“Everybody Comes to Rick’s” becomes Casablanca - the movie: Part Two
The movie, Rick's Cafe and the city of Casablanca
The mismatch
For the flashback dance, Bogart had to get the right steps for a rumba. It was not enough. As you can see from the photo below, Bergman was several inches taller than Bogart. It would not be acceptable to the audience. Even today, you would be hard pressed to find such a thing.
The solution was this.
“Four things come not back—the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.” Arab Proverb
Life imitates art: Rick’s Cafe Americain
Kathy Kriger saw the movie Casablanca in 1974 at a movie festival in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. When she was posted to Morocco, for her job at the State Department, she was surprised to find there never was a real Rick’s Café in Casablanca. In 2003, she set about to to start Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca. She wanted everything to be like it was in the movie. It opened in 2004.
She wanted to show that an American woman, operating alone in a Muslim society, could start a business like Rick’s Cafe and act as a model of tolerance in a troubled world. She got one big break: the influential man who got elected as the mayor of Casablanca was her old friend Driss Benhima. With his help, she was able to cut through the red tape in double quick time.
Fundraising through friends, her pitch was “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, this is the one.”
It is a faithful reproduction of the original even though the original never existed. Most of what you see on screen were recycled from other Warner Bros. productions because of wartime restrictions on building supplies. The same set of props show up in other movies of the time too. Exactly one studio composite photo of Rick’s Café Américain exists. It was one of the few original sets built for the film.
In a converted old house in the Ancienne Medina - old city, her dream took shape.
It is instructive to hear Kathy’s own voice about the place:
I have lived in Morocco since 1998, serving as the commercial counselor for the U.S. Embassy. In the aftermath of 9/11, I decided to leave the government, stay in Morocco and do something that demonstrated true American values.
Developing a Rick’s Café in Casablanca seemed like a perfect way to do this. As I sent e-mails to friends around the world telling them about my plans, their excitement and enthusiasm gave me an idea.
I needed to bring in investors, and what better way than “rounding up the usual suspects.” So I designed a flyer that incorporated lines from the film (“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, I’d like you to buy into mine”) and received an overwhelming response.
I created a company called The Usual Suspects, and suddenly money from all over the world was being transferred to “The Usual Suspects” in Morocco!
When I was planning it I described Rick’s Café as more than a restaurant and bar, but a tourism theme project. It captured my passion for architectural preservation, decoration, food, music and entertaining – and got built because of my perseverance and optimism.
The development took two years – lots of laughter, lots of tears, and opened on March 1, 2004 to rave reviews. Rick’s Cafe was already an institution thanks to the immortal film “Casablanca”, and the spirit of Rick’s has some of the mythical quality of the movie.
Whereas gambling, black marketeering and occasional gunfire were central to the Hollywood Rick’s, Casablanca’s first Rick’s Café has played upon other characteristics of the famous gin joint. And we’ve collected a terrific cast of characters, some of whom seem to have been destined to be here. I’d like you to meet …”
Source: https://www.rickscafe.ma/
Play It Again, Issam
Kathy wrote a book about her beloved project. She narrates the story of how she recruited the piano player for the cafe.
As we approached our opening, I had to find a pianist even if I didn’t yet have a chef. After all, no one remembers what people were eating in the movie, but can you imagine Rick’s Café without Sam?
Two weeks before opening Karim Benkirane, an amateur jazz guitarist friend, called. “I’ve finally got the phone number of the pianist I told you about. Here’s his number. His name is Issam.”
“Uh, repeat that name,” I said.
“Issam” (pronounced EYE-sam).
“I may have to hire him whether or not he can play the piano,” I said, marveling at his name.
Most Moroccans hadn’t seen the film, so Karim may not have understood, but Issam was familiar with the movie and had heard of the pianist.
“You’ve already got a good chance at this job because of your name,” I joked, “but I do hope you can play the piano, especially the songs of the forties.”
“Yes,” he said simply. “I can play.”
That turned out to be a major understatement.
I asked Issam to play the song at his audition “As Time Goes By.” He did it so well that it could have come from the soundtrack.
“Did you know the song before I called, or did you rush out to learn it?” I asked.
“I played it in Tangier at the birthday party of Malcolm Forbes,” he said.
Well, I certainly hadn’t expected that! Nor had I articulated what exactly I wanted in a pianist, but once I met Issam and heard him play I knew he was perfect. Once more, destiny had taken a hand to make Rick’s Café more than a dream, another case of life imitating art.
The Bullet Train Goes Boom
“Morocco seems like a tree whose nourishing roots reach deep into African soil and whose leaves breathe in the wind blowing from Europe.” King Hassan II
It is not often appreciated how close Morocco is to Europe. To wit, the Rock of Gibraltar is ten miles from Tangier. European tourists arrive there in the tens of millions every year. That connection got a major boost when the first bullet train was introduced in the African Continent - Al Boraq, an almost identical train like the French TGV. This project was a personal favorite of Macron - the French President.
Al Boraq has provided an unexpected boost to Rick’s Cafe. Digital Nomads living in Gibraltar and nearby are coming into Casablanca just to have lunch or dinner at Rick’s Cafe. With Al Boraq running every hour, it has become a ritual for some of them.
With Spain and Portugal, Morocco will co-host the World Cup Football in 2030. With that, both Casablanca and Rick’s Cafe can only look forward to a brighter future.
Executive future of Rick’s Cafe: “…Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Origin of the city now called Casablanca
The city was called Anfa (meaning “hill”) way back when the Berbers settled Casablanca in the seventh century BC. They were trading with Phoenicians and Carthaginians and later the Portuguese and Spanish - exporting wheat and barley.
[Berbers never called themselves Berbers (from which the term Barbarians appear). It was engineered by the Muslims conquerors who destroyed their cultural identity and imposed the religion by the might of the sword in the eighth century.]
The Barbary pirates pillaging European ships in the fifteenth century were not Berbers but Arab slave traders. The Portuguese were enraged because these upstarts were eating up their slave trading business. They retaliated by destroying the city of Anfa, building a military fortress on its ruins some decades later. The new settlement that grew up around the fortress became known as Casa Branca, Portuguese for “White House.”
When the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 occurred, it destroyed both Lisbon and Casablanca. The epicenter was equidistant between the two cities. Thus, Casablanca was destroyed a second time in two decades.
Sultan Mohammed III rebuilt the city. He became more famous for another reason: He signed a decree granting American ships protection and free access to Moroccan ports in June 1777 thus becoming the first foreign ruler to recognize the independence of the United States of America.
Sultan Mohammed III named the town Dar el Beida - Arabic for “White House” formally adopted the Spanish rendering, Casablanca, during this era. While some French stubbornly referred to their town as Maison Blanche, it didn’t stick, and they lost that round.
Postscript: This post is dedicated to my friend Bimal Roy. He is visiting the city as this very moment.