With A Little Help From Our Friends

Over the course of this preservation campaign to save historic Marx Brothers Place, the block in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood in Manhattan where the beloved childhood home of the world's greatest comic family still stands, we've been the grateful beneficiaries of unflappable support from a wide array of folks all across the globe.

Here in our own town of NYC, one Theater critic in particular has championed the cause of Marx Brothers Place with the sort of gusto usually reserved for the closest of family ties. So while he's not actually blood, we've decided to make Leonard Jacobs an honorary member of our preservation family.

While Leonard has never been stingy with his support of preservation efforts, recently going toe to toe with the NYC Developers, also known as NYU (his alma mater), when they got the bright idea to demolish the historic O'Neill theater in Greenwich Village (what's a little theater history between friends ?), he has gone to bat for Marx Brothers Place more times than Johnny Damon has stepped up to the plate at the stadium this year (O.K., maybe not quantitatively, but certainly effectively. Sorry Johnny, I'm a big fan, but you guys are making us sing the blues this summer, and that's just so winter).

Everybody should have a friend like Leonard Jacobs. He's one of those rare creatures who will walk right up to somebody and tell them exactly what he thinks. In other words, along with a loyalty streak longer than Fifth Avenue, Leonard lives the First amendment.

Here's the link for his latest blog post about Marx Brothers Place:

http://clydefitch.blogspot.com/2008/08/will-marx-brothers-place-become-reality.html

Up here on the Hill, where the air can get pretty thin, we breath a little easier knowing that Leonard is pulling for us. And for that, our collective hats, whether baseball caps, safari helmets or easter bonnets, are off to Leonard Jacobs for all he has done to let people know about the campaign to save Marx Brothers Place !