Moguls, Monsters and Madmen, page 30
In 1905, Churchill was part of a new Liberal government as Undersecretary for Colonial Affairs. This was the first British government in which Jews—who often were regarded by the establishment as pushy, money-grubbing and too ambitious—played an integral role. Though Churchill was criticized for the company he kept, he liked to associate with clever people, and didn’t care where they came from.
“Churchill admired the Jews and invited them home for dinner, which was not done,” confirmed Sir Martin.
This was at a time when politicians such as Leo Amery found it prudent to hide their Jewish origins.
Canadian-born Oxford historian Margaret MacMillan said, “Churchill’s Jewish associations were unusual for his class at a time when casual anti-Semitism was enormously pervasive.”
The idea of Zionism was born out of the desperate search for a safe haven by Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. In 1896, an Austro-Hungarian journalist, Theodor Herzl, had published The Jewish State, which argued persuasively for a Jewish homeland in the ancestral land of Palestine.
The bullet that assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914, set off a chain of events that ultimately led to the start of the First World War. During that five-year conflict, Britain faced a dire shortage of explosives. As Minister of Munitions, Churchill appealed for assistance to Chaim Weizmann, a research chemist at the University of Manchester. Apart from his academic and war work, Weizmann had been inspired by Herzl’s dream of creating a Jewish state. Thanks, in part, to Weizmann’s synthetic explosives, Britain and her allies defeated their enemies. A grateful government was anxious to reward Dr. Weizmann who, as head of what was now a worldwide Zionist movement, had a clear and persistent desire to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
The Ottoman Empire now lay in ruins, and the Middle East, including Palestine, became the responsibility of the British Military Administration. This made Britain the largest ruler of Muslims on earth. Nevertheless, many in London saw the advantages in Weizmann’s plan. Even before the war’s end, British policy had gradually become committed to the Zionist cause. After discussions in the British cabinet, a letter was written by Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild, recognizing Zionist aspirations. Though the Balfour letter became the founding document of a Jewish homeland, it was not at first seen that way.
Churchill noted that Jewish soldiers in the British army had won over 1,500 medals for bravery. “This record is a great one, and British Jews can look back with pride on the part they played in winning the Great War.” Churchill also declared that a national homeland was not a gift to the Jewish people but an act of restitution, in that it gave back to the Jews something that had been stolen from them in the early days of the Christian era.
Weizmann’s proposed Jewish state stretched almost to Damascus in the North, Amman to the East and south to the Gulf of Aqaba. Privately, Churchill had doubts about the division of the region, fearing a long and costly conflict. He wrote to Prime Minister David Lloyd George, saying, “The Jews, whom we are pledged to introduce into Palestine, take it for granted that the local population will be cleared out to suit their convenience.”
Despite his concerns, Lloyd George remained committed to the Balfour Declaration, and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
“Churchill liked the idea, but thought it unwise to talk about a Jewish state at that time, preferring to call it a homeland,” said Margaret MacMillan. “He worried that Germany, where the Jews were well integrated, might come up with an alternative plan that would cause them to be seen as the protector of the Jews. He was always looking out for Jewish interests, though he knew this could cause him trouble down the road. He also had obligations as a British statesman.”
“The debates in the Commons over the Jewish state were difficult, and Churchill was warned not to ask for too much,” said Sir Martin.
When the Bolsheviks, headed by Lenin and Trotsky, marched into St. Petersburg and took over the Russian empire, Churchill published an article in the Sunday Herald. “There should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan,” he wrote, “a Jewish state under the protection of the British Crown, which might be comprised of 3 or 4 million Jews, which would, from every point-of-view, be beneficial and in harmony with the truest interest of the British Empire.”
“People protested that the Russian pogroms were a long way away,” said Sir Martin. “Churchill spoke powerfully, stating it was a moral issue.”
Britain’s interests in the Middle East went far beyond an obligation to the Palestinian Mandate. The Suez Canal was a crucial lifeline to the far eastern colonies and to India, often referred to as the jewel in the British Crown. Churchill convened a conference in Cairo with Arab and Jewish leaders, and his own advisors, Herbert Samuel and T.E. Lawrence.
“When Churchill travelled through the streets of Gaza, an Arab city, he was met with cheering crowds of a kind he’d never heard before,” said Sir Martin. “When he asked the translator what the Arabs were crying out, he was told, ‘Long live the British minister and death to the Jews!’ Then, at the conference, instead of the Arab leaders saying, ‘This our our vision,’ they said, ‘We want the Jews out.’ The Jews, by contrast, presented their vision of what the area could become with irrigation.”
Churchill told them, “The Zionist ideal is a very great ideal, and I confess for myself it is one that claims my keen personal sympathy.”
Before leaving Jerusalem, Churchill visited the site of the future Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, where he reminded the Jews of their responsibility to all Palestinians. When the Arabs pressed for representational government, Churchill resisted. He understood that their intent was to restrict Jewish immigration.
“The Arabs were farming the land in all the old ways, whereas the Jews were bringing in all these technologies for irrigation and electrification,” said Margaret MacMillan. “With any concession to the Arabs, the Jews objected, and with everything that seemed to favour the Jews, the Arabs objected.”
