You can’t… – Kalmenson & Kalmenson

You Can’t Fight City Hall

(Really?)

It was a common colloquialism around the lower east side of New York, as one might expect to hear echoing from one tenement building to another—back when I was a kid: rules were rules. We kids picked up on everything our parents might be using in their daily conversations, regardless of their country of origin. Many times in our neighborhood, a kid would come home with a black eye after telling a schoolyard friend he was an asshole, and when the friend told him to take that back, he’d replied, “This is a free country, I get to say whatever I want to say”.

In general, kids learned—at street level—how games were played. Sure, this is a free country but oftentimes there were penalties attached, especially when the friend you were insulting was bigger than you were.

The parents were the ones who accepted and took on the responsibility of teaching their children the rules of the road from the moment they became their children! Without reservation, first-generation Americans, like me, had little choice. Respect-wise, the family came first, followed by school teachers, the police, and the clergy. Those were the groups who led the way, supposedly.

The subject of politics never became much of a family discussion in our small East Flatbush (Brooklyn) home. It was sometime when I think I was in the sixth grade, I found out substantially why my mother and father considered most politicians to be “on the take”, as they both put it. The phrase “not in my house”, was conjured up and used long before professional basketball players came along.

Polly Adler

Da harv often recommends reading material, and so, with no hesitation at all:

“Pearl “Polly” Adler (April 16, 1900 – June 9, 1962) was an American madam and author, best known for her work A House Is Not a Home. Of Russian-Jewish origin, Polly was the eldest of nine children. Her early education was from the village rabbi. Adler migrated to America from Yanow, Russia, at the age of 12, just before World War I. [At age 15,] she moved to Brooklyn, living for a time with cousins. At 19, she began to enjoy the company of theater people in Manhattan and moved into the apartment of an actress.

It was at this apartment that she was introduced to a local bootlegger and gangster, who offered to pay Adler if she would allow him and his girlfriend to use her apartment. She began to procure for him and his friends and became successful as a madam. She opened her first bordello in 1920, under the protection of mobster Dutch Schultz and a friend of mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1924 which contained hidden stairways and secret doorways.

Her brothel’s patrons included Peter Arno, Harold Ross, Desi Arnaz, George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Milton Berle, John Garfield, New York City mayor Jimmy Walker, and mobster Dutch Schultz. There has been speculation that the New York State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater, missing since Aug. 6, 1930, died in Polly Adler’s brothel.

Adler was a shrewd businesswoman with a mind for marketing. She determined that gaining publicity would be to her advantage, and she cultivated newspaper coverage by dressing flamboyantly, making grand appearances at nightclubs, and drawing attention to her beautiful employees. She also made large bribes to city and law enforcement officials to keep her business open.

In the early 1930s, Adler was a star witness of the Seabury Commission investigations and spent a few months in hiding in Florida to avoid testifying. She refused to give up any mob names when apprehended by the police. She survived by providing half of her income to her underworld safety net and closed her business. She retired in 1944.

Adler attended college at age 50 and wrote a bestselling book, ghostwritten by Virginia Faulkner, A House Is Not a Home (1953), allowing her to live off the proceeds. She died in Los Angeles in 1962. A House Is Not a Home was made into a movie two years later, starring Shelley Winters as Adler. Her notoriety led her to be included in Cleveland Amory’s 1959 Celebrity Register.”

Wikipedia

Some refer to it as the oldest business known to man, or even the oldest business in the world. Immigrants were well aware of what prostitution was all about. They arrived in the United States knowing Americans didn’t invent it, nor were we the first ones to discover how the business of protection racketeering works. Each generation being born in the USA, or entering from another country, finds out we have to this day many of the same problems they brought with them. My mother and father didn’t trust politicians because they learned mistrust from their parents and the beat goes on; “hanky- panky” remains “hanky- panky”, regardless of the era.

I began my wonderful Sunday message by saying “You Can’t Fight City Hall”, as told to me by my mom and dad too long ago to remain believable. But this is 2021, and I’d like to revise my belief, mostly as a modification, also personally sanctified by da harv. I learned this from my elders, those I knew, and those I never met, but remain within my bloodline forever.

da harv’s note as an editor: the lead which read, “You Can’t Fight City Hall” is a title. Really? Well not for me! I believe we must all fight back, even if the culprit happens to be “City Hall”.

What do we do after going through what pundits refer to as devastation or experiencing a disaster? Our politicians (pundits) refer to it as providing us with a disaster loan. If you’d like to call what I am about to say as “fighting City Hall”, you’ve got it right. Ultimately, we, the people, get what we voted for. We vote for the people, men and women, who make the most endearing promises. When we discover they don’t live by their word, they will end up privy to the slings and arrows of those like me who acknowledge and understand the position we live and abide by each and every day.

To all government officials, and members of any and all organizations, including unions, who receive their sustenance predicated on allowances provided by our monetary contributions as citizens of this country: be advised, we are the taxpaying team members who provide your income.

When we pay dues to a union, said money pays for medical insurance, as well as what other services are deemed necessary for the benefit of all who have their well-earned dollars providing for the union’s survival. Members of unions should not have to sue the people running the union they belong to because the union itself arbitrarily denies what a member rightfully has earned. Along the same line of practice, all of us who participate as American citizens in good standing of the taxpaying team should not be talked to or considered less than the employees who have anointed themselves as our pundits with lifetime exemption and immunity.

During the course of the last thirty years, our team at Kalmenson & Kalmenson has provided a profit-making service for the capitalists whom we happen to be. We are proud of what we do for a living as voice casting directors, providing work for actors, men, women, and during the course of the years, many children as well. And at the same time, we have literally provided an educational program for adult actors—men and women—who successfully succeeded in the world of voice-over professional acting.

HANDS DOWN THE SATISFACTION WE GET—PURSUANT TO OUR PERMANENT QUEST OF HELPING OURSELVES AND THE LIVES OF OUR PATRONS—COULDN’T HAVE BEEN ENVISIONED ANY BETTER BY US WHEN WE BEGAN OUR BUSINESS THE MANY YEARS AGO. THE MONEY EARNED AND CONTINUING TO BE EARNED BY ACTORS AND ACTRESSES THROUGH THE YEARS TOTAL IN MANY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. WE WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT CITY HALL FOR OUR RIGHT TO WORK. ALL THE MANY RULES AND REGULATIONS BEING HEAPED UPON US CONTINUES TO ADD DILATORY INGREDIENTS FAVORING FAILURE AS OPPOSED TO REACHING OUR HEALTHY SUCCESS POINTS ONCE AGAIN.

FYI: It is common knowledge, the IRS is over sixteen weeks behind sending out our tax return money. They claim they are understaffed and haven’t been able to complete what was sent to them on time, months ago. The very same situation exists regarding so-called disaster loans.

NOTE: If you happen to be curious, and would like to find out what da harv plans on doing, come on in, and give my song a listen!

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