In Memory Of

Martin Seidman was born in 1913 the fifth of six children to Joseph and Bess Seidman in Philadelphia.

Joseph and Bess left Kiev with their first three children (Reuben, Meyer, and Molly) in 1910 after Government orders to evict all the Jews from Kiev and march them on foot in the dead of winter to ghetto settlements mostly in Poland.

Over 125,000 of the 500,000 Jews died that winter, but the Seidmans survived and thankfully made it all the way to this great country. Joseph was a tailor but also got a job as a writer for the Yiddish Newspaper, the Jewish Daily Forward. Later he opened an ice cream shop where he made ten flavors everyday of homemade ice cream and toppings. Mary or Mutt (short for his Jewish name Muttel) with his good work ethic and friendly personality was put to work by his parents at an early age. At eight, he was selling Italian Water Ice made by his mom on the sidewalks of South Philly. At twelve he was selling hot dogs and sodas in the park and during the baseball season was pedaling score cards at the Philadelphia Athletics baseball games. As a teenager he developed an interest in magic an became a excellent magician, he was hired at a downtown Philadelphia Magic Store and enjoyed teaching people how to do the tricks. He worked there for ten years when the owner died and left the store to Marty. He continued running the store into his late forties when suddenly business slowed down and it became difficult to make ends meet. Marty came to California in 1962 and worked as a desk clerk in a Hollywood Hotel for movie and theatrical people.

Making friends as always, Marty became close buddies with a Union leader who got him work as a Greensman, first at MGM and then at fifty years of age started a second career that lasted over 20 years at UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. Just as everything was looking bleak for a former magician with a eight grade education, the industry blessed Marty with a steady good paying job he loved as well as outstanding benefits. Marty particularly loved going on location and got to work for extended periods in New Orleans, Kentucky, Dominican Republic, Lake Tahoe and in Napa Valley.

When Marty retired in 1985, he stayed busy spending a lot of his time at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita. He loved the races and his brother Rube was a handicapper and Horse Racing writer for newspapers in Florida.

Marty was the guy who would offer you a ride to the doctor or the airport and spent a great deal of his day caring for his wife Sara who suffered from Parkinson’s Disease as well as many of his aging friends. He would shop for people or pick up their prescriptions or just take them out for fresh air or lunch.

In 1992 he suffered a major heart attack and had to have Quadruple bypass surgery. This was the first time a surgeon told his son Bruce that he had little chance of survival. But at age 79 Mary impressed the staff at Saint Vincent’s Hospital with his determination to do what he had to do to get back to taking care of his wife and friends. He never for one minute considered it was somebody else’s turn to take care of him----- he felt it was his mission to get back to where he was before and he did. In 2001 after a hernia operation had gone bad, Marty suffered a massive infection and at age 88 was in a coma at the ICU of Cedars Sinai Hospital for eight weeks. The Social Workers and the doctors at Cedars advised Brce to make funeral preparations and prepare the family. He had feeding tubes and breathing tubes and the Pulmonary Doctor was advising to pull the tube since there was little chance of survival. Bruce and his wife Julie kept telling the doctors to give it one more day and then one more day. Just as time was running out Marty miraculously started breathing on his own….the doctors along with his children though it was a miracle.

After eight weeks at Cedars, Bruce who was honestly sick from driving everyday from his job in Chatsworth to West Hollywood and meanwhile checking in on his mother Sara who was in long term care here at MPTF and meanwhile himself battling Prostate Cancer, Testicular Cancer and Bladder Cancer at the same time managed to get his dad moved here to MPTF which turned out to be one of the greatest decisions ever made.

The next 12 years or so has become a one in a million story. With the help of the great doctors, nurses and Physical Therapy Staff of MPTF, Marty rose from the dead over the next six months and made a near impossible recovery.

Step by step he was able to increase his walking from six steps to six mile. After a few months he was able to get his digestive system and his taste buds back and the feeding tubes were removed. He eventually moved from long term care to the Goldwyn Lodge. MARTY WAS BACK BETTER THAN EVER!!!

Soon he was back again to doing what he loved to do which was things for other residents such as shopping and he was making several trips a day to Vons and CVS or to the Ralphs at the Commons depending on the weekly specials. He made friends all over El Camino and the Commons and all along Calabasas Road.

When he saw how much his flowers would bring a smile to faces he reinvented himself and became the flower man. When he saw the chuckles from his jokes, he knew he had a winner (flowers for the ladies and jokes for the gentlemen). Everybody from El Camino to the Commons knows Marty, his picture is hung up in offices all along Calabasas Road and cars honk and call his name when he is on his morning stroll.

Marty is especially proud of his granddaughter Jennifer who is a Opera Singer and sings here at MPTF from time to time. Marty’s immigrant parents only spoke Yiddish and Marty spoke fluent Yiddish. He especially loves when Jennifer sings in Yiddish since it brought back memories of songs listened to as a child at home.