Toots 2008

"Toots Shor is many things to many people," said Edward R. Murrow of the legendary Manhattan saloonkeeper in 1955. A friend to the famous, a crook to the feds, father, brother, gambler, bum, but most of all Toots Shor was the owner of America's greatest saloon. Directed by his granddaughter, "Toots" is a provocative, loving and unmistakably authentic portrait of the self-made, unapologetic and quintessentially American man who became the unlikely den-mother to the heroes of America's golden age. Politicians and gangsters, sports heroes and movie stars--Sinatra, Gleason, Dimaggio, Ruth, Costello, Eisenhower, Nixon, Warren--for 30 years, they all found their way to Toots' eponymous saloon on New York's West 51st Street for food and drink, served up with a heaping side of insults and put downs. From its post-WW II heyday to its devastating decline in the 1970s, this film reveals as much about the city Toots loved as it does about the man and his enduring legacy.