1674-5 Jake Schreiber CA Cracker Viewpoint
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Jake Handed Out ,
N Silver Dollars
By NIXON SMILEY 3 6_ real name washreibe parked his
x car in front of t e� old H erala building on
"Who was ilver Dollar Jake. South Miami Avenue and walked up the two
This question comes m a etter from Wil- flights of creaking stairs to the newsroom.
lard Largent of Berea, Ohio,wherever that Jake was always helping in one or more
is. charity drives.
Back in October, 1944, Largent landed at AFTER World War II began in 1941 Jake
the Miami International Airport in a C-54 spent much of his time promoting blood do-
hospital plane, having been flown from Italy nations and war bonds. He dressed his car
where he had been wounded. up in patriotic colors, plastering recruiting
"All of a sudden," wrote Largent, "a posters and Buy-War-Bond placards over it. •
white-haired gentleman sauntered along He got his name from a practice of giv-
ea string of silver dollars around his ing silver dollars away, not merely to the
neck—a loaded lei,you might say. down-and-out, but also to people like Presi-
"How you doing, guys?' he asked. 'Wel- dent Franklin D. Roosevelt,Will Rogers and
come home, and here's something for you to John D. Rockefeller.
enjoy."' When the wounded began pouring into
And with that he began shelling out sil- Miami from the European theater during
ver dollars from a canvas bag. Moments World War II, Jake met the planes with
later Largent was whisked away to Pratt bags of silver dollars and doled them out
General Hospital, formerly the Miami Bilt- among returning servicemen. Hundreds,
more Hotel. and a few days later was on his even thousands, like Largent,must remem-
way to Crile General Hospital near Cleve- ber him.
land. Twenty-eight years later Largent
hasn't forgotten Silver Dollar Jake. SILVER DOLLAR Jake died in 1963 of a
"I never heard of Silver Dollar Jake stroke. He was 72, almost as old as his par-
again, but he must have been a hell of a rot. Charles Whited, who covered Jake's fu-
man,"wrote Largent. neral services, wrote that although Schreib-
er had a "million friends," only 27 turned
HE WAS that. The first time I ever saw out for his funeral.
him was in the middle 1930s.He was driving But, of course, there was another side of
down Flagler Street in a red Cadillac con- Jake Schreiber. Despite his extroverted
vertible, wearing an "elephant hunter's"hat ways, he was a loner. And while thousands
and with a blind macaw perched on his hailed him in Miami's streets, hardly any
shoulder.The windshield was decorated with was his close friend.
banners, stuffed monkeys, and a collection I've often wondered what happened to
of nondescript junk I no longer remember. his blind parrot, Mike, which was as much a
The dash board resembled the control panel character as Jake. Mike was hailed into
of a yacht, complete with a marine wheel, a Mianii City Court in 1948 and fined $10 for
barometer, compass, chronometer, even a using"indecent language" in front of a lady.
ship's bell with a hand-woven Bosun's cord An offended husband took a swing at the
attached to the clapper. feathered cusser, knocking him 20 feet off
At other times the macaw, Mike,sat on a his perch, then socked Jake.
special perch, shrieking at people who came Mike took the fifth amendment in court,
up to --:v': a:. h -, — s"rs^Crses using Ian- but Jake had to pay $10 to keep him out of
guage that would make a sailor cringe. the fowl jail. The fist swinger also was fined
Once a week Silver Dollar Jake, whose $10.