In Duke Zellers book, OBrien reiterates his long-standing denial. And Im still here.. Korshaks words to the reporters that autumn day were, in effect, his farewell to them. He made a living as a "confidence man," a jewel thief, and a heroin dealer. Reached in London, Harry Korshak did indeed seem like a nice man. Before becoming a Teamster he was in the United States Marines. Assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald Jack Ruby, who ran errands for the Chicago mob and was an enforcer-recruiter in Chicago's Local 20467 of the Scrap Iron and Junk Handler's Union, run by Paul Red Dorfman, made a telephone call to Chicago money investor for the Chicago mob, union official and former bail bondsman Irwin Weiner, who was dubbed by . Jack was a member of the rackets committee, Bobby was its chief counsel. In a 1978 report, California state attorney general Evelle Younger included Korshak in a well-publicized list of organized-crime figures with ties to California. They may have started out in the original Maxwell Street ghetto, and, as they prosperedHarry in the construction business, Max as a lawyermoved to better quarters. It was the Eastern European diaspora in America, and the embrace of Jew and Italian, that brought about the marriage of shadowland and dreamland, first in Hollywood, then, as Howard M. Sachar writes in A History of the Jews in America, in that new and even more garish pleasure-capital in the nearby Nevada desert developed by still another confraternity of Jews.. Throughout the 30s and 40s, whatever notoriety befell Sidney Korshak was local, confined to a Chicago public that seemed to either shrug for-bearingly or smile understandingly. The suit, handled by Korshak, was settled out of court in September. With Korshak, Hoffa well knew, the flesh played second to the fable, fantasy, and formidable fact of the man. Mr. Dorfman was a leader of the Chicago Waste Handlers Union (until later expelled by the. One became the fearsome head of Columbia Pictures, the other the fearsome renegade of Hollywood crime. Dorfman, slain in 1983. A U.S. Marine hero in World War II, he received a Silver Star for bravery at the battle of Iwo Jima. In any case, they were there before Guzik and were roughly Guziks age. Bespectacled, with a deep-dimpled chin, a receding hairline, and a not unpleasant grin, Gioe introduced Bioff to another relatively young man with a not unpleasant grin. Neither Francis Coppola, the films director, nor its star, Marlon Brando, could envision the picture without Al Pacino as Michael Corleone. The last mention of him, in a Chicago Crime Commission memorandum of September 1955, states that Ted Korshak was believed to be living, off and on, at the Park Shore Hotel, 1765 East 55th Street. Among the loans he later made was a $160 million loan to Argent Corporation, which owned a group of casinos, including the Stardust Resort & Casino. The smile of that first made-for-TV president hung over this promised land, where the New Frontier was no vapid metaphor but an already decaying carpet joint. They wouldnt touch that with a 10-foot pole., Although Korshak moved secretly in the world of shadows, he moved openly in the world of dreams. Two days before public hearings opened, in November 1937, Bioff paid a $5,000 retainer to one Colonel William Neblett, who was associated in the practice of law with William Mosley Jones, speaker of the California assembly. Then again, it may be true, as has been asserted, that the real purpose of Korshaks meeting was blackmail. Found among subpoenaed union records were canceled checks made out to Korshak. Allen is meek and Allen is harmless. Dorfman was acquitted, but Hoffa was found guilty of this crime in 1964 and, after a lengthy appeals process, went to prison in 1967. In 1931, in what the New York Daily Mirror called a romantic tantrum, Appleby married Morgan Galloway, a Kentuckian. I asked Kupcinet about Hoffas disappearance. Entratter, at that time the president of the Dunes, for many years had run the Sands, the headquarters of the Rat Pack during the golden years of Vegas. Allen Dorfman rose to prominence following World War II and by the late 1950s was a close cohort of IBT President Jimmy Hoffa. While Glaser handled a roster of black acts that, besides Armstrong, included at times Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, Korshak cultivated his own small circle of entertainers: Tony Martin, whom he knew from Chicago, and Tonys wife, Cyd Charisse; Dinah Shore; Debbie Reynolds; and Jill St. John. Korshak picks up a telephone years later and *The Godfather*s problems are solved. In 1979, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched "Operation Pendorf" (for penetration of Allen Dorfman). Wasserman moved to the new, West Coast office of MCA in 1939. Moe Dalitz represented the Cleveland-based, predominantly Italian Mayfield Road Gang and its predominantly Jewish counterpart, the Cleveland Syndicate. The character was based on elements from Allen Dorfman's life. When Korshak emerged, Robb followed him to a mailbox, where old Sidney stopped to mail a letter. I want you to pay attention to Korshak. In 1963, he got jammed up and turned to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for help. Bautzer was the lawyer who had worked for Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, setting up the corporation from which the Flamingo was born. He was born Allen Dorfman, even though his mother was not yet married to Dorfman, but as a teenager also went by the name Allen Melnick, which may have been his biological father's name. His regiment was destined for Normandy, but the grand jury got to Rosselli