Jerry Rosenthal Casino
By STEPHEN SILVER
(JTA) — “Casino,” Martin Scorsese’s examination of the mob’s control of Las Vegas in the 1960s and 70s, debuted in theaters on Nov. 22, 1995 — 25 years ago.
Cannon (TV Movie 1971) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Rosenthal was the first casino operator in Las Vegas to have female blackjack dealers. This casino “innovation” doubled the Stardust’s income in one year. Nobody who knew mobster Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal called him “Lefty.” 3.
It may be a tick below “Goodfellas,” which came out just five years earlier, in terms of its reputation in the eyes of film historians. But the three-hour epic remains one of Scorsese’s most ambitious and gorgeously realized films. It also may be the best crime film with a Jewish protagonist at its center.
That was Sam “Ace” Rothstein, the character played in the film by Scorsese mainstay Robert De Niro. Rothstein is depicted as a Jewish associate of the Chicago Outfit, an expert bookmaker and sports handicapper who is sent to Vegas to run the Tangiers, one of the largest casinos on the Strip. The character is based on Frank Rosenthal, a real Jewish gambling expert from Chicago who had ties to the Chicago Outfit and eventually headed to Vegas to run casinos for them.
While the film is somewhat fictionalized, Rosenthal really did pioneer the idea of sports books in casinos, really did survive an assassination attempt by car bomb and really did have his license denied by a state gaming commission, which was led in real life by Harry Reid, before he was a senator.
Rothstein, as depicted in the film, is sort of a gangster, and sort of not; he is with the mafia, but not of the mafia, because of his ethnic identity. Like Henry Hill, the protagonist of “Goodfellas,” Rothstein can’t ever be a “made guy” because he’s not fully Sicilian.
However, Ace sees his work running the casino as having a certain degree of above-board legitimacy and is constantly worried that his longtime friend Nicky (Joe Pesci), a fully “made” mobster, is ruining that reputation with his loose cannon antics.
In the film, the viewer never hears Rothstein himself address his Jewishness or what it means to him, and he appears to lead a largely secular life. The topic is mentioned, however, by Pesci’s character, in a somewhat pejorative way.
“I gotta make sure no one f***s around with the golden Jew,” Nicky says at one point. As their relationship begins to sour, he says things like “Jew motherf*****,” and threatens to “take a piece out of your Jew ass.”
“Casino” also featured a supporting cast full of famous Jewish comedians, including Don Rickles, Alan King and Kevin Pollak.
In the end, Rothstein is the perfect symbol of how Jews could find great success in mid-20th century America — even in the crime world — yet remain outsiders, through no fault of their own.
After Frank Rosenthal’s death in 2008, it was revealed that he had long been an FBI informant. In an interview prior to his death, Rosenthal was asked whether his heritage protected him while dealing with underworld figures.
“No, when you excel at anything — my expertise was sports and thoroughbred wagering — you rise to a very high level,” he said. “Some people were impressed and took special notice that I could beat the odds. To have recognition, in my judgment, opened certain doors for me. It put me in a semi-celebrity category.”
Another fact surrounding the Rothstein character is that he was portrayed by the non-Jewish De Niro — something that could have raised eyebrows today. Of course, this can go the other way, too: Actor James Caan has said in interviews that he’s had to turn down “Italian-American of the Year” awards multiple times because even though he played Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather,” he is in fact the son of German Jewish immigrants.
Rothstein is far from the only major Jewish character in the canon of American gangster movies. Here’s a quick recap of some of the others:
-The “Godfather” movies featured a pair of prominent Jewish gangsters, both allies-turned-antagonists of the Corleone Family: Moe Greene (Alex Rocco) in the first film, and Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) in the second. The two men were based, respectively, on real-life Jewish gangsters Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Meyer Lansky. Roth, like Lansky, would even seek political asylum in Israel — “I wished to live there as a Jew in the twilight of my life.”
Hyman Roth, according to a deleted scene in “The Godfather Part II,” was originally named Hyman Suchowsky — but the character changed his name out of admiration for the real-life Jewish gangster Arnold Rothstein (not to be confused with the fictional Ace), later shortening it to Roth. “I’ve loved baseball ever since Arnold Rothstein fixed the World Series in 1919,” the character says in the film.
-Hollywood has offered plenty of other depictions of all three of those real-life gangsters. Bugsy Siegel was played by Warren Beatty in the 1991 biopic “Bugsy,” which Beatty also directed.
-Michael Lerner played Arnold Rothstein in “Eight Men Out,” John Sayles’ 1988 movie about the fixing of that same 1919 World Series.
-None other than Joe Pesci played another Lansky stand-in named “Mayakofsky” in the 1983 film “Eureka,” while Dustin Hoffman was Lansky in the 2005 drama “The Lost City,” a film that covered the gangster’s adventures in Cuba. Richard Dreyfuss played Lansky in a 1999 HBO movie “Lansky,” which was written by Jewish playwright David Mamet.
-Harvey Keitel, who is Jewish and is another veteran of Scorsese gangster pictures, is set to play an aging version of Lansky in an upcoming biopic, also called “Lansky.” That film is being directed by Eytan Rockaway, whose father Robert wrote a book in 1993 called “But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters.”
