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Ben Stein's Diary
Miami Beach Rhapsody
The new show Magic City that is stunningly on target.
For what it’s worth, I have in the past two weeks become addicted to a new show on the STARZ cable channels. The show is called Magic City and it’s about life in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1959. In many ways, this show is a stunningly on target explication of an interesting sliver of the Jewish experience in America… the part that is really, really aggressive. Virtually every male character in it is Jewish, and what a bunch of characters they are:
The hero, if he can be called a “hero,” is part owner of a large hotel in Miami Beach which is patterned after The Fontainebleau, a showplace of long ago. He is an ambitious, driven, obsessive hotel manager. He loves his beautiful wife (really an amazing beauty) and his two sons, one a law student, the other a playboy. He also loves his daughter, an obnoxious little creep who is played to absolute perfection by an actress who has future Academy Award winner all over her.
The other male lead is a gangster named “Ben Diamond” or more properly, “Ben ‘The Butcher’ Diamond.” He owns 49 per cent of the hotel in question and is endlessly pushing the “hero” around and threatening him. The Butcher is married to a simply gorgeous woman who is having an affair with the “hero’s” playboy son.
Then there is one other important character. He is the father of the “hero.” He is supposedly the only one with any character at all, so he’s (I am not kidding here) a Communist who reads The Worker and will not go to his revolting granddaughter’s Bas Mitzvah because he considers all religion claptrap.
The stories week by week are fun and there are more than enough beautiful women in it for those of us who love beautiful women.
But what there really is in spades is the endless longing of certain sorts of the Jewish heart for “more,” as Ben Diamond puts it. The “hero” wants the best hotel in Miami Beach. The gangster wants more money. The aging father/Bolshevik wants to wreck the lives of everyone around him in classic Bolshevik fashion. (The idea that we are supposed to admire anyone who is a Communist after the whole world knew of Stalin’s genocide against his own people is astonishing.) Still, there is something beguiling about the old man, clinging to his failed materialist god against 100 percent of the evidence. He is like a particularly touching mental defective.
The kids want to be successful. The nauseating granddaughter wants to have Frankie Avalon sing at her Bas Mitzvah and have pink smoke all around her (14 years after Auschwitz). The boys want to be “shtarkers” and high players in Miami Beach. The playboy son seems likely to die soon.
Everyone wants more: more women, more money, more power. Not one person in this story has the slightest amount of peace of mind. My wonderful Presbyterian wife, who has plenty of peace of mind and wants nothing more than what she has, tried to watch “Magic City” and couldn’t. “I don’t understand these people,” she said.
But I am a Jew and I do understand them. Long ago, there was a movie about Louis “Lepkele” Buchalter, the Jewish head of the organized crime group called “Murder, Incorporated.” Their business was murdering people. In the movie, someone asks Buchalter why he is so aggressive. He answers (in paraphrase)… “You have arms, you take.”
That’s these people, the Miami Beach people in this series. And a compelling lot they are, minute by minute risking everything for “more.” Now, to be sure, someone has confused the dates and circumstances of this story. It supposedly takes place in 1959, when Miami was the height of chic, but Miami Beach was already rapidly fading by then. It is largely about gambling, but Las Vegas is the gaming center, not Miami Beach. And it shows men and women smoking so much you would think they were doing commercials for Liggett & Myers.
But these are trivial details. The beauty of the show, the reason it is absolutely must see TV, literally cannot be missed, is that it dissects a certain kind of Jewish — really human — personality and shows how it works. The people in the show are unbearably heart breaking in their pitiful belief in the value of material things. They are rich, but sad. Now, don’t bother sending me hate mails. I well know that the stars of this show are not at all representative of all Jews by any means. My parents were (of course) Jews and they had as close to zero interest in making money as any humans can have. My sister is Jewish (of course) and has never shown the slightest interest in making money. But there are enough Jews — and Italians and Irish and English and Poles and African Americans —who do worship the dollar to make the avatars of that state of mind important. Watch and learn.