“The Jews brought access to Western technology,” agreed Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz. “If only the Arabs had used that to transform their land, they would have benefitted by allowing the Jews to return.”
While Churchill argued for an understanding of Zionism based on idealism, as the fulfillment of the Jews’ historic destiny, Lord Curzon, the Foreign Secretary, argued that whatever might be done for the Jewish people was without legal foundation and based entirely on sentimental grounds. This encouraged Churchill’s enemies to renew their attacks.
Churchill’s White Paper was approved by the League of Nations in July 1922. It stated that Jews were in Palestine by right and not on sufferance. However, four months later, his government was defeated, and Churchill lost his seat in Parliament. Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour government immediately moved to water down the policy outlined in the White Paper.
Fuelled by the rising pressure of Nazism, Jewish immigration to Palestine soared, so that by 1939, Jews made up one-third of the population. The British Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, authored another white paper, which later became known as the Black Paper, because it placed further restrictions on Jewish immigration. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain added his voice: “If we must offend one side, let us offend the Jews rather than the Arabs.”
The MacDonald bill was passed in Parliament by a strong majority, temporarily ending the dream of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Churchill had visited Munich in 1932 and witnessed first-hand Hitler’s Brownshirt parades. Yet, the Chamberlain government remained reluctant to confront Hitler. For two nights in November 1938, Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes and businesses, also setting fire to thousands of synagogues. Over 30,000 Jews were subsequently deported to concentration camps. Thousands of German Jews were desperately looking for refuge, but even Churchill’s close friend, Lord Beaverbrook, was strongly opposed to accepting them into the United Kingdom.
“One of the things often held against Churchill was that he would not leave anything alone,” said Margaret MacMillan. “He was often cast down by lack of support, but he always rallied. Kristallnacht was a watershed in public opinion, especially the cynicism of the Nazis in making the Jews pay for the damage inflicted upon them.”
By May 1940, Hitler had overrun Europe and was poised to invade Britain. Neville Chamberlain was forced to resign and Winston Churchill became prime minister. In regard to Zionism, he was told he had no right to change legislation already passed by Parliament. As Nazi persecution increased, however, the British people came to understand that it wasn’t just the Jews, but also the Poles and the French who were being killed. “Whole areas of Europe had become a prison camp,” said Sir Martin. “Churchill allowed a single British passport to be sufficient for perhaps three hundred people who had arrived on a boat, or all those that arrived on a train. As the war came to an end, Churchill spelled out in stark terms that the Nazi leaders must be tried as war criminals.”
With Germany’s surrender in 1945, Britain’s wartime government coalition was dissolved. Although Churchill remained personally popular, Clement Attlee’s Labour party was elected, putting Churchill out of office. Meanwhile, violence in Palestine continued to escalate. On May 14, 1948, the day before the expiration of the British Mandate, Israel proclaimed its independence, with David Ben-Gurion as its first prime minister. The following day, the armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq—attacked the Jewish state, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared, and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established. Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.
Two years passed before the British government recognized the state of Israel. “Churchill had become ambivalent about Zionism toward the end of the war,” said Margaret MacMillan. “His legacy to the Jews was to keep their hopes alive.”
Sir Winston Churchill died, age ninety, on January 24, 1965.
In his eulogy, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion did not hold back his praise. “Churchill was the perfect combination of a great man at a great hour,” he said. “He joined battle and he prevailed. Churchill belonged to the entire world. His memory will light the way for generations to come in every corner of the globe.”
“Many Jews themselves were anti-Zionist,” said Alan Dershowitz. “American Jews wanted to be recognized as a well-integrated part of America, not as people with loyalty to a different state. Jews are always proud of their accomplishments. If you asked most of them who was responsible for the state of Israel, they’d give you all sorts of Jewish names, but without Churchill, there wouldn’t be an Israel today. There should be a gigantic statue to Churchill in Jerusalem.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
SHOW STOPPER:
THE THEATRICAL LIFE OF GARTH DRABINSKY
Garth, like the other moguls whose careers I documented, did his best to keep me from making a film about him. He was handicapped in his attempts to interfere by his enforced residence in a prison cell, but even that didn’t make him helpless. Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky was scheduled to premiere in the fall of 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival. In TIFF’s bible, a thick book of listings, Garth was described as a thief. This inspired him to make one last attempt to prove he still had power, and to squeeze out one last drop of drama. Legal letters were sent to TIFF, claiming the description of Garth was damaging and libellous. He threatened to sue unless the wording was changed and the program reprinted. He also insisted that TIFF’s director and CEO, Piers Handling, send letters to all TIFF buyers, correcting the offence and apologizing.
Piers and his COO Michele Maheux consulted me. “Okay,” he said, “how shall we handle this?”
“Number one,” I said, “I will write a letter, through my lawyer indemnifying TIFF from all potential legal action. Number two, I suggest you also get your own legal opinion.”
