NAMES IN THE NEWS : Kirk Douglas Irks Hometown
A former mayor says he rues the day he dedicated a city park in the name of Kirk Douglas, who described Amsterdam as a “dirty mill town” in his 1988 autobiography.
“I will go to my grave regretting my part in putting a park in his honor here,” said Mario Villa, a city ward supervisor.
Kirk Douglas Park was dedicated in a 1985 ceremony attended by Douglas and thousands of well-wishers, including Villa, then mayor.
In “The Ragman’s Son,” Douglas says his neighbors in the town near Albany discriminated against him when he was growing up here because he was the son of poor Russian Jewish immigrants. Douglas claimed that he was beaten and denied jobs because he is Jewish.
Villa said the claims of discrimination were false, and he decried Douglas as “nothing but a hollow, phony individual” with little concern for his hometown.
Douglas’ book already had drawn criticism from residents of this town of 22,000. In a letter recently to The Recorder, the daily newspaper in Amsterdam, Douglas refused to retract anything he wrote.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