I will tell you more about Magic City later. In the meantime, it’s well worth your time.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
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Jack in Wi.| 4.17.12 @ 7:50AM
Ben: I can't believe that you haven't got a home in Miami Beach as well. I went to Miami Beach several years ago. There were lots of Jewish people, but I couldn't find one good kosher deli. I saw on the Food Channel that the number of Jewish delis in New York has dropped dramatically. Perhaps you could write about that. There isn't a kosher butcher or deli left in my city except an old time deli in the black ghetto. That is there only because the commissioner of baseball and a few other millionaries subsidized it.
Frank Drackman| 4.17.12 @ 8:27AM
Well Jack,
and I know how much you like to fill your mouth with Black Forest Sausage...
I mean Black Sausage...
And you watch the Food Channel? Congrats on coming out of the closet.
Next time your in the A-T-L to watch your crush Elton John, check out the "Baruch Goldstein Kosher Deli and Shoot'n Range" in Buckhead...
Frank
Occam's Tool| 4.17.12 @ 3:47PM
No one wants to feed you kosher food, Jack. Try the Halal section; those guys are your pals, not us.
Jack in Wi.| 4.18.12 @ 2:19AM
I used to eat at kosher resturants all the time when my company did business in Skokie Illinois. The Muslims are big buyers of kosher food because they consider it halal. Tell all those Jewish businessmen that they should reject the Muslim money. By the way I eat in a Palistinian resturant all the time. The food is very good, the best vegetarian buffet in town. The people are friendly, and nice looking waitress' as well.
You know Occam, a racist bigot like yourself should just get with the program. People all over the world are about the same. There are no chosen people anymore. We are all decendents of Adam and Eve, and children of God. I even consider a worthless piece of trash, like you, my very misguided, brother
Frank Drackman| 4.17.12 @ 8:36AM
Dammit Ben,
I'm already spending more on Satellites than NASA..
I'm sorry, I LIKE German Tele-Romane...
and just try being a Kansas City Royals fan outside of the KC Metroplex, Black Tar Heroin would be cheaper...
And growing up Jewish in the 70's sucked.
My Gentile Friends could emulate Michael Corleone, Dirty Hairy Callahan, Steve Martin, Whatever John Travolta's name was in "Saturday Nite Fever", I'm not a Homo so I wouldn't know.
I got to emulate Hyman Roth, Gabe Kaplan, Jackie Mason.
Jee-Zus, even the Blacks could be Superfly, or Shaft...
Frank
Plotnik| 4.17.12 @ 10:11AM
A great (paraphrase) line from the Jewish psychiatrist in 'The Sopranos': "My uncle was a driver for Lepke. You know, Murder Incorporated? Those were some tough Jews!"
gearjammer| 4.17.12 @ 5:21PM
wasn't that a jewish record producer ?
Cobalt| 4.17.12 @ 10:33AM
Mr. Stein,
Thank's for the information on Magic City.
I hope that someday, there will be a television series about Jewish Southern history. This series should include the Jewish merchants who operated retail stores in small southern towns, as well as the Jewish communities in Baltimore, Charleston, S.C., New Orleans, etc. This TV series should also include the descendents of these merchants, and the role they play in Southern life today.
From my point of view, as a southern middle-age gentile, this kind of show could be a real educational experience, and would showcase some of the best people in the South.
Cobalt
Mark Shepler| 4.17.12 @ 10:59AM
Hear, hear! As a CSA sympathizer who's glad the Union won, I nominate Judah P. Benjamin.
Frank Drackman| 4.17.12 @ 11:17AM
"CSA sympathizer who's glad the Union won?"
thats like bein a Holocaust Survivor who's glad the Nazi's won.
Its cool, who wouldn't want to have a Slave or 2 to do those jobs Free Men won't do?
You ever tried Picking Cotton? Sucks.
And I have it on good authority that the greatest Calvary General of all Times, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was actually
Nathan Bedford Fofrestbaum.
Of course thats just what my Grandfather, Nathan Bedford Shemp Proudfoot Forrest Drackman says...
