At 92, a Bandit to Hollywood but a Hero to Soldiers

At 92, a Bandit to Hollywood but a Hero to Soldiers

New York Times ^ | April 26, 2012 | ALAN SCHWARZ

Posted on Friday, April 27, 2012 10:43:10 PM by nickcarraway

One of the world’s most prolific bootleggers of Hollywood DVDs loves his morning farina. He has spent eight years churning out hundreds of thousands of copies of “The Hangover,” “Gran Torino” and other first-run movies from his small Long Island apartment to ship overseas.

“Big Hy” — his handle among many loyal customers — would almost certainly be cast as Hollywood Enemy No. 1 but for a few details. He is actually Hyman Strachman, a 92-year-old, 5-foot-5 World War II veteran trying to stay busy after the death of his wife. And he has sent every one of his copied DVDs, almost 4,000 boxes of them to date, free to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gran Torino (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

With the United States military presence in those regions dwindling, Big Hy Strachman will live on in many soldiers’ hearts as one of the war’s more shadowy heroes.

“It’s not the right thing to do, but I did it,” Mr. Strachman said, acknowledging that his actions violated copyright law.

“If I were younger,” he added, “maybe I’d be spending time in the hoosegow.”

Capt. Bryan Curran, who recently returned from Afghanistan, estimated that from 2008 to 2010, Mr. Strachman sent more than 2,000 DVDs to his outfits there.

“You’re shocked because your initial image is of some back-alley Eastern European bootlegger — not an old Jewish guy on Long Island,” Captain Curran said. “He would time them with the movie’s release — whenever a new movie was just in theaters, we knew Big Hy would be sending us some. I saw ‘The Transformers’ before it hit the States.”

Jenna Gordon, a specialist in the Army Reserve, said she had handed out even more of Mr. Strachman’s DVDs last year as a medic with the 883rd Medical Company east of Kandahar City,

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com …

via At 92, a Bandit to Hollywood but a Hero to Soldiers.

Related articles

• At 92, Movie Bootlegger Is Soldiers’ Hero| NYTimes.com (hotchocolateandbooks.wordpress.com)
• A Bandit to Hollywood but a Hero to Soldiers (readingbyeugene.com)
• This 92-Year-Old WWII Vet is Hollywood’s Most Reviled Bootlegger (betabeat.com)
• Nonagenarian Pirate Spends His Days Sending Thousands of Bootleg DVDs to Troops Overseas [Hero] (gawker.com)
• Veteran, hero and prolific movie pirate (technologytell.com)
• At 92, movie DVD bootlegger is soldiers’ hero (mercurynews.com)
• Is It Ever O.K. to Bootleg a Film (300,000 Times)? (vanityfair.com)
• Copy that: DVD bootlegger, ‘Big Hy,’ a big hit with troops downrange (stripes.com)
• 92-year-old bootlegger sends thousands of DVDs to deployed soldiers abroad (theverge.com)
• 92 year old WWII vet is DVD bootlegger who sent 300,000 pirated discs to US troops (boingboing.net)

About these ads