Before the Revolution

An account of the mob's attempt to turn Havana into a gambling paradise. Sunday, July 13, 2008; Page BW11 HAVANA NOCTURNE How the Mob Owned Cuba -- and Then Lost It to the Revolution On our first date, my wife-to-be and I went to the Karl Marx Theater in Havana for the Cuban premiere of "Havana," directed by the late Sydney Pollack. Outside, the glitter of a Hollywood opening had been replicated with velvet ropes, a red carpet and searchlights circling the sky. On the screen, Pollack used the final days of the Batista regime as a backdrop for a love story between Robert Redford and Lena Olin. For my money, though, the star was Mark Rydell as Meyer Lansky, the mobster who brought high-stakes organized crime to Cuba. Lansky finally gets to play the lead in T.J. English's excellent new book, Havana Nocturne, which traces the... [read full story]