Frank
Mark Shepler| 4.17.12 @ 1:46PM
Errr, I guess there Frank if you equate the United States with Nazi Germany. I, although a born Southerner on the other hand, agree with General Grant that "never before had a people fought so nobly for so terrible a cause" and really am quite glad the Union prevailed. Just as Gen. Longstreet and even Lee were. But I guess there's a little too much nuance in the whole subject for you and that's why you fell back on your lazy, know-nothing Nazi tropes and tarred your own country with it.
Mark Shepler| 4.17.12 @ 1:51PM
BTW, in case you don't know who Judah Benjamin was perhaps you might do a little remedial American History homework before spouting off.
Frank Drackman| 4.17.12 @ 2:27PM
Is that the Judah Benjamin who owned 140 Slaves?
Frank
Occam's Tool| 4.17.12 @ 3:51PM
Confederate SecState Benjamin.
Personally, I found Alabama very hospitable to Jews, although the Kosher Deli in Birmingham didn't serve Matzoh-Ball soup. But I'd rather be a Jew in Alabama than a Jew within a 150 mile radius of Jack the asshole. That actually came out wrong, because it's fun to be an Alabama Jew.
On the other hand, to be a Jew in New Zealand sucked on toast.
Frank Drackman| 4.17.12 @ 4:29PM
@ Tool,
they probably had it, just thought you were trying to pull some "Ball" joke.
Ball jokes are big in the South, remember this cute little blonde 1st yr Med School who said she loved having hot balls in her mouth...
That was what she called those "Red Hot" cinnamon candies, or maybe she really was talking about ball-age.
Cause isn't it "Matza" ball?
Frank
gearjammer| 4.17.12 @ 5:25PM
They got those bull's balls hanging from their trucks. got behind a guy and he had these gold ones hanging from the bumper. I started to pass him and my wife said what's the hurry ? Married 41 years and you think you know someone and that happens.
Carolyn| 4.23.12 @ 2:00PM
What a great idea. I am from Greenville, MS where Stein Mart originated. My first job was at the older generation's Sam Stein's wrapping Christmas presents. Large Jewish community and many of the best stores were owned by those wonderful people. The area, middle of the Delta on the River, is very depressed now, but at one time was in high cotton!
Vern Crisler| 4.17.12 @ 11:28AM
I guess I'll have to wait for the DVDs. Right now I'm watching documentaries on WWI. I remember seeing a picture of a little Jewish boy asking some German soldiers for water. It was a heartbreaking picture, given what happened a few years later.
Crassus| 4.17.12 @ 12:08PM
Funny about Lepke. One brother of his was a rabbi, another was a physician, and his sister was a college professor. He died in the electric chair at Sing Sing.
Drek| 4.17.12 @ 12:13PM
What does Olga Kurylenko play?
The Road Warrior| 4.17.12 @ 12:33PM
I don't know, I haven't seen the show. But I hear there's lot's of nudity. Does she get naked?
gearjammer| 4.17.12 @ 6:14PM
Just nude.
Mark Shepler| 4.17.12 @ 2:48PM
There is a modern, real-life chapter of, or epilogue really, of final greed, lust and murder involving the rich and powerful Jews of Miami Beach. Ben Novak Jr., son of the builder of the Fontainebleu Ben Novak, was allegedly murdered by his wife Narcy Novak, and two hired hitmen, in 2009. Narcy is also charged with the killing of Ben's mother and Ben Sr.'s widow, 87 year old Bernice Novak. In 2002 Narcy was implicated in a home invasion in which Ben Jr. was tied up and beaten but he refused to file a complaint. Seems Narcy had set her sights on what remained of the family fortune and Ben Jr's wealth he accumulated on his own so she first allegedly killed Bernice and then Ben in order to get her hands on it all.
I knew Ben Jr. casually and briefly after beginning employment at the 'Bleu in 1979. Then, the Grand Dame of Miami Beach was owned by Stephen Muss and managed by Hilton Corp and had undergone a top-to-bottom renovation including a 3.3 million gallon freeform pool that was one of the nicest around at the time. Ben Jr. was a fairly frequent visitor to the hotel he grew up in living in a penthouse suite with his parents along the way. He dated a waitress within our little circle from the pool bar, Coconut Willies, a nice girl from Nebraska or some such.
