Martha

Martha Stewart was sent to jail?  Lovely Martha? Stewart?  She went to jail?  She is home now, thank the lord, but its still hard for me to get my brain around this.  To me Martha Stewart represents the ability for any of us, as an individual, to attain the heights of business success in our country.  In other words all that good opportunity stuff about our country.
She doesn't need praise from me.  Or sympathy from me for the difficulty that was foisted upon her.  Just the thought of it sickens me. 
She is a wonder and now she has been forced to represent an example of the spirit necessary to overcome some of the man-made poop that anyone of us can fall into..
I remember thinking at the time, "You can't put Martha Stewart in jail.  Even if she spit on the sidewalk in Philadelphia."  (They repealed that law.)  So I figured she must have done something terrible. 
Damn!!!  They put Martha  in Jail.  And this is not a joke, right?   It wasn't publicity for some of that stuff she sells in TV ads, or in department stores.  I cant conjure up a picture of Martha doing something terrible.  So I did some research.  Maybe she was demonstrating one of her recipes and accidently mixed up some bad stuff with the other ingredients . . . .
What???  She did what? 
Throughout my entire business life my best friend, Jerry, once a Wall Street account executive, and later an officer for Morgan Stanley, like many other so called 'account executives', he would call me on the phone and tout various stocks. All of them were all hoping to get me to buy or sell something.  So they could make a buck.  If we  leave Jerry out of the equation, I knew some of the callers could have only been on the job for a week or maybe just a day.  Sometimes the ones that called, that I didn't know, were brand new hires trying to build a customer base, and, oh yeah, like I said, trying to get me to buy or sell something.  That was how they made their living.  And I think they still do it the same way.  And if luck had it and I bought a stock that went up, I got another sales phone call.

In other words, as I get it,  a Wall Street guy, who Martha knew for a long time, called her on the phone. It was one of those 'can I make a buck ' phone calls.
The law was suspicious of this guy because they thought 'maybe' he was using inside stuff to make sales.  But she thought of him as a friend and she didn't want to get him into trouble.  So she answered these' paragons of virtue' in that context.  Her guard was down.  Calls like this, had happened this way, so many times before, no way she thought anything wrong was involved.
And what difference is the amount of shares? 100 or 1000 or 10 million?  Or if the stock was in her company or my company or any company?  This is so ridiculous.  But she went to JAIL.  If you put everybody in jail who called people like me on the phone to sell me some stock, using terms like 'confidential information', wall street could  solve the 'jobs' problem just by hiring replacements for the all the Wall Street jailbirds.

And then, these virtuous paragons, who will do anything to advance their own careers, decided they could use the notoriety of Martha's name.  Real butt holes who felt safe doing it.  Its rare when someone, just like them, like that butthole sheriff, who ruined the reputations of those kids from the Duke Lacrosse team, pays any kind of penalty. Like that sheriff did. 
I put the butt holes that perpetrated Martha's miscarriage of justice in the same category.

Who's next ?

If stupidity needs an example, this is it. 
Martha went to jail?  Martha Stewart?  Unbelievable!!!
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Charlie Schwartz

Bayshore 17th, Alton Rd, Miami Beach

My first meeting with Charlie Schwartz was at Bayshore Golf Course.  He was having lunch  with an attorney who was part of a firm with offices in the same building on Lincoln Road, where I had my offices.  This day the lawyer got a business call and asked me if I would play with Charlie since he had to take care of business.  Charlie and I agreed to play a round. We liked each other right from the start and it was an enjoyable round with me winning one way.  Since the attorney was not going to be available for a week or so, I continued to play with Charlie for the rest of the week and then we continued playing together after that. 
Charlie was from Philadelphia where he was well known among the gambling fraternity as a high roller and he had a reputation as being very reliable as well as an astute gambler..  He knew my father though they had never socialized.
A story goes that when two rival mob factions in Philadelphia were in the midst of a squabble over $20,000.00 they agreed to put up the money ($20,000.00 cash) with Charlie who would give it to the winner when the dispute was settled.  The dispute took a couple of months. But that is the way it went down, and Charlie gave the winner the money. 
I told Charlie I would not play for more than $25.00 a way.  Usually there was no way Charlie would play for such a small amount.  But I wouldn't budge, and finally he agreed.  We played automatic presses after every 2 holes and the amount of the first bet was established before we teed off.  When I wasn't playing with Charlie my bet limit was $10.00 a way because I didn't want any hustlers making me a target.  At Bayshore you might get taken, even in small games.   It was rare to lose more than 3 or 4 ways a side, (9 holes)  so you do the math.  Charlie could not beat me even with the handicap I gave him.  A  shot a hole and a half shot on the par 3s.  And I insisted we add a stroke or subtract a stroke after every round, depending on who won.  Funny thing, he didn't want to do it. The lawyer was better than me and had a good thing going.
One of Charlie's golfing buddies was Carroll Rosenbloom, former owner of a NFL football team, who also had a high roller reputation, and when he was in South Florida Charlie would play with him..  They would play for $25,000.00 for a nine hole round. No presses. One of their famous rounds was for $50,000.00 and was played on a Boca Raton golf course with a gallery of watchers.   I was told Charlie won the round, when Carroll missed a putt and Charlie made a putt on the last hole.
Both of them were in their later years and were short of stature.  Charlie couldn't hit the ball more than 125 yards but it almost always went straight down the middle and he was decent around the green..  And Carroll could not hit it much further than that and he was also decent around the greens..  Carroll's wife (much younger) became owner of the NFL football team when  Carroll died in the surf off of a Broward County beach. 