first. Marshall was an important legislator and politician, Bill Roemer told me, and, of course, we always felt that he was put in there because he was the younger brother of Sidney.. He was a nebbish sort of guy." During his career he was closely tied to Teamsters Union President James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa and Jack Ruby. : An editorial remarked: Attorney Korshaks status as joint guest of honor with Col. Arvey is interesting. Lombardo was convicted of Seifert's murder in 2007 as a result of Operation Family Secrets. He was a lawyer, yes, a serpent of the bar, and in many respects he may be regarded as an exemplar of the species at its most evolved, but that is too convenient a label by which to define or dismiss him, for his domain lay beyond the imaginings of most members of his profession. I also found a document where Paul "Red" Dorfman related to them that Irv Kupcinet called him in Palm Springs after Oswald was shot. He was like a little baby. There was also a summer home in Paris and a villa at the Ocotillo Lodge in Palm Springs. He was such a great, human friend, she told me. All rights reserved. "Red" Dorfman (19011971) and Rose Ritman (19072003). He was probably the most important man socially out here, gushed Hollywood columnist Joyce Haber. Dorfman's son, Allen, was an insurance company executive. Karl was also a husband of Debbie Reynolds, whom Korshak helped to make a wealthy woman, reportedly negotiating a million-dollar deal for her Las Vegas debut. Sidney was always the lawyer down there defending them. One peddled escape through flickering fable, the other through dope and booze and broads. Both Paul and Allen Dorfman refused to cooperate with the Committee, which recommended that they be cited for contempt. Willie Bioff, upon his release, returned to California. Shannon Murchison was in her 40's when she died in recent years. For the rest of his life, he shunned all publicity, and for more than a quarter of a century his name and image all but vanished from public awareness. Sax was the owner of the Saxony Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, which was a meeting place for Hoffa, Dorfman, Robert Shulman and others when they were visiting South Florida. It just sort of added to the glamour of it. Most all the gang is gone now., I asked Martin if Korshak was a fun-loving guy, Oh, yes. But in 1971, Irwin Weiner, a prominent bail-bondsman, organized crime associate and friend of Jack Ruby, had purchased stock in the company and received another $1.4 million loan from the fund with a mere $7,000 deposit. Marshall was a rising figure in the citys Democratic machine when, in February 1939, Sidney himself had a brief flirtation with political office, as a candidate in the 48th Ward. Capone held Chicago from 1925 to 1931, when he was indicted, tried, and imprisoned for income-tax evasion. But the phenomenon is global. It seems likely that it was Stein who then introduced Wasserman to Korshak. historyin Celanos Custom Tailors, at 620 North Michigan Avenue, the downtown headquarters of the Chicago Mob. Los Angeles, where nothing was real, was a good place to pretend to be an illusion. Luciano was deported from America in 1946, the year of Capras Its a Wonderful Life, the year of the opening in Las Vegas of Ben Siegels Flamingo, a lone fluorescent cactus blossom on a desolate stretch of Highway 91 known as the Strip. Described as a gangland-style execution, the murder was presumably intended to keep him from cooperating with authorities to avoid a possible 55-year prison sentence. Evidence presented to the Committee showed, on the other hand, that while the Dorfmans had proposed a 17.5% fee to the Fund, they had actually been paid only 7.6%, in line with prevailing rates in the industry, over the previous eight years. Allen Dorfman was apparently well-respected by the mob. Ordinarily, Jimmy Hoffa would never sit in the front seat. Later, in 1928, when his mother died, Guzik, pulling up in a black limousine to the Orthodox synagogue at 30th and Wabash, paid the rabbi $500 to ensure that her soul would not be swindled out of a full 30 days of Kaddish. It was in Kupcinets Sun-Times Kups Column that the Korshak-engineered takeover of RKO from Howard Hughes was revealed in September 1952. I never went for a walk with the dog that I didnt have two guys either watching or following me., It was in Vegas, before her marriage, that Corinne had met Korshak. Under his rightful name and various aliasesFred Korshak, Phillip Korshak, Phil Cohen, the list goes onhis rap sheet, mostly for narcotics violations, stretched over the next 30 years. Korshaks other son, Harry, produced a couple pictures for Paramount during the Bluhdorn-Evans yearsHit! Or are they one and the same, a Janus of good and evil? He was invaluable. All his life, I said, all around him, they went down in their own blood. Some years later, Tony Curtis wanted to do a movie about Bugsy. The hidden owners were Moe Dalitz and his partners, the Silent Syndicate who founded the Desert Inn and went on to become the hidden owners of the Riviera and then ultimately La Costa. Wassermans rise at MCA in Chicago was meteoric. Paul "Red" Dorfman was affiliated with the Waste Materials Handlers Union in Chicago in the late 1930s and 1940s. Very, very, very close. With a new strike, against Paramount theaters, in the fall of 1935, IATSE dealt its first blow. At a 1934 Chicago meeting (Browne and Bioff were not invited), Rosselli explained the profit structure of the movie industry, and a plan was laid for a wholesale extortion operation of the major studios through IATSE. Rightly perceived by the Chicago outfit