30 June 27 • 2019
jn

AT THE MOVIES 
The documentary Echo Canyon opens at 
the Landmark Theater in Royal Oak on 
June 28. It celebrates the 
50th anniversary of the explo-
sion of new rock music creat-
ed by musicians living in Los 
Angeles’
 Laurel Canyon. Rock 
musician Jakob Dylan, 48, 
(son of Bob Dylan, 78) inter-
views many of the still-living 
Laurel Canyon musicians. 
One of his first is with Roger 
McGuinn, leader of the Byrds, 
one of the first big Laurel 
Canyon bands. McGuinn 
helped invent what came to 
be called folk rock when he 
took Bob Dylan’
s acoustic 
song “Mr. Tambourine Man” 
and re-orchestrated it as a hit 
rock song (1965) played with 
electric guitars. The sound he 
helped create was echoed 
in the musical style of many 
others, including documentary 
interviewees Michelle Phillips 
of the Mamas and Papas 
(which included the late 
Cass Elliot), John Sebastian, 
Stephen Stills, Jackson 
Browne and Brian Wilson of 
the Beach Boys. Interspersed 
with the interviews are 
iconic Laurel Canyon songs 
performed by more recent 
music stars, including Regina 
Spektor, 39, and Jakob 
Dylan. The film’
s director 
is Andrew Slater, 50ish, a 
decades-long friend of Jakob 
Dylan and a former president 
of Capitol Records. 
Kinky Boots, co-written by 
Harvey Fierstein, 65, won 
the Tony for best musical in 
2013. The London production 
won several British awards 
in 2016. On June 29 (only), 
there will be a screening of a 
filmed London stage perfor-
mance of the musical (Maple Theater in 
Bloomfield). Based on true events, Kinky 
Boots is about a British shoe company 
struggling to stay afloat until it starts sell-
ing “fetish” footwear for men. 
Harvey Keitel, 80, will play Meyer 

Lansky (1902-1982) in a bio-pic about 
the famous Jewish gangster that begins 
filming in August. Lansky is a familiar 
screen character. The gangster character 
Hyman Roth in The Godfather, Part II was 
based on Lansky and he was a prominent 
character in the film Bugsy about gangster 
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 
a close friend of Lansky. The 
new film will cover the latter 
part of Lansky’
s life and is 
based, in part, on interviews 
he gave in 1973 to native 
Detroiter Robert Rockaway, 
now 80. Rockaway, with 
degrees from Wayne State 
University and the University 
of Michigan, is profes-
sor emeritus at Tel Aviv 
University. His The Jews of 
Detroit (1762-1914) was 
published in 1986 by Wayne 
State University Press; 
his But He Was Good to 
His Mother: The Lives and 
Crimes of Jewish Gangsters 
came out in 2000. The new 
film is directed by Robert’
s 
son, Eytan Rockaway, 
30ish. He was born in New 
York, grew up in Israel and. 
after his IDF service, went to 
New York University, where 
he got a degree in filmmak-
ing.
 
BAD BOYS ON SHOWTIME
The Loudest Voice is a 
limited (seven-episode) 
Showtime series that pre-
mieres on June 30. It stars 
Russell Crowe as the late 
Roger Ailes, the creator 
and head of the Fox News 
Network. He was ousted 
from Fox in 2016 (a year 
before his death) amid a 
cascade of accusations that 
he had sexually harassed 
many Fox female employ-
ees, including former anchor 
Gretchen Carlson (played 
by Naomi Watts). Josh 
Charles, 47, plays Bill Shine, 
Ailes’
 longtime top aide at 
Fox. He took over Ailes’
 job only to be 
ousted in 2017 when several lawsuits 
claimed he abetted Ailes’
 sexual harass-
ment. Shine became the White House 
communications director in June 2018, 
but only lasted 10 months in that job. ■

NATE BLOOM

COLUMNIST

Jakob Dylan

Regina Spektor

Harvey Keitel

Eytan Rockaway

celebrity jews
arts&life

PHOTOS VIA SPEKTOR’
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PHOTOS VIA DYLAN’
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PHOTOS VIA KEITEL’
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PHOTOS VIA ROCKAWAY’
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