This is a reblog of a post I did years ago. A fellow blogger wanted to read my post about Sinatra. As I told her I probably saw Sinatra where I paid about 4 or 5 times. I also had the pleasure of working him 6 or 7 times. We always had nice chats. I must have 15 or so of his LP’s.
Tag Archives: Show Business
VINCENT (1) (OUT&RAPID CITY)
The last performance of Vincent prior to the 1st stop on the tour, Rapid City ND, was to an audience of local TV station employees. No members of the general public at all. They were celebrating their ceasing to be an Independent that survived over the years with a host of good old sitcoms making up most of their schedule and some excellent coverage of the news.
(This was the station that was the background the Mary Tyler Moore TV sitcom.
Very good until they became the Fox affiliate here.
Have not and will not
watch it now.)
They were celebrating becoming the local station of a major TV network that dropped their previous affiliate to the rank of Independent. Now there programming on the newly restructured station would consist of bad, but new, sitcoms and biased news.
They were also celebrating the free bar provided by the network. Some didn’t bother to return from intermission. Heck, some never bothered to go in for the first act. And the network’s buy- out included a visit by Leonard Nimoy in the lobby. They made sure there was a bottle of Beefeater’s gin to make Leonard his favorite martini.
Leonard made them bring a case of beer backstage for us after the load out was complete.
And while the audience was celebrating in the lobby, and we were working backstage, a somewhat rare snow storm began. No TV station, network or local, had foretold this would happen.
Time to get my show on the road. The plan was that I would take the rental truck with the set inside to my house. I would grab a shower and little nap, grab my touring gear and go to the airport.
I had no problem driving the truck up and out of the loading dock ramp, but the hill leading up to the main street was filled with cars spinning their tires, siding around, and clogging the street up.
I turned and went through the unplowed neighborhood streets with no trouble until I came to large mound of snow that had been put there by someone clearing out his driveway. I didn’t get stuck. It was worse. The truck’s fan blew the wet snow on the engine and the engine died and the battery died when I tried to restart it.
I got to a phone booth, luckily I had some change in my pocket, and called Dennis, who was tour manger. Then I took the long walk in the snow to the Guthrie and used my key to get inside and keep warm.
Dennis got another rental, picked me up at the theater, and we drove back and reloaded the set in the new truck. Dennis then brought me back to the theater and I called home and asked my son to bring my gear to the Guthrie. Dennis got the stalled truck towed and took a cab to the airport. We loaded the set on the plane.
In those days it was cheap to have excess luggage with you. The set broke down into small pieces that fit inside small boxes which qualified for excess baggage even though it was stored in the hold of the planes. Dennis was a genius on planning that tour.
I found my seat and looked out the window at the snow banked against the fence.
The next thing I remember was the stewardess fooling with my set belt. I said I could manage to buckle it and she laughed and told me she was unbuckling it. She told me I had fallen asleep before I buckled it, and she had buckled it And now we are at my stop, Rapid City. I thanked her for her kindness.
Out the window I could see Dennis supervising loading the set boxes on a luggage wagon. One thing I did not see was snow. Just bright sunshine. By the time I got off the plane with my gear, the set was placed in a shed and Dennis said we pick it up early in the morning. He said he had a cab to take us to our hotel. We’d get checked in and have a big meal.
The hotel was the Alex Johnson, the hotel that figured in the movie, North By Northwest, and was where Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and Eva Marie Saint stayed while filming the scenes at Mt. Rushmore. It was the hotel where countless famous people, and four ghosts, stayed. The ghosts never left.
Leonard and Sandi Nimoy met us in the dining room. We ordered and Sandy had been given a tour of the hotel and regaled us with the high points.
(When she got talking about the ghosts, old Alex Johnson himself, a woman in white, and two nameless ghosts, I wanted to mention that I was on speaking terms with a ghost, Richard the Guthrie Ghost, but I didn’t.)
Eric Harrison, Leonard’s dresser and Sandi Nimoy’s ‘babysitter’ on the tour, came and sat down. He had just brought the TV sets in the Alex up to date. Out with the black and white. In with the peacock in all its glorious colors.
‘I told the manager that our eyes were so accustomed to watching color TV, and having to watch TV black and white would be too hard on them.’
