TOOTS SHOR: BIGGER THAN LIFE

The rise and fall of Americaπs greatest saloonkeeper

BIGGER THAN LIFE is the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of how one manπs dream grew into something much greater – a true social phenomenon. As The New York Times put it in 1977: ≥In a very unique manner, Toots Shor for several decades was the mirror of a special excitement and quality that set New York apart from all other cities. He was a magnet around which flowed many of the special streams of New Yorkπs greatness≤. Using a combination of stylized animation, archival materials, original interviews and a lively 8-hour oral history with Toots, this film explores his life, his legacy, and the social, cultural and political forces that shaped his dramatic rise and fall.

Born poor in South Philadelphia, the only Jewish kid in a predominantly Irish-Catholic neighborhood, Toots Shor learned at a young age how to fend for himself. He arrived in New York in 1930, a gambler and fighter determined to make his mark. He quickly found work as a bouncer for mob-run speakeasies and gained a reputation for his charm and fearlessness, flattening revenue agents, standing up to mobsters, and making fast friends with sports and show business personalities. In 1939, his dream came true when he opened his namesake restaurant at 51 West 51^st Street. From the moment he poured the first drink, Toots Shorπs was the home-away-from-home for scores of Americaπs most illustrious athletes, writers, entertainers, politicians and mobsters. Over the next twenty years, Toots achieved immeasurable wealth and status, becoming the hero behind Americaπs heroes, yet, in the end, he lost it all and died broke.

Producer/Director Kristi Jacobson, an accomplished filmmaker and Shorπs granddaughter, has gained exclusive access to Shorπs family (who have never before shared their story) in addition to many icons of the sports, journalism and entertainment worlds who called Toots their friend and confidante: journalists Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace, NFL legend Frank Gifford, Yankee Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford, from Hollywood, Lauren Bacall and David Brown, writers Pete Hamill, Nicholas Pileggi, cartoonist Bill Gallo, and many others share their vivid memories and insights to reveal the complicated man behind the enigmatic host.

Toots firmly believed that ≥a saloonkeeper is the most important person in a community,≤ and he built not just a saloon, but a community unlike any other. On any given night, on one side of the crowded dining room of TOOTS SHORπs could be Chief Justice Earl Warren, on the other side, the notorious mob boss Frank Costello. The most coveted tables were reserved for Tootsπ closest friends - Joe DiMaggio, Frank Gifford, Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra. These giants in American culture found in Toots a unique sense of comfort, somewhere between his trademark bear hug and relentless insults. This was a time when the athleteπs paycheck matched that of the sportswriter, which matched that of the laborer, and Toots brought them all together over a drink. Unlike todayπs world of velvet ropes and VIP rooms, regular folks were welcome at Shorπs, where rich and poor, famous and unknown would rub elbows at the bar.

Toots reached great heights – he made millions, knocked back cocktails with five presidents, and golfed with royalty. In the end he would lose it all. By the late å60s, New Yorkers were moving to the suburbs, TV was replacing urban nightlife and the civil rights and feminist movements were changing the focus of the nation. TOOTS SHORπs hadnπt bothered to adjust to the social and cultural changes. And Toots, never a good businessman and generous to a fault, ran into trouble with the IRS, and in 1971, after more than 30 years at the top, his restaurant was shut down.

In 1977, the saloonkeeper without a saloon died, broke. While he didnπt leave a financial empire behind, Toots left something more important: his indelible imprint on a city and the golden era he helped to shape and define. BIGGER THAN LIFE will bring Toots to life in all his comedic glory as the charismatic heart of a vibrant, now lost, community.