as a weak link, Circella had already begun to cooperate with the prosecution. As far as underworld figures go, as far as Hollywood potentates go, even as far as lawyers go, the name of Sidney Korshak meant little to the masses. He was not a drinking man, and he didnt smoke. By Time rolls on: other breezes, other chills, other shimmerings, other hearses. Thats when I first became aware of Korshak, Bacon said. Especially in Hollywood. The grantor-grantee records of Los Angeles County show that the property was granted to Korshak by deed from Karls Shoe Stores, Limited. In her Chicago suit against him, which she entered fresh from a Maine drunken-driving bust, she sought a quarter of a million, claiming that he had promised to marry her aboard the le de France. And perhaps it is no more than mere coincidence, but all the documentation gathered by Hersh and Gerth was subsequently lost during a transfer from one Times office to another. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at. Evans has described Korshak as my consigliere, as my godfather.. The Korshak home, where Sidney and his brothers grew up, was at 3112 Douglas Park Boulevard, in a preferred part of the neighborhood. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. Paul "Red" Dorfman was affiliated with the Waste Materials Handlers Union in Chicago in the late 1930s and 1940s. The way it would work was, if Lew didnt get it done, Sidney would get called in. Korshak would always have lawyers with him. Besides Bee and the kids and Stuarts wife and daughter, there were about 150 others. Tony just loved Ben Siegel, Anhalt said. Two years later, government investigators in New York uncovered evidence of the greater conspiracy that had operated behind Bioff and Browne. To learn more about how we use and protect your data, please see our privacy policy. His car moves fast on the three-lane northbound blacktop of the divided highway. In the process, someone told me to call Korshak, who had represented Ben Siegel. And thus the Times of Los Angeles: SIDNEY KORSHAK, ALLEGED MAFIA LIAISON TO HOLLYWOOD, DIES AT 88. In 1981, Jimmy the Weasel Fratianno ratted him out while testifying before a pension-fraud committee in Washington, telling that a Chicago crime boss had once warned him to keep away from Korshak lest his ties to the Mob be revealed. . Korshak not only prevented the strike but had the parking concession awarded by OMalley to a new outfit, Affiliated Parking, connected with a different Teamsters local. Thus the headline of his New York Times obituary. When Korshak was mentioned in an Associated Press dispatch from Hollywood in the summer of 1952, it was as an innocent. Good or evil. The United States Department of Justice brought criminal charges against Hoffa for accepting bribes from Commercial Carriers. Bugsy Siegel was there. They called themselves the connection guys. They were the ties between those in the shadows and those in the light. In February, his girlfriend, Estelle Carey, was visited by friends of the innocent. He was referring to James R. Hoffa, the former teamster president who disappeared in July 1975, and is generally presumed to have been murdered; Mr. Dorfman, who, like his stepfather, Paul (Red . The locals had lost their autonomy, and union members who dared to protest ended up out of work and often beaten up. All-powerful or legal automaton controlled by others. I have been writing on Wikipedia for years and have begun to write ebooks. He and his wife, Lynn, had four children, James, Michael, David and Kim.[7]. 11 Mar 1971 - Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA. This serendipity serves as an orchestral stirring as distinct as any I might devise for this tale, which reveals itself only in luminous flashes. In 1968 she married Jack Entratter, a former front man of Frank Costellos, the man whom she had seen interrogated. They said she died from Listeria. 'UK government cannot achieve the air quality improvements advised by medical experts, so has set its targets lower for the next 10 years, the environment secretary has admitted as she unveiled a new environmental plan.'. A lot of people who knew Hoffa couldnt imagine why he did that. Kupcinet said that it was hinted that it was his adopted son, Chuckie OBrien, who set him up, a charge also made by the late Teamster president Jackie Presser in the book Mobbed Up, written by James Neff. I asked Dan Moldea if Wasserman responded to Dark Victory. For example, they let us know which features and sections are most popular. Upon his discharge, his address would no longer be that of his mother, 5050 Sheridan Road. I was back in Hollywood. Thank you again. In one instance, Allen took $51,462 in premiums and simply deposited it in a special account that he maintained with his mother, with no complaints from the Teamsters. As a result of information obtained from the wiretaps, a federal grand jury in Chicago indicted Dorfman and four others in May 1981. Are you kidding, Roemer? He was always very careful hot to practice law in California. It was Korshak whom Walter OMalley, the Dodgers president, had called in to prevent an opening-day strike by Teamsters parking-lot attendants at the new Dodger Stadium in 1962. It invoked the myth and mystery of the man believed to have represented Mafia law west of Chicago, the man believed to have controlled the inner workings of Hollywood, Las Vegas, and God only knows what else. Imagine a tale never meant to be told. Technically, Paul Dorfman was Allen's step-father. The pineapple, nicknamed Little Al, worked for nearly six years, including the summer of 1965. 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