He loved watching TV but not on black and white sets. He got color TV’s put in all our rooms and the management of the Alex said within the week every TV would be a colored TV.
‘It will cost them a lot. They have to have them flown in. There’s not that many in Rapid City,’ he laughed, ‘Even if they took the sets out of private homes. And they even thanked me for bring the matter to their attention.’
‘I wonder how many stations they have and what kind of programming,’ I mused.
Eric got a big smile. ‘I didn’t know you liked to watch TV, Don,’ he said. ‘You want to come to my room tonight and we’ll watch it together.’
‘I’ll pass. I was just thinking out loud,’I snapped. Eric was not too subtle in his come-ons, and it was just something I would have to continue to put up with. Just as I had to put up with some of the actors at the Guthrie. Sexual harassment in the work place was not a no-no in those days
I slept in a room right next to Leonard and Sandi’s. This sleeping arrangement continued for the rest of the tour. Even if they slept in a suite, I was in the room next to them. I was often referred to as Leonard’s bodyguard on the tour. I think Leonard liked the idea of having a bodyguard. A celebrity status symbol.
(Only once, and that was in Washington DC did I actually act as a bodyguard. A man jumped down from some stairs and went running after Leonard. I ran into the man and knocked him against our waiting car. He quickly disappeared down the road.
Oh, also there were two women who had front row seats for every performance the entire tour. They were super groupies who had been following him like that for years. Sandi Nimoy detested them and every time she saw them, so told me to chase them away. ‘Oh, oh,’ they’d say, here comes the bodyguard.’)
I wasn’t bothered by any of the ghosts that night in the Alex, and if any of our party was bothered by a ghost, it wasn’t mentioned. Most people look upon ghosts as a figment of an over active imagination, until you get on speaking terms with one of them. If Alex or the woman in white had come into my room to talk, I was sleeping just too sound to converse.
I wasn’t bothered by ghosts in Rapid City
But I was bothered by three bigots
The mayor and is two sons
And they will be a part of the next post on VINCENT
BALLET & THE KGB
I wrote three stories about the KGB. The one called KGB And The Cellist is about the great cello virtuoso, Mstisav Rostropovich. It tells of his life long battle with the KGB, a battle that he loved because even a cello was something even the KGB took second place to in the Soviet Union.
My personal contact with him took place when I was in charge of the stage at Northrop at the U of MN, the home also of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. Rostropovich spent a week with the Orchestra, a week of great Cello and laughs as he made fun of his KGB body guards.
The second was KGB And The Zamboni as told to me by Morrie Chaflan, owner and originator of the numerous Holiday On Ice productions that toured around the world. This hilarious story is told in Morrie’s words. Morrie was a great story teller. It describes how the Soviets got their first Zamboni ice rink shaver with a lot of help from the KGB. A laugh a line. And certainly one of my most popular and commented on blog posts.
There’s more of Morrie and his entrepreneurship that included buying and selling the Mpls Lakers, now the LA Lakers basketball team among other things, in the post ON ICE III.
My third KGB story was a personal encounter with a KGB agent, a woman doing double duty, as an agent and a wardrobe mistress with the touring Kiev Ballet. But alas, Word Press stepped in and the original was lost. Thus Kiev Ballet and the KGB is my attempt to bring it back to life.
KIEV BALLET AND THE KGB
Northrop found it’s greatest replacement for the Met Opera when the Met stopped touring, namely great dance, both modern and classical, US and other countries, including the great troops from Russia like the Kiev Ballet.
Jim Mc worked the in as a local union hand. Jim Mc was a good worker with a fair understanding of our end of the business. His regular job was that of a U of MN cop. When he knew we would be pressed for hands on a big show coming up, he got in touch with me and worked out his cop schedule so he could work as a hand.
If Jim Mc had a fault it was he was a talker. He talked with the same fervor as a gum chewer chews gum.
I had put him hauling the personal trunks and suitcases of the ballerinas in the dressing rooms on the second floor. A hand or two would boost the personals up to the overhang. Jim Mc would hoist it up the last bit and then bring it to the correct room. I had told Jim to keep any necessary conversation with ballerina to a minimum. But a minimum to Jim exceeded the maximum to me, by far.
