58 | OCTOBER 19 • 2023 J
N
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER
MOON WITH A SIDE OF
SOONER JEWS
Killers of the Flower
Moon, a Martin Scorsese
film, has received great
advance reviews. It opens
in theaters on Oct. 20. You
should be aware that the
film is 3 hours and 25 min-
utes. That’s a long time,
especially if you, or a com-
panion, have issues that
make sitting for a long time
difficult.
Killers is based on David
Grann’s critically acclaimed,
bestselling nonfiction study
(2017) of the same name.
The book and the film
chronicle what are referred
to as the Osage Tribe mur-
ders.
The Osage were forced
out of their homes in
Kansas and resettled in
Oklahoma in the 19th centu-
ry. In the early 1920s, large
oil deposits were found
on their reservation land.
Unscrupulous white men
found various ways to get
their hands on the royal-
ties paid to tribe members.
Some even courted and
married Osage women and
then murdered them.
Dozens, perhaps hun-
dreds, of Osage were mur-
dered for their royalties.
The FBI got involved in
1925 and solved several of
these cases, but most of the
murders were never solved.
Robert DeNiro and Leo
DiCaprio play bad guys who
swindle the Osage. Jesse
Plemons plays the top fed-
eral officer. Lily Gladstone,
a Native American, co-stars
as an Osage who is married
to DiCaprio’s character.
The screenplay
was co-written by
Scorsese and Eric
Roth, 78. Roth’s credits
include Forrest Gump (win-
ner of the best adapt-
ed screenplay Oscar)
and Munich (Oscar-nom in
same category).
David Grann, 57, is a
top journalist and a New
Yorker staff member. He is
also the author of the best-
selling historical study, The
Lost City of Z. A movie of
the same name opened in
2016.
Grann’s father, the late
Dr. Victor Grann, was a
prominent oncologist. His
mother, Phyllis Grann, 86,
was the former CEO of
Putnam Books. She was the
first woman to be the head
of a major publishing com-
pany.
Some months ago, I
looked at David Grann’s
Wikipedia entry, and it
said that his father was
“one-quarter Jewish” and
his mother was “half-Jew-
ish.” I recently went back
to the Wiki bio and read
the New York Magazine arti-
cle cited for this info. The
article says nothing(!) about
David’s father’s religious
background, and it is
unclear about his mother.
I checked records. Victor
Grann was the son of a
Yiddish-speaking, Russian
Jewish immigrant and his
American-born, Jewish wife.
As for Phyllis — the New
York Magazine article gets
Phyllis’ father background
right. He was a Russian Jew
who settled in the U.K.
The New York
Magazine article describes
Phyllis’ mother as British
(by birth). But it doesn’t say
whether she was British and
Jewish, too. As I write this,
I know that three of David
Grann’s “grands” were
Jewish — with one unclear.
In the same article, a col-
league of Phyllis Grann said
this about her: “Her Jewish-
mother qualities obfuscate
her very effective dealings
with the world. She’s a
Jewish mother with the
mind of a bear trap.”
By the way, there are
people of mixed Indian and
Jewish background. Robbie
Robertson, the leader of
the famous rock band “The
Band” and its principal
songwriter, was the son of
a Canadian Mohawk moth-
er and a Canadian Jewish
father. Robertson died last
August, age 80.
In a memoir, Robertson
made this wry remark about
his Jewish and Indian her-
itage: “You could say I’m
an expert when it comes to
persecution.”
I’ve long been surprised
that a number of famous,
or somewhat famous, Jews
were born and raised in
Oklahoma, a state with a
small Jewish communi-
ty. Here’s my list. Check
online for detailed bios:
Actors Tony Randall (born
Aryeh Rosenberg)
and Tim Blake Nelson, 57,
(O, Brother, Where Art
Thou?; The Ballad of Buster
Scruggs); George Kaiser,
81, (Tim Blake Nelson’s
uncle) is a practicing Jew,
a billionaire and a locally
famous mega-philanthro-
pist. His father, a Nazi
Germany, refugee, created
(1940s) a small oil drilling
company with American
relatives. George made
it big; Sylvan Goldman,
an Oklahoma supermar-
ket owner who invented
the shopping cart (1937).
Manufacturing carts made
him very rich; and Mickey
Edwards, 86. He was a con-
gressman from 1977-1993
and, after that, he taught
at Harvard for 11 years. He
was a Republican when
the state (like most of the
South) was ruled by quite
conservative Democrats.
Edwards was a “tradition-
al” conservative who was
long upset with changes
in the GOP. His last straw
was Jan. 6 — he left the
GOP. Fun footnote: Richard
Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein II wrote
“Oklahoma,” the official
state song.
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
IMDB
Eric Roth
LARRY D. MOORE
David Grann
KINGKONGPHOTO
Robbie Robertson