tr.

LIVE
ENTERTAINMENT
Wednesday,
Friday &
Saturday
Featuring

Special Report

.11,

4

Prime Steaks, Chops & Seafood

Piano Artist
John Cola

for your dining
enjoyment!

Request your complimentary
Platinum Card before 8-31, and
enjoy Rollback prices until 12-7-04.

Where Food
is King!

Lelli's - Where The Elite Meet To Eat!

Make our famous Filet Mignon
with "Zip" Sauce your excuse
for a great night out!

call for reservations *248.373.4440
885 N. Opdyke, Auburn Hills • ar2 Mile North of Silverdome)

Children's Menu Available!

(for children 10 years or younger)
Each Entree $9.50 - Each entree includes:
Cream Spinach, Cup of Soup & Side of Mostaccioli

We took forward

to

Serving

Your

(Not Valid With Any Other Promotions or Coupons)

4.5‘oriee E€0404,

Traditional Rosh Hashanah Menu

Complete Dinners

Roasted 1/2 Chicken Dinner

Garlic Lemon Chicken Breast Dinner

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Lean Roast Beef Brisket Dinner

13.99
14.99
15.99
17.99

Dinners include: Vegetarian Chopped Liver or Beef Chopped Liver; Chicken Soup with Matzo

Balls or Mushroom Barley Soup; Potato Anna with onion, parsley & herbs or Toasted Farfel with
mushrooms; French Cut Bean Almondine; 1 lb. Challah Bread (serves 6)
(10-person minimum please)

Gall for A La Carte Menu

OPEN FOR DINNER 4111-8pm

Bloom's Deli Trays made with Kosher products only!

32418 Northwestern Hwy (Between Middlebelt & 14 Mile Rd.)

8/20

us on line www.VineyardDeli.com
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8-8, Sat. 9 6, Sun. 10-4

2004

248.855.9463

visit

44

FALL GUY from page 43

-

-

HRI ST

Getting Started

M4S0.1`1

returned to Michigan for a
Taubman's parents
month in a halfway house
were Fannie Blumstein
before being completely
and Philip Taubman,
freed in April 2002.
prosperous German
Asked what his main
immigrants who set-
job was in prison, he
tled in Pontiac, where
retorted: "Just to live." He
he was born in 1924.
did a lot of reading and
His Conservative
lost 32 pounds. "There
Jewish parents kept a
were 800 men in the
kosher home, and
prison — and the head
Alfred — his first
doctor was a gynecologist,"
name is Adolph, which
he mused.
he never uses —
Taubman received visits
remembers his sister being sent on a
twice monthly by his wife and children,
streetcar to Detroit to buy kosher food
plus visits from Max Fisher, 96, and his
each week. His father, who suffered
wife, Margie, and several friends. He
financial reversals during the Great
received many calls and letters of sup-
port, including encouragement from
Depression, helped start a small syna-
Rabbi Irwin Groner of Congregation
gogue among approximately 60 Jewish
families in the area.
Shaarey Zedek, where Taubman has
been a member for a half century
Although experiencing symptoms of
dyslexia as a youngster, Alfred, a gradu-
"There were a number of Jews in the
prison, but less than 10 would admit
ate of Pontiac Central High School,
improved enough to attend the
we were," he said. "So we had only
eight for a minyan every Sabbath. One
University of Michigan's College of
Architecture and Urban Planning fol-
guy led the services each week — he
lowing a stint in the U.S. Army. He
was a bank robber from Illinois. He was
real short, and I don't know how he
funded his studies by selling flower cor-
sages and shoes in Ann Arbor, providing robbed banks. ... He was too short to
an early glimpse of his business acumen. reach the teller's counter."
In a more serious tone, Taubman
"I convinced the shoe-store owner to
let me take samples to the sorority
took a moment to deplore the whole
houses," he recalled, "and while the girls prison experience, pointing out "it's just
terrible to lose your freedom."
were eating, I arranged the shoes on the
steps leading to their rooms and then
He cringed as he recalled the taste of
the food; his wife always brought him a
waited with a clipboard to take orders. I
also got some dates."
supply of quarters so he could buy extra
snacks from the vending machines. She
With a $5,000 bank loan, he started
soon got the hang of taking a frozen
his own construction company in Oak
hamburger out of the machine and
Park, and later persuaded Max Fisher to
let him design his Speedway 79 gas sta-
microwaving it for him in the visitors'
room.
tions. His entry into the shopping mall
Returning from prison, Taubman
business came next; Taubman provided
was feted at a welcome-home luncheon
luxurious indoor shopping centers for
the hordes of middle-class families mov- at the Detroit Athletic Club by Max
Fisher and U.S. Common Pleas Court
ing from the nation's cities into the sub-
urbs.
Judge Damon Keith. The latter had tes-
tified as a character witness in
Personal Stories
Taubman's behalf at the trial.
Besides reading at times like a "who-
Taubman feels he's been accepted
dunit," The Art of the Steal contains a
back in the business and social worlds
without recriminations from anyone.
number of humorous tidbits about the
He's continuing his extensive philan-
central characters that really have noth-
thropic work, including his participa-
ing to do with the scandal but provide
amusement. The book ends with
tion with many Jewish charities. In the
past, these have included such projects
Mason recounting how Taubman flew
as funding parks and sports centers in
off to the Rochester (Minn.) Federal
Medical Center in his Gulfstream IV jet Israel with Fisher.
Taubman fondly recalls his father
accompanied by Robert Taubman and
telling him that the most important
Jeff Miro — dining on two of his
favorite foods: hot dogs and caviar.
thing in life is having a good reputation.
Despite everything that's happened to
But in this interview, Taubman picks
him over the last four years, and judg-
up the story from there with interesting
tales of prison life. He spent slightly
ing from the reaction of others, he feels
more than 10 months in prison, getting his own, reputation hasn't been tar-
nished. 11]
time off for good behavior, then

