america's stories, and on sundays booktv brings you the latest nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span2 comes from these television companies and more including buckeye broadband. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> buckeye broadband, along with of these television companies,, supports c-span2 as a public service. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to this session. i'm jeff urbin, , the education director at the roosevelt presidential library and museum, and on behalf of the fdr presidential library and museum i would like to welcome you alln to the 20th anniversary of the roosevelt reading festival. now, fdr plan for the library to

become the premier research institution for the study of the entire roosevelt era, and the library's research room is consistently one of the busiest of all the presidential libraries. this year's group of authors reflects the wide variety of research done here and that similar institutions throughout the country. so let me quickly go through the lay of the land here. we are going to talk for about 30-40 minutes or so, then that weise -- the would be time to do questions and answers. we are in the c-span room so if your going to ask a question w' need you to come up to the microphone. don't ask the question to get to the microphone.on ask the question and then the author will respond. so we want to make sure we get the question on audio. and it iso my pleasure to introduce our next author. david pietrusza is the author of many books including 1932, the

rise of hitler and fdr, two tales of politics, the trail and unlikely destiny. roosevelt sweeps the nation, 1936 landslide and the triumph of the liberal idea. and "gangsterland: a tour through the dark heart of jazz-age new york city." hevo has appeared on "morning joe", the voice of america, the history channel, american heroes chunksp of espn, npr and c-span. he's spoken at the fdr presidential library in the past at the john f. kennedy library and also at the truman presidential libraries, as well as grants cottage state historic site, the national baseballmu hl of fame and museum, and various institutions, universities and libraries and festivals across the country. and he lives in new york state, and here to talk with us about his recent book is david pietrusza. [applause]

>> thank you. i think the first question i often get about the book is why, first off, thanks to all the great people here for having me. this is an honor to be here. everyone is so nice, and it's an event i look forward to even when i'm not speaking. i show as a spectator, that's how much i like it. but anyway, so why write a book like this if you like a presidential historian and such? well, before that i was doing baseball history and a did a book on the gangster and all-aroundar underworld figure arnold rothstein. and aag few years ago, a couple years ago i got a call from somebody i've been doing one of these things on cable tv where you argue about the events of the day. andy says, hey, i'm doing, i do a radio show now about odd way,

and could you come in and talk about arnold rothstein on broadway and times square? and iai said, yes, i can. because right after writing the book about arnold rothstein, which is not about 20 years ago, i had conducted, i was hired to do a walking tour of times square. our lavrov steams times square, okay? and because it's time square where you keep your hand on your wallet, i was stiffed on payment for that to her. [laughing] but i kept all my notes. and more remarkably i could find them in the hovel that passes for my office. and so i thought, well, why don't i just, i'll do the interview and maybe i could publish a little pamphlet. i tend to c get carried away. and one of the reasons i could get carried away is because unlike today's newspapers which

leave, out all sorts of detail, particularly about crimes and criminals and locations, the newspapers and then were just full of details, and they are plenty of details to be full of envy prohibition era in time square here and then i took the thing forward and did like a lia part two in the book about thesu upper west side. which i was quite surprised to learn was really mobbed up back then because you know it's a direct shot from time square, or from the upper west side where the action was in times square. so the newspapers would tell you all of the details, and it would tell you not only the street that something occurred on, they would tell you the street number and they would tell you the apartment number. i found a guidebook which, for 1920, which listed the addresses of famous people in the city.

so it would tell you where under secretary of the navy franklin rooseveltod lived, okay? imagine that in today's world. and so one t of the things i sa, i said please let me speak about this book at the roosevelt reading festival is, , i promisi will bring in politics front and center to that., because we talk about intersectionality now in politics, and there's an intersectionality or overlap about this story and about how gangsterism worked in the 20s in times square, , and so you've got the usual murderers and shakedown artists and speakeasies and bootlegging, but you also have oh, you have politics. this is a big factor which plays into it.

they need protection. and he goes into sports where they are fixing certain sporting events, and he goes into the theater where every gangster appears, seems to have a showgirl girlfriend. and not all gangsters, not just gangsters. maybe franklin roosevelt doesn't, but william randolph hearst certainly does, his first wife, and then his second wife marion davies. so you see this over and over again. you also see that often the plot lines and early 1930s movies which seem sort of fanciful and hackneyed really are based on today's headlines or yesterdays headlines and in that case. ..mm organizer nation which runs everything really in new york city at that time and for a very long time and which franklin

roosevelt makes his early reputation in the new york state senate as being a forceful opponent of and with the most prominent >> and with the most prominent tie-in to the violence and gore in this era-- area and in this era is the tamny boss of the other east side, a guy named big tim sullivan. sullivan, again, intersectionality, overlap, aside from running the lower east side, a senator, a congressman, was also a partner in a west coast vaudeville chain of all things. so he had an office for his chain at 1440 broadway and so sullivan also protects up and coming young gamblers. one of whom is arnold rossstein and rosenthal.

