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Nicky Arnstein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julius "Nicky" W. Arnstein (??? - October 2, 1965) was an American businessman, professional gambler, and con artist. Among his aliases were Nick Arnold, Nicholas Arnold, Wallace Ames, John Adams, and J. Willard Adair. He was best known as the second husband of Fanny Brice.
Arnstein's father, Berlin-born Jew Moses Arndstein, fought in the Franco-Prussian War. He and his wife Thekla Van Shaw, who was Dutch, raised their son as an Episcopalian.
"Nicky" was short for nickel plate, a sobriquet bestowed in the 1890s when Arnstein rode a gleaming nickel-plated bicycle in the then-popular bike racing craze. However, he spent more time throwing races than winning them. He graduated to gambling on transatlantic liners and in European casinos, and eventually fell in with Arnold Rothstein, a loan shark, bookmaker, fence of property stolen by others, Wall Street swindler, real estate speculator, and labor racketeer who was best known for fixing the 1919 World Series.
In 1915, Arnstein was convicted of swindling, and the following year he entered Sing Sing to serve out his term. Brice visited him every week while he was there, and in 1918 Arnstein's wife Carrie sued her for alienation of his affection. She subsequently divorced him, leaving him free to marry Brice in October of that year.
On May 16, 1924, having been convicted of conspiracy to carry stolen securities into the District of Columbia, Arnstein entered Leavenworth prison, where he remained for three years. Brice divorced him on September 17, 1927, soon after his release.
Arnstein remained out of trouble for the remainder of his life. He lived long enough to see himself immortalized in the Broadway musical Funny Girl, in which he was portrayed in a somewhat whitewashed version by Sydney Chaplin. (In the musical, he is guilty of embezzlement, has never been married to anyone but Fanny, and serves only one prison sentence.) Omar Sharif assumed the role in the 1968 film and its 1975 sequel, Funny Lady.
Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza, published by Carroll & Graf, New York, New York