50 | AUGUST 3 • 2023 

TONY B. AND MORE 
OPPENHEIMER

As no doubt you heard, 
singer Tony Bennett died 
last week, age 96. His 
singing voice was strong 
well into his 80s, and he 
was still “very good” until 
he had to retire in 2021. 
I had the good fortune of 
hearing him (1996) sing a 
few of his classics in front 
of San Francisco’s City 
Hall. As I looked around, 
I noticed how diverse 
(age, race, etc.) the large 
adoring crowd was. 
 I long knew he was 
a mensch. In one of 
his memoirs, he spoke 
about the harassment 
Italians got in his New 
York neighborhood. Then 
he noted that Blacks 
and Jews “had it worse.” 
Bennett walked (1965) 
with Dr. Martin Luther 
King in the voting rights 
march from Selma to 
Montgomery. There was 
much violence directed 
at the marchers, and that 
violence came close to 
Bennett. Viola Liuzzo, a 
white woman from Detroit, 
gave Bennett a ride to 
the Birmingham airport 
the morning of March 25, 
1965. That evening, she 

was murdered by the Klan 
while driving other people 
to the airport.
I’m sure Bennett had 
tons of Jewish connec-
tions. Here, I can only 
cover four of them. The 
most notable Jewish tie 
is Tony’s daughter, singer 
Antonia Bennett, now 
49. She converted to 
Judaism in 2013, shortly 
before her marriage to 
Ronen Hellman, an Israeli 
businessman. 
In 2013, she told a 
Jewish paper she was 
guided in her conversion 
studies by a Chabad rabbi 
(but she’s not Chasidic). In 
a 2015 interview, she said 
she and her husband were 
members of an Orthodox 
minyan. (Yes, they are still 
married.)
Tony was “fine” with her 
conversion and walked 
his daughter down to the 
chuppah.
Antonia sings jazz, 
sophisticated pop songs 
and some tunes her father 
sang. She has many videos 
on YouTube (some duets 
with her father), and you 
can judge how good she is 
for yourself.
Tony had several low 
points in his very long 
career. One came in 1968. 
Singers of “standards,” like 

Bennett and Perry Como, 
were being way outsold by 
rock music. Tony’s agent 
thought an acting role 
might help his career, and 
Tony agreed to co-star 
in The Oscar, a film with 
a good cast and a pretty 
big budget. But the script 
was so bad, it was almost 
good.
Bennett played Hymie 
Kelley, the “go-fer” for 
a “bad guy” actor who 
somehow got an Oscar 
nomination. Hymie was 
supposed to be the son of 
a Jewish mother and an 
Irish father. Bennett was 
actually pretty good as 
Hymie, but The Oscar was 
his first and last movie.
Tony’s Oscar co-star 
was Jill St. John, now 
82. She was born Jill 
Oppenheim. St. John and 
Tina (Gilligan’s Island) 
Louise, now 89, were 
the top “stealth” Jewish 
bombshells of the 1960s.
Like Sinatra, a huge 
percentage of Bennett’s 
big hit songs were written 
by Jewish songwriters. 
The “Greatest Hits” section 
of Tony’s official YouTube 
channel has 24 songs. 
Fourteen were written or 
co-written by Jews. Four 
are by George and Ira 
Gershwin.
The first episode of the 
Tonight Show that Johnny 
Carson hosted (Oct. 1, 
1962) had four guests. 
Three are now deceased: 
Joan Crawford, Rudy 
Vallee and Tony Bennett. 
The one still living guest 
is Mel Brooks, 97. Like 
Bennett, Brooks was a 
WWII vet with a musical 
flair.

As I write this, a bad 
knee and a bad theater 
have stopped me from 
seeing Oppenheimer. The 
“bad” theater is a nearby 
IMAX theater that blasts 
any film’s soundtrack. It’s 
actually painful.
I will see Oppenheimer 
soon and let you know 
what I think. Meanwhile, 
if you have seen 
Oppenheimer or plan to 
see it, do watch the new 
documentary, To End the 
War: Oppenheimer and the 
Atomic Bomb. 
No documentary can 
cover any big topic 
completely, but this 
90-minute film is the 
best Oppenheimer 
documentary I’ve seen. 
It features commentary 
by Kai Bird and the 
late Martin Sherwin, 
co-authors of the book 
the feature film was based 
upon. 
If you get MSNBC, you 
can view it on demand. 
If you don’t, see the 
entire film on YouTube. I 
am telling you to view a 
“pirate” copy, but it is up 
there. NBC should get 
smart and offer to rent 
the flick on YouTube for a 
modest sum. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/BOB ELYEA

Tony Bennett

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/CBS TELEVISION

Tina Louise

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/20TH CENTURY FOX

Jill St. John