104 west street. and he is tired of shaken down by a lieutenant by sullivan, lieutenant becker, becker is one, mean crooked cop. and rosenthal says, do you know who i am? i am a friend, i'm a protege of big tim and you're picking on me and i'm not going to take it whereupon his gambling house is wrecked by the police. this happens one more time and rosenthal, this is a bad timing for tameney and it's one of the rare intervals where there's a republican d.a., he's going to the d.a., to the press, and trouble in river city. and big tim sullivan is the father of the first gun control law in the united states, the

sullivan act, okay? and also involved in the murder of rosenthal, which is the first drive-by shooting in the united states history. they go by him after hiring some killers through another gambler named bridgy webber, who had a faro house at 102 42nd street which is now a whole foods, okay? the one by bryant park. so rosenthal is no more. becker goes to the chair. he's the first -- so many firsts in this case, the first and i think only cop to go to the chair in the united states of america. so we have that and, but surviving this mess is arnold rothstein and rothstein, there

are many, many sites that one can visit which were associated with him in new york city. most notably, the park central hotel, very near to carnegie hall. a big hotel still in business now, west 56th street and he is killed in an upper room there by another gambler named george mcmanus. well, that's my theory, anyway. and it was the d.a.'s theory as well, but not the jury's. pretty much i think the fix was in there to let him go. now, rothstein was involved in, like i say, rum running, loan sharking, bootlegging, speak

easies, the great middle man of things and one of the middlemen-- or well, there's an adjunct or a detour from the rothstein story which -- and he has a relative, a relative of his is a cousin and married to a guy named george ringler and george ringler was sort of-- he would get around in political circles, again, politics. he also worked with the new york daily news as sort of a photographer and a go-to guy and a guy who would feed stories to the reporters and stuff like this. he showed up in the stories as a fellow who served a summons because there was an entertainer at this time by the name of frank tinnie, a blackface entertainer and

listen to recordings, not in blackface, on youtube, one is called frank tinnie's first recording and the next one is called frank tinnie's second recording. so funny, but as a person not so funny. after beating up his girlfriend emma jean wilson, a new york times photographer in new york square, he beats him up, too, and george ringler will serve him a summons on behalf of the beat up photographer. ringler is also connected to mayor james j walker, the corrupt mayor of new york city who is removed from office eventually by governor franklin delano roosevelt and ringler is so close to walker, he acompanies walker up to albany

to argue his case and try to save his office. if you think that ringler going up to albany is impressive, i will tell you what is impressive. we happen to have george ringler granddaughter sitting in the front row, randy ringler. [applause] >> so you weren't expecting that, were you? she's got information which we're not going to discuss further. even though this meeting is hosted by the feds, okay? another politician who was involved in the rothstein story is a guy named maury cantor, west 42nd street, on the upper, upper side.

he's rothstein's attorney at the end and fixing everything for him and when arnold roth stein is shot at the park central hotel and is dying at the polyclinic hotel, by the way, valentino died at and marilyn monroe was treated at, and when rothstein is dying, cantor produces-- shows up at the death bed and says arnold, remember that will you asked me to prepare a few weeks ago and you never got around to signing? i happen to have it right here. sign here. this was contested by arnold's relatives, but that's a sort of fellow that maurice cantor was and so many people infesting politics at that time which is why tameney was about to collapse.

