I thought I knew all my relatives, the ones I saw at every holiday and the ones I would see at the occasional Bar Mitzvah or Wedding but there was one I didn’t know much about. When I was a little girl my older brother would joke around and tell me Mr. Drysdale the wealthy Beverly Hills banker from the television show The Beverly Hillbillies was our cousin. He said he had even met him once when he went to the bank with our Dad. When I got older I heard rumors that Mr. Drysdale was based on our cousin. A couple of years ago I became curious about my mystery cousin so I decided to do some research which included finding an extensive FBI file. The one thing I did learn was that my cousin was no Mr. Drysdale.
My Mother was 12 years old in 1938 when she arrived in Pasadena, California from New York with her older sister and parents on the Super Chief passenger train. The Pasadena train station was the arrival and departure hub for all the movie stars who didn’t want to be seen at the downtown L.A. station. The sisters were hoping for a movie star sighting when they stepped off the train, instead they were welcomed by the beautiful scenery of snow covered mountain tops, palm trees, sunshine and the L.A Noir landscape. The depression had been a difficult time for them when my Grandfather lost his job in New York. However, things changed when his 1stcousin Al offered him a job in Los Angeles. The cousins had immigrated from Czechoslovakia in the early twenties but their lives took two very different paths.
The roaring twenties in America was a playful time, there was lots of spending, social growth, jazz, flappers and a new era in culture. This was the land of economic opportunity especially for 17 year old Armin Herskovits from Czechoslovakia, who dreamed of a new life. The small, funny looking boy with big ears began his journey in 1921 when he boarded an old French vessel called the Leopoldina from Havre, France headed to New York. Not too long after Armin arrived he crossed paths with Ernest Hemingway who boarded the same ship which sailed back to France. While Hemingway quickly adapted to a life in Paris sipping champagne with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso, Armin struggled to find work in New York with no luck. The word on the street was that there was opportunity for young immigrant boys in the mid-west.
At that time Chicago was thriving as the capital of the prohibition business. Armin moved to Chicago where he immediately found employment as a beer runner for Al Capone, that was his life changing moment. A man by the name of Joe Fusco once labeled “Public Enemy No 29” who headed up Capone’s beer running operation and was also Vice President of Gold Seal Liquors, the largest liquor distributor in Chicago was so impressed with Armin’s loyalty he promoted him to a manager.
Armin learned all about the liquor business from Chicago’s best, he was always looking for the golden ticket and Los Angeles was the place to find it. The twenties were moving full steam ahead as Cole Porter’s hit song “Lets Do It” was heard playing on every phonograph across the country. In 1928 not long after Armin arrived in the city of Angels he met and married a Hungarian immigrant by the name of Viola. He also legally changed his name from Armin Herskovits to Alfred Hart. However, life in Los Angeles was not always bright and sunny but somewhat corrupt. It wasn’t as though Al had been associating with upstanding citizens upon his arrival in America. He was arrested twice for running an illegal punch board operation out of a cigar store near the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles which was owned by his father in-law. His troubles continued as the stock market crashed and the great depression began, he was arrested again, four times in 1929 and twice in 1931.
Prohibition finally ended and by 1934 Al was able to bounce back when he became an officer of Central Liquor Distributors & the San Angelo Spirit Corporation which was owned by his father-in-law. He also partnered up with Paul Kalmanovitz who was a member of mobster Mickey Cohen’s syndicate and owned Keith’s Café in downtown which still exists today.
The Great Depression took its toll on American Life in the 1930’s but Al was not going to let anything stop him from living out his American dream. It was in 1938 that he formed Alfred Hart Distilleries and offered my Grandfather also named Armin a job at his new company. It was a new beginning for my Mom and her family, they adapted very quickly to their new life in Los Angeles.
After my Mom graduated from Los Angeles’s Dorsey High School she began to work at the Alfred Hart distilleries as a bookkeeper, something she had never spoken much about. Meanwhile my Grandfather had eased comfortably into his job at the distillery, where they were most famous for producing many well known spirits including Kamchatka Vodka. One late afternoon he went to Al’s office to say hello , something he had done often . Al’s secretary had left for the day and my Grandfather casually entered his office accidently catching Al and a young woman in a compromising position. The surprise visit made for an awkward situation and enraged Al. He was an uncouth man who loved to swear, this time at my Grandfather. He was a funny looking guy who didn’t physically appear to look like a womanizer but apparently he had a long list of young, beautiful girlfriends.
