Abe Hirschfeld once attempted, in 1993, to run the New York Post for 16 days. Finally, a full-scale staff revolt published an entire issue trashing him, including a page 1 picture of Post founder Alexander Hamilton shedding a tear. The eccentric self-made millionaire, who died this week, was famous for his infamy, as Larry McShane wrote for the AP.
“The immigrant made his fortune catering to America’s fascination with automobiles, by building parking lots. “Open air garages,” as Hirschfeld called them. Later, when health clubs boomed, he opened the Verticle Fitness and Racket Club.
He later founded his own paper in NY, “Open Air” which folded after five months. His trademark, while in the newspaper business, was to hand out ties with a crossword puzzle pattern. Comedian Jackie Mason once derided the millionaire as ‘a common deranged maniac. Hirschfeld, in his thick Yiddish accent, didn’t disagree, saying “I’m crazy…maybe. I’m a man whose mold the Good Lord wisely decided to set aside after he created me.”
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