and they also had two vets, arnold rothstein's papers which randy may have with her, i don't know. no, she says no. the 17th district leader of tameney in manhattan a guy named nathan burken. the tameney guys weren't dumb, you name the stars of the silent era, you name all the studios, he represented them all. he was hot stuff, he was good. oddly enough, his grandson, jonathan burken is now the congressional co-chairman for the new york state republican party. so the story never seems to end. bill fallin, another arnold rothstein lawyer, had been assistant d.a. in westchester county. he was born right near the

church of st. mary the virgin in times square. if you're ever in times square, go see it because it's the hidden gem of times square. he became rather dislute, we'll say, and et cetera, et cetera, at the hotel bellclaire in 1926, a mystery woman bursts into the room where he is and throws some form of acid into his face. remarkably, they get him to a hospital and not only isn't he not blinded, he's not even scarred, but he's -- he is sort of the type of lawyer that is portrayed like in the musical "chicago" he is -- when william randolph hearst is bringing

charges, when they're bringing jury charges against fallin at one point, he puts hearst on trial. he says they're picking on me. the hearst papers are picking on me and you know why? because i have the secret birth certificates of the twins fathered by william randolph hearst and marion davies. this was no birth certificate. there were no twins. there were no children. he was acquitted. so those are the sort of people we're dealing with and last but not least in the until 1930's there's a judge, judge joseph forest crater who goes to dinner at billy's chop houseon times square and steps into a taxi cab and is never seen

again. one of the many, many, many corrupt judges of the time, a product of tameney hall, but connected to some pretty respectable names. he had been the secretary to senator robert wagner, the father of social security and the wagner labor relations act and then he moved on from that to being a supreme court judge appointed to that position by governor franklin delano rooseveltment now, there are some theories what happened to crater, none of them stand up to absolute proof. he may have been propositioned by legs diamond who had a grudge with him and taken to coney island and beat some sense into him and had too much

sense beaten into him and buried under the boardwalk. one theory. one thing i talked about intersectionality, one thing i didn't talk about, prostitution, one of the famous brothels and had not survived in a different form and in the hudson river. you pay your money and take your choice on what happened to him. speak easies are everywhere particularly the west in the 50's. and diamond is one of the hoe test. helen morgan a star, stars in the original showboat. and a day after it opened her

speakeasy was raided. that's how common this was. another big speakeasy operator is a guy named larry faye. faye operated a bunch of taxi cabs and send taxi cabs up to montreal and they'd come back with booze and such and such like this. so he owned the el faye club on west 45th street and later on, when he's sort of down on his luck, he's operating the casa blanca, casa blanca on west 56th street and when he has to cut the employees wages, the doorman shoots him dead. shoots him dead. he had 10 cents in his pocket when he died. crime does not necessarily pay. he's also noted for something else, before it was unpopular, or before it was really popular in some places and then really unpopular everywhere else, he would festoon his speak easies and taxi cabs with giant

swastikas, okay? so anyway, goodbye to larry faye. other speakeasy operators who you may have heard of are jimmy duranty, arnold rothstein has a crap game operating in the basement of his club durant. and billy rose, billy rose was a great showman, did the movie in the 50's with jimmy duranty, called "jumbo", at one point married to fanny brice. and he ran a speakeasy, and he was propositioned by one of these, them and those guys. i'd like to buy a share of your establishment, mr. rose. i'm not interested. so it's raided by the cops and everything is smashed up. same thing happens again, finally he gets the message, but it's really not a these, them, those guys who is doing this.

he's doing it at the behest of arnold rothstein so rothstein gets a cut and police get a cut, everything like that. being married to fanny brice, okay, fanny brice had been married earlier to a guy named nicky arnstein, if you remember the movie. what they left out of the movie largely was that nicky arnstein was a confederate and a great admirer of arnold rothstein, he was a conman in his own right. as i talked about jewel robberies, there are also a lot of government bond robberies back then. the bonds were not -- were bearer bonds so you could just cash them in. is he, if you got a shipment of bonds coming up from wall street to a bank or something, they would be hit and then robbed and arnstein was involved in this. went on the lam at one point and sick of being on the lam and turned himself in and

arnold rothstein gave him some advice. why don't you instead of turning yourself in in some boring way, they would have a police parade down fifth avenue every year, why don't you get in a car and ride down in the police parade past the commissioner of police? he did. the police were not amused. and he did go to leavenworth, but for bail money, arnold rothstein provided that bail money to fanny brice, but he also said, because it wasn't just at altruism. i have an importing business and you have an apartment building and why don't you buy the furniture from me. he did and it was seriously, seriously overpriced. she was not amused.

