The Belasco Theater in New York at 111 West 44th Street was built over a century ago for Broadway theater impresario David Belasco. The Belasco is still there and thriving. Anyone who loves Broadway theater has undoubtedly been to the Belasco Theater at one point or another.
The Belasco name would, strangely enough, surface during the John F. Kennedy assassination via Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald.
David Belasco was born in San Francisco. He eventually left San Francisco but other Belascos remained, and in the 1930s, a grand-daughter named Virginia Marian Belasco was living in what is now called the Rousseaus’ Boulevard Tract Landmark District.
Encompassing about two-blocks in the Sunset District, Rousseaus’ today is a block of 93 Storybook-style single-family homes constructed by the Marian Realty Company (one of the brothers was named Oliver Marian Rousseau), most of which are still in prime condition.
In 1936, a young Virginia Belasco met a young Jacob Rubenstein at a dance at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. It’s not clear if they had any romantic attachment, but they certainly did maintain a friendship. In a 1963 psychiatric evaluation of Rubenstein, Rubenstein’s sister said, “There was a sort of crazy admiration for years between them.” Belasco was said to be “wealthy” and she never married.
On December 2, 1963, Virginia Belasco was interviewed at her 1587 35th Avenue, San Francisco residence by FBI agents. The subject? The assassination of John F. Kennedy, just a couple of weeks prior.
The subject: Jacob Rubenstein, aka Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald.
