George Raft

by Lewis Yablonsky

ablonsky, a sociologist and one of the foremost authorities in phychodrama, raises the book from ordinary show biz profiles to a penetrating insight into the relationship of personality to screen image, of character to social symbol. Like much about Raft, the book has class.?br>?i>Los Angeles Timeshe most roguishly appealing movie bio since Errol Flynn My Wicked, Wicked Ways.?br>?i>Kirkus Reviewshe story of my good friend George climb from the rowdy speakeasy clubs on Broadway in the twenties to the top of Hollywood stardom is an exciting American saga. Reading George biography by Lewis Yablonsky is the next best thing to being there.?br>?i>Frank Sinatra great story. George was an important and exciting star. When better men like George are madehen I'll make m.?br>?i>Mae West

Genres: Biography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Bobby Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big unabashed George Raft fan. Recently having read Stone Wallace’s biography of Raft — which I highly recommend, it’s terrific — which mentioned Yablonsky’s earlier bio as being excellent as well, I wanted to pick this one up at some point. Luckily a good friend of mine gave it to me as a gift and it’s turned out to be a wonderful read. I don’t think this one is better than Wallace’s, neither do I think it’s not as informative. If you’re a fan of Raft, or even if you’re not because of all you’ve heard, and what you “think” you know about him — maybe especially then — I recommend both.

I’m not going to go into minute detail about incidents and aspect of Raft’s life, I’l leave that for the reader on this occasion. I will say, that as I already knew, Raft was a man of contradictions because he lived by his own code. He was certainly the real deal, unlike a ton of other Hollywood stars. Cagney knew, everybody knew. Raft was kind, a gentlemen, but also had a volatile temper. He was always ready to give you the shirt off his back if you were down on your luck. If you could, you could ask Lucille Ball, she’d tell you. Yes, he lived lavishly, yes, he loved the opposite sex. And yes, he had a lot of shady friends, though he himself had only skirted around the business coming up. But, like Allen Iverson, he refused to ignore the good qualities and friendships of old pals once he was a star — a much bigger star than most people today realize.

Those who whine about his well documented casual associations with Lansky and Siegel need to ask themselves if they would have preferred that the careers of James Cagney and Gary Cooper had been cut short — fatally short. Because if not for Raft, they would have been. In a way, being such a good guy and living by his own code rather than that of others cost Raft dearly. Yet Raft looked back on the 1930s and 1940s as the best time of his life. I love Raft films and I love Raft, and this warts and all examination of his life and career did nothing to dissuade me of that opinion. In real time, he was adored by fans, the man and woman on the street. They could identify with Raft because they felt he was not only genuine, but one of their own — a talented guy who’d got lucky and made the most of it. And they were right. Raft lived the good life, and he was willing to share it with others, even to his detriment.

Raft’s tale is not without tragedy, especially of the romantic kind. He had a wife who refused to divorce him so that he could make a new life with — anyone. Those anyones included Virginia Hill, Norma Shearer, and Betty Grable, who as another reviewer noted, said in all seriousness she fell in love instantly and would have married Raft after the first date. So much for modern nitwits who scoff at romantic love happening quick for some, yet embrace all manner of insta-sex. Raft got to a point where his heart was all beat up by the frustration of losing out on his chance for marital bliss, so he went in whole hog with shallow one-night-stands. There too, he was reportedly the real deal; more than one trustworthy female confirmed that Raft put Flynn and Barrymore to shame. Yet it’s also sad, because it was never what he wanted. He cared deeply for Hill, Shearer, and Grable. Raft would have loved to remarry, but he couldn’t, so he lost out on love and happiness.

Some would call certain career choices by Raft misguided and foolish, but Raft had insecurities, and he wanted to be remembered a certain way. Both Yablonsky’s bio and that of Stone Wallace, which I also recommend, paint a picture of a flawed man whose good qualities far outweighed the suspect ones. Raft is underrated, an intuitive actor who relied on the character becoming George Raft, rather than the other way around. It worked, because the public loved and adored him in real time, despite how he’s viewed today. How beloved he was is evident from the list of people who came to his aid — he never would have asked, he was too proud — when a lot of things began to go south.