I was called into Eddie Drakes’ office. The wardrobe mistress had lodged a complaint concerning Jim Mc talking with the ballerina. She demanded Jim Mc be fired at once and thrown out of the theater, never to return to work the Kiev. When I walked into the office, she stopped screaming at Eddie and turned her wrath on me. That brought a smile to Eddy’s face and he raised his ever present stein filled with a little water and a lot of vodka in a salute to me. She didn’t see it.
I was amazed. Not only did this woman facing me remind me of Rosa Klebb, main antagonist of James Bond, in the movie, From Russia With Love,by her words and actions, she even resembled the actress, Lotta Lenya, who played the part. I guess Rosa’sorganization, in From Russia, SMERSH shared a great deal with her organization in reality, the KGB. I kept glancing down at her shoes, praying killing spikes would not pop out of the front of them.
Oh, I know she was head of wardrobe for the ballerinas. But a dollar to a doughnut, her main task was that of a KGB agent. Russian ballet stars were defecting and ending up in the US, in great numbers, ever since Rudolf Nureyev started the exodus by defecting in the Paris airport in 1961. Mikhail Baryshnikov, the biggest Soviet ballet star since Nureyev, defected from the Bolshoi while in Toronto in 1974. He danced with the Canadian Ballet for a year and then migrated to the US where he was the star of the American Ballet Theater, ABT for years. Alexander Godunov, defected from the Bolshoi during a press conference in New York in 1979. And many lesser lights throughout that period.
I shudder to think what happened to those KGB agents when a defection happened under their watch. If they were lucky, they were shot. If they were unlucky, they ended up in a gulag.
(Baryshnikov lived with Jessica Lange, the American actress and they had a daughter, Aleksandra.
Lange, during this time, lived in Stillwater, Minnesota, and I saw both of them several times while shopping, and many times in later years, when he brought his White Oak Dance project to Minneapolis. His daughter, who lived in Minneapolis always visited with him at the theater. By then he could talk excellent English. He was always a pleasure to work with.)
But I digress. ‘Rosa Klebb’, I was never introduced to her so I had no idea of the name she was going under as wardrobe mistress, demanded I fire Jim Mc at once. I told her no way. He finishes the call. I laughed in her face when she accused Jim of trying to encouraged the dancer to defect. I pointed out the dancer was only a member of the chorus line and a long in the tooth member at that. Hell, she wouldn’t even qualify to join the Dinky Town Dancers. And dance instructors were a dime dozen here in the Twin Cities. Now if she plays her cards right, who knows, she might be placed in the Kiev wardrobe department.
Next Rosa suggested, perhaps he is trying to ‘hook up’ with her. I didn’t feel up to telling her that Jim Mc and his wife were happily married with a year old daughter, only to have her argue that don’t mean he had no bad intentions as regards the dancer. To prove her point she might say something like she knows men, and I would find myself laughing in her Lotta Lenya face.
I lied and told her that Jim was gay. And I thought that she was going beyond her duties by supervising the morality of the dancers.
Who supervises the supervisor?’ I asked. ‘So, say she did defect, would they transfer you to the KGB office in northern Siberia?’
She gave me a if-looks-could-kill stare and proclaimed she did not understand what I was saying. I glanced down at her shoes.
I took a risk, but the opportunity was there and I had it up to here with this woman. ‘Do you know what the KGB and a bicycle seat have in common?’ I paused and finally answered my question, ‘Because they they both make my ass tired.’
At this point Eddie Drake pulled the plug. ‘Okay. Okay.’ He held up his vodka bottle and offered a drink to Rosa, while apologizing because it probably wasn’t as good as she was use to.
She briskly told Eddie, she did not drink when she is working. ‘Well, when I’m working and a situation like this comes up, I need a drink,’ Eddie said, ‘And I have to get back to what I an paid to do. So take your BS out of my office! Please!’
‘Tell you what, Ma’am’, I said to her as we were walking out of the office, ‘ Jim Mc finishes out the day, but he won’t work any of the shows or the out. That satisfied Rosa, who did not know Jim couldn’t work show or the out. His real job as a U of MN cop didn’t let him. And if she looked carefully during the out, she might recognize the cop directing traffic around the auditorium so the semis could get out and on the road.
Next stop, second floor to chat with Jim Mc. ‘Just what in the world were you and that dancer talking about in the first place?’
