COPYRIGHT, The Republic, Columbus
COLUMBUS, Ind. — The late Tony Moravec had to be smiling as a tender scene played out Wednesday afternoon at his beloved Zaharakos that he restored years ago in downtown Columbus.
“I want ice cream,” a little girl named Anneke Van’t exclaimed to Ernst Cahn standing near the celebrated marble and onyx bar.
“You always want ice cream,” Cahn responded, bending down and holding his arms spread wide toward her.
“Because ice cream is the most important thing on earth,” the child exuberantly said.
“You are very wise,” said a grinning Cahn, sweetly scooping her into his arms.
“And cut!” yelled director and writer Robert Moniot nearby.
The conversation unfolded between actors Noah Emmerich and Imogen Hall during a day of shooting the short film “The Ice Cream Man” at the 1900 restaurant reimagined as Cahn’s Koco Ice Cream Parlor in 1941 Amsterdam. Moniot looked all over Europe, New York and Los Angeles last year for a period place with a design and decor that could pass for an authentic 1940s business before using Google to search for “1900s ice cream parlor.”
Zaharakos was the first mention to pop up. He eventually reached Moravec, who agreed to close the restaurant for a week of shooting and even put up $50,000 toward the movie budget.
“We became fast friends,” Moniot said, adding that they soon spent a week together here. “… Tony is absolutely the guardian angel in all of this.”
Moravec died Nov. 9, hours after Moniot had last spoken to him by phone.
The film highlights the story of the Jewish Cahn, a Netherlands World War II-era ice cream parlor owner who chose resistance in spite of certain death during the Nazi invasion. His arrest led to the February Strike of 1941 — the first anti-Nazi protest.
More than 300,000 workers in Amsterdam went on strike February 25 and 26,1941, to protest Cahn’s arrest at his shop, and the ongoing, forced labor of Jews by the Nazi regime. A film crew of 80 people — nearly four times the size of the “Columbus” film crew in 2016 — spread between Zaharakos and an empty Fourth Street storefront serving as a costume storage area, have been in town since Sunday.
Scenes still to be shot include a torture segment to be done at Upland Brewing Company on Lindsey Street and crowd protest scenes scheduled Saturday at Blairex Laboratories Inc. on Indianapolis Road.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic Local philanthropist and business owner Tony Moravec talks with member of his family during the ribbon cutting ceremony for Ivy Tech Columbus’ new campus building in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022.
For the complete story and more photos, see Friday’s Republic.
