Benny and Tony Curtis

By Frank Di Silvestro

In 1951, in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, Freddy and his friend, 16 to 18, idolized Tony Curtis, who is a young actor in Hollywood groomed for stardom. Curtis comes from a neighborhood not far from where they live. In Harry’s Luncheonette, they stand around the jukebox talking about Curtis’ good looks and his fame and some of them even try to comb their hair like him, especially Benny Ravello who has hair just like Curtis and dreams of becoming an actor like him. He studies acting at the Drama Workshop where Curtis studied and where Joyce Selznick, the agent, discovered him. But he has difficulties in obtaining an audition with her. Remarkably with the cleverly deceptive help of his sister, a virtuoso violinist, he obtains the audition. However, Selznick rejects him, saying he should get rid of his Bronx accent, but Benny imagines his hooked nose repulsed her, which was not discernible in the picture he sent her. He decides to have rhinoplasty (a nose job).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Mar 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684708413

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Silvestro

Copyright © 2020 Frank Di Silvestro.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0842-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0899-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0841-3 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 02/24/2020

BENNY AND TONY CURTIS IS DEDICATED TO

KERANN HAVILLAND, MY WIFE, WHO INSPIRED

ME TO WRITE IT.

1

F reddy Messina and his friends thought Lenny Brentano was obsessed with Tony Curtis, the famous movie actor. Lenny had lived on Stebbins Avenue in the Bronx, where Tony Curtis had lived, close to Hunts Point where Freddy and his friends resided. Lenny’s parents had recently moved to Hunts Point on Lafayette Avenue. In the summer of 1951 Lenny was about eighteen, a few years younger than Curtis, who was already a young actor in Hollywood. Freddy and his friends were approximately between sixteen and eighteen and in awe of Curtis’ Hollywood fame and remarkable success. The first day he walked into Harry’s Luncheonette, he made sure to tell everyone he had lived on Stebbins Avenue, giving the deliberate impression that the young, handsome, movie actor was more than an acquaintance. Freddy figured that Lenny was trying to impress his new friends, which certainly was the case. Since 1949 Tony Curtis had appeared in some small parts in movies and they all knew he had come from the Bronx. How could you miss that Bronx accent? Speech lessons couldn’t eliminate it completely. His cadence, intonations, and mannerisms throughout his career would always have that Bronx edge, which Bronx natives, if no one else, could pick up. The remarkably handsome actor had already become a mythical figure in the neighborhood. The teenage boys and girls had seen Curtis in a small part in City Across the River about the youth gang, the Amboy Dukes. He stood out because of his incredibly good looks. The credits for the movie were presented in a unique way to introduce the new young actors to the public. One by one they appeared on the screen at the end of the movie. When Anthony Curtis as Mitch appeared, he stole the limelight from his fellow gang members. The girls screamed ecstatically with that romantic, dreamy gleam in their eyes. Tony! Tony! These girls might have considered the other gang members cute, but Curtis was beyond cuteness. He was not only the handsomest boy they had ever seen— he was one of them from the Bronx! For that reason they felt a genuine closeness to him. And the guys sitting next to the girls were also in awe of Curtis, never ceasing to be amazed that this good-looking Bronx boy was now in Hollywood. They couldn’t believe it! And Curtis’ hair! Wow! How perfect it was—so dark and silky. It entranced them. They wanted to comb their hair the way Curtis did, with the wispy curls falling on the forehead, the slick pompadour in the front, and the exquisite Duck’s Ass in the back. Of course, not every boy had Curtis’ abundantly gorgeous hair, but that didn’t matter. They stood in front of their mirrors and reflecting store windows and tried to comb their hair to look like him. There was magic in that Tony Curtis hairstyle. They’d talk about him in complete wonder, especially in Harry’s Luncheonette where they generally hung out. How did this Bronx boy actually get to Hollywood? How did it happen! It was a mystery to them, especially to eighteen-year-old Benny Ravello.

Lenny, of course, had the answer. He told them about an incident that became his claim to fame in the neighborhood: On a lovely spring day Lenny had been playing stickball with Tony Curtis and some other guys on Stebbins Avenue, when the actor’s mother called him from her window. Curtis had received a phone call from Universal Studios and his mother was calling him to come home immediately to take the call.

Hollywood is calling! she shouted.

Curtis’ friends thought this had to be some kind of joke as they watched him drop his stickball bat and dash home. Quite amused with Curtis’ mom, they warmly laughed. What a comedian he has for a mother! Hollywood’s calling! That’s an ingenious way to get him to come home. What does Bernie (his real first name) know about Hollywood?

Then Lenny paused musingly while telling his tale. We found out that a plane ticket was waiting for him to fly to Hollywood. After that no one saw him on the street. It was like some kind of fairytale. One day he’s on the street playing stickball with us and the next day he’s in Hollywood becoming a movie star. We weren’t laughing anymore. We were just puzzled, amazed and envious.

Unbelievable! Freddy and his friends exclaimed.

But Benny Ravello, unlike the others, found this more than unbelievable. He was the only one who was dreamily carried away as he contemplated this remarkable story and dreamed of Hollywood—the fame, the wealth, the mansions with swimming pools and all those beautiful girls (fans) and actresses adoring him. What a life!

