The Greatest Film Review Ever Made

"Oh Moses, You Stubborn, Splendid, Adorable Fool!"

I like to watchThe Ten Commandmentsevery year as I get ready for Passover. Is it dangerous to base my understanding of Jewish history on the work of an anti-Semitic film director?

By Danny Miller, Contributor

Writer and book editor in Los Angeles

Apr 4, 2007, 09:38 AM EDT |Updated May 25, 2011

This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site.

That insanely anachronistic bit of dialogue was uttered by Anne Baxter's Nefretiri to Charlton Heston in the 1956 version of The Ten Commandments. Cecil B. DeMille's second retelling of the Passover story (he first filmed the Biblical tale in 1923) is the campy benchmark against which all other cinematic depictions of the Exodus will forever be compared, including the new ABC mini-series that debuted last year. For some, DeMille's film eclipses even the Bible. "I don't need to read the Haggadah," I remember telling my horrified grandfather as a kid at our seder table. "I already saw the movie!"

Henry Rose. February 6th 1958

There have been a few Jewish sports journalists of distinction.  In the USA perhaps the best known were Nat Fleischer, who created The Ring magazine, which was enormously influential in the world of boxing, and Howard Cosell, who was at the leading edge of sports casting in the USA.

In the UK it was Henry Rose.

Max Bacon - Jewface?

We have had much misguided talk about Jewface, where the addition of a prosthetic nose for Bradley Cooper has sent the usual suspects into a frenzy. Thank goodness that in a recent article about Julian Rose in the JC the record was put straight, but it is not the full story.

 There was a very English purveyor of what might be called the “Hebrew Actor,” who was at his peak was much better known and much better loved than Rose, but now seems to have been completely forgotten. Max Bacon 

Man, oh, Manischewitz

Warning: This contains a number of swear words

From the book "Counting the Stars:The Jewish Journey to the Cosmos"

To begin with, Manishcewitz is the brand name for a range of kosher products, specifically to be found in the United States, although it exports its products world-wide. At Pesach it really comes into its own.

One of its slogans was “Man, oh, Manischewitz," and it was generally reported that “In 1973, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan shouted, "Man, oh, Manischewitz," in the middle of his moonwalk.

Specifically, the Washington Post, who you would expect to verify its sources, went even further. “It is December, 1972, Apollo 17 time, and Cernan is on the moon. He sees something especially spectacular and what does he say, with the entire civilized world listening in, but "Man, oh, Manishewitz."

Sadly, they were wrong. The truth is more mundane, and no, Cernan was not a secret Jew promoting Manischewitz products.

In reality, it is all to do with swearing, by which I mean profanities. 

IF G-D HAD A PC

IF G-D HAD A PC

 

In the beginning, there was the computer.

And G-d entered:

C:\>Let there be light!

Enter user ID

C:\>G-d

Enter password

Lou Preagar

One of the lesser known Jewish bandleaders, but for ill health, Lou Preagar (sometimes spelt as Praegar) would have lasted the distance. He showed himself willing and able to accept the new styles of music that abounded post-war.

 

He was born in 1906 in Poplar son of a tailor (we are told). He appeared in the music scene in a professional manner in the mid-twenties, aged 19, having dabbled with bands in a semi-professional way before them while working in an accountancy office.

Harmonica (Part 3) - Harry Pitch

No not Harry Patch

The third of out three is the least well known by name, without even a Wikipedia page, but his music continues to endure long after his passing, and in terms of British popular culture his contribution was outstanding. His name was Harry Pitch.

In his obituary it stated “Harry was one of the handful of players who have turned harmonica playing into an art form. A player of enormous fluency and invention, his career has spanned six decades and innumerable gigs and sessions. He was one of Larry Adler´s favourite players.”

Harmonica (Part 2) - Larry Adler

Turning to Adler, whereas Geldray’s musical career was largely European, and Pitch’s British, Adler’s was largely American.. In his lifetime, too, he knew and worked with or for some of the greats of the music business.

Harmonica (Part 1). Max Geldray.

The Harmonica, sometimes called the mouth organ, is an instrument with a unique sound. While it is not mainstream, some harmonica tunes have become iconic in their own right, such as the Ennio Morricone’s harmonica track in “Once a Time in the West” or in Britain, the theme tune of “Last of the Summer Wine”.

Arguments rage over the ‘best’ harmonica players of all time; from obscure but gifted specialist blues/jazz players to those who have made the most famous use of the instrument such as Bob Dylan,  Stevie Wonder and John Lennon. Of the latter three musicians stood out in the British public consciousness…… and were Jewish. They were Max Geldray, Larry Adler, and Harry Pitch, a Dutchman, an American, and a Brit.

To avoid them becoming part of the Forgotten History of the Jews, we need to refresh our memories and remind ourselves of the impact that they made in Britain during their careers, so here they are……

1933

It was 1933 that the Jewish World changed forever. It was also 1933 that a book called “The Friday Night Book” the subtitle being “A Jewish Miscellany” was published by the Soncino Press in 1933. There was no identified writer. A few copies survive, one being a Prize for Maurice Blank (my father-in-law for 2nd place at his Cheder in 1938. Here and there flashes of the Jewish World in 1933 come to the fore, and there is a certain innocence about the book.

