The Solomon Scandals A Washington newspaper novel by David Rothman

‘Conversations with Papa Charlie’ book review: Thumbs up—and toes, relax

The Schmid­offs’ wind­mill burned down in 1908 in Lip­nick, Rus­sia. An upshot was a real estate empire half a planet away, includ­ing Crys­tal City, the huge office and res­i­den­tial com­plex across the high­way from Rea­gan National Air­port. How did it hap­pen? A rabbi saw the fire and other events as signs for the Schmid­offs to leave Rus­sia. They sailed to New York and even­tu­ally became the Smith fam­ily of Wash­ing­ton, D.C., so leg­endary in real estate and phil­an­thropic circles.

David Bruce Smith, grand­son of Charles E. Smith, recounts the rise of the man and fam­ily in Con­ver­sa­tions with Papa Char­lie, a 119-page col­lec­tion of sto­ries that should please many in the local busi­ness and Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties. Papa Char­lie came out a decade ago but is timely in the wake of the death of Robert H. Smith, the author’s father, on Decem­ber 29. I’ll review the book, enlivened by the warm draw­ings from the younger Smith’s gifted mother, Clarice Smith, and then, in keep­ing with the family’s inter­est in char­i­ties, I’ll sug­gest a new phil­an­thropic ini­tia­tive that just might reflect David Bruce Smith’s per­sonal passions.

The younger Smith aimed for a mem­o­rable tri­bune, not a full-length, objec­tive biog­ra­phy with all the good and the bad. He has suc­ceeded, aided by the many idio­syn­crasies of his subject—from dis­tain toward Big Macs to a fond­ness for deep-breathing exer­cises and self-hypnotism, body part by body part. “Toes, relax,” Charles Smith would start, nod­ding off before he could com­mand his head. As required of all Jew­ish fam­i­lies by the Almighty, much of the inter­gen­er­a­tional talk focused on food. Papa Char­lie was an anti-cholesterol hawk, remind­ful of my father, who, given a ham­burger, could squeeze cow remains to a sec­ond death with his nap­kin, lest any artery-clogging juices remain. But Charles Smith may have been even more relent­less in push­ing his David toward fruits, veg­eta­bles and low-fat yogurt.