Tuesday, September 16, 2008

What You Do, Is What You Do... I Do, What I Do...

Filmmaker Franklin Abrams has put together a great site called Monk 1903 which has just recently gone up. I met with Franklin last week in Manhattan, and besides being a fine fellow, has some very interesting plans in the near future with regards to keeping the spirit of Monk Eastman and New York's early 20th century Jewish criminal history alive and well and continually reaching a new audience.

The site will also serve as the future home for "Our Gotham", a upcoming bi-monthly webisode series depicting Monk Eastman and his loyal cronies, Joseph Brown and Lollie Meyers as they are plucked from life as they know it, 1903 Gotham and are thrown in the modern day reality of what is 2008 New York.

Abram's first short is up now on his site and youtube; an imagined scene between a down and out Eastman, fresh from his release from Blackwells Island Prison, and Big Jack Zelig in early 1912.
As a side note, Big Jack Zelig's great great nephew, Jan Lefkowitz, portrays his infamous great uncle in this scene, and the family resemblance is rather spooky.
The Starker's author Rose Keefe, provides the introduction and background.

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