38 | NOVEMBER 19 • 2020

ARTS&LIFE
ON THE COVER

continued on page 40

A LOVE AFFAIR
WITH COCAINE
The first time Mort tried
cocaine was with Rod Stewart
and Ronnie Wood in a bath-
room when he was a concert
promoter. He didn’
t like it. Five
year later, in Chicago, he tried
it again and fell in love with the
white powder.
For the next eight years,
cocaine played a big part in
Mort’
s life. He both loved it and
hated it. “I would lie to myself.
Lying in bed at 3 a.m. with my
heart pounding, I did a lot of
foxhole praying. I’
d say, ‘
God,
if you don’
t let me die, I’
ll start

going to synagogue. If you let
me live, I’
ll stop.
’
And it worked
until 5 p.m. the next day and
then it didn’
t work. Again and
again for eight years.
”
On Oct. 19, 1989, Mort
thought he was having a heart
attack. “But I wasn’
t,
” he said.
He was admitted in the hospi-
tal for observation. His doctor
told him he needed long-term
treatment. His best friend, who
flew up from Texas, said, “He
just needs to get honest. And he
needs to get God.
”
“I never did a line since. That
was 31 years ago.
”
Over the years, he’
s gone to

12-step meetings, many of them
Jewish. “I found that addiction
is not more common or less
common to any religion. I feel
if I can quit, anyone can quit. I
hope my tale of drug use and
abstinence tells someone out
there that they can quit, too.
”

A BAR MITZVAH
TO FORGET
One thing Mort doesn’
t write
much about in the book is his
Jewish journey, so he agreed to
sit down with the JN to discuss
how he feels about his faith.
His story starts in the
south part of Oak Park called

“Cardboard Village,
” where he
grew up. “Crappy, asbestos-shin-
gled 800-square-foot homes,
” he
said. “Living there took a bad
childhood and made it worse.
”
Jeffrey Seller, producer of the
Broadway smash Hamilton, also
grew up in Cardboard Village.
He told DBusiness he “was
ashamed and humiliated to live
there, and to even discuss it
now is painful, actually.
”
For Mort, it meant being
ostracized by many of his peers.
“I wasn’
t invited to anyone’
s bar
mitzvah,
” he said. “One kid told
me I wasn’
t invited because his
mom and dad said they don’
t
associate with people from
Cardboard Village. I ran into
that a lot.
”
Mort’
s childhood memories
are clouded by poverty — his
family was evicted numerous
times, including Thanksgiving
of 1963 — and a dysfunctional
family led by a father with anger
management issues. Although
his mother went to shul, his
dad rarely did. “You had to buy
tickets, and my father refused,
”
Mort said. “He said he could
barely put food on the table. I
remember him saying, ‘
I can
pray in a goddam latrine. I don’
t
need to pay to go.
’
”
Nevertheless, Mort had his
bar mitzvah in 1966 at B’
nai
Moshe, a spiritual home for

I HOPE MY TALE OF DRUG USE
AND ABSTINENCE TELLS
SOMEONE OUT THERE THAT
THEY CAN QUIT, TOO.

— MORT MEISNER

TOP: “Morty”’s bar mitzvah lunch, 1966, with brother Tony and his wife
Marian, and cousin Pat Small. BOTTOM LEFT: Cousin Alfred Deutsch
with Great-Uncle Adolph Deutsch, who put Mort through college. RIGHT:
Mort’s parents, Ella and Morris Meisner, outside their Oak Park home.

COURTESY OF MORT MEISNER

MORT MEISNER continued from page 36

M