himself delivering it to the horses’ entrance of Madison Square Garden.

Arnold also delighted in making such calls to Carolyn Rothstein. The Friday before his murder, he left a message he was the Prince of Wales. She knew without hesitation it was him (Arnold Rothstein: A Chronology of His Life and Gambling Career, p. 23).