A Jersey Man Wants the Whole World to Know the Ida Kaminska Story

In the lobby of a Stop 'n Shop in Ridgewood, NJ, I saw the flier. It caught my eye because it wasn't the usual suburban cheapo sales pitch of lawn mowing or fix-it men. This one read: I need a movie producer for three World War II movies including the Kaminska story. Underneath that was a phone number and website address.

Along with the unusual request for a producer, it was the Kaminska story that intrigued me. What is a Kaminska? Was it an esoteric Japanese torture technique used on captured American pilots? Was Kaminska a war hero? I hit the website and learned that Ida Kaminska was one of the legends of Yiddish theater. Born in Odessa in 1899, she was on the stage and in the movies from 1903 till her death from a heart attack in New York City in 1980. Not trusting the Internet, I asked a friend of mine?an older Jewish man?if he knew from Ida Kaminska.

"Oh sure. She is very well known?quite a big star in Yiddish theater circles. A real legend that one," he said with conviction.

I called the man behind the flier, Claude Bienstock of Fair Lawn, NJ, and asked him how he happened to pick a Stop 'n Shop in Jersey to publicize his need for a movie producer.

"Well, I put thousands of fliers up in northern New Jersey and New York City hoping that maybe someone might know or be related to someone in Hollywood. I don't know anyone and I am trying to get this movie made. I don't want to keep it a secret."

I asked just how he got the Kaminska bug.

"I come from generations of Polish Jews who were fans of Ida Kaminska, and before her, her mother and father. My family has been into the Kaminskas since like the 1870s. They were truly great stars and millions in Europe and Russia know of her and of her family. Her story would make a great movie.

"She was the greatest star entertainer in show-business history, plus she had an exciting private life?a great actress who escaped Hitler in 1939 and fled from him through Russia and Central Asia and later spent her final years in America. I was her personal manager in New York during her last years. I considered it a great honor to have known her and worked with her. She was in the category of Dietrich, Lillian Gish, Bette Davis and Charlie Chaplin. Those were her contemporaries. Lauren Bacall needs to play her in the movie. She would be wonderful, although there are others who could do it, too. Did you know Ida Kaminska was nominated in 1966 for an Academy award?"

That I didn't know. I looked it up and found that Ida Kaminska was indeed nominated for the Czech film Shop on Main Street. She lost out to Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Bienstock told me his own story. He was born in Paris in 1946, and when he was four his family moved to Paterson, NJ. He spent his life in New Jersey and now lives in Fair Lawn, where he sells real estate. The Kaminska story came to him in 1991 from a friend. They did a treatment and pitched the movie around. After five years his friend gave up. But not Bienstock. He can name by the scores people he has contacted. They range from Steven Spielberg to the Baldwin brothers.

"When a star is on Broadway I send the material to the theater to their attention. I contacted Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick that way. I have contacted a thousand people about this. Everybody out in Hollywood knows about this project. It is no secret. Something in Hollywood will happen if you make it happen. I am not lazy. I will get this movie made. This is the hottest, most dynamic story for the screen since Schindler's List. There is nothing more exciting than this movie. It is a powerful story. I believe in this story."

I tried to get a handle on just what Bienstock was pitching. He has no screenplay; he is selling an idea and a movie treatment.

"I know I could get ripped off, but I don't think I will. I have only been at this for 10 years. That's nothing. Schindler's List had been around since 1962. That took 32 years to get made. This movie will get made. It has to. It has big box office all over it. Most movies about World War II do very well at the box office, and this one will be the biggest of them all. All I want is a finder's fee. I do not have the money to produce this myself."

There is something charmingly irrepressible about Claude Bienstock?a middle-aged man who still has a dream.

Visit www.brianflaherty.webprovider.com for more information on Ida Kaminska, or to contact Claude Bienstock.