From the Archives: Fort Lee’s Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of Buddy Hackett

This Saturday night, July 27th, the Fort Lee Film Commission as part of our summer long Movies & Music Under the Stars program will hold a 50th anniversary screening of perhaps the greatest American film comedy of all time.  The roots of American film comedy are deep and the very seeds of this unique American slapstick phenomenon were planted on the streets of Fort Lee in the year of 1909.  Here, Biograph director D.W. Griffith let one of his players loose on Fort Lee to create the first American slapstick film comedy.  That man’s name was Mack Sennett and the film is titled The Curtain Pole (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc08pU22uK8&list=PL46lF0w18hElSqjWOB-JrvwxVKAmCfIQL&index=2).  Here it is said Mack Sennett made his directing bones even though Griffith is credited as the director of this  film.  Griffith, the master at Victorian dramas and Civil War films, was a bit out of his element in the field of comedy so it is understood by many film scholars that Sennett was influential in the structure and scope of this, the first American slapstick film comedy.  Sennett used Main Street as well as Fort Lee residents as extras to create a rambunctious chase sequence where the locals took off after young Mack up and down the streets of Fort Lee as he wreaked unintentionally havoc on them with his newly purchased curtain pole.  Some 54 years later, filmmaker Stanley Kramer took this concept to epic proportions not seen before in his classic all star comedy film It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. 

The connection to both films mentioned above and to Fort Lee in particular is courtesy of one cherubic and hilarious then Fort Lee resident, comedian Buddy Hackett.  Many of us growing up in Fort Lee in the 1960s knew of Buddy’s connection to our town.  He was not a celebrity who used Fort Lee as simply a place to rest his head at night in close proximity to Manhattan and the lights of Broadway.  Buddy flung himself into life in Fort Lee when he purchased the home of Murder Incorporated’s Albert Anastasia  on August 29th 1958.  Buddy had been living in Leonia prior to his move to Anastasia’s former home on Bluff Road in the Palisade section of Fort Lee.  According to a New York Times article  circa August 30, 1958, Buddy negotiated for the house since February of that year but foreclosure proceedings were not completed until July 20, 1958.  The house sold at a Sheriff’s auction for a bid price of $64,000.  Anastasia built the house in 1945 at a cost said to be $100,000. Anastasia finally met his death on October 25, 1957 in the barber chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City.  For a very funny take on Anastasia’s time in Fort Lee read the book Cutty One Rock by Fort Lee native and the borough’s Poet Laureate Auggie  Kleinzahler.

Buddy starred in the show I Had a Ball  on Broadway in 1964.  Every night after his performance he raced back to Fort Lee not to rest for the next night’s performance but rather to change into his special police officer’s uniform and walk up the block to Palisades Amusement Park where he would patrol the park with another special police officer.  Buddy simply loved being part of Fort Lee and he loved the Fort Lee Police Department and the people of Fort Lee who loved him right back.  I can’t think of any other celebrity who called Fort Lee their home who was as much a part of our community atop the Palisades.  He even sent his kids to Fort Lee Public School #4.  This past May while I pulled docent duty at the Fort Lee Museum on a Saturday afternoon who came in for a visit but Buddy’s son Sandy Hackett.  Sandy and his wife Lisa were back in Fort Lee  en route to  several performances on the East Coast of his successful  Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show which is a celebration of all things Sinatra and the Rat Pack.  Sandy happened to come to the museum as a result of bringing his wife Lisa into town to tour some of his old haunts including his old family house on Bluff Road and Public School #4.  While taking photos of School #4 a local Fort Lee patrol officer stopped them and when Sandy introduced himself as a former resident and student at the school and the son of Buddy Hackett the officer recalled stories of Buddy and was nice enough to direct Sandy to our Fort Lee Museum on Palisade Avenue.  Fortunately we have a photo of Buddy on display in our museum in the current exhibit on Palisades Amusement Park.  I pulled the archival photo of Buddy at the park in his uniform out of our display case for Sandy to see and he and Lisa were so grateful that Fort Lee hasn’t forgotten Buddy.

It must be noted that Buddy was a great supporter of the Fort Lee Jewish Community Center.  He produced a benefit fundraiser for the Fort Lee JCC that featured himself and Sammy Davis Jr. among others.  In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, when Buddy made the move to California in the late 1960’s he took along  Rabbi Rothstein from the Fort Lee JCC and that same Rabbi offered the eulogy at Buddy’s memorial service following his death in 2003.

Fort Lee Poet Laureate and acclaimed writer Mr. Kleinzahler summed up his young experience as a neighbor of Buddy’s in a piece from the September 2001 London Review of Books titled Too Bad About Mrs. Ferri (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n18/august-kleinzahler/too-bad-about-mrs-ferri) and I will relay a portion of this great tale that centers on Auggie’s new neighbor.  One evening after dinner Auggie’s mom told him he should go over to the new neighbor and get his autograph.  This was done more for his parent’s entertainment unbeknownst to Auggie at the time.  So like any Fort Lee kid he didn’t shy away from a challenge.  Auggie walked up the long driveway that was once policed by guard dogs and bodyguards per the former owner of the residence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hORU40ENCA) Buddy did away with all of that security as he had his own way of dealing with peddlers or small children with autograph books in their clutches.  Auggie knocked on the door, which was answered in time by a very nervous maid.  When she found out what Auggie wanted she swiftly closed the door, which was shortly reopened by Buddy’s wife.  Now here’s where things get interesting.  Auggie hears shuffling towards the door and who appears in  a bathrobe but himself , the aforementioned Mr. Hackett.  I’m going to clean this up a little bit but shoot to the link for the actual word play for its priceless.  Buddy in his thick New York accent and distinctive voice says “Whuh da ya want, kid?”  Auggie told Buddy he was a neighbor and would like his autograph.  Buddy sent this retort toward Auggie prior to slamming the door “Blankety-blank you kid; talk to my agent!”  I added the blankety-blank part.  Upon returning home Auggie’s mom asked if he was able to get the autograph and when Auggie repeated what Buddy told him his mother quickly replied “did you at least get his agent’s name and phone number?”  This event and the word play paints a picture of what life in Fort Lee was like in the 1950’s – 1970’s.

So I invite all of you to pay tribute to a former Fort Lee resident this Saturday night at 8:45 PM at the outdoor stage of the Fort Lee Community Center as we hold a very special 50th anniversary screening of It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and we watch Buddy in action at his peak in this film holding his own amongst  the greatest comedians America ever produced.  As most of you familiar with this great comedy know the film revolves around an epic search for a “big W” where a fortune in stolen money is buried.  As we laugh at Buddy’s antics in this film lets recall that he left us all with a treasure and that’s his greatest gift to his fellow citizens of Fort Lee  - the gift of laughter.  Thanks Buddy!