Is there a market for that sort of thing?<\/p>\n
If so, I’m typing.\u00a0 I’ve changed a couple facts but the rest here is true . . .<\/p>\n
By age 10, Bert was supporting the family, playing clarinet and sax at the Roxy Burlesque, where he saw naked women before he was even bar mitzvah age. \u00a0Like Tarzana and Morganna — who, by the way, were at Stratton’s bar mitzvah party at the Shaker House Motel.\u00a0 Stratton’s buddies crammed into the gals’ motel room like it was the Ringling Brothers’ clown car. \u00a0(At Stratton’s twentieth high school reunion, his bar mitzvah was voted the best of all time.)<\/p>\n While working <\/strong><\/span>the Roxy, Stratton met mobsters.\u00a0 He became a regular at the Theatrical Grill, at the table of Shondor Birns.\u00a0 Shon particularly liked Hungarian Rhapsody #3, which wasn’t that easy to play on clarinet.<\/p>\n As most Cleveland history buffs know, Shon was blown up by a car bomb on the West Side.\u00a0 Then Danny Greene, another mobster, was blown up by a car bomb at the Cedar-Brainard medical building parking lot.<\/p>\n After those explosions, Stratton became head of The Mob in Cleveland.\u00a0 That, plus his music gigs, was a living.\u00a0 Every Friday morning Stratton baked casatta <\/em>cakes for his Italian friends and challahs<\/em> for his Jewish buddies.\u00a0 A mentsh<\/em>.<\/p>\n The big question:\u00a0 Are readers in, say, Peoria, Illinois, ready for a book — or film? — about Cleveland mobsters, strippers and klezmers?<\/p>\n Mobsters, yes. (Kill the Irishman, <\/em>opening <\/em>tonight.) Strippers, of course.\u00a0 Klezmers?<\/p>\n ——–![\"band-of-7\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/band-of-7-278x300.jpg\" "\\"band-of-7\\"")
Every Sunday<\/strong><\/span> the Stratton family gathered around the piano and jammed.\u00a0 They had a seven-piece band.\u00a0 Neighbors stood on the sidewalk and listened.\u00a0 The Strattons played klezmer, which wasn’t called klezmer in the 1960s. It was called “playing Jewish.”\u00a0 Nobody listened for too long, because the neighbors wanted to get in their cars and cruise to Chubby Checker, The Ventures or Paul Anka.<\/p>\n![\"roxy-take-2-pd-2-27-1966\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/roxy-take-2-pd-2-27-1966-300x144.jpg\" "\\"roxy-take-2-pd-2-27-1966\\"")
<\/p>\n
\nNote: The Roxy Burlesque ad is from the Plain Dealer<\/em>, Feb. 27, 1966.<\/small>
\nText: “Continuous 11 A.M. to 11 P.M. 2 Shows in 1 — Live Burlesque Plus Adult Movie — Midnite Show Sat. Nite . . . Also Scarlette Dare . . . Minette Darcel . . . Michelle Starr. On Screen . . . Very “Adult” . . . A Drama of Violent Passions.”<\/small><\/p>\n
![\"roxy2\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/roxy2-225x300.jpg\" "\\"roxy2\\"")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"