Some years later, I was working on a series called “Magic City,“ my first project for the small screen in more than a decade, ever since I directed an episode of a docudrama series for Channel Four in Great Britain. The show, that lasted for two seasons in the fledging Starz network, was an incredibly ambitious saga about the Miami hotel business during the early JFK era. The protagonist was a hotelier who had built his own ‘Camelot’ by the sand, and a great deal of the drama involved his secret Faustian deal with the mob, then freshly kicked off Cuba by the triumphant Fidel Castro.As one does when tackling a period piece, there is not only a ton of research involved but one also develops an antenna for anything in the culture that is remotely connected with the subject matter. Naturally, T.J. English’s “Havana Nocturne” came to my attention. It is a flashy, sensationalist romp about the mob in the Cuba of the last Batista dictatorship; one of those ‘exposes’ that so often ‘shock’ U.S. audiences, with things the rest of the world either already knows or has taken for granted – in this case, the influence of the mob in Batista’s Cuba.
In the book there is a passing mention of Meyer Lansky’s driver. Meyer Lansky was the real brain behind the operation in the island, and although he was more of a ‘financier’ than a ‘mobster,’ he was in effect, and astutely, in charge.
This little fact about Meyer Lansky and his driver stuck in my head for a long time. It was something I would remember when I was finally able to return to the island for the first time in many years and, when reacquainting myself with the many friendships I had made in my boyish days, I found the missing piece of that puzzle. What I didn’t expect was that it would be far more fascinating than the story in T.J.’s book.
