Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: David Pietrusza
cloth, or the flip of a card, he could have contented himself with dingy Lower East Side stuss parlors and pool halls. Arnold liked gambling, but he also enjoyed the people he met while gambling. He enjoyed the thrill of knowing "name" people, prominent athletes, and actors.
As Arnold Rothstein came of age, Times Square, as New York's entertainment center, was blossoming as well. Prior to the turn of the century, the neighborhood was barely worth mentioning, as the theater district lay at Herald Square, a good quarter-mile to the south. In 1895, however, opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein I opened three theaters: the Olympic, the Lyric, and the Music Hall on Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets. Everyone talked of Hammerstein's daring, but soon talked about his near bankruptcy. In 1899 a desperate Hammerstein scraped together $8,000 to open Hammerstein's Victoria at West 42nd and Broadway. Its success paved the way for other theaters in Times Square. By 1906 the New York Times could write that any theater not within the area's confines was "practically doomed." The Great White Way was being invented.
Hotels opened. Some, like the Algonquin on West 44th, were quite respectable. Most weren't. Prostitutes operated out of the Delavan, the Plymouth, the Garrick, the Valko, the Lyceum, the Churchill (run by an ex-police sergeant), the King Edward, and the Metropole. The Metropole, run by Tammany boss Big Tim Sullivan and the Considine brothers, George and Bill, featured not only prostitutes but gamblers. In 1904 Lord William Waldorf Astor brought the city's biggest and grandest hotel to Times Square-the opulent Astor, at Broadway and West 44th. Its bar soon would be among Manhattan's most prominent homosexual gathering places.
Times Square, however, could never have become Times Square without the Times. The New York Times relocated from Park Row to its new $1.7 million (budgeted at $250,000) Times Tower on New Years Eve 1904. At 375 feet, the paper's new headquarters was Manhattan's second tallest structure, just 10 feet short of the recently opened Flatiron Building at East 23rd and Broadway.
Now in his early twenties, A. R. loved everything in the new heart of the city. The clatter of the newly opened subways, the glamour of the grand hotels and theaters, the bantering crowds in the restaurants, and the boisterous gaiety of area's many theaters. Some sites he favored more than others. The Metropole was his kind of place. It made no secret that it catered to gamblers, and with Big Tim's political and police connections it didn't have to. Hammerstein's Victoria had similar charms. Monday matinees attracted smallish crowds, and they weren't there to see Blanch Walsh in Tolstoy's Resurrection. In the theater's basement, each Monday afternoon, bored stagehands and ushers organized a crap game. Soon toughs from the audience left the auditorium and joined the action, including gang members Monk Eastman, Whitey Lewis, and Dago Frank Cirofici, and gamblers Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal and Arnold Rothstein.
A. R. was already expert at virtually any card game, could handle a cue to his own profit, and would bet on anything that moved. At the Victoria, he learned to shoot craps-and he learned something more. The Victoria's basement was a fine place for Monday-afternoon gaming, but there remained an overall shortage of places to roll dice safely. A. R. recognized that he could profit in hosting such events and found a derelict barn downtown on Water Street-close by the Brooklyn Bridge and near his father's Henry Street birthplace. For three dollars, the barn's night watchman would look the other waya small price for A. R. to pay for a percentage of the handle.
On Water Street and at the Victoria, A. R. also learned the value of the Big Bankroll. A big wad of bills was good for the ego and good for impressing one's peers, but it had concretely tangible uses. When A. R. arrived at card and crap games, brandishing carefully husbanded
As Arnold Rothstein came of age, Times Square, as New York's entertainment center, was blossoming as well. Prior to the turn of the century, the neighborhood was barely worth mentioning, as the theater district lay at Herald Square, a good quarter-mile to the south. In 1895, however, opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein I opened three theaters: the Olympic, the Lyric, and the Music Hall on Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets. Everyone talked of Hammerstein's daring, but soon talked about his near bankruptcy. In 1899 a desperate Hammerstein scraped together $8,000 to open Hammerstein's Victoria at West 42nd and Broadway. Its success paved the way for other theaters in Times Square. By 1906 the New York Times could write that any theater not within the area's confines was "practically doomed." The Great White Way was being invented.
Hotels opened. Some, like the Algonquin on West 44th, were quite respectable. Most weren't. Prostitutes operated out of the Delavan, the Plymouth, the Garrick, the Valko, the Lyceum, the Churchill (run by an ex-police sergeant), the King Edward, and the Metropole. The Metropole, run by Tammany boss Big Tim Sullivan and the Considine brothers, George and Bill, featured not only prostitutes but gamblers. In 1904 Lord William Waldorf Astor brought the city's biggest and grandest hotel to Times Square-the opulent Astor, at Broadway and West 44th. Its bar soon would be among Manhattan's most prominent homosexual gathering places.
Times Square, however, could never have become Times Square without the Times. The New York Times relocated from Park Row to its new $1.7 million (budgeted at $250,000) Times Tower on New Years Eve 1904. At 375 feet, the paper's new headquarters was Manhattan's second tallest structure, just 10 feet short of the recently opened Flatiron Building at East 23rd and Broadway.
Now in his early twenties, A. R. loved everything in the new heart of the city. The clatter of the newly opened subways, the glamour of the grand hotels and theaters, the bantering crowds in the restaurants, and the boisterous gaiety of area's many theaters. Some sites he favored more than others. The Metropole was his kind of place. It made no secret that it catered to gamblers, and with Big Tim's political and police connections it didn't have to. Hammerstein's Victoria had similar charms. Monday matinees attracted smallish crowds, and they weren't there to see Blanch Walsh in Tolstoy's Resurrection. In the theater's basement, each Monday afternoon, bored stagehands and ushers organized a crap game. Soon toughs from the audience left the auditorium and joined the action, including gang members Monk Eastman, Whitey Lewis, and Dago Frank Cirofici, and gamblers Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal and Arnold Rothstein.
A. R. was already expert at virtually any card game, could handle a cue to his own profit, and would bet on anything that moved. At the Victoria, he learned to shoot craps-and he learned something more. The Victoria's basement was a fine place for Monday-afternoon gaming, but there remained an overall shortage of places to roll dice safely. A. R. recognized that he could profit in hosting such events and found a derelict barn downtown on Water Street-close by the Brooklyn Bridge and near his father's Henry Street birthplace. For three dollars, the barn's night watchman would look the other waya small price for A. R. to pay for a percentage of the handle.
On Water Street and at the Victoria, A. R. also learned the value of the Big Bankroll. A big wad of bills was good for the ego and good for impressing one's peers, but it had concretely tangible uses. When A. R. arrived at card and crap games, brandishing carefully husbanded
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