If you don’t like Raft and have a better understanding of him as an individual, and as a star personality after reading this bio, especially if you combine it with that of Stone Wallace’s, well, that’s on you. Bios are more often than not salacious nonsense, gossip and half-truths. None more so than bios of Hollywood stars from the 1930s and 1940s. The bigger the star, the worse the bio, generally. Yet here is a huge star who has not one, but two very excellent bios. That alone should tell you about the kind of guy Raft was…

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Raft is often held up to ridicule as an actor who
single handedly put Humphrey Bogart on the road to stardom
(Raft turned down roles in "Casablanca", "High Sierra" and
"The Maltese Falcon" for various reasons). It was part of
a deep rooted psyche - of not wanting to be identified in the
public's mind for his criminal associations.
I have always loved George Raft - he always struck me as such
a genuine guy. This book is written with his co-operation and
there are some quite funny stories he remembers. I suppose
because of Raft's imput there isn't really an indepth look at
why he did some of the things he did. Why did he marry Grace
Mulrooney, the woman who completely wrecked his personal life?
He thought she was a sweet kid but she was anything but and it
didn't take him long to realise it. Her not allowing him a
divorce changed his life and after a few lengthy affairs (Virginia
Pine, Norma Shearer and Betty Grable whom the book quotes as
saying "I would have married him on our first date"), settled
into a life of mostly one night stands. I found that part of the
book very sad - that he was not able to live the normal life he so
wanted. But this book shows his determination to better himself,
initially through dancing. In the 1920s he was the fastest
Charleston dancer in the world and Fred Astaire thought him one
of the best dancers.
Not the definite biography about this complex man but definitely
worth reading for some of Raft's personal, racier stories.

[Paul Kyriazi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on Raft, as Raft helped with it, but author including things that Raft didn't nessesarily want. Great historical read.

[Craig Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite a couple of glaring inaccuracies, this book is sincere and provides a great insight into a wrongfully overlooked star.

[Eden Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog for over 900 book reviews in all genres - and a clear, large image of the original 1974 hardcover edition.

The many sides of George Raft - renowned dancer, movie star, ex-boxer, sportsman, friend of the underworld, gambler, and ladies' man - are all captured in this well-researched biography of the classic film star.

George Raft grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, where a kid needed street smarts to get by. As a handsome teen, he excelled at dance, winning many ballroom awards, and spent his nights befriending Damon Runyon types and underworld mob bosses watching the floor shows at Lindy's.
He worked his way up from dancing in 'tea rooms' with high-class prostitutes to the vaudeville circuit, with entanglements and romances along the way. His dark good looks and slick style, with a hat pulled down over one eye, magnetized the ladies.
In the early days of talking pictures, his trendsetting prohibition-style made him a natural to portray the prototype gangster-gambler. Hanging out on Broadway and knowing all the gangsters helped make his performances authentic, and people naturally assumed he was well-connected to the mob.
From his first picture Quick Millions with Spencer Tracy in 1930, to Scarface with Paul Muni in 1932, Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key in 1935, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, to a run of Warner Brothers prison pictures like Invisible Stripes (1942) with Humphrey Bogart. His tough-guy image made it into the unusual holiday picture Christmas Eve (1947), and he played it for comedy as a George Raft-type in Some Like It Hot (1959) and Ocean's Eleven (1960). As one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood, he could turn down roles, which he famously did for The Maltese Falcon, High Sierra, and a little film called Everybody Comes To Rick's (renamed Casablanca).
Sprinkled throughout are his romances with the leading ladies of Hollywood, including Norma Shearer and Betty Grable, his sexual prowess well known. One of his first roles in Night After Night (1932) starred Mae West, who said of their long-lasting affair that he was the best lover she ever had.
He was a class act to those around him, generous when someone needed a hand, including childhood friend Bugsy Siegel, who asked for a loan to buy a piece of the action in Las Vegas. Later, when Siegel was in trouble, he asked for another to save the Flamingo Hotel and his life.

This excellent and entertaining biography was co-written by George Raft, with full cooperation. It captures the actor and man in all his roles.
Whatever he did, it was with poise and class.

[Lynne M · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Raft is definitely one of those actors you've likely seen in a few films, most likely a gangster film or something related to that genre. Someone who was A-list early in his career, then transitioned into a supporting character actor, in such later classic films such as "Some Like it Hot."

I knew a bit about the man himself, including that he actually did not just play a gangster. He had real, close connections with well-known organized crime figures, such as his childhood friend Bugsy Siegel, and only narrowly avoided a life of crime himself growing up in a tough New York City neighborhood. What I did not know about him was that he had quite a resume before ever being an actor- he played baseball, was a boxer, electrician, and perhaps most interestingly of all, a very accomplished dancer. He also had close connections to notable stars of the day, including Mae West, an equally fascinating and colorful personality in her own right.

He was among the highest-paid stars in Hollywood, but he also refused many parts during his time at the top of his career which probably impacted his career later on.

