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

