The File on Bobby Darin, Chapter 26

Chapter 26
Two Goodbyes

Now they were back in New York City.  It was Bobby’s last full day before departing to Italy.  Bobby was going to act in a movie!  Dick was almost as excited about this as if it were about to happen to him.  He could not wait for Darin to go, so he could come back and tell him all about it.  Hearing about it from Bobby would be almost better than being there.

The pair had drifted back to the streets of their old neighborhood, where they had lived on stale bagels for what seemed like months on end, before they ever had the ghost of a chance of making it big.  As they walked down the street, Bobby had been relating some argument he had had with Nina about Charlie’s duties as road manager when they were touring.

“So, it turns out the trunk of our car was left open someplace, and someone lifted some suits from it, and now we are all being interviewed by the FBI!”  Bobby threw his hands into the air.  “The FBI!  Charlie forgets to lock a trunk, and now my wardrobe is a federal matter!”  Bobby looked up into the sky, as though appealing to some higher authority to save him from his ridiculous relatives.  “Anyway, Nina’s now on my case because I talked to Charlie about it.  I don’t want the feds poking around in my underwear!”

As they walked down the street, Dick listened to Bobby unload to him about the dispute.  He did not comment.  He knew that Bobby did not expect him to take sides, but only to hear him out.  Dick had known Bobby’s family since he was a teenager, and he did not need to be drawn a picture of the situation. 

Once Darin had blown off steam on this topic, they talked of other matters for a time.  Recording sessions, going back to play Vegas, girls they would like to date.  A shark attack on the Jersey Shore that summer, the first recorded instance since 1916, imagine that!  The summer heat shimmered up from the sidewalks and enveloped them as they strolled along aimlessly.  After a few moments had passed in silence, Dick had said to him, “I heard a story the other day about a little kid who was given up by his mother to some relatives to raise.  The mother wasn’t in a good situation, she couldn’t keep the kid, but she wanted to know that he would be safe.  So, she gave the boy to a relative, to a married cousin or a sister, I can’t remember which.  And those people raised the boy right in the mother’s own family, only they never told the kid!  What do you think of that?”

Bobby considered for a long while.  He did not look at Dick as he had replied, “I would say, that mother had to be the strongest person on earth, to do that for her child.”

“Yeah, that’s what I think too,” Dick said.  The two friends parted company soon after this, Darin to prepare for his journey, and Dick to visit his parents.  Dick hoped he would see Darin soon after his return.  As it happened, they were not to work together for another three years.  By that time, Darin would be married, with a young son in tow. Three years in Bobby’s life was like a dozen or so in anyone else’s, and Dick knew that he would make every day of those years count. 

                                                      ♦♦♦♦♦

After parting from Dick, Bobby looked up Winchell at the St. Moritz to make his farewell.  Winchell did not know what a rare gesture this was.  Bobby was usually gone before most people realized that it was time to say goodbye.  After hanging out in the bar for a time, reliving some of their Copa adventures, they drifted out into the lobby.  Now came the awkward moment where they would have to part.  This reminded Bobby of why he did not like goodbyes and usually dispensed with them altogether.

But Winchell saved the day.  He reached into his coat pocket to bring out a small metal object.  He said to Bobby, “You know, when you were just a baby, the State of New York and the Feds were looking for Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the top customer of Murder, Inc.  He was the very worst of a bad lot of thugs.  They would murder anyone if the price was right.  Thomas Dewey, who was New York Special Prosecutor at that time, and hoping to be the Republican nominee for President, wanted to fry Lepke for a murder.  Lepke was holed up good and tight, no one could find him.”

“Now, Lepke wanted to turn himself over to the Bureau on federal drug charges, where he hoped he would get a lighter sentence than New York wanted to impose.  He wanted to come in, but he was afraid he would be gunned down by the cops before he could get picked up by the Feds.  That’s where I came in.”

“A friend of Lepke’s, a fellow I knew as Jake (not his real name), arranged for me to meet Lepke and take him to Hoover.  Lepke knew me from the radio show, and he said I was the only one he would trust to arrange the handover.  To make the meeting, Jake gave me this.”  Winchell showed Bobby the object from his pocket.  It was a case made of pewter, not much larger than a cigarette, inscribed on one side with what Bobby recognized to be Hebrew letters.  The top of the case was folded back to reveal a rolled up piece of parchment within.

“This is a mezuzah, Bobby, an object that Orthodox Jews use to keep trouble away.  I handed the mezuzah to Lepke, and that was the signal that meant he was safe.”

Winchell gave the mezuzah to Darin.  “And now I’m giving it to you, Bobby, to keep you safe.”

Bobby took the mezuzah and turned it over in his hand.  He hardly knew what to say, a rarity for him!  Finally he got out, “Thank you, Walter, that’s very, um, thoughtful of you.”

The two men stood looking at mezuzah in satisfaction.  It was good to have this object to fasten their attention upon, much easier than examining their own emotions.  It was getting late.  Bobby finally asked, “Say, Walter, what became of Lepke?”

Walter cleared his throat.  This little ceremony had affected him more than he thought possible.  “Lepke served his time in federal prison, then he was turned over to New York State where he was finally executed for murder.”

Bobby’s brown eyes were shining with amusement. “Gee, the mezuzah didn’t do Lepke much good, did it?” 

“Well, Lepke was a cold-blooded killer,” Walter said.  “There is only so much that the mezuzah can do!”

Bobby Darin left Winchell to continue his errands.  Walter had an appointment to keep with a new dentist.  And so they parted.

Continued in the next chapter

ID: 1474320   (Rated: ASR) The File on Bobby Darin, Chapter 27  That's All by Gisele