‘The weather,’ Jim said. ‘We were comparing winters in Minnesota to winters in Kiev.’
I never bothered to share this harmless revelation with Rosa, who was constantly staring at me the entire week. It was evident that in her mind she had picked out a hut in Siberia that she would like to send me. Where the winters there surpassed winters in both Minnesota and Kiev…and lasted all year long.
And so wraps up
The Ballet & the KGB
and my dealings
with the later
BENNY & LARRY (LARRY)
LARRY KASPER
In a way, Larry would belong to the second tier, except he came into the stagehand in round about way, via a mop and bucket he wielded in the Corral Bar across the street from Gopher Stage Lighting. He became a valuable gofer for the company, available, not asking for a big salary, not expecting to be paid when he wasn’t working, and not expecting to get stagehand jobs out of it.
And Joey B, half owner in Gopher, was responsible for getting Larry as a gofer. And as when the St. Paul local asked the Minneapolis local if there was anyone in the local that would work in St. Paul when they got busy, Joey brought up Larry’s name, on the condition that if Joey was working there at the same time as Larry, or as Joey referred to Larry, Mule Head, they wouldn’t be on the same crew. The reason was simple.
There was a right way.
A wrong way.
And Larry’s way.
To do things
And Larry would stand and argue and argue until things were done his way. Not that his way didn’t work, it was just such a round about way to do things. And often took so much longer than doing it the right way.
Take the scaffold tower load out during Prince’s Purple Rain set- up, tear- down, and on and on for six weeks in different venues in the Twin Cities. We had to set up and take down a scaffold tower to see if it would be feasible for the tour. It wasn’t. Send it back to LA. By then, my crew and I were going on 30 hours without a break, except for eating in spit shifts before when we finished the game with the darn tower. Then we had to get it ready to be loaded on the flat bed truck.
Larry was the fork driver. The flatbed driver told him how he wanted everything loaded. Larry argued and told him how he wanted to load it. Now, as we watched this drama unfold, it was plain to us that either way would be okay.
(Just load the goddamn rig
so we can go in the hallway and lay down on some
packing blankets.)
Larry got the driver mad and it became a ridiculous argument between two mule heads. It went on for almost an hour before the driver caved and told Larry to go ahead, just load it so he could strap it and get on the road for LA. Task finally completed. and just as the driver was about to climb into the truck, the work lights went out, the stage lights came on, and the music began. Prince’s rehearsal had begun. Larry took off to the catering room
The driver swore up a storm. He asked us how long before the rehearsal stopped so he could get the big door open and drive out of the building. He swore up a storm when we shrugged our shoulders and suggested coming back in the morning. ‘Well, I can get out, can’t I? I got to see if I can get my motel room back for another night and call LA to tell them I’ll be little late… 24 hours late.’ He looked around. I don’t see that SOB now. I suppose he someplace laughing about the trouble he caused me.’
‘No. He’s up eating. He didn’t cause this delay to get you mad. It’s just his bullheaded nature. That why we call him Mule Head.’
‘Mule Head!’ the driver shouted. ‘No! A big horse’s ass.’
Larry was also very surly to most people, especially the young St. Paul stagehands. He liked to tease them.
(‘Run and get me a hammerfor. What’s a hammerfor? Well, most people use it to drive nails.’)(‘Run and ask Paul to borrow his left handed monkey wrench’)
He never picked on any of my sons or nephews though. I don’t know if it was because he liked their work ethic or because they were my family. Or both.
His family, aka wives, was as convoluted as Benny Miller’s ozone machine. There was six marriages but one was to a previous spouse. That double blest spouse was a medical doctor… And a very attractive woman. Nobody ever figured that union out.
During one of the marriage spans, they had a son. Or maybe they had a son and then got married or remarried.
Once, when the lad was about sixteen or seventeen, Larry brought the son on a call to show him how his dad made a living. And to show off his son to us. Nice kid, polite, easy to talk to, interested in what we were doing. Someone suggested that he should put his name on the hiring list and get some good paydays to help pay his way to college. Larry found out and we never saw his son again.
It was either the fourth or fifth wedding that Larry invited his favorite stagehands to attend. Not the ceremony, but the reception afterwards. Free food and drink and dancing. It was held on the top floor of a building by the bus depot. There was a good turnout.
