The Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center presents From Underdog to Underworld: Jewish Gangsters and the American Dream now through June 30, 2011, a strongly thematic exhibition of portraits in pen, ink and watercolor by graphic designer Pat Hamou.
Gyp the Blood (Harry Horowitz) and Lefty Louie (Louis Rosenberrg) by Pat Hamou. $2000. The two got the electric chair for the murder of Herman Rosenthal in 1912.
It was still hot in New York City at 1:45 a.m. on July 15, 1912, when a 1909 Packard pulled up and idled outside the Metropole Café. Gyp the Blood, a short, strong hoodlum with dark eyes and olive complexion, just 22 years old, led three others, including Lefty Louie, out of the car and into the shadows around the restaurant’s front door. When at last Herman Rosenthal emerged, Lefty reportedly said “Hello, Herman…Goodbye, Herman” before the gunmen opened fire. “Rosenthal was dead before he hit the pavement,” the exhibit program remarks. The young gangsters didn’t realize that the license plate of the getaway car could be traced, and they were all eventually caught. The trial lasted just seven days, and Gyp the Blood and Lefty Louie died in the electric chair before their 25th birthdays.
Every portrait in the exhibit, which includes several well-known names like Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, is accompanied by this sort of vivid detail. Hamou, clearly fascinated by his subject, provides even more information at his blog, Six for Five.
Joseph, Louis, and Herman Amberg, by Pat Hamou. $600. The brothers were involved in bootlegging, extortion, robbery and murder in Brooklyn.
The artist thanks Lisa Ceile, Coordinator for Cultural Arts and Center for Jewish Life and Learning at the JCC, for making the show happen. This is his third curated show on this topic. The first was Real Machers in Washington, DC (2009), followed by Wise Guys: Mobsters In the Mispacha last June in San Francisco. Pat Hamou was born in Paris, France and now lives in Montreal, Canada.
Tick Tock Tannenbaum by Pat Hamou. $1500.
Albert “Tick Tock” Tannenbaum had reason to seem so anxious, according to Hamou. He killed “Big Greenie” Greenberg in Los Angeles with Bugsy Siegel and Whitey Krakower and then turned stool pigeon, offering enough evidence to send Louis Lepke Buchalter to the electric chair. Tannenbaum spent almost a year at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island being grilled by prosecutors. Some claim he spent the rest of his life as a hat salesman. He disappeared off the coast of Florida in 1976 at the age of 70.
The exhibit is on the second floor, in the Laura and Gary Lauder corridor
The JCC is open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. Save the date: Sunday, May 22 is the Silicon Valley Jewish Music Festival, also at the Jewish Community Center, 14855 Oka Road, Los Gatos.
Tags: JCC