nor was a woman named ann nichols. ann nichols produced, wrote a show in the 1920's, called ab's irish rose. you know the old plot jewish guy marries irish girl. she -- god knows where the first of anything starts, but she had the first big hit with that the longest running show in broadway history for a long time. it was a big hit. but it wasn't at first. and like all of those broadway show musicals or movies in the '20s, if we only can stay on. the show is going to have legs, it's going to be a hit. i believe in it. and she goes to arnold rothstein for money to keep it going because rothstein actually financed the building of the selwyn theater on 42nd street. he would put the money up for just about anything if he could make money back.

and he says sure, i can lend you the money and she says do you want a piece of the show? no, i don't want it. i just want the money back with interest soon, on time and also, while you're here, you know, i'm in the insurance business. i'd like you to take out some insurance policies on your life with me as the beneficiary. this is common practice by him. she was not amused. if he had taken the original deal he could have made a really big fortune on it as it was the only, only cleared about $3,000 then, but that's the sort of wheeling and dealing which was going on there. as i said, a lot of showgirls involved in these things and everybody had a showgirl, a chorus girl girlfriend, legs diamond did. when the marx brothers are on

broadway, the lyric theater, harpo decides i've got a new gag, i'm going to try to catch groucho unaware and get him flat-footed not to know what to do on the stage and i'll have a blond run across the stage and chase her honking my horn. and, well, actually groucho knows exactly what to say, but that's not the point. story. the point of the story is afterwards someone says harpo, do you know who that chorus girl is associated with? no. that's legs diamond's current girlfriend, why don't you get another blond, so he did. all of those things would be going on in the-- they also make -- they also make a show called room 349, that's the room number where rothstein was killed at what is

now the nederlander theater just below 42nd street and it's not a very good show, it lasts for a handful of performances and it's done, very, very soon after his death and the names are changed of course to protect the guilty. what is remarkable is that his mistress is in the show, a woman named inez north. and these are, indeed, wild, wild times. sports, there's a guy named-- a gangster most people have forgotten, but with big then. his name was owen or owny the killer madden. when you've got nickname in these circles like killer, yes, he did. he went to singsing and he came out and was bootleg guy, and involved in sports with duffy

and demange. they promote a guy from italy, primo caramela, a giant guy who can't box his way out of a paper bag, but if you have a friends like madden, duffy and demange, you will become the heavy weight champion of the world because the fights are fixed. how are they fixed? well, in one case, a friend of owny madden is a guy named george raft, the actor. the actor, before he became an actor was, a, an associate of guys like owny madden, but also, worked in texas diamond's speakeasy as perhaps the foremost charleston dancer in america. see if you could find it on youtube, he does a brief charleston. he's good. at one point, he is pop

propositioned by madden to throw a fight against carnara to threaten him. he doesn't want to threaten him so he makes him a mickey and shakes him up before the fight. and this happened at the claridge, the headquarters of lucky luciano. so all of these things go around in circles and keep happening and happening. the jewel robberies, amazing, amazing numbers involved in that, $305,000 in jewel robberies, 265 murders of showgirls, again, of having -- oh, one of the showgirls is insured, the jewels are insured by arnold rothstein, but just before she's robbed and murdered, the policy lapses.

okay? and these are tough times. the tough times. and one of the jewel robberies in that $305,000 robbery is a woman named buda godman and they robbed something from a guy named harry glenby of the glenby hair net fortunes. a lot of money in harnetts. one of the associates commits suicide. she shows up in the story a couple of decades before that when she comes from chicago with a rich businessman and they check into the ansonia hotel and the place is raided by detectives. except they're not detectives. this is a badger game, this is a blackmail operation and they want to shake this guy down for money. he says, i don't care.

i'm not paying and then she has to take it on the lam. she comes back into the city where she becomes the mistress of one charles a. stono who was the owner, after 1917, of the new york baseball giants. remember horace stoneham moved the giants to san francisco. horace stoneham was a stockbroker who was involved in an operation, type of operation called a bucket shop. what's a bucket shop? a bucket shop is when you go in, they say, oh, you should buy copper-- >> we're going to leave our book tv program to take you live to a news briefing to florida governor ron desantis who will update hurricane milton on c-span2. >> go to florida

disaster.org/evacuation-orders. you'll also find links to all the county emergency offices in the state. the easiest way to see the updates is going to floridadisaster.org and click on hurricane milton updates the list of resources come up. plus, social media, the state emergency management director says that may be the quickest way to get information. >> for the latest information, you're following us on x and instagram@florida cert and facebook. we're updating those real-time and have staff that are doing nothing, but social media. the florida department of transportation has cameras on the highways. live pictures and video from the pictures. this is one of those images from one spot on i-75 around