And as you approached the stairs going up to the shindig, there was a big sign.
It basically said: the bride-to-be called off the wedding but the party was still going on as planned. If you are bring wrapped gifts put them on the big table and take them back home when the party is over. If you planned to give a gift of money, put it in your billfold or perhaps your wife’s purse. It gave no reason why the wedding had been called off, but ten to one, it had something to do Mule Head wanting his way.
(Bill K liked the way the gifts were handled. Bill had three weddings and the first two involved gifts. The first was shortly before he was sent off to fight in Korea. His ‘dear john’ was in the form of a divorce and a note saying ‘Sorry’. When asked about the wedding gifts, Bill said he never gave them a thought. She kept them all. Must have thought the honeymoon was gift enough.
His second marriage was a few days before pheasant hunting opened in South Dakota. He tried to explain to his new bride that he had to go because he always went. He got back to a divorce citation. His mother said the bride sold all the wedding gifts to her, and offered to give Bill any of them back that Bill might want. He only took a decorative beer stein and an electric blanket. The bride kept all the gifts of money.
His third marriage was a winner and lasted until his wonderful wife died of cancer.)
Larry thanked me for turning him on to AA meetings. Not that Larry ever abused liquor. Just the opposite. Larry would nurse a drink of VO and water while the other stage hands went through three rounds of beer and shots.
(Bill K loved to ask if you knew why Larry only drank VO whiskey. Because it was the only whiskey Larry could spell.)
I had told Larry about the poker games that the AA held after the Saturday meetings. My dad had been one of the instigators in setting up the games. Larry became a regular. Never gave up his VO but chewed gum to hide any whiskey breath. He no longer took any stagehand calls that would interfere with his poker games. Dad said Larry never talked much at the games and was a better than average player.
Larry’s win or losing at the games had no influence on his stagehand work. He was still a surly Mule Head on the job.
Then one day the call steward couldn’t reach Larry. His phone had been disconnected and his apartment vacated.
It was several years later I discovered that Larry was a full time poker player in Laughin. Nevada. I ran into him by accident at the Edgewater Casino just as he was about to enter the poker room. He conversed a short time with me as if he had never upped and left. Couldn’t figure out why anyone back in the Twin Cities missed him. Because from his point of view, he didn’t miss any of us. He said he lived in Bullhead City across the Colorado River. Didn’t invite me to visit him and as much as told me if I was going to play poker do it someplace else. He was just as surly as I remembered and I bet just as bull headed.
Most of the stagehands were glad he left town, but not me. He always seemed to give me something to amuse me.
And so ends
Benny & Larry saga
a couple of unforgettable
stage hands
BENNY AND LARRY (BENNY)
Benny & Larry (Benny)
There was three tiers in the Union when I came along. The first tier was hands that came out of vaudeville, like Benny Miller. The second tier missed vaudeville but worked some burlesque and saw the jobs for hands in theaters consisting mainly of changing bulbs and repairing seats, like Larry Kasper. They also saw the advent of touring plays and musicals, which they worked. The third tier, to which I belonged saw all hell break loose with touring shows getting bigger and bigger, and touring rock concerts becoming gigantic. Rapid advancement in the technical part of show business, like sound in those rock concerts, and computers in all departments. I was blessed by the fact I worked with all three tiers and learned their methods.
BENNY MILLER
Benny was a legend and Bill K saw to it Benny’s legend was passed on to those who never got to work with Benny.
Benny’s overalls: Benny would put on a new pair of bib overalls in early summer and that would be his attire until the next summer. Bib overalls have a multitude of pockets and Benny managed to fill each pocket. Bill quipped that when Benny died, it took six months to probate his overalls. Bill said if you needed something chances are Benny had it. Ask him for a piece of chalk and Benny he would ask you, ‘What color’.
Benny had a garage filled with things he couldn’t fit in his overall. The garage had shelves of cubby holes, each with a bread loaf pan of the same size nails, screws, nuts, bolts, etc. Shelves of larger pans with theatrical needs such as stage pegs, fastening hasps, bent nails for holding the hasps together etc. Pegs which held spools of trick line, bolts of muslin, ropes of various sizes, electrical cords, etc. On the walls were telescopic stage braces and lengths of 1×3 slats used to make stage flats. A virtual theatrical hardware store.