True to Ben Stein's article although very pretty she wasn't "enough" and so he had her upper chasis upgraded by a medical body 'n fender man, if you know what I mean. In 1980 or so that was still a notable occurrance and caused a stir with our gang. I mention it because Narcy complains that when she woke up a plastic surgeon's years ago, where she had gone to fix her nose she says Ben broke, she too had a new, unwanted boob job, too. But he lived modestly back then, just up a few blocks from my pad in the Ives Estates area, a middle class 'burb, in northern Dade county. At the time, I believe his gig was event security but he evolved into event planning for Amway, I think, and it was in that line he made his real fortune.
By all accounts he was a hard driving businessman, not very pleasant and very controlling, according to Narcy. I certainly remember my work associate complaining of it. He was also a world-renowed collector of comic books and Batman memorabilia with an estimated second largest collection in the world, valued at $1mil. His bloody, brutal end came in a Rye, NY Hilton hotel room where he was found bound and beaten to death, allegedly at the hands of the hitmen Narcy recruited, one of who was her brother. Narcy's daughter, May Abad, was at first thought to be involved in the plot but later became a witness. A NY detective became so convinced May's life was in danger she loaned May $5000 to relocate and subsequently lost her job for becoming too intimately involved. Narcy's trial started this week in which lurid tales of bondage, violent sex games, domestic violence and periodic visits of cops to their S. Florida home are alleged.
Seems like if the Magic City makes it the later episodes featuring the lives and fortunes of Miami Beach's heirs will have a ready made script in the sorry end of the Novak line.
gearjammer| 4.17.12 @ 9:56PM
The Waltons covered this ground decades ago.
Occam's Tool| 4.17.12 @ 3:54PM
Ben, I don't really care. Underwhelmed with the Fontainebleau when I visited it in 1995 (where the psych boards were held). But my Uncle Lou was very hospitable; and he could buy and sell you, Ben.
e track from saq| 4.17.12 @ 8:01PM
Miami Beach certainly still retains some charm.
Nothing like the old days before the rot of our society set in.But still if you get up early as the sun just begins to shine and find yourself on the boardwalk with that wonderful ocean air all around.Magic city indeed.
richard szathmary| 4.20.12 @ 1:53PM
Yes, it's very good. Kind of a realistic counterpart to the way-overrated "Mad Men."
But for all the gangster savagery we've seen and probably we'll continue to see in this series, I keep thinking of Robert Lacey's bio of Meyer Lansky (which had access to Federal records), "Little Man.". He really does seem there to have been a somewhat coarse but shrewd and basically harmless fellow, who during his heyday never made more than about $50,000 in a year. Danny Huston's character (even Lee Strasberg's in "The Godfather Part II") is much more out of control than Lansky ever was.
Interestingly, too, Dustin Hoffman himself made a brief, stunning appearance as Lansky in Andy Garcia's movie about the Cuabn diaspora of the period, "The Lost City." Hoffman managed to combine the seeming meekness of the Lansky of Lacey's bio with the nasty hoodlum most of us conjure up when we think of Lansky, Lepke, Siegel, even of Sidney Hillman who was Roosevelt's mob-connected labor adviser in the 30's
Special kudos to the set designers and costume people, too. Appropriately, "Magic City" offers us much more glitz than Don Draper and his colleagues, and more realistic-sounding dialogue. (No one else is appalled by Vincent Kartheiser's over-acting on "Mad Men?" In the real world, anyway the advertising industry I myself covered for a long time, a preening, bug-eyed punk like that would never have lasted a month.).
An oh, the cars the show features! Gas guzzlers maybe, but visual works of art and usually fun to drive, too. I miss as an adult what I never personally experienced when I was a0ut 14, stuck in working-class, mainly Roman Catholic north Jersey. Back then we all dreamed of seeing Miami Beach, but if actually presented with the reality "Magic City" shows we'd probably have fled back to East Rutherford quickly indeed.