He does and I was involved is some of it. My dad represented the #1 sugar family in Cuba pre-Castro. He was also involved with the hotels and that business as well. I have been to Cuba when it was party city.
At that time the Mafia was very interested in Cuba because of the gambling. When the mod asked if one of the local banks could recommend a lawyer to help the with getting a hotel there they suggested my dad, before he realized with whom he was about to do business he got involved. He was dealing regularly with this gent:
Meyer Lansky (born
Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983) was a Russian-born American organized crime figure associated with gambling operations and illicit finance in the United States, Cuba, and the Caribbean during the mid-20th century. He was closely linked to
Charles "Lucky" Luciano and is frequently described by historians and law-enforcement sources as a key figure in the formation of interethnic criminal cooperation in the United States, including the network later referred to as the
National Crime Syndicate.
When my dad realized he was mixed up with the wrong people he finished the work, When the mob asked him to come work with the full time, dad politely declined and that was the end of it.
My dad also represented the Colombian Federation of Coffee Growers. This was effectively the Colombian government. Back then they bought all the coffee, blended it and that was what was sold out of Colombia. Since it was a government function, it had diplomatic for its reps in the states. My dad became good friends with the head of the organization who was a pretty wealthy gent. For my brother and me he was "Uncle Andy" and was our godfather. He always owned an apartment in NYC and at one time owned one of the very few remaining Park Avenue private residences. His car had diplomatic plates.
On November 9, 1965, at approximately 5:27 p.m., electricity went out all the way from Ontario to NYC and Buffalo, to the eastern border of New Hampshire. Everything in the Northeast came to a complete stop.
My father was stuck in his downtown law offices in a high rise building. The elevators were out, there was no subway service and the traffic light did not function. My dad and other folks at the firm planned to walk down about 30_ floors. But he had no way to get home. So he called and asked me to get the family car from the garage and drive downtown to get him, Unfortunately, the garage was muti-floored and used elevator to move the cars up and down, I I could not get the car. A few phones calls later I and I was heading out to borrow the car with the diplomatic plates. This meant I was not subject to the traffic rules including local speed limits.
As I sped down the FDR drive (a NYC :highway" along the east edge of Manhattan. I was doing abut 75 mph on a 45 mph speed limit road. As I passed a NYC police car I smiled and waved at the officers in it, They knew they could not stop me. What a thrill to be that stupid and to know I could get away with it. I was all of 17 years old at the time. When I drove home with dad I obeyed the speed limit, of course.
As a boy frowing up in Rye NY we lived a stones throw from the Helman family. Yes, the mayonaise people. My parents were friends with the Lauders0 yes the cosmetic folks. Wat back when they were just getting into the cosmetics business they would create my folks and they would often go ot for dinner together in the city, they would head up to the Lauder's apartment prior to dinner and would often find them in their kitchen cooking up ne cosmetics.
Back in thr 1950s and 60s I met a lot of very famous filks because of my parents and where I went to school. I went to school with a Rockefeller granddaughter and a Altmans and a Gimbels grandson. Back then those were major department store families.
Prehaps the best part of things for my brother and me was Christmas. A lot of my dad's clients wanted to gove him or my mom gifts. But for lawyers anything they get from clients goes to the firm to be shared by the partners. So my dad said he could not accept the offered gifts, Instead he suggested the client could send Christmas gifts for my borther and me. Our Christmases in the 50s were like having an entire toy store delivered.
There is still a photograph of me absolutely naked standing in front of the door to our house in the early 1950s. It was taken in the early 1950s with one of the very first Polaroid land cameras. This was done by the coffee guy. I then got my bathing suit back on and we went around the the backyard where the pool was and he showed my folks the picture. He then gifted the camera to my dad. back then they sold for few $100 which was a lot of money back then. The old Polaroids used a special treatment you had to apply to develop the the picture and then to "fix" is so it would last. It was nothing like the more modern version of the Polaroid which spits out a perfectly developed picture which need nothing done to it.