Several times hardware dealer tried to buy this inventory. ‘No’ Benny said, each time,’That belongs to my union. When they need something, its theirs for the asking. When they need a place to store, my garage is theirs for the storage.’
Benny never married; but rumor had it, many of the night cleaning ladies in the theater, were happy to be in his harem.
Benny had a sister, his only family outside of his union brothers, who he liked very much. His sister had asthma. Benny came up with an idea that would help asthma sufferers while they watched a movie. Ozone in the theater’s duct work. This was before AC so nothing was coming through the ducts during the asthma season. Once this was proven to work, Benny would then make portable machines to be used in the home. Benny didn’t plan to get rich off this scheme. He just wanted to help his sister and other sufferers.
He spent weeks working in the ducts, string DC conductors, leaving gaps between them so the current would leap to the next conductor, creating ozone which would then drift in to the theater.
(Neither Bill nor myself pretended to understand Benny’s concept but we just went along with it in the story. Why question and ruin a good laugh.)
Benny never got to test it though because just before he was almost finished, he saw on the Pathe News Of The World short that ran before a movie, how ozone was presenting a grave danger to our planet and its people. It didn’t take very long to tear it all down and Benny stored everything in his garage.
One day, Benny confided to Bill, that he was working on an engine that would run on air. That’ll be the engine that will bring man to the moon.
‘Well, Benny,’ Bill said, ‘One big problem. Once you get up so high there’s no more air.’
Not to be deterred, Benny just took off his fedora and scratched his head, and replied, ‘Well, I still got some details to work out yet.’
Benny was an excellent carpenter. He was put in charge of a crew to build a temporary extension on the stage at the Prom Ballroom because the upcoming band was too big for just the normal stage.
The promoter came by and asked for the bill. Benny said to wait and he get it. Then he pulled out his hammer from the overall’s hammer loop and crawled under the stage. A noise of of hammering and nail pulling and some grunts from Benny, but soon Benny came out dragging a two by four. He handed the two by four to the promoter and told him the bill was right there on the wood. And it was. The facts started at the top and ran almost to the bottom.
The promoter accepted them and paid the bill. ‘Guess I better transpose this to paper,’ he said, ‘I don’t think the IRS will accept this piece of wood to show a legit business expense.’
When Benny died, he left everything to his sister with the proviso, she would never charge the union for any of his collection that they might need. And she would accept anything the union might bring over to store.
Like I said, Benny Miller stories were legend and I wish I could remember more of them. The ones I told were ones I wrote down when I first heard them from Bill when we worked together in the booth at the Guthrie. Bill was on sound. I was on lights. And there were a great many different stage mangers that Bill made laugh with his stories like his Benny Miller tales. And ever time he told one, I had to laugh even though I had heard it several times before.
Next up
Larry the Grouchy
Mule Head
ELEPHANT FOR HIRE
Missy
Elephant for Hire
We first met Missy, the elephant, when she came to the Orpheum with the great magician, Harry Blackstone, Jr.. Such a gentle, easy to like animal. And it was apparent she felt the same way toward us. Her handler, Rusty, explained since she had little contact with other elephants, she showed her affection toward human beings.
Rusty had come through once before as the handler of a tiger used in David Copperfield’s magic act. Rusty gained no friends among us because of his attitude; but then again, any one around Copperfield and friends gains an attitude. Just the opposite with Blackstone. He was one of the nicest person in the business and those working with him immolated Blackstone’s attitude. Rusty became a very well liked roadie to us after the Backstone week.
Missy, and Rusty, came out of a animal rental ranch in California. She was often rented to go on tours like Blackstone’s because an act certainly couldn’t afford to buy an elephant for the tour. Blackstone turned Missy into a beautiful woman in the same vein as Copperfield had turned the beautiful woman into a tiger’
Missy was also a favorite rental for TV and movies, because of her attitude. If she was just used as ‘wallpaper’ in a scene, she always behaved as ‘wallpaper’. If she actually had something to do, she was a quick learner and never acted up if there was take after take.
