celebrities

celebrity celeb: definition someone who has a presence on the internetDo you know someone who should be on this page? Are you related to someone on this page? Let me know.  What is a family celeb?  In the first place, some of us save articles that include the family name.     One can be famous  worldwide, nationally, or locally. How significant are an individual's  accomplishments.? These considerations intersect  to produce a family celebrity. I will bring more luminaries to your attention when you bring them to my attention.Let's start with  Lee Pockriss. Do you remember "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini?" I do.  Lyricist Paul Vance came up with the idea for the song when he went with his two year old daughter the beach. She got teased by the boys when she she appeared in the then new garment. When she finally got into the water, the bottom fell off. Paul wrote the words in 25 minutes during the ride home. Two composers turned him down before Lee Pokriss took the job. Lee was really fond of the song, partly because that royalties from this long term hit helped with his life style. Check out the Finnish video on the left. They also collaborated on "Catch a Falling Star" which was a big Perry Como hit. Lee also composed for Broadway, Hollywood, and television. Here is a brief biography.  My inside source reports that  "He had classical training  in piano and composition and was quite accomplished outside of his commercial work.  Hal Pockriss (Lee's brother) always told me that the three  Pokras songwriters were related to us."  I am sure that we will find out if this is true. Lee died in 2011. Here is an obituary from the New York Times and one from the Los Angeles Times. They complement each other, so be sure to read both.

      The most famous Pokrassa celebs (even if you have never heard of them) are the Pokrass brothers who were prominent composers in both the United States and the Soviet Union.   Samuel(1897-1939), Arkady(1898- ), Dmitry(1899-1978), and Daniel (1905-1954) Pokrass were sons of  Yakov Moiseyevich Pokrass, son of Moisey Pokrass who was born in about 1850. Samuel already famous in the USSR immigrated to the United States via Berlin and Paris(where he knew Ravel) in 1927, and worked on Broadway and in Hollywood.  After Sam made his way to the United States it took him a while to be discovered. He was sleeping in a movie theater one day when he heard his music being played. It was thought the music was folk songs, and thus he was found!  Although he had classical training, there wasn't much of a market for this so he ended up on Broadway and in Hollywood. Among Samuel's credits was the score for The Little Princess with Shirley Temple. He also wrote the music for a Musical version of "The Three Musketeers." The songs were the only redeeming part of this movie. "The Three Musketeers"  was a big hit in the Soviet Union after WWII. The movie had been captured from Germany.  According to his obituary in the New York times, his mother predeceased him by a couple of years. He had been sending  some money to her in the Ukraine every month. His friends kept news of his mother's death from him because they feared his reaction...this continued for two years, until he died. There are suggestions that he went to NY from LA to confront his attorney about his money. He became ill and died suddenly. A few months later the lawyer was charged with embezzling money from the estate. It seems odd, but the New York Times obituary failed to mention Sam's brothers. Here is a wikipedia article about Dmitry. Another article has the story behind the story. Dmitry, who collaborated with his brother Daniel for many years lived his adult life in the Soviet Union under a communist and Stalinist regime. He composed in a large number of genres, and also was a prominent conductor. Hirsh Glik chose Dmitry's  haunting music for "Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letztn veg" (Never say that you are going on the last road) his Yiddish poem   about  Partisans  written in the Vilna ghetto camp, and inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Here is a site about this song, including pages about the lyrics and about Dmitry Pokrass. There are also mp3s.   Here is a link to ""The Song of the Artillerymen," music by Dmitry and Daniel Pokrass.  And then there is "The March of the Soviet Tankmen." If Stalin was going to be listening you had to be very careful with the lyrics. Also listen to "If tomorrow the war" and "Meet us, Suomi-Beauty". Members of two different families have told me that are related, which leads to two questions: are they really related? and are they really two different families? Sources included both English and Russian versions of wikipedia.Here is a Russian language documentary about the Pokrass brother's. Even if you can't understand it, enjoy the music.

    Of course, an all American family should have a star in an all American sport. How does football sound? Martin Pokrass was an All-American on the University of Chicago squad in the 1920s. Family legend talks about the time he tackled Knute Rockne.  Martin went on to Harvard and a successful career in marketing. When he retired he joined the Service Core of Retired Executives as a volunteer. 

    This wasn't our only connection to football. David Pokross helped pay for his way through Harvard by teaching the football team French, also in the 1920s.  You can read about David's early years here. David went on to become a prominent Boston attorney.  Among his other interests was the American Jewish Historical Society. I think he would enjoy this site. Here are more celebrities from the descendants of Meyer and Slava Pokross.

     On May 8, 1950 Time Magazine had a lengthy article about Tele-King and Louis Pokrass. The article portrayed a rags to riches story of a garment cutter, liquor wholesaler and distributer, and a television manufacturer(Tele King). His son Harvey, an engineer, provided the technical know how. An agreement with Macy's enabled rapid growth. Shortly after this article another side of the story emerged.  On July 7th 1950 the Kefauver committee of the United States Senate held hearings about organized crime. Louis Pokrass was mentioned as having having been involved with Frank Costello(of Mob fame) during the Prohibition, and as having  incorporated  the Nevada Projects Corporation.  This  company, controlled by Bugsy Siegel  built the Flamingo, the first modern casino in Las Vegas. I can't resist inserting a brief Bugsy story. When the contractor got nervous about the thugs that were hanging around, Bugsy told him: "We only kill our own." Bugsy got his six months after the casino opened. Seems he skimmed off $500,000. As to Tele King, the TV manufacturer,  Frank Costello,  was a neighbor of Louis, and one of the investors.  This caused a hullabaloo when it became public knowledge that  the company got a security clearance so it could bid on some defense contracts.  It  seems there may have also been some questions regarding a liquor distributing company that Louis Pokrass owned.  In 1957, Mayor Wagner banned Louis Pokrass from participating in urban renewal projects in New York City.  There was a lot of federal money available at the time. Robert Moses, who was heading up the redevelopment efforts, stonewalled the Mayor. I was also able to learn that Louis was from Korsun. Louis does not appear to have admitted anything, but for better or for worse, the allegations tend to stick to the person. And, they make  interesting reading in the archives of the New York Times.

Finally, for now,  we have Marvin Shinbrot, a world famous mathematician and part of the Meyer Pokross family. Frankly, I can't understand what he did, but I know it was important. Marvin got his BA and MA from Syracuse University, and worked for Lockheed and NACA from 1949-1961. NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) was precursor of NASA and was created during WWI. Among its projects were the Bell-X1, the first airplane to break the sound barrier, and the X15, which traveled to the edge of space. An paper he wrote for NACA describes "A least-square method for calculating coefficients of a linear differential equation directly from transient-response data...[with] examples illustrating the application of the method to the calculation of aircraft-stability ..." (that was the short version.)  After getting a PHD at Stanford  in 1960 he worked his way up with stints at, University of Chicago, University of California at Berkley,Northwestern. He then headed for Canada and was a Professor at the University of Victoria, with some time at the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, and Centre de Recherches Mathematiques. My informant states that in his later years he liked to be called M.   Incidentially, his kids are no slouches. If you can supply more information about Marvin, please let me know.