Amongst some other stuff  Charlie owned Hamid's Pier in Atlantic City.  The pier and everything else he owned was in his brother Harry's name because of Charlie's unfavorable reputation within the law enforcement community.   Even Charlie's car, an Oldsmobile 98, which he didn't drive, but even what was essentially his wife's car, was in Harry's name.

Charlie's heart trouble flared up and while he was in the hospital he told me he might want to sell Hamid's Pier and he asked me for advice on how to go about it.  During those visits to the  hospital I met some friends of  his and one of them,  lived in Bal Harbour,  He was often present during most of my visits.  What I said to Charlie was, if he trusted Harry not to take advantage of his wife, he could just let matters be and make with some type of agreement between harry and his wife.  But if he wanted to be sure, his best option was to sell.  He asked me if I would make a meet with him and Harry, at the hospital, to discuss it.  We had the meeting, the Bal Harbour friend was there too, and Charlie asked me how long it would take.  I said I would get on it right away so probably not too long, and that I would get some ball  park numbers as to value in about a week at the most.  Harry was just agreeable to everything in a submissive way.


To establish a price  I contacted 2 well known realtors, one in Philadelphia, one in Atlantic City, and then got the names of some potential buyers from a friend of my friend, Jerry.  (the pier was eventually sold for nearly a million dollars.)  Jerry's friends owned a Hotel on Ventnor avenue which was later purchased by Trump and is now Trump Tower.  
Not long after, before the sale was finalized, Charlie passed away..

Hamid's Pier, 1930s, its heyday.

To shorten the story, Harry turns out to be less than what Charlie had hoped.  He told Charlie's wife even the car did not belong to her.  A one hundred percent pure asshole.
I knew Charlie's Bal Harbour friend was aware of all of this stuff and when I saw him, he asked me how my part of the story went and I told him.   I also told him was I going to sue Harry for a fee at the time, especially when I heard how he treated Charlie's wife.  And then I went to visit her and she told me Harry had unexpectedly given her some money and she was satisfied.  So I didn't sue, I chalked it up, as far as my efforts were concerned, to another of life's experiences. 
And then he said, "If it makes you feel better I'll tell you what happened. I spoke to Harry.  I asked if he knew two mutual friends from South Jersey?"  And he said,  "Sure." 
Then I asked him, "You wouldn't want them wanting to talk to you?  Would ya?" 
He got alarmed and asked, "Why the hell would they want to talk to me?"  And then I  asked him if he didn't remember an incident many years ago when Charlie did a favor for them.  Harry says sure he rememberes.  So I say, then you probably also remember they liked his wife, and that they had sent her a very nice present when Charlie did the favor.
That's when I said, "Oh I see.  And here I thought he had a change of heart." 

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Crime and Me

My life in crime started way back when.  I don't remember how old I was but I think it was about the time  I started to  notice girls. Especially the girl who lived a few houses up on my street.  And she knew I noticed her because I would look at her a certain way.  In those days I was beginning to be a kibbitser and was a little bold.  And I did that because of how she walked and  how she wore her low cut dresses, or revealing tops.. This was not the routine way girls wore their clothes in those days. Anyway I was at the corner drug store waiting for someone to get a phone call.  When they did  I would go 'call them to the phone', for which I would  get  a tip.  Maybe a nickel or an occasional dime.. 

Ultimate price

On this day I wanted to go to the movies.    They were having burlesque as part of the show, and this was the way I would get the money for admission.  And there were  no restrictions applying to me because of my age.  (see below)But today was a bad day for phone calls and I was about to leave the store when a call came in for that lady who  lived a little up the block. I ran to her house and knocked on the door and waited.  Jeez, maybe nobody was home.  I was leaving, already on the top step of her stoop, when I heard a noise from behind the door which then opened and there she was.  I didn't even see her face.  She was wearing a kimono which is like a negligee, I think.  But you cant see through it.  No matter, she was buttoning it up from the bottom and she still had four or five buttons to go. Wow.  I told her about the phone call and I could tell by the look in her face she might not have a nickel for me. I don't remember the words I used but I quickly told her no tip was necessary. She swooped me into her bosom with a bear hug.  Wow again. Worth way more than a nickel or dime. 

But that was that, she went to the drug store and I went to the Cross Keys Theater on Market street to try to find a way to see the movie and special show.  I went to the back of the building looking for a way to get in.  One of the exit doors was about a quarter inch away from flat against the building.  I found a popsicle stick and used it so it would push against the latch, which I pushed until it clicked back against the door.  

Then I moved the door out until it reached an unclosed position and I held it that way by pushing the popsicle stick across the bottom of the latch. Pressure from the door held it in place and kept the lock from 'clicking'.   Eureka!  (O Boy!! Movies in the future.)


From the seats she looked naked.

The rest was easy. I could hear the 'news' was on so I waited for it to finish and  I went in during an ad change over.  It became rare for this not to work and it was even rarer to get caught.  Anyhow, if you did get caught they just threw you out.  I saw all the latest movies that way and usually had a nickel or dime for refreshments.. But then, that first day was special, because it was burlesque day, with live theatre, featuring Sally Rand and her Fan.  (If you look closely, Sally is dressed in a skin-like dress, but from a seat in the audience she appears to be nude.) 
Wow, Wow, Wow.





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