Arnold Rothstein - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

  • The author F. Scott Fitzgerald used Arnold Rothstein as a model for Jay Gatsby's crooked associate Meyer Wolfsheim in the novel The Great Gatsby.
  • Rothstein's patronage of floating crap games provided the model for Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys and Dolls.
  • Rothstein is referred to as "The Brain" in several of Damon Runyon's short stories, including a fictional version of his death in "The Brain Goes Home".
  • Rothstein was portrayed by several actors in films: By Robert Lowery in the 1960, The Rise and Fall of "Legs" Diamond; by David Janssen in the 1961, King of the Roaring 20's - The Story of Arnold Rothstein (aka The Big Bankroll); by Michael Lerner in the 1988, Eight Men Out, based on the Black Sox Scandal; and by F. Murray Abraham, in the 1991 Mobsters.
  • In The Godfather Part II, Hyman Roth mentions Rothstein as someone who arranged a sport game result. Even more, Roth is a nickname that Vito Corleone gave him when he was a young boy, after Hyman confessed admiration on the gambler.
  • In the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, starting in 2010, a fictionalized version of Rothstein is portrayed by Michael Stuhlbarg.
  • In an episode of the ABC series, The Whole Truth, a judge refers to Rothstein's murder as a code for ordering a murder; he had taken bribes and was trying to cover his trail.

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