obituaries Obituaries from page 144 Broadway's Arthur Laurents A rthur Laurents, the award- winning writer of Broadway classics such as West Side Story and Gypsy, and Hollywood films including The Way We Were, died May 5, 2011, at 93. Broadway marquees dimmed their lights the night after news of Laurents' death was reported. Laurents wrote West Side Story for Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins, creating along with Stephen Sondheim (all Jews) a modern-day musical rewrite of Romeo and Juliet that has become Arthur a touchstone of mod- Laurents ern popular culture. Theater experts also rate Gypsy, the fictionalized story of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, as one of Broadway's endur- ing classics. In recent weeks, reports confirmed by a statement on Barbra Streisand's website indicated that Laurents was planning to work with the actress on a new movie of Gypsy. "We were about to do Gypsy togeth- er," Streisand said. "He created people you care about because he cared about people. I spoke to him a few weeks ago and he sounded so strong, as always. He was lucky to have lived a full and creative life up till the very end. I'll miss working with him again." Among Laurents' many produced works were the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's chilling film of murder, Rope; Anastasia, with Ingrid Bergman; and The Turning Point, with Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine. Laurents wrote The Way We Were, a 1973 romantic tearjerker with a politi- cal subtext starring Robert Redford and Streisand, which was adapted from his own novel. Laurents directed the original Broadway production of the musical La Cage Aux Folles in 1983. Laurents was born Arthur Levine to a lawyer and schoolteacher in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood. According to his autobiography, Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood, he gave up Jewish practice after his "meaning- less" bar mitzvah, which his Orthodox grandmother would not attend. Laurents said he faced anti-Semitism as a boy in Brooklyn and later changed his name to avoid harming his career. Laurents was known for being brash and outspoken. During the preparation and run of a critically assailed revival of West Side Story in 2009, Laurents addressed new and old feuds with Bernstein and Robbins. Yet Laurents, having lived through the McCarthy era, was close-mouthed about being a homosexual. However, he publicly acknowledged being gay in a newspaper interview in the late 1980s after being challenged to do so by author Armistead Maupin. Laurents' partner of more than 50 years, actor Tom Hatcher, died several years ago. In recent years, along with his work directing revivals of his greatest tri- umphs, Laurents continued to write plays, many of which were produced in a New Jersey theater. (JTA) A New Community Connection Times have changed. And so has our community. Too often, we hear from families who are now spread out across the country, telling us that loved ones are not able to make it home in time for a funeral. The Ira Kaufman Chapel proudly now offers a new, first-of-its-kind service — Web streaming of funerals that can be viewed over any Internet connection, anywhere in the world, live and/or archived, at no cost to you. THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL Bringing; Together Family, Faith & Community 1/k. T-1W. "*"151N00046." 18325 W. Nine Mile Road Southfield, MI 48075 248.569.0020 irakaufman.com 146 May 19 . 2011 JNI Obituaries Hot Dog Mogul urray Handwerker, who grew up behind the counter of his father's Coney Island hot dog stand and then turned Nathan's Famous into a national fast food chain, died May 14, 2011, at 89 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. "We called it finger food; you didn't need a knife and fork:' he said. "But it was always quality. My father insisted on that:' Nathan's, named for Handwerker's father, grew to fame in the prewar era. But Handwerker returned from Army service after World War II with even greater expansion plans. After he joined the company he expanded the menu to include, among other items, shrimp and clams — over his father's objections. The company began franchising in the 1970s, went public, and then suffered financial reversals. The Handwerker fam- ily sold the company to a private invest- ment group in 1987, which later took it public again. (JTA)