-On the HBO TV series “Boardwalk Empire,” which Scorsese executive produced, Michael Stuhlbarg (famous for his role in the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man”) played Rothstein and Michael Zegen, later of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” portrayed Siegel. In the short-lived cable series “Mob City,” Edward Burns was Siegel and Patrick Fischler was Lansky. In the lightly regarded 1991 film “Mobsters,” Richard Grieco played Siegel, Patrick Dempsey played Lansky and F. Murray Abraham portrayed Rothstein.
-There have been many fictional Jewish gangsters as well. For example, in 1990’s “Miller’s Crossing,” written and directed by the Coen brothers, John Turturro played bookie Bernie Bernbaum, about whom it is said “he’s got a mixed reputation, but for a sheeny, he’s got a lot of good qualities.” “Sheeny” is an anti-Jewish slur from the 19th century.
-In the 2006 crime drama “Lucky Number Slevin,” Ben Kingsley played a crime boss who was also a rabbi, and was called simply “The Rabbi.” The current season of the FX TV adaptation of the Coen brothers’ film “Fargo” features a character known as “Rabbi Milligan,” played by Ben Whishaw, who was traded among different ethnic crime families. One of those is the Jewish outfit known as the Moskowitz Syndicate.
-And on “The Sopranos,” there was Herman “Hesh” Rabkin (Jerry Adler), a veteran Jewish gangster and longtime associate of the Soprano family. In one episode, Christopher Moltisanti warns that an upcoming sit-down involving Hesh is likely to be a tough negotiation, because “I’ve heard his opinions on giving back pieces of Israel.” Adler also guest-starred on an episode of “The West Wing” as the father of Richard Schiff’s character Toby Ziegler, who was estranged from him due to his long-ago involvement with the Jewish organized crime group Murder, Inc.
The history of Las Vegas is filled with colorful characters. One of the most intriguing was Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, a former casino executive and organized crime associate. Yes, “Lefty” was the ultimate multi-tasker.
Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal is one of the more famous of Sin City’s mobsters thanks to the 1995 film, “Casino,” based upon Rosenthal’s career in Vegas.
Jerry Rosenthal Casino New York
Here are 12 things we find fascinating about this man whose accomplishments included creating the first sports book operating inside a casino in Las Vegas.
1. Frank Lawrence “Lefty” Rosenthal was the first to bring sports betting into a U.S. casino, in 1976, at the Stardust.
2. Rosenthal was the first casino operator in Las Vegas to have female blackjack dealers. This casino “innovation” doubled the Stardust’s income in one year.
Nobody who knew mobster Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal called him “Lefty.”
3. Rosenthal once ran the Stardust, Hacienda, Marina and Fremont casinos for the Chicago Mafia, also known as the “Outfit.” He did this without the benefit of a Nevada gaming license. (He was denied a license because of, in good part, his lifelong friendship with Chicago hitman Anthony “The Ant” Spilotro. Bonus trivia: After “Tony the Ant” came to Las Vegas, the murder rate went up 70%.)
4. When Rosenthal was denied a gaming license, he got into a confrontation with the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. The chairman was none other than U.S. Senator Harry Reid. Rosenthal was added to the infamous casino “black book” in 1988, barring him from casinos for life.
5. Rosenthal was big into clothes and is rumored to have owned 200 pairs of pants. That’s nearly 1,000 in today’s pants.
6. Rosenthal was called “one of the greatest living experts on sports gambling” by Sports Illustrated.
7. At one time, “Lefty” worked as a gossip columnist for the Las Vegas Sun. The New York Times called his column “subliterate.”
8. “Lefty” Rosenthal had a TV show. The show’s first guest was Frank Sinatra. Other celebrity guests included Bob Hope, Wayne Newton, Liberace and multiple murderer O.J. Simpson.
Frank Rosenthal was not a big believer in keeping things on the down-low.
9. Rosenthal’s attention to detail included making sure all muffins served in his hotel had at least 10 blueberries each.
10. Rosenthal’s nickname came from the fact he was left-handed. Some romantically claim he got the nickname when, in 1961, he appeared before a Senate hearing on organized crime and invoked the Fifth Amendment 37 times, keeping his left hand in the air while doing so.
Frank Rosenthal Casino
11. In the movie “Casino,” Rosenthal survives an attempt on his life when his car exploded. That incident actually took place, and Rosenthal survived because of a manufacturing irregularity in his 1981 Cadillac Eldorado.
12. Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal died of a heart attack at age 79 in Miami Beach in 2008. After his death, it was revealed Rosenthal had been, talk about multi-tasking, an FBI informant. His FBI code name was “Achilles.”
Jerry Rosenthal Casino Atlantic City
Frank Rosenthal remains one of the most riveting figures in the formative years of Las Vegas. He seems to have had as many admirers as critics, and helped shape Las Vegas casinos as we know them today. If he hadn’t started the whole female dealer thing, we might not have go-go dealers today, a practice which also has as many admirers as critics. Ah, the circularity of the universe.