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On The Tube

One Of The Boys

George Shapiro on growing up in the Bronx, reality
television and discovering a guy named Jerry Seinfeld.

included Howard West (Shapiro's
business partner) and Lenny Lauren
(Ralph's older brother) — have all
remained friends to this day.
Initially, the home movie of the
reunion was meant for the Bronx
Boys themselves, to show their grand-
children the background in which
they grew up, a snapshot of a bygone
era.
But it was a showing of a rough cut
of the film to a group of Gen X-ers
that made Shapiro change his mind.
"After the screening they came over
to me and they were so touched and
they said, 'This friendship is so uni-
versal," recalls Shapiro. "That's what
triggered my sending the tape to
Chris Albrecht, the head of HBO —
because these guys were enthusiastic
and one of them almost had tears in
his eyes saying he regretted not keep-
ing in touch with those he went to

BENYAMIN COHEN
Jewsweek. com

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many circles, George Shapiro
is an icon. A scene from last
year's documentary about Jerry
Seinfeld, titled Comedian,
paints the picture perfectly.
An up-and-coming stand-up comic
has just gotten word that, after years
of struggling in the biz, he will be
able to meet with the world-famous
talent manager.
"This guy is a legend," he exclaims.
As if preparing to see a mafia don,
the comedian literally spends days
preparing for the meeting, with full
knowledge that the man he is about
to meet will change his life forever.
After all, Shapiro's the guy who saw
Jerry Seinfeld perform 23 years ago in
a small and smoky club and plucked
him for stardom.
"I'm not a real star,"
Shapiro said during a
recent phone interview.
"The public at large
doesn't know George
Shapiro."
A pretty humble
statement coming from
the guy who helped
shape the careers of
such disparate talents as
Elvis Presley and Dick
Van Dyke, and whose
Talent manager George Shapiro: "It's like watching an
client list looks like a
accident," he says of reali t y TV
veritable who's who of
comedy giants: Carl
Reiner, Steve Allen, Jim
grade school with.
Nabors, Andy Kaufman and, of
"He said, 'Friendship is universal.
course, one Jerry Seinfeld.
You
hit an important chord."
But Shapiro comes from humble
After
a while, spending summers in
beginnings. It is his formative years
the Bronx lost its luster, and Shapiro
— and those of his kindergarten
and West took jobs as lifeguards in
classmates growing up Jewish in the
the Pocono Mountains, where they
Bronx — that is the subject of a new
first came in contact with talent
documentary airing on Cinemax
agents visiting the resort on weekends
titled Bronx Boys.
to check out the acts of Max
The hour-long program is a look
Liebman and Sid Caesar.
back at Shapiro's 1936 kindergarten
"You come up here for the weekend
class from P.S. 80 in New York. The
documentary was filmed a year ago at and you have dinner and you watch a
show and you go on a rowboat and
the class' 70th reunion. Amazingly,
swim, and this is your job?" Shapiro
the 15 boys from the class — which
asked them.
Benyamin Cohen, a former writer for
After a short detour in the Army,
the Atlanta Jewish Times, is editor of
Shapiro started work in the mailroom
at the prestigious William Morris
the Web magazine Jewsweek.

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