Meet the Marienthals: Tall Tales and Family Lore

Golf Course just outside Chicago, 1941. “Abe” approaches the ninth hole with friend and sometimes business associate Maurice Fineman. Both are dressed in the finest English-inspired golf-wear and carry expensive clubs.

Abe suggests a friendly wager on who will win on the next hole—to the tune of a generous $100. Maurice sets down his golf bag with trouble on his face. There’s something he’s been meaning to talk to Abe about…In short, he’d better to put a moratorium on the big spending for now. He hesitates as Abe tees up. He hadn’t been sure how to tell his friend before this moment, but the thing is, that real estate deal they’ve been working on, like the many Abe attempted before it, had failed.

The above is a dramatization from an early draft of the TV script inspired by Mister Kelly’s and the Marienthal family story.  In this version, “Maurice” and “Abe” are fictionalized, but the circumstances of my grandfather’s death on the golf course does have some basis in history. He passed away suddenly, at a relatively young age, leaving the family with minimal means of support.

My grandmother and her sons George (my father) and Oscar (my uncle) ended up working their whole lives to support the family. The way I heard the story, she and the kids loved him but she never forgave her husband for leaving them so soon. From her perspective, a Jewish father’s duty in life is to provide for the family...and for the rest of her life, she rarely talked about him.

It was always financial pressure that brought out the best and the worst in our family, as in so many others. George and Oscar grew up working hard in tough jobs, and then finally they saw a way to better the lives of everyone in their family. With the backing of a business associate they started a restaurant that became much, much more: London House  and later, Mister Kelly’s on Rush Street in Chicago.

The idea of opening up a smallish club that was high class with great food and entertainment was new but it was a big risk. There were larger club rooms like the Chez Paree and Empire Room that had established stars such as Frank Sinatra, and small jazz clubs and dives, but nothing in between. Mister Kelly’s  and the Rush Street location was, for a class joint, a stretch.

Oscar, with his big social skills and cutting edge taste in talent, and George, with his steady hand over the business operations, had very different personalities and motivations, so they were unlikely partners making a play for stardom in the shark pit of Chicago. They were also both nice honest guys who loved their mother, and Rush Street was a tough place full of people who would have thought twice about extortion, bribery, tax evasion, or arson.

Rush Street was mostly made up of bars, strip clubs and greasy spoons in the days before Kelly’s. What the brothers attempted was a long shot, but they made it a success and had a positive impact on the neighborhood. The success and fame did come, and by the time I was born the clubs were, from everything I could see, a success, but restaurants are always high-risk ventures and things can change dramatically with fashions and the whims of the public.

My father never brought any of his worries or stresses home. He was larger than life, and a famous Chicago figure. My brothers and I were always recognized at school for being the sons of a celebrity impressario. But when you really think about it, the challenges were overwhelming; what if the city or neighborhood changed? What would happen if they faced political wrath, the mob took over, the economy crumbled, the employees robbed them blind, the union took over, forcing the salaries to rise? And then there was the ultimate threat—what if TV took over and everybody just stayed home?

Even with all the uncertainty and changing times, Mister Kelly’s was still the picture of 60’s optimism, full of camaraderie, glamour, cool jazz, bitingly funny men, and fearless women. The brothers might have argued about who exactly would keep people coming back again and again, but they were still able to make a place for the finest young talent that would otherwise have ended up hidden from mainstream American audiences, laboring in oblivion in dives.

There was something else working against the Marienthal's big investment in the restaurant and nightclub scene: they were Jewish. At that time it was ok for Jews to own businesses in the business known as  the “rag trade” (and indeed, their mother owned a boutique for high-end clothing for children in the Drake Hotel, for uppper class WASP clientele.) but they were excluded from the top circles of elite society in Chicago at that time. The idea of two Jewish brothers being the faces of the most chic upscale nightclub in the city would have been considered a bit presumptuous.

The family were Reformed German Jews who saw themselves as part of the Jewish ethnic community, but also felt the pull to assimilate into WASP culture as a way to better their chances of success and to fit into the American culture.  Their mother was the same, and even had a Christmas tree on holidays. They belonged to a downtown Jewish social and business club, The Standard Club, which had an annual Santa Claus Party. London House and Mister Kelly’s always had elaborate Christmas decorations.

...Which leads me to another story--this is a good one for St. Patrick’s Day. How did a club run by two Jewish guys end up with such an Irish name? Well, they’d already had good luck with the success of the London House, with  great steak and a long-running jazz lineup of performers every night of the week. They wanted to expand, so they found a location where a series of cheap restaurants had already come and gone-- they joked that it was a bad-luck location! The name was inspired by a briefly-employed house manager-- just because they liked the way it sounded. But maybe on a subconscious level they were two Jewish guys hoping to tap into the luck of the Irish. Thus, Mister Kelly’s was born: a pot of golden talent at the end of America’s rainbow.

I’ll share more in coming articles about the development of the family’s behind-the-scenes memories of Mister Kelly’s, and the TV project as the process unfolds. Stay tuned!