A few years ago, movie critics were raving about the originality of a Harvey Keitel film that  captured a “slice of life” by viewing a 24-hour day through the eyes of a Brooklyn cigar store proprietor.  “Artistes” and big-city sophisticates admired its cleverness, but the film lacked the verisimilitude of River City’s old cigar store-AMANN’S-which had a sixty year run on Park Ave. on the site of present-day Stewart’s. A picture in “The Express” showing the century-old store being bulldozed reminded me of this recently. The caption accompanying the photo correctly noted that “a cigar store” was the object of demolition, and readers were asked if they knew anything about the place.

Then entire article is in the Feb. 19 issue.