A Disputed Past

Well, I guess it was about 1984 when I moved to New York from Minneapolis.  In 1987, I began working in the famous Puck Building downtown, headquarters for Spy Magazine.  SPY was known for its “smart, fun, funny, fearless” journalism by an all-star staff (many who’ve gone on to spectacular careers in the media, writing books, etc.) wrote spot-on descriptions of America’s overdogs:  Donald Trump was known back then as the “short-fingered vulgarian.” Moving west in 1994, my stories showed up in the Los Angeles Times, LA Times Sunday Magazine, LA Weekly, The Realist, and far-flung outlets like Detroit News, NY Post, PAPER, The Forward, Moment Magazine, Shambhala Sun and elsewhere. Some of the stories I did for public radio show’s “All Things Considered,” “Marketplace,” “Weekend America” and “Off-Ramp” can be clicked on this website. On the commercial side of the dial, I produced shows in the late 70s for my mentor, pal, and sui generis announcer, Stephen Capen, at legendary KSAN. My book about the station, THE JIVE 95 is discussed on this site’s Home Page and Rumpus Room. Capen and I worked again in the late 80s, at Howard Stern’s last terrestrial home, K-ROCK (WXRK) in NYC.

I wrote jokes for Catskills on Broadway, a long-running  show the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 46th Street: $50 a gag. One winter I lived aboard a pirate ship in the Middle East,  playing records on The Voice of Peace, which broadcast “from somewhere in the Mediterranean,” and writing about it for the Jerusalem Post. Around the same time, I joined the staff at the Athens Times, writing a column until was arrested for robbing the National Bank of Greece. I was nowhere in the vicinity of Syntagma Square! Greek Police determined I was innocent, beat and slapped me, and gave me their recipe for tzatziki.

Stories about The Voice of Peace and the National Bank of Greece incident are on the Radio & Newspapers page.

ALL ABOUT IRV and ME

In 2001, I met Irving S. Brecher, on the 8th floor of a Hilton hotel in Century City. He was sitting under hot lights for an interview TCM (Turner Classic Movie channel)  conducted for their archives about Golden Age Hollywood greats before they died…

I interviewed Brecher for six years at his favorite delicatessens in Los Angeles, collecting stories on a running cassette recorder for what he called, “a freak of a book.” THE WICKED WIT OF THE WEST published by Ben Yehuda Press in 2009, was called, “A must read” by critic Leonard Maltin,  and “An irresistible memoir brimming with delectable anecdotes and irreverent brilliance” by The Boston Globe. The writer and cultural maven Don Foster says reading TWWOTW was, “like spending Tuesdays With Morrie listening to Krapp’s Last Tape.”

My 94-year-old writing partner, Irv “The Nerve” (pictured right), seen here being hounded by the press at a screening of The Marx Brothers movie, “At The Circus” — one of two pictures Irv penned for Groucho, Harpo, and Chico.

Here’s a link to an NPR piece, produced by Jon Kalish, about the friendship Irv and I had:

http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/uf/uf110329irv_and_me#idc-cover

In 2013, The Wicked Wit of the West was translated into Italian as A Pesca Con Groucho.

https://www.libridivertenti.it/store/search?keywords=Irv%20Brecher

https://www.libridivertenti.it/store/Maglietta-Groucho-Marx-p460498504

Promo from Sagoma Books:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txA3iBobUAI&t=1s

In 2012, Small Batch Books published the as-told-to, MEMORIE: MY JOURNEY FROM BELGRADE TO MINNEAPOLIS by Benjamin Mandil.

http://www.smallbatchbooks.com/samples/memorie

http://www.smallbatchbooks.com/samples/memorie

Comments on Memorie and The Wicked Wit of the West:

https://www.hankrosenfeld.com/reviews/

Once in a blue moon, I’ll blog at www.walkytalky.us   Entries began as chapters for a book still unpublished, WALKY TALKY: Crafting Conversations in the Age of Screens, advice from a Folk Journalist.

I’ve been a Language Specialist in Santa Monica elementary schools, and told stories on  NPR, APM and Pacifica radio shows. Here are a few of those folk journalisms at PRX, the Public Radio Exchange: http://www.prx.org/series/33448-folk-journalism

Also, I guess, I learned some skills driving a Good Humor Ice Cream truck in Detroit.

On the Radio & Newspapers page you can click on the NPR stories and some others.

photo by Dan Mandil

Honorary challah received from Ronnie at his singular deli, St. George, Utah.