3:00 monday afternoon. just be aware that once the storm hits, some of the cameras may go down. the state also has a state assistance information line or sale. 1-800-342-3557. the line is a call center for information only, not a dispatch number to call for help. for the florida channel. >> it's so successful because, because you know, he doesn't come to you with someone who is repulsive to tempt you. he comes to you with all of the showgirls, you know? he comes with the bubbly, the champagne, the good times, the 20's, why the 20's? why do we talk about the 20's so much because they're sort of a fun era, it's fun, but in a bad way. but as i like to say about sin, sin is like eating at

mcdonald's, it seems like a good idea at the time, but you always regret it. [laughter] >> next question. >> thanks very much. can you talk just a little bit about fdr's involvement with tameney hall how he maneuvered with them, around them, against them in his state legislature time and time as governor? >> well, they have the -- back when they had united states senators elected by legislators, there was a deadlock, fdr is a big part of the deadlock, the democrats have the majority in the legislature which was unusual at the time and a deal is made eventually putting another democrat in. in the meantime, he, you know, gets a lot of enmity from tameney hall, but then, i

think, he's -- well, he's a good politician and realize if you're not going to move to wyoming or somewhere, you better make your peace with tamny hall. by the time of the 1920 convention, he's already been a member of the wilson administration and learning the ropes more and more and he's picking up a guy named louie howell who says cool it, franklin. don't shoot all of your ammunition here. you've got to live to fight another day. he's palling around with al smith at the 1920 convention, at some point gives him a vote or two and smith becomes-- he really at that point becomes a protege of smith. smith builds him up at the 1924 convention, 1928 convention, makes him the governor, really and when tameney dedicates a

new wigwam or headquarters on union square, you know, franklin roosevelt is there, he's not hands off anymore and he's appointing guys like judge crater to the bench. he doesn't have to, but he -- you know, politics is the art of the politics and you do what you do. i think he also appoints a particularly nefarious friend of mayor walker to a judgeship at that time and probably many more and even when walker is going down, he's kind of careful as to not go too far and not, you know, get too inflammatory against him. because it's a balancing act, but once he's in the white house, then all the patronage goes to other people like laguardia or to flynn in the

bronx. thank you. >> thank you. >> yes? >> just a fun thing that if you can comment on is damon runyan was sitting with-- at lindy's with arnold rothstein at the time taking notes his stories that people have fun reading are based on real life characters and guys and dolls, nathan was based on arnold rothstein and mindy's instead of lindy's, and the cheesecake, the strudel. so i think if you follow the day monday damon stories you'll find that-- >> not too far into the story -- there's a lindy's now, but not related to the first one. where arnold rothstein was and got the call to the park hotel

we've got something to discuss and i want to kill you -- well, i don't think he wanted to kill him, but-- it wasn't a mob hit, they blow your head off. and you don't shoot in the stomach, and wander out to the police and to the hospital. that's not professional. that's an amateur who does that. whatever. at the other lindy's across from carnegie hall, these things go on in times square. at the parks central albert anastasia of murder, incorporated is killed in the barber chair there. and i think around 1956, around that time. a crusading newspaper man who i met later on, a guy named victor roselle, if you remember

him, he went after the unions corruption hammer and tongs, and one day, he came out of a radio broadcast nearby, is standing in front of lindy's and this is in the '50s, this isn't the roaring '20s and a goon throws acid in his face and he is not as lucky as bill fallin and, but he goes on. the goon is killed by the mob, good, they silence him. roselle goes on to continue writing a column for decades afterwards and to become head of an international newspaper reporting association. as i say, i met him and i looked into his face and saw those sunglasses, which were covering the scars, and i do not admire those guys. thank you.

[applause] >> i guess we adjourn to the lobby. >> indeed we do, you can have your book signed out there in the lobby. >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday american history tv documents america's story and on sundays, book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span2 comes from these television companies and more, including charter communication. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and we're just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. charter communications along with these television companies supports c-span2 as a public

service. >> and now it is my pleasure to introduce cheryl. cheryl has written extensively about the role of music in the 20th century. includes god bless america, the history of a song ar harmonize how fdr's unit sought to save america from depression. in humanities and other outlets and written and produced for k kla and support from the national endowments, the kluge center at congress, center for women's historians, franklin delano roosevelt institute, the association for recorded music library association and