Arnold Rothstein
Updated: Jan 28, 2022
"Nicknamed "the Brain", was an American racketeer, businessman and gambler who became a
kingpin of the Jewish mobin New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. He was also a mentor of future crime bosses Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and numerous others.
According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top".
According to author Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person who first realized that Prohibition was a business opportunity, a means to enormous wealth, who "understood the truths of early century capitalism (giving people what they want) and came to dominate them". His notoriety inspired several fictional characters based on his life, portrayed in contemporary and later short stories, novels, musicals and films.
Rothstein refused to pay a large debt resulting from a fixed poker game and was murdered in 1928. His illegal empire was broken up and distributed among a number of other underworld organizations and led in part to the downfall of Tammany Hall and the rise of reformer Fiorello La Guardia. Ten years after his death, his brother declared Rothstein's estate was insolvent."
Film and television
"He was portrayed in the 1960 film The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond by actor Robert Lowery.
In the 1961 film The Big Bankroll (a.k.a. King of the Roaring Twenties: The Story of Arnold Rothstein) by David Janssen.
In the 1981 film Gangster Wars and series The Gangster Chronicles by George DiCenzo.
In the 1988 sports drama film Eight Men Out by Michael Lerner.
In the 1991 film Mobsters by F. Murray Abraham.
In the 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino the protagonist, Sam "Ace" Rothstein, was named for Arnold Rothstein[citation needed] but modeled on real-life sports bettor and fixer Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal.
In the 1999 biopic Lansky by Stanley DeSantis.
In the HBO series Boardwalk Empire by Michael Stuhlbarg." #wikipedia