Overall an interesting read about an underrated actor.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve given this book three stars, which means that it accomplished what its author set out to do, but I have to state up-front that it is very flawed, and that I didn’t like it as much as most of the three star books I rate. Call it 2.75 stars, because it doesn’t quite make the cut, but it’s not bad enough to rate at two.

I can’t remember how this book wound up on my reading list. Possibly a friend gave it to me, knowing how much I like old movies, or maybe I picked it up one day on a lark. What I’m sure of is that, prior to reading it, I’d never heard of George Raft. He seems to have been quite famous, back in the 30s and 40s, but I I’d bet that since this book was published in 1974, his name has become even more obscure, to the point where even serious film buffs only vaguely know him as the sidekick in “Scarface” or the gangster villain in “Some Like It Hot.” The truth is that he did quite a few roles, sometimes starring or co-starring roles, particularly in gangster movies and crime dramas, and he was considered a “star” – if not on the same level as James Cagney or Paul Muni, at least respectably well-known and talked about in the Hollywood fan magazines.

This is the “authorized” biography of his life, which means that he participated fully in its creation, giving the author complete access to interviews, clippings, and his own memories during its writing. That would seem like a good thing, but it also gave him a certain amount of power over the final product, and I think there may have been a tension between what the author wanted to put in and what he was allowed to say. This is most obvious in two areas: George Raft’s love life and his connection to real-world organized crime.

In terms of sex, Raft had alienated me within the first twenty pages of the book. Before becoming a star, he worked, to all intents and purposes, as a gigolo on Broadway. More accurately, he was a hired dancer and host, who would keep company with women who came into fancy clubs, and he’s honest enough to say that sometimes clients went home with him (or vice versa). I don’t judge that, but it struck me as a powerful double-standard when he blew up at the girl he married on a whim when she revealed that she was not a virgin. He paid for that mistake for the rest of his life – she refused to divorce him and he couldn’t establish a long-term relationship within Hollywood’s studio system unless he got married to the woman. This destroyed relationships, for example, with Betty Grable and Carole Lombard, as well as lesser-known lovers. There’s a lot of whining about how he got a bad break in the book, but it seemed like justice to me.

Once he figured out that he was never going to have a long-term relationship, Raft turned to professional call-girls, whom he seems to have sought out voraciously. I suppose, having been a professional himself, he may have had a more respectful attitude than most Johns, but it didn’t do anything to improve my impression of him. The book also constantly touts his cocksmanship, comparing him to John Barrymore and Errol Flynn, and much of it seems to be an old man bragging about his youthful exploits.

In terms of his criminal connections, there is also a bit of the “poor little me” routine. Raft is probably telling the truth when he says that he was never a gangster, in any serious capacity, but that he worked at speakeasies and other mobbed-up clubs and got to know people like Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel because they liked his dancing, but he maintained these connections all of his life and made some rather shady business deals once he was in a position to do so. He was taken to court by the IRS for tax evasion, like many real gangsters, and he admits that his books were frankly a catastrophe. He had interest in Las Vegas casinos, a London gambling establishment with some dubious fellow-backers, and was pals with Frank Sinatra. All his protestations of innocence and persecution (he was barred from the UK and thus lost his most lucrative gambling connection) come across as rather unconvincing. The author tries to make the case that people confuse art with life, and that he was accused of being a gangster because he played one on the screen, but toward the beginning of the book we learn that he was so convincing because he had known the inside of New York’s underworld. You can’t have it both ways.

Overall, the book is a decent, but not great, example of fan-biography, with little to offer a serious researcher. The best bits come from quotes about Raft from those who worked with him, including Howard Hawks, Darryl F. Zanuck, Edward G. Robinson, Mervyn LeRoy, and Betty Grable. Of course, these quotes follow the Hollywood code of always speaking well of others in the industry, so they should be read critically, but they do offer insights into the world of Hollywood at its peak. In fact, Raft’s current status as a “forgotten” star, makes the view somewhat more interesting – as if we are getting to look at Hollywood through the eyes of a person who is as far outside of its mythos as we are, but who can interact with the world of glamour and fame that we all know. For that reason, the book offers some entertainment, but really isn’t as good for escape as watching a George Raft movie would be.

[Lama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raft is certainly one of the actors that always made me curious to learn about his personal life and personality.
I gave this book 3 stars, i think it lacks of information on his life and personality.
But it’s an amusing book and i enjoyed every min of this bio !

[Annamarie Cima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book if you love George Raft...

[Ali]

mans life was literally a movie and they STILL felt the need to lie their asses off in his biopic