Arts Entertainment
Paul Kohn's
La Difference
ch Dinner c ocx(cp
BANJO MAN
from page 71
7p).,
41
NOW SERVING LUNCH
1 lam - 2pm
changed their whole disposition."
Lauhoff says he never thought of
himself as a fan of banjo music, "but
now I enjoy it. And I've never had a
single complaint [about Rosenthal's
playing], though many have called to
say how much they like it. He's parr of
what makes Farmington a unique city"
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What's equally unique is how
Rosenthal, 73, arrived at this point.
Rosenthal is a native Detroiter who
graduated from Cass Technical High
School. By the time he was a teen, he
already knew how to play the flute,
saxophone and clarinet, and had even
started his own dance band.
Though born Avram Rosenthal, he
went by "Skip Ross" because a number
of resorts were not interested in hiring
college, Rosenthal found his first job
at the Dearborn Public Library, "a city
where [because of anti-Semitic restric-
dons] I couldn't even buy a house."
Then he moved to Israel, where he
lived 1953-1954, beginning his immi-
grant life on a kibbutz outside
Jerusalem. In the afternoon he learned
Hebrew; in the morning he picked
peaches in the kibbutz orchard where
he was "a terrible farmer.
Then, through a friend, he found a
position playing flute with the
Jerusalem Symphony, and as a librari-
an in the foreign-language periodicals
department at the Hebrew University.
Though he returned to Michigan
after 1 1/2 years, Rosenthal, a member
of the Birmingham Temple, still makes
frequent visits to Israel.
Once back in the United States,
Rosenthal married and started a family
7295 Orchard Lake Road
West Bloomfield
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Jews. "Avram
(his children, Josh and
The Detroit Free Press'
Rosenthal and his
"Best of Detroit 2001" recently Helen, both now live in
Orchestra?" he says
New York City), and
acknowledged Rosenthal's
incredulously. "That
banjo performances as one of joined up with the
would never work."
Wayne County Library
the best "Freebies" in town.
From then on, he was
System, through which
simply known as "Skip."
he was appointed head
"I don't think anyone ever called me
of the new Romulus Library.
Avram' after that except my mother,"
There, "I was everything but the
he says.
janitor," he says.
He later accepted a position with the
After high school, Rosenthal attend-
ed Wayne University (now Wayne
Livonia Public Library when it opened,
State), where he spent much of his
then became head of the library at
time writing verbal notes in the
Henry Ford Community, College, where
library, rather than the musical kind.
he stayed for 20 years before retiring.
His father, Philip, was a Spanish and
Latin teacher at Detroit's Mackenzie
A Life With Books
High School, as well as principal of
the Sunday school at Congregation
For many years Rosenthal had been
Shaarey Zedek, while his mother,
"unwittingly collecting books," mostly
Esther, played the violin.
at garage sales. After he retired, he
His mother's brother — "my mentor"
decided to go back to work, this time
— was a violinist with the Philadelphia
opening a used-book store, Books
Symphony Orchestra who encouraged
Abound, which was first in Royal
Skip's love of music — as well as his
Oak, and for the past 17 years in
professional skills in another area.
Farmington.
"He told me to make music my
It's a charming old place where
hobby," Rosenthal explains. So the
you're more likely to stumble across
young Skip learned how to play music
the bittersweet short stories of a most-
— but make a living elsewhere.
ly forgotten writer like Delmore
"I loved books, too," he says. "So I
Schwartz than the contemporary mus-
decided to become a librarian." After
ings of a Danielle Steele.