Thursday, August 02, 2018
This unlikely Brooklyn block spawned 4 superstars
From Jay-Z to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it's no secret that Brooklynites can — and do — rise to fame.
But one block in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn may be the ultimate kingmaker. In that part of Kings County — known for its observant Jewish communities — 48th Street between 15th and 16th avenues contains the childhood homes of three boldface names: Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard scholar and lawyer of O.J. Simpson fame; Borscht Belt favorite comedian Jackie Mason; and baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.
"My parents managed to scrimp together $6,200 for the mortgage," says Dershowitz, 79, who grew up in a three-family house with aunts and uncles — as well as a cousin who inhabited an illegal basement apartment — at 1558 48th St. (It's now a condominium.)
"We were all poor, but the currency of the street was humor. If you were funny, you were the top of the heap," adds Dershowitz, who recalls that sewers and parked cars served as the bases for a made-up game called punchball. "[If you could punch the ball] one sewer, you were a wimp. Two sewers was pretty good; three sewers, you were a fantastic athlete. I never made it three sewers, but I did make it over two."
Down the street from Dershowitz was 87-year-old funnyman Mason — then known by his birth name, Yakov Maza — and Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Koufax, now 82, whose family moved to the block from Bensonhurst. Academy Award-nominated actor Elliott Gould, known for roles in "M*A*S*H," "Oceans 11" and "Friends," among other hits, lived a few blocks away at 1644 49th St.
"I didn't have my own bedroom in Borough Park." Gould, 79, tells The Post. "We lived on the second floor of a two-story home that we rented. … Between the living room, the kitchen and my parents' bedroom was a little alcove where I had a bed."
Despite the cramped conditions, Gould adds, "It was nice. I had a good few years there."
For his part, Mason remembers Dershowitz. "I came across Alan Dershowitz a couple of times in the street. This was before he became such a big sensation on television, before he was a lawyer, just when he was an unemployed kid," Mason says. "So he looked at me like I was nothing and I looked at him the same way. We would pass each other on the street, just two egomaniacs with no place to go."
The 48th Street block was renamed Bubover Promenade in the 1990s after a Hasidic sect. Many of its members still call Borough Park home; there's even a yeshiva on the street. Back in the '50s, though, Dershowitz remembers, "There was only one Hasidic family, and we called them 'Chicago.' "
Why? He chuckles: "They wore white socks."
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