Daily Podcasts Video Research

An 82-year-old Jewish recording legend on his film directing debut: 'I could have been good at this'

JL;DR SUMMARY Kenny Vance, an 82-year-old Jewish music legend, has made his film directing debut with 'Heart & Soul: a Love Story,' a documentary celebrating the pivotal but overlooked doo-wop and rock performers of the 1950s. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish IdentityDocumentaryCultural IntegrationMusic History1960s MusicFilm DirectingKenny VanceHeart & SoulDoo WopJay And The Americans

Places mentioned

Los Angeles, California, United States
"Kenny Vance at an L.A. screening of Heart & Soul."
Staten Island, New York, United States
"I took what was salvageable back to the FEMA hotel where I was staying in Staten Island."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"The seminal moment for him, and the scene that opens the film, happened in the 1950s when he was a teenager attending a mega-show filled with screaming fans at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, which was known for its legendary shows hosted and promoted by DJ Alan Freed."
New York City, New York, United States
"Simi Horwitz is a feature writer and film reviewer based in New York City."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 79674
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-04-09 05:31:14 UTC
Curated 2026-04-09 08:30:52 UTC