Here are some extracts. I have also commented some of the entries The saddest one is the first one, for ten years later things would have changed forever.

German Dance/Jazz Bands

Introduction

After World War 1 Germany suffered from hyperinflation, political extremism and food shortages, with the economy having tanked.

 However, there was a recovery of the German economy from 1924 to 1929, which became known as the “Golden Age”, and there was a flowering of arts and culture in the German Republic, especially in the cities.

 Why only the cities? Despite this recovery two thirds of the German population was still rural and insular. The folk culture of the German nation was still largely alive and kicking, and with it, innate conservatism.

Archer Street

In my book I have explained how the sons of immigrants became some of the best known bandleaders in the Golden Age of Dance Bands.

 Growing up in tight knit communities, those who took up a musical instrument would have had the opportunity laid out in front of them to form small bands with their co-religionists, and even earn good money accompanying silent films at their local cinema. It is likely that their contacts within the communities would have helped them make their first steps beyond the environs of Bethnal Green and similar ‘shtetls’.

 For those living in London, especially East London, there was a further route that many could go down. Ronnie Scott (Ronald Schatt) said that Jews who wanted to play music travelled from the East End to the West End, and for many of them, Jew and non-Jew the place they gravitated to was Archer Street.

The Time of My LIfe (Eamonn Andrews)

Introduction

From my book Kosher Foxtrot

I was giving old Punch magazines a scan before throwing them into the paper waste, when I came across this article written by Eamonn Andrews in April 1975.

He was a well-loved TV presenter, sports commentator, and an A-List celebrity from the 1950s - 1980s who pioneered the talk show host format in the UK, and was noted for two shows: What’s My Line, and This is Your Life, a British biographical show, both of which had top rating.

It is a snapshot of an era, of his life and of dance bands on the road. For those who remember Jewish Restaurants as they used to be, it has an extra thrill. So, as they say, over to Eamonn:

Mrs Elswood's little secret

This is a story of two imaginary women. Mrs Adler and Mrs Elswood. 

 Mrs Adler is from the U.S, and supposedly Mrs Elswood from the UK. The picture on the front of the Mrs Adler jar shows a sour-faced woman with the slightest of smiles – more a sneer.

She has just been to the hairdresser’s, put on her pearl necklace and horn-rimmed glasses, and it is difficult to see her as the type of person who would be, as my mother was, arm deep in fish, egg, onion, and matzo meal as she wielded her hackmesser to create “chopped and boiled” or “chopped and fried” – or in other words – home-made gefilte fish.

J-Streets:Newcastle:Jewgate

From the book "Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia, which looks at town and cities which have Jewish 

Everyone (?)  knows that there is  a location in London called Old Jewry, so I wondered how many other street/road/way etc names had a Jewish flavour to them. Here's one - Newcastle.

Strange how things change. There is an interesting little area in Newcastle, bounded upon one side by the A167(M). At one time it was clearly bustling with commerce, for it was near the quayside on the River Tyne.

When Harry met Gracie

Occasionally a piece of trivia just falls into your lap. This one came completely from left field, and shows if nothing else that there were Jewish songsmiths in Britain in the 1930s who operated at the very top level. Two of them co-wrote one of the most iconic songs in British musical history.

My story began when I was researching a tune called Mazeltov which had been played by the Joe Loss Band in 1939.

Jews playing Italians and Italians playing Jews

One unusual aspect of film and television history is the frequency with which Jews play Italians and Italians play Jews. Also that some of the main Italian film gangsters have been played by Jews.

 Let’s go through them.

Italians portraying Jews:

Alex Rocco – Moe Green – The Godfather

 This was only a small part but memorable. Moe is shot in the eye by Michael Corleone’s hitman after refusing an ‘offer’ made to him for the Corleone Family to take over the Las Vegas hotels.

Mama, we have our son again.

So says Poppa at the end of the Jazz Singer as he hears the strains of Kol Nidre being sung with gusto by Al Jolson. 

Kol Nidre is a prayer that basically ‘kicks off’ a day and an hour of fasting for the most holy day in the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur.

It is, however, also our not so secret guilty pleasure,  whether you are a Ashkenazi or a Sephardi Jew. The Ashkenazi melody especially when sung by a half way decent chazzan is simply beautiful, and is known worldwide. The Sephardi, especially Moroccan version also wows the senses. 

There is a lot of controversy over the prayer itself over the years but here are things you may not know about the tune.

Samuel Pallache and the Age of Dissimulation

Dissimulation  

Many Jews went to Fez in Morocco at the time of the expulsion, and one of the families that did so was the Pallache. One of the progeny of that family was one Samuel Pallache, who had a remarkable career, and came to be known as the Pirate Rabbi to the modern generation.
 

To fully understand that career, though we have to understand dissimulation.

Gefilte Fish Line

Yottam Ottoleghi sneeringly says of “gefilte fish as “sweet, grey and smeared with gelatinous gunk, gefilte fish was perceived as a typical remnant of the old Ashkenazi world that was best left behind in Eastern Europe.”

Like many of his ilk he is keen to leave behind the rich Gefilte fish, but also fails to recognise how important said cuisine was back in the day. My Uncle Harry once said to us that he was sure that we came from Russia because we like our gefilte fish savoury rather than sweet.