Legal letters were sent from TIFF and from me to Garth, essentially saying that he was in prison, convicted of a crime, without much moral clout, and the TIFF program, which had cost a fortune to produce, could not be reprinted. It was then mutually agreed that the word “thief” in the description of the film would be changed to “loathsome character,” a change we hoped would give Garth some comfort. Even that amendment would appear only online. He oddly accepted “loathsome character” over “thief.”
The TIFF premiere of Show Stopper was a red-carpet affair held at the Bell Lightbox theatre. There was a lot of press interest, both because of Garth’s stature in Toronto’s entertainment business and because of his imprisonment. I had interviewed many Torontonians, including critics Richard Ouzounian and Brian D. Johnson. I had spoken to former Maclean’s editor Peter Newman, whom Garth had once attempted to sue over an article, a revelation that naturally created some high-energy foyer chatter. People were calling it a Livent reunion. James Earl Jones, the voice of Show Boat, was there, as was Broadway octogenarian, Elaine Stritch, also from Show Boat. She refused to fly, so I hired my long-time New York driver, a Russian named Gregori, to bring her to Toronto. Midway through the journey, he phoned me: “I don’t know who this woman is,” he said, “but she’s driving me crazy. She insisted that all the headrests be removed so she could see out, then I’m driving too fast, then it’s too slow. I’d rather be back in Siberia in a death camp than in a car with this woman.”
Driving Miss Daisy: The Sequel? I think not.
Elaine joined me on stage. She described Show Stopper as a great story about a great character “who’s in the clink,” which received a big laugh, releasing the tension in the room.
I watched the audience as the film was screened, as my dad had taught me. No one was yawning, no one was coughing or sneaking a peek at their watch.
The film began, fittingly and ironically, with Garth at TIFF, only a year before, walking the red carpet at the premiere of his film, Barrymore, with Christopher Plummer. That was on a Saturday night. By Monday, Garth was in Toronto’s Don Jail.
I had footage of Garth as a child born into a modest North York family, then of him stricken with polio in 1953. “I was running through the garden, and it was a hot summer day, and in my next recollection, I’m in a taxicab with my father on the way to Sick Kids Hospital. Hours later, they said I had polio.”
Garth’s next seven summers were spent in hospitals, where he underwent six gruelling operations on his leg. “Was I angry? Sure. Frustrated? Sure. Did I ask why? Many times. Everyone has the ability to rationalize.”
Garth’s entrepreneurial debut was with movie magazines, and then with moviemaking: The Silent Partner in 1978 with Christopher Plummer, then Tribute, which earned Jack Lemmon a 1980 Oscar nomination. The Changeling—his attempt to make a Hitchcockian thriller—was one of the most expensive movies ever made in Canada, with lead actor, George C. Scott receiving an astonishing US$1 million, at that time the highest salary in Canadian film history.
Garth made a noisy Broadway debut in 1978 with the redundantly named A Broadway Musical, backed by a group of high-profile Toronto investors to whom he had guaranteed profits. Bad reviews shut down the show after its opening night performance.
Garth secured investment in multiscreen theatres he branded as Cineplexes. Recession, plus his inability to book blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars on their small screens, led to a loss of $15 million. It was then that Garth persuaded Toronto broker Myron Gottlieb to join him in buying back a million dollars’ worth of stock to save the company. The Bronfman family later bought 23 per cent of Cineplex. Garth purchased the Odeon theatre chain’s 297 screens for a bargain basement price of $22 million. The newly branded Cineplex Odeon soon hit box-office gold with Ghostbusters, reporting a record profit of $12 million. Drabinsky quickly gobbled up as many Canadian independent movie theatre chains as he could. Eventually, he had 1,800 screens in 500 locations in North America and the UK. He spared no expense in buying buildings and renovating them with fancy Italian-marble floors and bold art. Every theatre had to be bigger than the last one.
By the time he was thirty-six, Garth had built one of the largest cinema circuits in North America, acquiring in the process a stunning debt of over $300 million. The need for new partners took him to Hollywood, to MCA chairman Lew Wasserman and President Sid Sheinberg, whom he persuaded to invest $150 million for 50 per cent of the company. Eventually, Garth chipped away at the rest of his company until he owned only 7 per cent—a long way down from control.
With thousands of screens at his disposal, and against the explicit orders of MCA, Garth returned to film production, making critically acclaimed, box-office disappointments such as Madame Sousatzka with Shirley MacLaine, Talk Radio directed by Oliver Stone and The Glass Menagerie, directed by Paul Newman and starring Joanne Woodward. When he pumped $8 million into Martin Scorsese’s controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ, angry religious mobs picketed MCA offices. Lew Wasserman wanted—and got—Garth’s head. But not without a struggle. Garth raised $127 million to buy out the Bronfmans. Wasserman countered with a legal manoeuvre that forced Garth into either buying him out as well, or being forced out. That meant Drabinsky needed to raise a monumental $1.3 billion. He came close, but failed.
Garth walked out of Cineplex’s offices with a golden handshake of $4.5 million, but also with the right to buy the Pantages Theatre, along with Phantom of the Opera, for $88 million, a bargain price for a show that would gross Garth $600 million in Canada alone.
