KIDNAPPING; JEWISH
JEANS, COLLEGE
JEOPARDY, A CLEVER
SCAMMER
Suspicion is an original
eight-episode Apple TV+
series that begins stream-
ing on Feb. 4. It’s based on
False Flag, an Israeli series.
Uma Thurman plays a busi-
nesswoman whose son
is kidnapped. If Suspicion
follows False Flag, as I
expect it will, several “total-
ly ordinary” persons will be
accused of being involved
in the crime, and the mys-
tery will be — are they inno-
cent or just good liars?
Noah Emmerich, 56,
has a big supporting role.
You might not recognize
his name, but you’ll proba-
bly know his face. He has
worked steadily in TV and
films since the late 1990s.
He played Jim Carrey’s
best friend in the film The
Truman Show and Stan
Beeman, a major charac-
ter on The Americans TV
series.
His father, Andre
Emmerich, was a famous
art dealer. He fled Nazi
Germany at age 7, with his
parents, and arrived in New
York in 1940. Noah’s aunt
was a classmate of Anne
Frank. Noah’s brother, Toby
Emmerich, 58, is the CEO
of Warner Bros. Pictures.
On Feb. 7, most PBS
stations will premiere The
History of Jeans, a new
American Experience docu-
mentary. Much of it is about
Levi Strauss (1828-1902)
and tailor Jacob Davis
(1831-1908). Davis invented
the jeans we know by put-
ting copper rivets in them
so they would stand up
to hard use. Davis bought
his cloth from Strauss. He
asked Strauss to co-
finance a patent application.
Strauss agreed and they
shared the patent (1873).
I imagine that the epi-
sode will mention that
Strauss was Jewish. I am
not sure that they will note
that Davis was Jewish,
too. Davis was born Jacob
Youphes in Riga, Latvia. He
came to America in 1854
and soon headed West. In
1869, he was living in the
mining town of Virginia City,
Nevada. A woman asked
him to make really strong
pants for her “big” husband.
Davis had some copper riv-
ets in his shop that he used
to attach leather straps to
horse blankets. He used
them to hold the pants’
seams together and that
worked beautifully!
Levi Strauss was univer-
sally viewed as an hon-
orable businessman. His
good treatment of Davis is
but one example. Strauss
hired Davis to be his head
of manufacturing. Davis
worked for the Levi Strauss
company until his death in
1908. Strauss and Davis
are buried in the same San
Francisco-area Jewish cem-
etery.
Jacob’s son, Simon
Davis, struck out on his
own and, in 1935, founded
the Ben Davis clothing com-
pany with his young son,
Ben. The company made
“tough” clothes (including
jeans) for working folks. It
is still very much in exis-
tence and actually became
chic in the ’90s when hip
hop musicians, including
the Jewish Beastie Boys,
touted Ben Davis clothes.
Ben Davis is still “hip” and
still makes some clothes in
America. Ben’s son, Frank,
70, has been head of the
company since 1995.
Here’s one detail I recent-
ly read. Today, the Napa
Valley is a playground for
the vintage-sipping rich.
But, in the late ’30s, it was
a disaster area. Prohibition
(1920-33) virtually destroyed
the vineyard business. Then
the Great Depression (1929-
39) hit the Valley hard. The
Valley got a lifeline when
the Davises opened a
(unionized) factory in Napa
in 1937. It quickly employed
10% of the Valley’s work-
force.
The Levi Strauss compa-
ny is, of course, also still
in existence and it is still
controlled by the descen-
dants of Levi Strauss (they
are direct descendants of
his sister. Levi never mar-
ried and had no children).
Notable descendants
include Daniel Goldman,
45, who served as the chief
Democratic counsel during
the former president’s first
impeachment trial.
A new evening tour-
nament game show,
Jeopardy!: National
College Championship,
will premiere on Feb. 8
(ABC, 8 p.m.). The series
will be hosted by Mayim
Bialik, 46. Bialik is also the
co-host for the “regular”
daily Jeopardy! until the
end of the 2021-22 season
(unclear what happens
then). No matter what, Bialik
will host “special events,”
like the college champion-
ship, for the foreseeable
future.
Inventing Anna is an
original, nine-part Netflix
mini-series that will stream
(whole series) on Feb. 11. It’s
based on the real-life story
of fraudster Anna Delvey,
a non-Jewish woman who
was born in Russia (1991)
and grew up in Germany.
She moved to New York
City in 2013. Until her arrest
in 2017, she pretended to
be a rich heiress, and she
cleverly used this façade to
scam banks and friends out
of about 200K.
Julia Garner, 27, stars
as Delvey. Garner has won
two best supporting actress
Emmys for her work on the
Netflix series Ozark.
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
56 | FEBRUARY 3 • 2022
Noah
Emmerich
BY REG2600 VIA WIKIMEDIA
Julia
Garner
BY HARALD KRICHEL VIA WIKIMEDIA