About the Author

David Rabinovitch

David Rabinovitch is an EMMY-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker. Recent productions include The Sultan’s Women, a docudrama revealing the true stories of an Ottoman princess and a revolutionary writer searching for love and freedom amidst the turbulent last years of empire, and the landmark mini-series Secret Files of the Inquisition, which brought to life the stories of victims of intolerance, based on original research in European archives. The production earned David Canada’s Gemini Award for Best Director.

A prolific producer for public television, David’s series for PBS include The Perilous Fight: America’s World War II in Color, with Martin Sheen, and Crime & Punishment in America, adapted from the Pulitzer-nominated book by Lawrence Friedman. His documentaries have provoked Senate hearings (Politics of Poison, awarded the Peabody Medal), raised questions of human rights in China (Shanghai Shadows), exposed ambulance-chasing attorneys (Melvin Belli in Air Crash), corrupt televangelists (Jimmy Swaggart in Give Me That Big Time Religion), and internet sex predators (Cybersex Cop). His film Politics of Poison was screened for a Congressional subcommittee resulting in an emergency suspension in the United States of the chemicals Agent Orange.

an EMMY-winning filmmaker

David’s professional career began as a teenager with a column for his hometown weekly newspaper, the Morden (Manitoba) Times. Growing up in a prairie town, his influences included CBC Radio and his parents’ subscription to the Sunday edition of the New York Times, which weighed five pounds and arrived by train about 12 days late. As a boy he spent weekend evenings in the projection booth at the local theatre with the owner, a family friend. While in high school, David’s participation on the popular CBC-TV quiz program Reach for the Top introduced him to the broadcast studio. He wrote commentaries for CBW-Winnipeg’s Information Radio and became co-host of the network youth series Alarm Clock. He was also managing editor of Youthbeat, a weekly tabloid distributed to Winnipeg schools.

Ideas, Between Ourselves, Concern

40 Radio Documentaries for CBC Network

While earning a degree in political science at York University in Toronto, where he also studied film with National Film Board pioneer James Beveridge and the noted archivist Jay Leyda, David wrote and produced more than 40 radio documentaries for CBC network series including Ideas, Between Ourselves, Concern, Rule and Revolution, and CBC Tuesday Night. He also appeared as a voice actor in CBC Radio dramas. During this period, he worked as a stringer for TIME Canada, and collaborated on a cover story with the legendary correspondent Peter Simms.

David joined the original staff of CTV’s Canada A.M. to produce the first national morning show in Canada, hosted by Percy Saltzman & Carole Taylor. He transferred to CBC-TV to produce the afternoon talk show Take 30 with Adrienne Clarkson (future Governor-General), then directed documentary reports for the prime-time series Take 60 and Adrienne at Large.

Moving to Los Angeles, David produced the California life-style magazine Here & Now for CBS and won an EMMY. He then accepted the position of Senior Producer at KRON-TV San Francisco, to create a documentary unit. He directed Politics of Poison and Shanghai Shadows (CINE Golden Eagle), the first American documentary in the Peoples Republic of China. This would be the first of a series of documentaries in Asia, filming in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, & Singapore.

Establishing a production company in the Bay Area, David contributed documentaries to Frontline (PBS), Dateline (NBC), Investigative Reports (A&E), and Ancient Mysteries (A&E). His Frontline episode Air Crash exposed ambulance chasing attorneys in the wake of a mass disaster and earned the Gavel Award of the American Bar Association.

Leaving independent production, David became Vice President of Production for KCTS-Seattle, a leading PBS station. He developed and executive produced numerous international co-productions with broadcasters in the U.K., France, Spain, Germany, Japan, and Canada.

JUKEBOX EMPIRE

By David Rabinovitch

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David has written for the Toronto Globe & Mail, San Francisco Chronicle, TIME Magazine, and U.S. News & World Report, and contributed to the anthology Who’s Poisoning America (Sierra Club Books, 1981), edited by Ralph Nader.

David’s films have been broadcast in more than 40 countries, and reviewed in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Sydney Herald, and the Guardian. Of his filmmaking career, David says that “it has been a great opportunity to see many corners of the world and ask impertinent questions of people of all statures. The first step is learning what are the questions to ask.” His journey has taken him from his small-town roots in Morden, Manitoba to Winnipeg, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Baja California.

David and his wife, artist Marsha Karr, live in Mercer Island, Washington, and in the “pueblo magico” of Todos Santos, Mexico. Based on the true story of his uncle William “Wolfe” Rabin, Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream is his first book.

Endorsements

Jukebox Empire is the engrossing story of William Rabin, a key figure in the development of the jukebox industry in America who rubbed shoulders with major Mafioso. Author David Rabinovitch, his nephew, weaves together a compelling story of family and crime that touches on key events of US history in the 1950s and 60s.
Scott M. Deitche
Author, Garden State Gangland, Hitmen
What a fantastic story. It has everything: action, incredible characters, suspense, humor. Can't wait to see the movie.
Fred Fuchs
Producer, The Godfather III, Tucker: The Man & his Dream, The Virgin Suicides

Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream

By David Rabinovitch

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