{"product_id":"augies-secrets-the-minneapolis-mob-and-the-king-of-the-hennepin-strip-9780873518895","title":"Augie's Secrets: The Minneapolis Mob and the King of the Hennepin Strip","description":"\u003cp\u003eTheres an old Yiddish saying: two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. But two living people could keep a secret--as long as one of them was Augie.  Augie Ratner  the proprietor of Augies Theater Lounge \u0026amp; Bar on Hennepin Avenue  was the unofficial mayor of Minneapoliss downtown strip in the 1940s and 50s. In a few blocks between the swanky clubs and restaurants on Eighth Street and the sleazy flophouses and bars of the Gateway District  the citys shakers-and-movers and shake-down artists mingled. Gangsters and celebrities  comedians and politicians  the rich and the famous and the infamous--all of them met at Augies: Jimmy Hoffa  Henny Youngman  Kid Cann  John Dillinger  Jack Dempsey  Peggy Lee  Groucho Marx  Lenny Bruce  and Gypsy Rose Lee. Augie Ratner knew everyone  and everyone knew and liked Augie  and they told him everything.  Mixing careful research with long suppressed family and community stories  Neal Karlen  Augies great-nephew  tells the real story of the seamy underside of Minneapolis  where Jewish mobsters controlled the liquor trade  invented the point spread in sports betting  and ran national sports gambling operations. Even after Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey supposedly cleaned up the town  organized crime quietly flourished. And Augie was at the center  observing it all.  Neal Karlen has been a staff writer at Newsweek  a Rolling Stone Contributing Editor  and a regular contributor to the The New York Times and a score of of other national publications. He is the author of eight books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647613624373,"sku":"ByrdShop_0873518896","price":50.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780873518895.jpg?v=1781695778","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/augies-secrets-the-minneapolis-mob-and-the-king-of-the-hennepin-strip-9780873518895","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}