Alfred Hart Distillerie Vodka
World War II had finally ended, my Grandfather and Mother were still working for Al. In 1948 there was talk about Unionizing at the distillery. My Grandfather was curious and decided to attend one of the meetings. Not surprisingly Al sent spies who reported back about who attended. My Grandfathers name was on the list and Al immediately fired him. His revenge on my Grandfather for catching him with his pants down. The following two years were tough as he was unemployed but eventually found himself a union job for McDonnell Douglas and was paid twice as much as Al paid him at the distillery.
It was in June 1947 that Bugsy Siegel was murdered, 3 months after the second successful opening of The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. According to a 1956 FBI office memorandum it says that the hotel was sold in 1948 to one of Siegel’s associates and other investors. One of those others was Al who had invested $75,000 in the Hotel.
A couple of years ago around the time I started doing research on my cousin Al I had attended a Passover dinner at a family friends home on Linden Drive in Beverly Hills. She lived next door to the famous house where the Bugsy Siegel murder took place and she graciously took me on the tour. As we stood looking out the window of one of her rooms she pointed out to the round about at the top of her driveway. “They drove up here and then turned around at the round about before they fired 6 shots into that window” she explained. I peaked across looking into her neighbors famous window as though I might see the ghost of Bugsy Siegel and I couldn’t stop thinking about my cousin Al.
Besides Las Vegas and gambling another passion of Al’s was horse racing, one of his favorite places was Del Mar Race Track, where he could socialize with the rich and famous. It was in 1952 that he bought a large interest in Del Mar Race Track for the Alfred & Viola Hart Foundation. MGM head Louis B. Mayer owned the other interest in the track. One of his buddies from the racetrack was Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohen and soon Al was invited to join the Board of Directors of Columbia Pictures. He also became friendly with Frank Sinatra who hit a rough patch in the early 1950’s. His concerts no longer sold out, he was dropped by his record company and he was not getting very many film offers. He had divorced his first wife Nancy and married actress Ava Gardner after a stormy affair. Columbia Pictures was getting ready to cast their upcoming film “From Here to Eternity” and Frank Sinatra desperately wanted to play the part of Private Angelo Maggio but Harry Cohen wanted Eli Wallach. Al promised Sinatra he would make sure he got the part. For a long time many different stories floated around about this including the one about the horses head from “The Godfather”. The story infuriated Frank Sinatra so much that he berated Godfather author Mario Puzo after they were introduced at Chasen’s Restaurant in the 1970’s. Al was responsible for getting the financing for the film and Sinatra not only got the part but ended up winning a best supporting Oscar for his role. In a YouTube clip from the 1954 Oscars, after Sinatra is announced the winner and he runs down the aisle you can see Al swatting him on the ass with the Oscar program. “From Here to Eternity” was the beginning of a life long friendship between the two men.
J. Edgar Hoover (left) and Al (right) at Del Mar Racetrack
Another person he developed a friendship with at Del Mar was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who he frequently socialized with at the races. Whenever Hoover was in Del Mar he would stay at the Del Charro Hotel with his companion Clyde Tolson. The hotel was owned by Clint Murchison a Texas-based oil magnate, American Nazi supporter and father of Dallas Cowboys owner Clint Jr. His business partner was Texas oil millionaire Sid Richardson. The hotel had a sign that read “no Jews or blacks policy, unless servants”. Hoover and Tolson did everything together including sometimes wearing matching suits and they always stayed for free in the hotels Bungalow A. According to the 1986 biography “Clint”, Murchison wrote to Hoover in 1953 with a scheme to buy Del Mar Race Track using charity as a front. The two men went to visit Al about purchasing the track and he was so outraged he threw them out of his office telling them their suggestion was ridiculous. Nobody was going to take away his race track especially a couple of racist/ anti-semites. Murchison and Richardson then turned to Hoover for help and he sent two FBI agents over to threaten Al. Not surprisingly after that Murchison and Richardson were able to acquire control of Del Mar and staged a press conference with Al and Louis B. Mayer in The Gold Room of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel as they announced the takeover.
Al (left) Clint Murchison (center) Louis B. Mayer (right) at press conference about Del Mar takeover.
