Anti-Semitism, race relations, coming of age, and fathers and sons: in Baltimore from fall, 1954, to fall, 1955. Racial integration comes to the high school, TV is killing burlesque, and rock and roll is pushing the Four Lads off the Hit Parade. Ben, a high school senior, and his older brother Van are exploring "the other": in Ben's case, it's friendship with Sylvia, a Black student; with Van, it's a party in the WASP part of town and falling for a debutante, Dubbie. Sylvia gives Ben tickets to a James Brown concert; Dubbie invites Van to a motel: new worlds open. Meanwhile, their dad Nate, who runs a numbers game, loses big to a small-time pusher, Little Melvin; a partnership ensues.

Director Trademark: [Barry Levinson] Ralph Tabakin ( Phil ) has appeared in every Levinson picture from Diner (1982) to Liberty Heights (1999).

Ben Kurtzman:
[voice-over at the end] Life is made up of a few big moments, and a lot of little ones. I still remember the first time I kissed Sylvia, or the last time I hugged my father before he died. And I still remember that white-bread sandwich and that blonde dancing girl with the cigarette pack on her thigh. But a lot of images fade, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get them back. I had a relative once who said that if I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better.

Anachronisms: The film takes place in 1954, but the melody of "Bayom Hahu," which the Cantor sings during the Rosh Hashanah services, was written by Michael Isaacson in the mid-1980s.

Written by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
Performed by Patti Page
Courtesy of Mercury Nashville Records
Under license from Universal Music Special Markets