FAMOUS

 

I get very excited when I meet a famous person. Maybe I think their aura will rub off on me. “Attention, attention!! The Pope will be appearing shortly,” the announcer blared. We were in the Vatican courtyard. What a blessing! He sure is famous and I sure am excited. What ecstatic joy. “Ben, look, look that man standing on the corner of 5th Avenue is famous. I recognize him, but I’m not sure where I know him from.” Ben is looking at me as a pathetic groupie,” Ethyl, he just waited on us in Saks men’s department store.” No; he’s not famous.

But you know who is famous; my husband, he’s famous. I married this plain young man from Middle Village, Queens over 65 years ago, and who would imagine, he would become famous? He might be considered famous for staying married to me, but no, he has greater fame even though he is no dignitary or celebrity.

I think that if there is a picture and a chapter in a best seller nonfiction book about you, one can say you’re famous. City For Sale by Jack Neufield and Wayne Barrett came into the bookstores during the Koch administration. He and Mannes had much reckoning to do about all the unsavory events going on in NYC.  Among these events, Mannes was pushing the development of a Grand Prix racetrack in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Ben was the head of the committee to stop the building of the track in a city park. “Parks Are for People” was one of the slogans. His role is described in the book. Wayne Barrett inscribed Ben’s copy with, “You’re a citizen crusader.” Neufield writes, "You’re the first Donny buster.” (referring to Donald Mannes). Ben continues to be a park activist and fought a losing battle to stop the building of the tennis stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, an aesthetic eyesore to anyone who loves a verdant green park.

In more recent years, Ben’s fame took a whole other direction. He got very involved in adult education classes in sculpture. Ben began sculpting pieces he called Meditation. A number of these have found a home in the window of an exquisite eyeglass store called Occhiali on Lexington Avenue. People have purchased them during the 10 years the store has chosen to keep them as their window decoration and they are replaced with others.  His most successful work, however, is a Holocaust bar relief he calls MISHPOCHEH. He successfully made five copies and his fame follows him in each venue. They are on exhibit at: The Holocaust Memorial Center in Glen Cove, N.Y., the Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College, The Holocaust Resource Center of Temple Judea (Manhasset, Long Island), Temple Hillel B’inai Torah in Boston, Ma. and Kew Gardens Hills Synagogue in Queens, N.Y. The sculpture in Temple Judea was just installed this past December. Over fifty friends and relatives attended the unveiling of the piece and the press honored the event with an effusive article. Ben, at his age of 94 is honored to be honored by the presence of his work on the walls of this emotionally wrenching structure. 

To summarize, the famous man I married has other attributes as well:

1.Sculptor

2.Cabinet builder

3. Writer

4.Gardner

5. Park Activist

6. Jewelry Box builder

7. Mensch (look it up)

Ethyl Haber

February 2022