Irving Fine, Jack Benny’s brother in law

Irving Fine, Jack Benny’s brother in law, tries to sell off the old Maxell Hupmobile.

His Jasha Heifitz violin playing brother in law, drove in those pioneer radio yesterdays of Hollywood 

Boulevard  and Sid Grauman’s cemented sidewalk symbolized accessories to the heroes and heroines who made the City famous for its klieg lights on the  affirmation of Charlie Chaplin(“The Tramp”) and Garbo “I vant to be alone”  grease paint….

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For a honcho from Brooklyn’s Brownsville, notwithstanding his brother in law’s celebrity as a radio cheapskate, always feuding with his valet ”Rochester” played by Eddie Anderson.

Irving Fine, decided to sell the old Maxwell at the Smiling Irishman’s used car lot on Vermont Avenue (a Bernie Sanders stance), his own trumping race for the White House, the cosmos is into Buck Rodgers Flash Gordon space ships, Jack had toconform…assimilate with the electronic age. The Hupmobilehad to go. It’s a soft target during an election year. 

“Bernie Hilary the Donald” wouldn’t want to be seen in an old camouflaged Hupmobile. (“it ain’t political!..Machiavilian!”)

So help me, God. On my mother’s honor!  New York values” said Irv, looking straight into the “Smiling Irishman’s dollar billeyes..

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“It’s a Presidential year,” said the Smiling Irishman.:”We’ll take your Hup.  Put it on the lot with top billing.  A vintage Jack Benn myth…. teeing off at Hillcrest with Archie Bunker..” On the make.”

But “Beaver” wanted Jack Benny’s Hupmobile. He even went as far as placing his name on the CNN ..channel 25….”Jerry Mather” courting the Presidential year……New York’s primary down the road..April 19th.  The New York values up for grabs, atthe ballot box.

In the meantime Jerry Mather (“Beaver”)  extended his once Cub Scout Iowan credentials, to the Smiling Irishman, ignoringIrving Fine as a Jack Benny leading man brother in law.

Wasn’t h the “Beaver” Fred MacMurray’s son on “Leave it to Beaver”.. six year running, his real father Captain, principal of Granada Hills High, …into his own San Berdu “ active duty”, son Jerry aspiring for Jack Benny’s  antique of a recycledHupmobile….Beaver aspiring to the highest level of Hollywood status resonating   those Iowan yesterdays, where he played out the role of a Cub Scout. 

April 7, 2016  The Smiling Irishman’s Used Car lot, the corner of South Vermont  and Pico, Los Angeles., the resounding echo….the Presidential NY primary in Brooklyn, April 19..

Who among the living legends can forget “Big Country”

Who among the living legends can forget “Big Country”? Living basketball legends like Michael Jordan, sitting there NCAA championship Houston ,Texas….going down to the wire…. All American John Wooden’s alliance with UCLAcoach Wilbur Johns, matching his initials with coach Wooden’s   J.W.

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God’s way…poetry in motion. 7 footers like  AAU  7 footer Phillip Oilers Bob Kurland, pioneers  George Mikan of DePaul.……the playground legends, the game had come into the reality of the Dream.

Mid America, the birthplace of the hoop..Indiana’s Larry Bird ,the two handed set shot eclipsed by Philadelphia’s ‘prayer’, theone handed “I got rhythm” from downtown..thru the nylon.

Villanova’s dream, far from the maddening crowd.

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Over shadowing Stanford’s Hank Luisetti’s pioneer one handed set shot….Bill Russell from neighboring San Francisco, evolving the defensive side of the Dream, with Auerbach’sBoston Celtics, Red himself  off the playgrounds of Brooklyn and Eastern District High School.

(Wilt Chamberlain’s hundred points with the Philadelphia Warrior hoops)

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A revolution from the Fr Country of West Virginia. Clair Bee, coaching.LIU. Jerry West from that mountainous coal country landscape, reclaiming his dead eye, masking hiss deception and rhythm…the wisp the flavor, the rhythm of the 7 footers likeKurland, coming into their own…post WW2…

Lew Alcindor, his initials by the Name Detective, hearing the sound of 70000 last night, “go West young man”, evolving into UCLA’s John Wooden program…..77 straight NCAA wins..10 titles! 

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The New York Knicks having Phil Jackson, numero six man,sitting next to coach Red Holtzman, the son of immigrants (Franklyn Lane High School, CUNY) learning the game from a genius ……masterminding the game from the Continental League to   the Chicago Bulls and assistant coach Tex Winter’s triangle ball control …into the paint like the Jackie Robinsoncoordination of eyes and hands… dream acrobats hanging in the air!!!! (in front of the nylon and backboard)

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Finally one last moment, the coordination of the hands and eye of a Jackie Robinson, once again demonstrated last night, from downtown. The City of Brotherly Love, resonating the Dream, the poetry of immortality coming home..

Nova’s “I got rhythm” thru the nylon cords.… 

The City of Brotherly Love, April 5, 2016

“You’re like a rock star “Shoot the Sherbet, Herbert

“You’re like a rock star “Shoot the Sherbet, Herbert”, asked the Daily News Inquiring Photographer. . “Considering that a former William Morris office boy donated eleven million big ones for Lincoln Center naming rights, consistent with his naming rights at the former UCLA playhouse off the corner of Le Conte and Westwood Boulevard …the gateway to Pauley Pavilion, the tennis stadium,  John Wooden  treadmill gym and Janss Steps to the campus and quad, the buses, Faculty Club, hospital, and Jules Stein eye hospital..

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“What’s the secret of your cool, your notoriety?” the Inquiring Photographer..”, Brooklyn warehouse, all those bottled sodas in storage”. Meyer Lansky and his Bugsy Segal….. getting in “Shoot the Sherbet Herbert’s’” face..

“How’d it all begin? asked our readers on line and off. “At the Brownsville ‘Murder Inc. “Al “Bummy” Davis, his Golden Glovers (Marlon Brando “I wiz once a contender” “(On the Waterfront”).

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Wheeling the iced baby carriage….the Cokes, Pepsis, RootBeers, Creams, Sarsaparilla, Lemonades, Orange, seltzer…..

”A nickel a pickle” thru East 92nd Street(East Flatbush)  WPA bricklayers, carpenters, cement mixers (the  

mixer of a “whale”, the truck parked at the curb of these WPOA 1938 projects.

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Whether it was Bugsy’s strong arm iced baby carriage like Paul Muni  (George Raft) flipping the half dollar as George Raft, his partner in crime, cased a “modus operandi”, “Scarface (Pau Muni) in the lookout role, t flipping the half dollars..

The P.S. 233 4th grader feeling Bugsy’s or Meyer Lansky’s  muscle, supporting the “Cokes, Pepsis… a nickel a pickle”   the 9 year old kiddo strolled down 92nd Street past Linden Boulevard and the Waldorf movie theater’s lobby.

“THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL’

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The lobby posters John Garfield (Jules Garfunkel a blonde actress Joan Caulfield, a Warner(Jack L.) Brothers production….Holden Caulfield, Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”” Marty Rye, our wife’s coz.

….Claude Rains, the Dead Ed Kids from the slums. (Brussels, Belgium).

Strolling thru the lobby as in a moment of personal discovery, the die was cast. He guarded the sidewalk walking to the candy store, next to the cash on the barrelhead admissions. 

“A frozen Milky Way, please!”

April Fool’s Day 2016  

April Fool’s Day, 2016 The City that never sleeps