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