A Passionate Journey: From Our Family to Yours directed by Isaac Artenstein, Cinewest Productions, DVD format 45 minutes.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — If the slogan “From Our Family to Yours” has a familiar ring to it, it is because you were watching a lot of television when Arnold and Esther Belinsky used to advertise their local furniture stores. And sure enough some of the commercials are included in this montage of remembrances of the two families–the Weinstocks and the Belinskys–who became united when Arnold married Esther.
In one commercial, Arnold says he’s inviting the whole city over for a Thanksgiving feast, which seemingly gets Esther concerned over just how many turkeys she’ll have to prepare. But he clarifies that he means a feast of savings on furniture. In another commercial, looking like a madman, Arnold is tossing balloons up in the air and making a racket. Esther, afraid her husband has taken leave of his senses, wonders why he is acting so crazy. Because of the crazy low prices at their sale, he screams in explanation.
The tagline for all of these commercials was “from our family to yours” and Esther reveals in the documentary that she was the one who suggested they make sales pitching a family affair. At first Arnold didn’t think the approach would work. However, she was able to persuade him that he could make the hard pitch and she could make the soft one — you might call it furniture’s equivalent of a good cop, bad cop scenario.
The commercials made the Belinksys recognizable figures wherever they went in San Diego, and son Larry Belinsky revealed that when his parents finally sold their business, which had grown to several stores, they were grossing $30 million per year.
The Belinksy children– Larry, Craig and Sheila — were involved in various aspects of the business, and after Arnold’s was sold, Sheila–with the encouragement of her parents — opened her own furniture store in the Palm Springs area, which she operated for many years.
Interestingly, after Arnold and Esther were married, he persuaded her to move to Michigan, where he had grown up and his father originally had operated a pharmacy and later movie theatres. After arriving there, Arnold decided to open up a furniture store — exactly the same business that Esther’s family, the Weinstocks, had chosen on their path to financial success in Tampico and Tijuana, Mexico. When Esther’s father learned that Arnold would be peddling capsules not cabinets, he told him “I need you here.” So the family moved back to San Diego.
A good portion of the film consists of family remembrances about the several generations of Weinstocks and Belinskys. Both families had immigrated from Eastern Europe to the New World. However, the Belinsky family wound up in the United States, whereas the Weinstocks first settled in Mexico.
There are some enjoyable family moments, including Larry and Craig singing a duet, “Brother can you spare a dime?”; Esther revealing that she hid the fact from her father that Arnold was a sailor when they began dating, and the Weinstocks acknowledging that some of the shoes that Papa Weinstock had sold before the family went into the furniture business were, well, mismatched. Sheila, who like her brother Larry was quite a tennis player, told of the oversight that almost prevented her admission to UCLA. She forgot to put on her application that she was a ranked amateur player.
The remembrance was put together by film maker Isaac Artenstein, who is best known for his video about the Jews of Tijuana. I am informed that Congregation Ohr Shalom at 3rd and Laurel Streets is planning a mini-film festival on San Diego/ Tijuana Jewish history in October, and that A Passionate Journey: From Our Family to Yours will be among the films shown.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com