Today The L.A. Times reports on the death and remarkable life of Marvin Saul, the founder of Westwood’s Junior’s Delicatessen, who worked three days a week at the restaurant until his December 8th passing at the age of 82. Saul, a native of Nucky-era Atlantic City and a Korean War vet, left the trade of uranium mining and, according to the story, flipped a coin to determine his fate. He founded the original Junior’s location on Pico in 1959 and named it after his childhood street name (he would later move the business to Westwood Blvd.). None other than filmmaker and comedian Mel Brooks offers his memories of Saul. What does he have to say?
Brooks recalls Saul in saying, “He was really an incredible host. It’s a great big restaurant, but he’d treat it like his own dining room at home…He was so sweet and wonderful, albeit a little pushy on the soup. He’d always come to our table with a new soup, and we had to try it or we’d hurt his feelings.” the owner is survived by his wife, two sons, and four grandchildren. Recalling the Yiddish Saul would occasionally use to spice his sentences, Brooks finishes, “I kept yelling at Marvin, ‘They can’t understand a word you are saying,’…He kept saying, ‘But they will feel it, they will feel it.’”
Marvin Saul dies at 82; longtime owner of Junior’s deli in Westwood [LAT]
