October | 2015 | Crawfordgold's Blog

Raft is enjoyable (though when he talks about slapping Dietrich you can’t help thinking “Bogie would have played that better” – although Raft is more handsome so it is more believable Dietrich would go for him). John Flaus wrote this excellent analysis of Raft in his review of the film:

Raft was perfectly suited to the role of Johnny. Boyhood friend of hoodlums, gigolo (he worked the same beat as Rudolf Valentino), tango dancer (Fred Astaire said Raft was the best he had seen), and subsequent victim of the blacklist (on “moral”, not political grounds), he was a narrow and inflexible actor, a rasping tightlipped steely icon whose definitive star quality was not stiffness (as he is often described) but stillness. With deftly judged lighting to catch the glitter in his eye he could do more with the slightest movement than anyone else in the business – male or female. And when the story called for rough stuff he could strike with the suddenness of a snake.

The ghosts that haunt a Hell’s Kitchen tavern

23 Oct 2015 Leave a comment

by HarlowGold in Uncategorized

Ephemeral New York

When the Landmark Tavern opened in 1868 at 11th Avenue and 46th Street, the Hudson River was just one block over (no 12th Avenue in those days).

The modest saloon catered to hungry and thirsty dockworkers and merchant seaman in what used to be a mostly Irish immigrant neighborhood.

Through the 1980s it was a favorite of the Westies, a violent Irish gang.

Now, it’s a hangout for locals and tourists. And ghosts, apparently. Rumor has it that three in particular rattle around the old mahogany bar and the upstairs rooms.

One is the spirit of George Raft, “the Hollywood tough guy who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen,” wrote John Strausbaugh in a wonderful 2007 New York Times article.

“His ghost is said to haunt the bar, along with that of a Confederate Civil War veteran who, knifed in a fight, staggered up to the second floor to die in a bathtub…

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