Obituaries
Obituaries from page 56
'Beat' Generation
Writer, Promoter
London/JTA — Irving "Jay" Landesman, who
operated a nightclub in St. Louis that gave an
early stage to Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen,
Lenny Bruce and others, and who said about
himself that he had a "life-
time habit of upsetting the
Judeo-Christian applecart,"
died Feb. 20, 2011, in
London at 91.
Landesman's numer-
ous cultural contributions
in the United States and
Jay
England, where he relo-
Landesman
cated in 1964, included
founding and editing
Neurotica, a short-lived but influential jour-
nal of Beat writing that gave a forum to Allen
Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and others for their
early work.
During that era, he and his brother ran the
Crystal Palace nightclub in St. Louis, whose
performers included, along with Streisand,
Allen and Bruce, such later stars as Phyllis
Diller, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Dick
Gregory.
His experiences with the Beats provided
fodder for an avant-garde musical written
by Landesman and and his wife, poet Fran
Landesman. The Nervous Set was about
the beginnings of the Beat Generation and
featured a four-piece jazz combo. A brief
Broadway run in 1959 featured Larry Hagman.
Norman Mailer wrote of the Beat genera-
tion that Landesman and his wife "could be
accused of starting it all. By God, they were
there at the beginning."
Landesman's London home became a
gathering spot for hipsters, musicians, writers
and entertainers from the 1960s on. Phillip
Trevena, author of Landesmania, the biogra-
phy Landesman commissioned, termed him
"the Soho Gentleman Bohemian:' who always
stayed several steps ahead of mainstream
thought.
Fran Landesman continues to write and
perform. Their eldest son, Cosmo, is a London-
based journalist and critic, and their other
son, Miles Davis Landesman, is a musician.
Editorial Cartoonist,
Artist And Sculptor
New York/JTA — Hy Rosen, an illus-
trator, political cartoonist and sculptor
whose work ranged from comic books
to museum pieces, died Feb. 24, 2001,
at 88, at his home in Albany, N.Y.
He was the
first and longest-
tenured political
cartoonist at the
Albany Times
Union, his home-
town paper, and
drew more than
10,000 cartoons
Hy Rosen
from the time he
started in 1945. Times Union editor
Rex Smith described Rosen as "a
truth-teller with a mighty pen."
Rosen was a founding mem-
ber and a former president of the
Association of American Editorial
Cartoonists. He was the longest-ten-
ured cartoonist on one newspaper
when he retired in 1988.
Rosen's career also included work
before and during his newspaper
days as a comic book artist. He was
an artist and writer on such 1950s
comics as "Georgie," "Adventures
into Terror,""Little Joe" and "Girl."
In retirement, Rosen sculpted
works that now are at the New
York State Library, New York State
Museum and other locales. One
sculpture was based on the famous
World War II-era photo of a Jewish
boy surrendering to the Nazis in
war-torn Warsaw.
Rosen was raised in a low-income
ethnic melting pot neighborhood
in Albany and spent his early years
accompanying his immigrant rag-
man father, Myer, on his horse-
drawn wagon collecting rags and
newspapers.
Rosen was in an engineering
battalion in France during World
War II and trained at the Chicago
Art Institute and the New York Art
Students League.
"I go home every night feeling
good about staying in this community."
Meet Josh Tobias
In his second year with The Ira Kaufman
Chapel, Josh feels fulfilled by a career that
enables him to create lasting bonds in the
community. A resident of Farmington Hills,
he lives with his wife and children in the
same neighborhood where he grew up.
Josh is part of The Ira Kaufman Chapel's
fourth generation of professionals who
have chosen to stay in Metro Detroit's
Jewish Community to live and work.
THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL
Bringing Together Family, Faith & Community
18325 W. Nine Mile Road Southfield, MI 48075
248.569.0020 • IraKaufinan.com
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Obituaries
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