One day in 1997, when Kristi Jacobson was working in the documentary division of ABC News, she glanced over a co-worker's shoulder and noticed Toots Shor's name in the New York Times crossword puzzle.
Embarrassed to admit that she didn't know much about her grandfather, Jacobson set out on a decade-long journey to immerse herself in the life and lore of Shor, the Runyonesque character who turned the role of restaurateur into a celebrity archetype, became a symbol of the city's midcentury apotheosis, and addressed everyone from bus drivers to film stars with his signature epithet, "crumb bum."
The film identifies what were the markers of Toots' career as a celebrity restaurateur: Prohibition, the growth of the Mafia, the golden age of baseball, and the death of the saloon scene in the "serious" atmosphere created by the tumult of the 60s.
Soon more friends and admirers of Shor were sitting in front of Jacobson's camera, recounting tales of boozy bonhomie: journalists (Gay Talese), broadcasters (Mike Wallace), athletes (Whitey Ford, Joe Garagiola).
"Toots" affectionately and vividly recalls a bygone New York era, one in which life was simpler (if not more innocent, as one interview subject points out) and celebrities and ordinary folk could be in close proximity without hulking bodyguards getting in the way.