World Premiere, 85 min.
Country and Year: USA (2006)
Director: Kristi Jacobson
NY NY Documentary Feature

Review by: Charlie Prince
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Who was Toots Shor? Thanks to Kristi Jacobson’s excellent new documentary film Toots, I now know the answer: Toots Shor was the man. A bouncer for speakeasies in the prohibition era, Toots had the connections (including mob backing) to rise to kingpin status as the owner of the hippest bar/restaurant in the city in the 40s and 50s. This entertaining look at one of New York’s biggest lugs tells his story in the words of people who knew him and using voice recordings of interviews with Toots himself, combined with fascinating footage of an older New York City.

For movie lovers, Toots is fascinating , because its subject matter was the subject matter of so many great films. And even though the prohibition era and its aftermath are now remote enough in the past that very few people walking around today can recount first-hand experiences, I had no trouble relating to the subject matter because of various films I’d seen.

The film begins with Toots moving to New York – somebody called him a lazy bum, so he hopped on a bus and headed to New York to prove himself. For anyone who has seen any of the great 1920’s and 30’s gangster movies, with James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, this world is a revered environment in cinema. As the characters on screen talk about how Toots got to know everybody in the business, became friendly with mob guys and started his climb up, it was pretty simple to visualize – at this point in his career, Toots was cool like James Cagney. As a big guy determined to get ahead, the prohibition era speakeasies were a perfect fit for him as a bouncer.

With the end of prohibition, Toots had the connections to open his own joint, and when he did it was as much a party, a fun place to be around fun people, as it was a bar or a restaurant. Now, Toots has become like William Powell in The Thin Man (except not acting on behalf of the law). His place was one non-stop parties, and just as Nick and Nora Charles loved to throw great parties in the The Thin Man series, Toots knew how to throw great parties at his bar which even in his time was becoming increasingly legendary. Baseball stars, TV and movie celebrities, famous writers and even US Presidents would all be mixing in the same bar, it was the place to be. It’s hard to imagine a place like that today, where your average Joe could walk in and buy a beer and on the other side of the room you have stars from the Yankees, a high-profile mobster, and Ernest Hemmingway. It was a different world then, when Nick Charles in The Thin Man was a celebrated figure, someone you’d aspire to be even though by today’s standards he would be considered a seriously afflicted drunk! Incessant drinking was more the norm then, or at least so the movies tell us, and in that world, Toots was one of the biggest men in the world, earning the respect and friendship of celebrities across the spectrum (great footage from the TV Show This is Your Life, in an episode that featured Toots himself, is a testament to how popular he was.”).

But Toots had more heart than he had financial sense, and as times changed, Toots remained the same. When the protest movements of the 60s and 70s changed the meaning of “cool” and transplanted it from midtown to Greenwich Village, Toots was left holding the bag. He didn’t understand the vibe of the 60s and 70s and he didn’t want to. And his mobster friends – who represented a lot of his power in those days – were also diminishing, as older wiseguys refused to get in on the drug explosion, allowing new wiseguys to push them aside and take over. Here there are many movie images that pop in my head, but perhaps in part because Toots was a large large guy and had no head for money at all, I have this image of some kind of composite Orson Welles-ian figure like at the end of Mr. Arkadin or Citizen Kane, who doesn’t understand the changes in the world and doesn’t want to understand them, and so he is increasingly isolated and left alone. Toots went through a downfall along those lines, and even though director Kristi Jacobson is actually Toots’ granddaughter, she does not shy away from this darker period in Toots’ life.

What sticks with you after watching the film are the antics that used to take place during the peak of Toots Shor’s popularity. Drinking contests between Toots and Jackie Gleason, or “bombing runs” from reporters at The New York Times who would call ahead so that they could run out of the work building, run across the street to Toots’ place and a drink would be waiting for them on the bar, they’d slam back the drink (or two) and run back to work, all in a minute or two. Where Toots would call Presidents and baseball stars alike by such friendly names as “crumbum.” After meeting the Pope in person, for example, you hear Toots, in his own words reflect “he’s a helluva guy” (paraphrase). That part of New York is gone now, but the film captures its essence and brings it to life. After the screening, one member of the audience said that he had spent a LOT of time in Toots’ place, and began to choke up to the point that he could barely finish his sentence when he said to the filmmakers that they had really captured the spirit of the place. It was touching to see people react like that to the film.

Of course, I live in New York, so maybe I’m biased and disproportionately enjoy seeing older footage of this city, but I suspect people all over will find this movie entertaining. It’s extremely well edited together (there are no lulls), and the story keeps moving along, even without a dedicated narrator, which is harder to do but makes for a better documentary, I’d argue. I’ve seen five documentaries so far at the fest, and though there are many more to see, this is my favorite so far. It’s a fascinating era that Toots ruled over and an era that many will find interesting, if only because of the other movies we’ve seen that took place in that era as well. Now I’m even a bit embarrassed to think that without this film, I still wouldn’t have heard of the Toots legend.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: Tribeca Film Festival Site

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© Charlie Prince