Miriam’s musings: Entering The Lyons Den

In 1934 Leonard Sucher, a City College graduate and practicing lawyer, beat out 500 applicants for a job at the New York Post, the oldest continuously published newspaper in America. He was the columnist of “East of Broadway” in the Sunday English page of the Jewish Daily Forward when he entered the New York Post contest to win a column. His new position was meant to rival Walter Winchell’s in the Daily Mirror. Beginning May 20, 1934, he would write 1000 words per column, 6 columns a week for 40 years to the day.

Leonard’s editor announced on a Friday that he’d have a new name on Monday. Lyons was chosen and thus was born “The Lyons Den.” This is now a three-generation brand name, since his son Jeffrey and grandson Ben use it for their own work as critics. Unlike others in the field, Leonard never used the word “celebrity” which he hated; his was not a gossip column, instead he penned anecdotes about anyone newsworthy.

Jeffrey Lyons, third of Leonard’s four sons, is a chip off the old block. He entertained the Hadassah Nassau Region in the ballroom at Plainview Jewish Center with his colorful true stories. Fast talking, funny, smart, confident and articulate, Jeffrey filled our ears with interesting details about every type of performer you can imagine. He showed us a spectacular amalgam of home movies which enhanced his memories of interacting with a diverse group of personalities while growing up in his parents’ household. He proudly states that, “my father knew everyone.”

Jeffrey Lyons wrote his book “Stories My Father Told Me, Notes from “The Lyons Den” as a testament to his father’s life’s work. It reads as a beautiful personal homage to his dad and to the incredible lifestyle his family lived. The 12,479 columns Leonard Lyons wrote consisted of exclusive first hand copy, a result of his own leg-work, interviewing some of the most famous people in the world. When he saw another reporter ahead of him, he’d leave, wanting only fresh material. Many stars became friends with Leonard and frequent visitors to his home. So many names impressed the Hadassah audience, including: Irving Berlin, Danny Kaye, George Bernard Shaw, Tennessee Williams, Noel Coward, Frank Sinatra, Alfred Hitchcock, Lawrence Olivier, Salvador Dali, Margaret and Bess Truman, Richard Burton, Albert Einstein (a distant cousin), J. Edgar Hoover (who kept a file on his family), Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, John F. Kennedy.

Leonard Lyons had tea with the Duke of Windsor. Orson Wells was his best friend for many years. Charlie Chaplin taught his sons how to walk like him. Marilyn Monroe phoned Jeffrey to wish him a happy 16th birthday. Joe DiMaggio came to Jeffrey’s bar mitzvah and is the message voice on his answering machine. David Ben Gurion took Leonard on a tour of Tel Aviv and told him that to be a good Jew you need to live in Israel, to which Leonard responded by pointing out all the American donor names on the Israeli buildings.

During the war, Marc Chagall often came for a kosher Friday night dinner in their home. Jeffrey says “Chagall was a spiritual link for my parents to their ancestors’ lives in Eastern Europe.” Chagall always had a twinkle in his eye and once looked at a Miro painting in the Lyons’ home and called it “dreck.” Leonard owned the world’s smallest Chagall. When he was going to visit Eastern Europe he asked Chagall to draw his home. Chagall drew the village of Vitebsk on a scrap of paper for him.

The Lyons’ belonged to Congregation Rodeph Sholom, a reform synagogue, just two blocks away from their home. Leonard says he has a Red Sox yarmulke which he wears in private during post season. “That’s the extent of my current practice, but I remain Jewish in my heart and outlook on life...and humor. My other religion is baseball in general and the Boston Red Sox in particular. I’m serious.”

Lyons was most excited telling us about his family’s relationship with Ernest Hemingway and his own 25 trips to Spain. He first met Hemingway in 1952 as a boy of eight when the Lyons’ were his houseguests outside Havana. Hemingway taught the boys how to shoot and spoke about his writing. Jeffrey read Hemingway’s books which changed his life. Four years later on his first trip to Spain, he became enamored with bullfighting and was given the incredible opportunity to travel with the world famous matador Antonio Ordonez who had been anointed by Hemingway as the greatest matador of them all. Lyons said these incredible experiences gave him confidence he brought to his work.

Jeffrey Lyons has had his own stellar career having reviewed more than 15,000 movies and hundreds of Broadway shows. He studied acting with Lee Strasberg in New York and earned a Law degree from Syracuse University. He began his career writing sports and obituaries, interning at the New York Times and covering the 1968 political conventions for WINS. He has been the film critic for WPIX, co-hosted Sneak Previews, and hosted “The Lyons Den” on WCBS-AM. Jeffrey was on MSNBC’s “AT THE MOVIES” with his son Ben. He was WNBC’s film and theatre critic and co-hosted the Lyons & Bailes Reel Talk. He currently hosts the syndicated “LYONS DEN RADIO.” He appeared as himself in The French Connection, Deathtrap and the TV series Wiseguy.

The book’s last section is about current actors whom Jeffrey respects and has interviewed. He insisted on answering questions from the audience: his favorite movie is The Graduate, he disliked Vanessa Redgrave’s politics, but reviewed her films fairly, referred to Mel Gibson as “he who shall not be named” and that he only regrets having missed interviewing some deceased actors.

Like his father Leonard, Jeffrey is a teetotaler with a strict work ethic and prides himself on his research and preparedness. He says you “have to think twice before you sit on somebody’s work” and tries not to be harsh in his reviews, though he quipped about someone having had a “charisma bypass operation.” You could never say that about Jeffrey Lyons; I’d say he’s a clever, accomplished mentsch who acknowledges his roots by revering his family.