Yeah, unbelievable! Lenny echoed wistfully, his eyes falling on Benny’s rapt expression. From stickball to Hollywood. But that’s how it really happened. I was there!

Now Lenny didn’t tell them about this incident just once. He would retell it as often as he could, not only because he enjoyed imparting this information, but they loved hearing it. It sounded more like a fantasy, a magical dream that they had to hear again and again to make believable and convince themselves it had actually happened this way to a Bronx boy like themselves. Lenny would then sometimes relate another incident between him and Curtis that he claimed he had personally witnessed:

The movie actor had returned to New York City to do promotion work for City Across the River. He was staying in a suite at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in Manhattan. To show off in front of his buddies, Curtis had the chauffeur of his black limousine drive him to the Bronx. The limousine rolled down Stebbins Avenue and parked amidst his friends while they were playing stickball. In awe they stopped their game. Tony Curtis, in his fashionable new clothes, looking every inch the young movie star, stepped out to greet them. They all gathered around him in wonder, shouting in thrilled voices, Hey, Bernie, ya doin’ great! Look at that limousine! Look at those clothes! Hey, you’re a big movie star now! What famous actress you screwin’?

Curtis didn’t disappoint them. Yvonne DeCarlo, he casually answered with the slightest leering gleam in his eyes.

Wow! Yvonne DeCarlo! they shouted, swinging their stickball bats in the air.

And that was exactly what Freddy and his friends exclaimed, Wow! Yvonne DeCarlo! Lenny nodded a little smugly, as if it gave him a special aura of importance to possess this knowledge about Tony Curtis. And yet his voice had a touch of despondency in it as he then murmured, as if to himself, his eyes dreamily closing for a moment, Yvonne DeCarlo….what a beauty… Then his eyes opened to the reality before him. Yeah, he came back to see us.

But how did Universal Studios, they wondered, know about this incredibly good-looking guy who lived in the Bronx? How do you go from playing stickball to Hollywood? The question puzzled and haunted them. Why did this happen to Curtis and not to one of them? When they’d ask Lenny about this, he’d say, It’s a mystery. I don’t know.

This piqued Freddy’s curiosity. There had to be a logical answer. Mysteries always plagued Freddy. He had to solve them, or at least try. So he decided to find out about this by seeing Big Pop one early evening. Big Pop was a movie buff par excellence and read the biographies of actors in movie magazines. He was a gifted singer with a musical-comedy voice and a superb impressionist, so he felt a kinship with the show business world. He was the superintendent of an apartment building on Hunts Point Avenue. But he didn’t perform a super’s duties. He paid others to do that. His real vocation, if you can call it that, was running a mini empire of illegal gambling: you could play the numbers with him, bet on professional and college games, boxing matches, and so on. He was also a benign loan shark. His rates of interest weren’t exorbitant. He ran games of craps and cards in his basement. And because of the graft he gave to the neighborhood police, he was protected.

Freddy never read a movie magazine, so he didn’t know anything about Tony Curtis’ background. His main interest were games of athletic competition and following professional sports as a fan. He was the captain of the Tigers, the neighborhood softball team. Big Pop managed the team and supplied them with bats, balls, gloves and team jackets. The clubhouse for the Tigers was in his huge basement. Big Pop was a revered, loved and feared figure in Hunts Point, a kind of legend. He was kind, but dangerous if you wronged him. He was in his late thirties with steely blue eyes and a round face that looked more pretty than manly. He was over six-feet-five and weighed over three hundred pounds. He could lift a man over his head like a bag of potatoes, which he had once done in front of Freddy and his friends. An event that added to his legendary status. He had, so to speak, an unnatural kinship with the youth of the neighborhood. They were part of his life. He was very close to Freddy who looked upon the big guy as a kind uncle. When Freddy arrived at Big Pop’s, Alice, his beautiful nineteen-year-old daughter, who lived alone with her father, was out for the evening. Big Pop was in his underwear in bed reading when he heard Freddy ring the bell.

Who is it? he bellowed.

Freddy, he loudly replied.

Come in, the door is open.

Freddy stood before Big Pop’s bed. Intending not to stay too long, he didn’t sit in the chair that was next to the bed. Big Pop knew that when Freddy didn’t sit, he usually had a question for him that required an immediate answer. And since Big Pop possessed more knowledge than anyone else in Hunts Point on every conceivable subject, it pleasurably satisfied him to impart his information. And because his fondness for Freddy exceeded normal bounds, one of his great joys—indeed it even physically thrilled him—was answering the young man’s inquisitive questions.

How did the actor from the Bronx, Tony Curtis, get started in the movies? Freddy asked. Lenny said he was playing stickball when his mother received a phone call for him from Hollywood. I mean, it couldn’t have happened just like that.

Big Pop laughed, his belly rising and falling almost rhythmically. Sometimes he laughed at the strangest times, so Freddy was used to the incongruity. Oh, there was a little more to it, Freddy, he said. They didn’t just pluck Curtis off the street. You know, I’d seen him a few times playing ball when I went to visit a friend on Stebbins Avenue. Gorgeous young man! I couldn’t stop staring at him.

