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February 20, 2009
A long journey seeking the truth
A Vancouver man uncovers his family's Hollywood connections after a 27-year search.
SARA NEWHAM
When Brett Lieberman headed to Kingston, Ont., to visit his uncle in the early 1980s, he thought he would just catch up and learn some information about his father's childhood. He never imagined the trip would lead to a 27-year odyssey to trace his roots and his family's link to Hollywood's golden era.
"He told me things about my dad that I didn't know and I was really shocked when I found out my dad was adopted. So this whole search kinda happened not too long after that," said Lieberman, whose father, Stanley, was born in New York in 1932 and came to Canada as an infant.
Lieberman's quest for his father's birth family was soon launched but it headed in the wrong direction for two years after his uncle unwittingly gave him the wrong surname Lieberman's father had at birth.
Despite hitting a wall, Lieberman's search did not end there. In 1992, his friend put out a call on a newsgroup on the then-fledgling Internet. His query generated some advice from a fellow Vancouverite who suggested he check with the Latter Day Saints who keep a birth database of all people born in New York.
"I proceeded to go to the Latter Day Saints, who have wonderful old records. They have access to what they call a birth index and what that is, is you can search the month and day and year for someone who was born in New York City. My dad was born March 8, 1932, in Manhattan so I knew the day but I wasn't sure on his last name," said Lieberman. "I thought I would order this film in, it took about three weeks to get the film and I went with a friend of mine ... to the Latter Day Saints' Family History Centre in Burnaby and when the film came in ... we were both scrolling down the month, the day and the year and we found my dad and we found his birth name."
Lieberman's father was born with the last name of "Wisotsky," which has Polish origins. Now armed with his information, Lieberman began to trace his roots, both on his adopted side and on his biological side.
"Nineteen ninety-two is the starting point officially and here I am in 2009 and what I've found in the last year is the most incredible thing you would ever find in your entire life," said Lieberman.
"Everywhere I've gone looking for my dad's birth name, I find movie people, famous movie people. One of the biggest of them all is Louis B. Mayer."
It seems that Mayer, who ran Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Hollywood, is connected to both Lieberman's biological and adoptive families. Mayer came to Canada as a young boy from Belarus with the help of Lieberman's adoptive family, who apparently had a connection to the Mayer family from years before.
"My dad was adopted into family that had a chain of movie theatres in St. John so they were in the motion picture business for over 40 years. My grandfather had a business partner and they brought 'the talkies' into the Maritimes in 1924," said Lieberman.
Lieberman, who began reading biographies of the late movie baron, explained that there is some speculation that Mayer's father may have landed in some trouble with the law. "They ended up in St. John in about 1890, so Louis B. Mayer and our family were in St. John in 1890 and part of the Jewish community there," said Lieberman.
"Over the years and last year, I mapped out who lived where and when in New York and Boston and everywhere I've looked for my dad's birth family, movie people appear like Jack Cohen of Columbia Pictures.... Then when I traced Louis B. Mayer to Boston, I found a lady who lived on the same street as him years later that has my dad's last name, who [I think] is my dad's birth mother."
Lieberman said that Mayer is not the only movie icon on his family tree. He's also related to producer David Selznick, who married Mayer's daughter and is best known for producing Gone with the Wind and Rebecca.
"I think that my dad's birth family might have been related to the Mayer family by blood. I think they were relatives. I did come across one document that kind of points in that direction but I can't prove it," he said.
Lieberman has searched for the addresses of these and other prominent movie men from the 1930s. He has mapped out the New York addresses of these movie men and of his family from that era, before the movie business was moved to Hollywood.
One particular apartment that Lieberman discovered in his search was the home of a Morris Wisotsky, who Lieberman believes may be his paternal great-grandfather. It was also the home of several other actors and actresses.
"The Wisotsky name appeared in Hollywood in 1917 so I think I'm the grandson of an actress who changed her name who somehow was connected to the Mayer family who knew my [adoptive] family back in St. John," said Lieberman.
The Vancouverite explained that he obtained records for his father's adoption but was given only non-identifiable information because adoption records at the time were sealed. Nevertheless, Lieberman gleaned some important information from the documents.
"They told me about my grandmother and how old she was when she had my father, the year she was born, but not the place. I had lots of little pieces of information," he said. "With that, I found one family that that all fits and that led me to Boston. [The person] who I think was my real grandmother lived on the same street as Louis B. Mayer when he lived there in 1917, she died ... on that same street in the year 2000. Her daughter still lives there today."
Lieberman contacted this family but they would not speak with him so he is unable to put that last piece of the puzzle together.
"I was kind of devastated because here I've been searching for 27 years. I'm not after money or anything, I just want to solve this mystery," said Lieberman.
Lieberman is not ready to give up just yet. He has spent nearly three decades mapping out the histories of his family and those of Louis B. Mayer's and David Selznick's among others. He has not only searched the Latter Day Saints' birth database but has looked up census records and ship records as well. He has even turned to a private agency for help.
"I'm self-taught. All I knew is you work backwards from yourself," he said.
As for his biological grandmother, he has an idea what happened to her.
"I think she changed her name and went on with her life. It's just the odds of finding one name among all these movie people," he said. "I'd pay someone $5,000 if someone can tell me my grandmother's name."
Sara Newham is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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