#aaron hoffman

— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) December 25, 2020

over on parler, deputy hoffman caught the attention of people monitoring proud boy jeremy bertino in the aftermath of the last violent proud boy gathering in DC. deputy hoffman is prepared to refuse orders when the time comes to fight alongside the proud boys. pic.twitter.com/2uGsKrjOn1

— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) December 25, 2020

deputy hoffman isn't interested in marching in DC (& not JUST because he can't take his gun) - he wants patriots to storm the homes of their local liberal judges & politicians to "remove them." pic.twitter.com/IexIZGksuP

— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) December 25, 2020

A post on Aaron Hoffman's Parler account suggested that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' life "needs to be shortened."

Hoffman told the Post that the account was his, but insisted he didn’t post the comments. “I did not make those posts,” Hoffman said. “I’m trying to figure out who did.” He said the comments also “disturbed” him.

By Saturday afternoon all of Hoffman’s social media accounts had either been set to private or deleted.

Another post from Hoffman’s account included a threat to kill anyone who touches his children to vaccinate them against COVID-19 without his consent. “Not a threat, but a promise,” the post said.

1921

Two Blocks Away is a play in three acts by Aaron Hoffman. The  original production was produced by Charles Dillingham and staged by Clifford Brooke. Hoffman wrote the play to showcase the talent of star Barney Bernard. 

The play is set in New York City in July. It tells the story of a generous, hardworking cobbler named Nate Pommerantz (Barney Bernard), who is a friend of everyone in his neighborhood. When he receives a windfall inheritance, he assumes the neighborhood is scheming to earn his financial favor.  The second act finds the cobbler living in solitary grandeur just “two blocks away” from his former neighborhood. There he becomes miserly and lonely. Being being a theatrical enterprise, by eleven o’clock (5 o’clock matinee days), Nate sees the error of his ways. 

Two Blocks Away had its world premiere at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City, New Jersey on May 23, 1921. From the Jersey Shore, the play went on a brief tour that included Washington DC before being placed on hold until the launch of Broadway’s fall season in late August. 

"’Two Blocks Away' takes one all the way from Second Avenue, New York, to Fifth Avenue in the same city, and back again all In one night’s story. It Is a delightful little sermon concerning wealth and poverty, pointing to the moral that wealth is really poverty and poverty wealth.” ~ ATLANTIC CITY DAILY PRESS

Typical of Hoffman’s Jewish-American humor, at one point Nate brags that his daughter is in London seeing “Westminster Abie”. Coincidentally, Hoffman’s play covered much of the same territory more popularly explored in Abie’s Irish Rose, which wouldn’t open on Broadway until May 1922.

After its brief hiatus, the play returned to Atlantic City just before it opened on Broadway. By their second visit, Atlantic City boasted a brand new luxury hotel: The Ritz-Carlton. 

The play finally opened on Broadway on the penultimate day of August 1921. Despite good reviews from the road, the play only ran 47 performances at George M. Cohan’s Theatre on West 43rd Street. Naturally, all eyes were on its well-known star, Barney Bernard. 

The report mis-identifies the artist as Herman Rockwell, when it was in fact Norman Rockwell, who had not yet achieved the level of success he would experience in the 1940s and ‘50s.  

Above is the Rockwell image that captured Bernard’s vision of what his Nathaniel Pommerantz should look like. 

Bernard was well-known by playgoers for his portrayal of Abe Potash in Potash and Perlmutter (1913), which ran 440 performances and inspired three sequels, all starring Bernard. In 1914, Bernard had been in Atlantic City with Potash and Perlmutter. After his brief run of Two Blocks Away, Bernard returned to the familiar and played Potash on Broadway one last time. 

Bernard got to recreate his most famous character on screen in 1923′s Potash and Perlmutter. Bernard died in March 1924 while preparing to film the sequel In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter. Actor George Sidney was brought in to play Potash opposite Carr’s Perlmutter.  

In 1925, Universal Studios bought the rights to Two Blocks Away, and radically changed it into a comic conflict between a Jewish family headed by Jacob Cohen and an Irish family helmed by Patrick Kelly. Because Bernard was not alive to recreate his role (or what it became), his Potash replacement George Sidney was hired. The first film premiered in 1926 as The Cohens and the Kellys. Five more films followed with The Cohens and Kellys in... Paris (1928),

Atlantic City (1929), Scotland (1930), Africa (1930), Hollywood (1932) and Trouble (1934). 

The film was made on both coasts. The outdoor sequences were done in New Jersey, and the indoor sequences (with sound) were done in California. In connection with the filming, the production staged a beauty contest in the style of the newly created Miss America Pageant called ‘The Summer Girl’ Contest. Elsie Allen, an Atlantic City high school girl, won - and her prize was a contract with Universal Studios.  

The films are best remembered today as the subject of a landmark three million dollar lawsuit. Anne Nichols, playwright of Abie’s Irish Rose, who sued those involved with the Cohen and Kelly series on the grounds that they appropriated her proprietary characters. The Judge ruled that stock characters cannot be held under copyright. 

University City Hosts McCluer North @MNHSathletics @UCityAthletics

Jalen Corn attempts a header as Sr. GK Anthony Benz punches clear duing a 3-0 win for the home team who seal Conference title on October 30, 2019

Took in a Suburban Conference match Tuesday as the regular season comes to a close. The Lions were going for a perfect 8-0 league record and their second straight Conference title as they hosted the McCluer North Stars. The Stars weren’t going to make it…