Ellis Island—its very name evokes memories of immigrants in the thousands entering its elegant main building each week to apply for admission to the United States. People from every walk of life, people from many parts of the world, but predominantly from Europe, trod its walkways and halls as they underwent the several stages of the bureaucracy confronting them. Once passed and approved at America’s eastern gate, they settled in urban and rural areas throughout North America and occupied themselves as common laborers, factory and mill hands, miners, skilled craftsmen, and shopkeepers. They reared families and hoped that their American-born offspring might achieve the American dream of attaining a decent education, household ownership, a professional career, and riches. This was the common experience of most of Ellis Island’s immigrants. However, there were others, a small number, to be sure, who had different ideas. They were not content to wait for the possible successes of the next generation. They wanted success for themselves and they wanted it now. And so, armed with a dream and a goal, these immigrants struck out on their own, challenged fortune, and, in their own ways, won. This book tells the story of some of the best known of these personalities.
The persons selected for this book were chosen for several reasons. These include how prominent they were in their own lifetime and within their own spheres of influence, the interest that their stories might arouse in today’s readers, the accessibility of their biographies and immigration details, the availability of attractive visual material of them or about them, and finally their name recognition for a 21st-century audience.
As for the final requirement, I was often compelled to sigh and reluctantly admit the truth of the poet Virgil’s undying words tempus fugit, for many of my subjects, who once excited so much interest during certain phases of their lives, have now almost faded from popular memory. Sad but true. But this fact coupled with the incidental detail that all of them underwent immigration scrutiny at Ellis Island makes the need for this book, in my view, very real. For the well-known figures of yesteryear tell much about our culture and society today—how we recognize achievement or failure in public life; clamor before our favorite performers; are moved by the creative force of our artists, writers, thinkers; and admire the forethought and persistence of those who have succeeded in the arenas of business, politics, and organized labor. Such a volume can just remind us where our society has been and possibly foretell something of its future.
This is a subject very near and dear to my heart. The idea for it occurred to me when I first came to work at Ellis Island, just before the opening of the current immigration museum. My assignment was to reopen the library, whose books had lain in boxes in the damp New Immigration Building since the departure of the last librarian, Won Kim. Once I had the library set up in cramped quarters in one of the old hospital buildings, I read through the research files and in so doing found a list of famous Ellis Island immigrants. It bore 18 names. Amazed at such a miniscule number, I vowed to search for others who might also have come through. This I did in my spare time. By consulting published memoirs and biographies, historic press reports of immigration and other records, I gradually enlarged the list; now I have well over 100 famous immigrants. This I have shared with colleagues, researchers, and visitors over the years and am now fortunate enough to make at least a portion of it available to readers in the form of this book.
Missing from this volume are a good many notables for whom I have no visual materials. These many remarkable Ellis Islanders include photojournalist Lucien Aigner (Hungary), boxer Enrico Bertola (Italy), candy manufacturer Sam Born (Russia), popular historian Max I. Dimont (Finland), painter Max Ernst (Germany), crime photographer Arthur Fellig (popularly known as “Weegee,” Poland), Tin Pan Alley songwriter Fred Fisher (whose hit songs included “Come, Josephine in My Flying Machine,” “Peg O’ My Heart,” and “Chicago,” Germany), character actor Wallace Ford (England), religious author Rabbi Hyman E. Goldin (Russia), rock music promoter Bill Graham (Germany), Prime Bishop Francis Hodur (Poland), Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer (Ukraine, Russia), actress Eugenie Leontovich (Russia), cubist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (Lithuania), restaurateur George Mardikian (Armenia), Col. Tom Parker (Elvis Presley’s manager, the Netherlands), journalist James Reston (Scotland), hardware and appliance dealer P. C. Richard (the Netherlands), author Salom Rizk (Syria), jazz singer Annie Ross (Scotland), painter Mark Rothko (Latvia), comic actor Sig Ruman (Germany), drama teacher Lee Strasberg (Austria), composer Jule Styne (England), and lyricist Jack Yellen (whose hit songs include “Ain’t She Sweet?,” “Happy Days Are Here Again,” and “My Yiddishe Momme,” Poland).