Despite losing Del Mar life was very good to Al, the mid 1950’s were in full swing, Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States. Dean Martin could be heard crooning his hit song “That’s Amore” while the rich and famous cruised around Los Angeles with the tops down on their convertible Cadillac’s. By this time my Grandfather had invested in apartment buildings on the Westside of the city and my mother had married, gave birth to my brother and no longer worked at Al’s distillery. A few years earlier Al and Viola had finally started a family when they adopted a son and a daughter. In 1956 Al had financed the Broadway production of My Fair Lady. They often threw big Hollywood style parties at their Bel Air Estate. . Rita Moreno tells a story in “Rita Moreno A Memoir” about the time she was a young starlet at Twentieth Century Fox and was invited to one of his parties. She was excited by the invite and encouraged to attend by the studios publicity department. The costume department dressed her in a strapless, full skirted, lacey, Cinderella style gown. When she entered the party she was greeted by Al who led her around to different groups of glamorous looking people and introducing her as this “sexy little starlet.” Then Al introduced her to Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohen, and left. She tells how out of the blue, Cohen said to her, “You’re very fuckable. I’d like to fuck you.” She excused herself and fled to the powder room in a panic not knowing what to do. Someone knocked on the door so she had to leave her safe space. The next thing she knew the orchestra started to play a bolero and Al asked her to dance or as she calls him in her book “the gnome.” This is when her nightmare began, he held her close, grinding against her and breathing heavily. She tried to push him away but he pulled her harder against him and put his arm around her so she couldn’t get away. She had asked him to let go and panting he said “you’re a sexy little bitch, aren’t you?” she once again asked him to let go and then he said “I’ll bet your wild in bed!” She finally shoved him away from what she called “a pelvic death grip.” He then said “Hey! Don’t play that game with me, sister.” She once again took refuge in the powder room to calm herself down. From that moment she realized the party was a “troll-and-starlet mixer” and escaped through the front door without looking back or taking her wrap. As she was walked down the long driveway she wondered how she would get home, an old truck arrived to pickup the Mexican gardeners who had been grooming the hedges. She begged them in Spanish to take her home and they sat her in the front of the truck, gently covering her shoulders with a work jacket. She said “they were the only gentlemen I met that night.”
Actress Rita Moreno
The Hillcrest Country Club in Beverly Hills was a private club for movie stars and wealthy Jews who were not allowed entry at many of the older, established private clubs in Los Angeles like the Jonathan Club and Wilshire Country Club among many others. Al spent lots of time at Hillcrest and could be found there most weekends. By that time he wanted to take on a new venture that made him legitimate and more respected. It was in 1954 that Al and some of his buddies from the club opened City National Bank and in 1955 Al became the bank’s president. Gus Russo wrote in his 2006 book “Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America’s Hidden Power Brokers,” that Korshak, a powerful labor lawyer and liaison between Hollywood and the Chicago mob and Sinatra sent their associates to the ultra-private new bank, letting them know their funds would avoid outside scrutiny. Russo said in an interview “It was like a Swiss bank account in Beverly Hills.” In an old LAPD memo from August 3, 1958 they listed City National Bank as a business they believed was doing business with the mob.
It was that same year Al had a new mistress he lavished with expensive gifts of furs, jewelry and paintings. Their relationship ended a few years later in 1958 when Al had his eye on someone else. However, according to FBI files in the fall of 1959 his mistress’s Hollywood home was burglarized and $79,000 in furs, jewelry and paintings were taken. There was a rumor that Al had said “she was no damn good and that, if he went to her house and took his things back, it would not be burglary since, after all, he had given them to her in the first place.” He denied implication in the burglary. No matter how legit he tried to make himself it seemed the mobster inside him continued to live on.
Some people have a weakness towards alcohol and gambling, Al’s weakness was women. Vic Damone tells a story about Al in his 2009 biography, “Singing Was The Easy Part,” written with David Chanoff. He tells how Al would invite him and his Italian Movie Star wife Anna Maria Pierangeli for brunch at The Hillcrest Country Club. Al would say, “Vic why don’t you play some golf while you are here?” They would eat and then Al would say, “Go ahead play nine holes. Don’t worry about Anna Maria, I’ll take care of her.” Damone’s career had really taken off and he had to go on a 2 week European tour. When he returned, surprisingly Anna Maria told him she wanted a divorce with no reason. He hired a private detective to watch her. One late evening the detective followed her to a home in Bel-Air. He was informed that the home belonged to Al Hart. Damone had been visiting his agent a the William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills when he heard this news. “I’m going to drive over to that son of a bitch’s office and shoot him right between the eyes ” he said. He quickly ran out of the office, hoped in his car and was about to pull out of the parking lot, when he was suddenly blocked by a very large man who stood in front of his car. That man was Poochie who was Frank Sinatra’s bodyguard. Poochie said, Get out of the car, Mr. Sinatra wants to see you.” He walked back across the street with Poochie to the William Morris building were Frank Sinatra had his office. Sinatra was waiting for him in the hallway and guided Damone inside his office. Sinatra said “Don’t kill him, you ought to kill her. Him you should send roses to.” He went on to say “Dago listen, you want to find out how this guy ever did it. I mean, just how did he do it? You’re a good looking guy, you have a kid with her. And look at him, Jesus. How in the world did a guy like that manage it ? I want to know. I want to learn how he got her away from you. Send him flowers. Talk to him. And if your going to kill someone kill her. But you know what? She’s not worth it.” Damone and Pier Angeli divorced after that. Frank Sinatra asked the million dollar question and what was it all these women saw in Al?
