Trio of Movie-Related Authors at the 2014 Jewish Book Festival Next Month in St. Louis

What do actor Theodore Bikel, author Steven Pressman, who wrote the HBO Holocaust documentary Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, and Tracey Davis, daughter of Sammy Davis Jr. and May Britt, have in common? They will all three be guests at this year’s St. Louis Jewish Book Festival! More than 49 writers make up this year’s lineup including award-winning producers, novelists, bakers, historians, and humorists – there’s something for everyone but We Are Movie Geeks is most interested in these three guests because of their contributions to cinema.

The venue is the Jewish Community Center – Staenberg Family Complex – 2 Millstone Campus Drive in St. Louis

Details and ticket info can be found at the Fest’s site HERE

http://www.stljewishbookfestival.org/index.html

Theodore Bikel will speak Sunday, November 2, at 7pm – Tickets are $40

It’s not mentioned in the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival press release, but Theodore Bikel co-starred in one of the scariest movie ever – I BURY THE LIVING. The 1958 shocker was about a director of a cemetery director (Richard Boone) who begins to believe that he can cause the deaths of living owners of burial plots by merely changing the push-pin color from white (living) to black (dead) on a large wall map of the cemetery that notes those plots. Theodore Bikel played Andy MacKee, the Groundskeeper Willie-esque caretaker of the cemetery. It’s one of those movies I saw on TV when I was about 7 years old that terrified me.

Theodore Bikel graces the stage of the 36th annual St. Louis Jewish Book Festival on the occasion of his 90th birthday year, a year in which he expanded his autobiography and stars in a new film, Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, in which Theo has performed the role of Tevye more than 2,000 times! To define versatility is to capture the essence of Theo Bikel: the actor on stage, screen and television; the folksinger and guitarist; the author, lecturer and raconteur; and the activist and arts advocate.

Bikel’s career is illuminated by superior stage, screen and television portrayals. In London, he won acclaim playing the Russian Colonel in The Love Of Four Colonels, and on Broadway his roster of memorable performances includes Tonight In Samarkand, The Rope Dancers, The Lark and the original Broadway production of The Sound Of Music in which he created the role of Baron von Trapp. Bikel’s accomplished screen roles include The Defiant Ones (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), The African Queen, My Fair Lady, and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. Bikel’s television career in the United States spans some 35 years with roles in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Law and Order, Murder She Wrote, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and many others.

Born in 1924 in Vienna, Theo Bikel was thirteen when he and his parents left Austria for Palestine. Bikel is fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish and German, with a respectable command of English and French, too. He has recorded 20 albums, mostly for the Elektra label, and co-founded the Newport Folk Festival. Don’t miss this living legend!

Steven Pressman will speak Monday, November 10, 7:30pm – Tickets are $10

Steven Pressman is the author of 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple’s Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany, the astonishing true story of how one American couple transported fifty Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Austria to America in 1939 – the single largest group of unaccompanied refugee children allowed into the United States. Pressman also wrote, directed, and produced the acclaimed HBO documentary about this heroic tale. Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus tells the story of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia who traveled to Nazi-controlled Vienna in spring 1939 to save a group of children. Amidst the impending horrors of the Holocaust, they put themselves in harm’s way to bring what would become the single largest-known group of children allowed into the U.S. during that time. Narrated by Alan Alda, with Mamie Gummer reading from the memoir of Mrs. Kraus, this documentary, co-presented by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, debuts on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Monday, April 8, on HBO.

Several years before he began filming in 2010, first-time filmmaker Steven Pressman received Eleanor Kraus’ unpublished memoir from his wife, Liz Perle, who was the Krauses’ granddaughter. Written decades earlier, the manuscript spelled out in rich detail the Krauses’ amazing mission. 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus weaves together excerpts from Eleanor’s journals, archival footage of Vienna and Berlin under Hitler’s rule and rare photographs of the children who would be rescued. In addition to interviews with Holocaust historians, including Paul Shapiro, director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Krauses’ granddaughter, much of this bittersweet tale is told by some of the surviving children, who are now in their 70s and 80s.

Tracey Davis will speak Thursday, November 13, at 7:30pm – Tickets are $15

In the book Sammy Davis Jr., a personal Journey with My Father, Tracey Davis recounts her father’s adventures through the Rat Pack era and the extraordinary obstacles he overcame to become a 5’6”, 120-pound legend. Across six decades, Sammy packed in more than forty albums, seven Broadway shows, twenty-three films, and countless concert performances. This uniquely intimate book includes rare family photos and a compelling narrative based on conversations between father and daughter.

Davis will be interviewed by Dennis Owsley, radio host, KWMU 90.7.

Congratulations to the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival for scoring such a fine trio of movie-related guests for this year’s event and in the meantime, go check out I BURY THE LIVING!