He couldn’t stop staring at him? Freddy thought curiously. The way the big guy talked about good-looking young men, as if they were women, always amused him. Like everyone else, but more so, Freddy knew Big Pop was different and perverse, so he understood.

Anyway, after Curtis was discharged from the Navy he studied acting on the G.I. Bill at the Dramatic Workshop at the President Theatre on Forty Eighth Street. I studied acting myself for a while.

Really! You studied to be an actor?

Oh, yeah, since I was a kid people were always telling me to be a performer.

Well, you can sing like those Broadway stars and those impressions you do are remarkable. That one you do of Jaunita Hall singing ‘Bali Ha’i’ from ‘South Pacific’ is incredible.

Big Pop had done this impersonation in drag at a New Year’s Eve party in the clubhouse for Freddy and his friends. His performance became a constant item of gossip throughout Hunts Point. This behemoth of a man in drag was an unforgettable sight to behold.

A famous show biz manager even approached me and wanted me to perform in clubs. He even guaranteed me a booking on the Ed Sullivan show. He said the audience would love the idea that I’m so huge and I can do these impersonations like the one I do of Theresa Brewer singing, ‘Music Music Music’ in her girlish voice. He chuckled and so did Freddy. Oh, I could’ve been a great performer. You know—

And what about Tony Curtis? Freddy deliberately interrupted to return to his subject and thereby avoid one of Big Pop’s lengthy digressions.

Oh, yeah. Anyway, this agent, Joyce Selznick saw him in a play, ‘Golden Boy,’ at the Dramatic Workshop and invited him to the Max Richards Agency where she was an agent. And that was it. After he went to the agency and they saw his extraordinary good looks, they contacted Universal Studios.

So Curtis’ incredible good looks was his ticket to Hollywood, Freddy said.

Oh, yeah. Unlike Marlon Brando who got there strictly on his acting talent.

Freddy went right to the luncheonette. Lenny and his friends were already there, including his girlfriend, Maureen Ruggiero, and some other girls he knew. He told them how Tony Curtis had made it to Hollywood. It was no longer a mystery. Lenny’s expression was downcast. He was disturbed that Freddy had ascertained this information about Curtis. Freddy felt a little sorry for him.

Hey, Lenny, you can find out about this in the movie magazines, Freddy told him. It’s no big deal. Why don’t you start a fan club for Tony Curtis. Maybe he’ll invite you to Hollywood.

Yeah, Lenny, start a Tony Curtis fan club! the girls excitedly chimed in.

That’s a good idea, Lenny said, feeling better and smiling.

With keen interest, Benny Ravello was the only one who absorbed every bit of information about Curtis and cogitated upon it. He was utterly fascinated with how Curtis was discovered. He thought he could also become an actor. So Curtis went to acting school, he was thinking. If he could do it, then so can I. The idea began to germinate in his mind because of his hair that came the closest to looking like Curtis’ hair. Of course, he didn’t have Curtis good looks—who did? But if you had taken a picture of just Benny’s forehead and hair, you would’ve said it was Tony Curtis’ hair without seeing his face. Unfortunately, Benny had a big hooked nose. His friends would tease him about it. And when he talked about becoming an actor, they’d laugh and ridicule him, exclaiming loudly, You better get a nose job first, Benny!

But this didn’t bother him. He’d shout back, I got the Curtis hair baby! I got the hair! And I’m Italian, too!

For it was assumed by everyone that Tony Curtis was Italian. What else could he be with those dark, handsome looks? But one day in Harry’s Luncheonette as the guys and girls were talking about Curtis’ Italian good looks, Harry cried out impatiently, Tony Curtis is a Jew!

Everyone suddenly became quite. Then some of them exclaimed in disbelief,

A Jew?

His name is Bernie Schwartz, Harry emphasized. He’s a Hungarian Jew.

Barbara, Harry’s fifteen-year-old daughter who was assisting her father behind the counter, was tittering with glee at how startled everyone was. She had already become, like other girls her age, a Tony Curtis fan and knew all about his background, but kept it to herself.

That’s his real name? Bernie Schwartz? Eddy O’Brien asked, in his usual hostile, pugnacious manner. A heab?

‘He’s not a heab, Eddy, Harry said. He’s a Jew. If you’re gonna use those ethnic slurs, you’re not coming in here anymore. I barred you once before—I’ll do it again."

I’m sorry, Harry, Eddy apologized with pretended contrition in his voice, so that he wouldn’t be barred again from the luncheonette and not be able to hang out with his friends.

Harry was respected and somewhat feared. Big Pop would sometimes say, Harry’s a tough Jew like some of those Jewish gangsters of the twenties and thirties. It was rumored that Harry had grown up with or been related in some way to handsome Bugsy Siegal, the famous Jewish gangster. They said he knew young Siegal when he extorted money from Jewish pushcart peddlers on New York’s lower East Side. When Siegal was killed in a fusillade of bullets fired through the window of his palatial Beverly Hills home, they said Harry had cried like a baby when he