Italian Movie Star Anna Maria Pierangeli and Singer Vic Damone
Judith Campbell Exner, one of JFK’s mistresses describes Al in her 1977 autobiography, “My Story” as told to Ovid Demaris. In 1959 she crossed paths with Al in a penthouse hotel suite in Hawaii rented by Frank Sinatra. She was staying there for the week along with Sinatra, Peter Lawford and his wife Patricia Kennedy. She said, “He sticks in my mind because of the comical image he presented when he walked out in swim trunks. They were of a jersey material, jockey style, very tight and his paunch and saddlebags hung over his waistline like an inner tube. None of the parts – legs, arms, torso, head – seemed to go together. He reminded me of a koala bear.”
The Rat Pack in Las Vegas: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Al and Sammy Davis Jr.
There were those who liked and appreciated Al’s loyalty. In the book “Supermob”, TV. comedy producer George Schlatter says, “Al Hart was a good friend of everybody.” Schlatter had managed Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip and said “when we were running short Al Hart would delay payment of the bill for liquor which was not totally legal, but very friendly.” Once again Al was there for his buddy Frank Sinatra in December 1963 when Frank Jr. was kidnapped from his Lake Tahoe hotel room. Nancy Sinatra Jr. tells the story in her book “Frank Sinatra, My Father”. “Al Hart a close family friend and president of the City National Bank, had been alerted and was ready. The kidnappers demanded $240,000 in small used bills. All day until dark, Al Hart and his people photographed each bill and made it ready for the drop off.” One of the FBI people said, “what are we going to put this money in, a paper bag?” The bills weighed twenty three pounds. Al Hart said, “Go buy a valise.” The man went to Robinsons Dept store which remained open until Nine P.M., then returned and said he didn’t have enough money to buy the $56 bag. Al gave him some of the ransom money to buy the bag. They later put $239,985 into the new valise. 54 hours later Frank Jr. was released.
Al was an original investor in The Bistro Garden on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, sat on the Board of Directors of Columbia Pictures, The L.A. County Museum of Art, Cedars of Lebanon and Cedars-Sinai. He and Viola chaired many events and raised millions of dollars for many organizations. Their photos were always splashed on the front page of newspapers after hosting a high profile event. They wanted to be remembered as philanthropists I suppose a way to finally make them feel legitimate. However, for Al he could never shake that mobster behavior. In 1967 Al was interviewed by the FBI concerning a series of checks which had been cashed at his bank, possibly connected with gambling activities at the Beverly Hills Friars Club. He stated in the past he regularly, on almost a daily basis visited The Friars Club but very seldom went there at that time, preferring to visit the Hillcrest Country Club. He readily admitted there was gambling at both Clubs and that he himself, participated in gambling and has made it a matter of practice to cash checks for various individuals whom he personally knew.
Al and Viola were beginning to move on in years and as they entered the 1970’s they continued hosting events for their favorite charities. Tragedy struck in 1975 when both their daughter Vicky and her husband died of a drug overdose, leaving behind their baby son. Yet Al and Viola continued with their philanthropic activities chairing a Hollywood A list benefit that raised $3.5 million to help build The Alfred and Viola Hart Tower at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Al’s longtime friend Frank Sinatra attended and performed. He told the audience Al had saved his life and how he would do anything for Al.
Frank Sinatra, Al and actress Rosalind Russell
Two years later Viola passed away and Al was having health problems. He had been battling cancer and word was that he was also going blind due to an old STD. There were still frequent sightings of his chauffer driven Rolls Royce with the personalized license plate VOW cruising the palm tree lined streets of Beverly Hills. The party finally ended for Al the day after Christmas in 1979 when he lost his final battle to cancer at the age of 75. The headline of his obituary in the Los Angeles times read Alfred Hart, Philanthropist and the first line written said “Alfred Hart always felt that America had given him a golden opportunity.” Or was it just luck ? So next time you are at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and you see the sign that says Viola & Alfred Hart Tower just remember my Grandfathers famous words, “money doesn’t care who owns it.”
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