When it was learned there was to be an elephant on stage, a city inspector had to approve the stage was capable. Dave M, house carpenter, said there was many times over the years elephants was on the stage. The engineer pointed out that the stage was a lot older and brittle than years ago. The outcome of was the okay, the stage was fit to hold Missy. Actually, he pointed out. A small woman wearing stiletto heels was a greater risk to the stage than an elephant with it’s broad feet.
All the hands took to Missy but we learned to avoid stand directly in front or behind her. A belch or a fart from her directly could really curl one’s hair.
When Dave M asked Rusty if his son and daughter could come and pet Missy, Rusty said sure and he’d even give them a ride on her. Over the course of the week, the kids got quite a few rides on Missy. Several years later when we learned Missy had killed a man, Dave M lost it, screaming how could Rusty allow kids to ride on a murderous beast. Then he lost it again by declaring that he knew Missy could never kill anybody. And he really lost it when he was told they had to execute Missy for killing the guy.
We found all this out when we were working Janice Jackson at the hockey arena. Rusty came as the handler to the black panther in her act. Naturally, first chance we had to talk to him,we asked about Missy. That’s when he told us she killed a man and had to be executed.
What??? Come on, not Missy!!!
The nightmare started when one of the two brothers that owned the hiring-ranch married the secretary and they went on a three month safari in Africa. Chuck, the brother who stayed home, hired Karl, who had been lion tamer in several circuses, to help out on the ranch. A couple times he found out that Karl had abused one of the animals. Chuck said one more strike and Karl was through. Karl was through alright. Chuck found him dead, his chest caved in and evidence that Missy had been severely abused. She was leg-cuffed with a long chain and a bullhook, an item forbidden on the ranch, was next to his body. The sheriff didn’t give a damn if the animal was just retaliating from the abuse. He gave Chuck three days to execute Missy.
Chuck laid in bed that night, staring at the ceiling. And then, a plan came to him and he spent the rest of the night figuring how to work things out.
It centered around an animal protection documentary about ivory poachers. Sadly, there was no problem finding killing grounds filled with the remains of slaughtered elephants, robbed of their tusks and the carcasses left to rot in the bush. But what they wanted was to show the ruthless of the poachers by having an animal shot for very small tusks. Not really shot, just acting like it was shot. Chuck told them he had just the elephant for the job and told them to give him ten days and then they could fly both him and Missy to an African killing field.
It turned out, Missy didn’t need ten days. He trained her to walk along and falter at the first gun shot. Keep walking, but falter again at the second and fall dead at the third. Perfect! This learning was all done on at the ranch. Just like the spot where Chuck could say he shot and killed Missy. And he had a copy of the film he made for the producer’s okay. To add spice he had his friend, Fetterman bring over his carcass truck. It was a huge flatbed with a powerful wench and used to transport large animals like steer or a horse or even a buffalo to Fetterman’s Fox Farm. Food for the foxes.
Chuck’s wife filmed the last shot. The truck, Fetterman’s Fox Farm boldly painted on the side of the hood and running along the cab, drives slowly by. There is the huge orange tarp strapped to it, covering a huge bulk, big enough to be an elephant. As it passes Chuck, looks down and kicks the dirt. And this film was Chuck’s proof to the authorities that Missy was executed for her crime. They were satisfied that Missy got what they said she deserved.
And what about Missy. They certainly can’t keep her hidden?
Well, Rusty looked around as if to check that nobody else is listening, if you ever see an episode of that Tarzan show that is filmed in Mexico, you might see a familiar figure. This elephant is in almost every one. Sometimes she’s just wallpaper to fill out the jungle background. Sometimes she has an action bit. Sometimes both.
Her name is Senorita and she docile and quick to learn, and the most popular for-hire elephant on that for-hire ranch serving Mexican TV and movies. Rumor has it, Mexico’s great comic actor, Cantinflas, is suggesting Senorita be taught El Toro charges and instead of doing his famous bull fighting comedy routine with a bull, he’ll do it with an elephant. It never came to fruition but Senorita had her moves down pat.
And thus wraps
the tale of
Missy/Senorita
A favorite elephant
for hire
Stay tuned for more
Elephants
In Show Business
ELEPHANT IN VAUDVILLE (II)
Elephant in Vaudeville II
As told by Old George,
The agony in that roar! I’ll never forget it; and all the lights dimmed, adding to the panic. The main curtain was closed to allow the set- up behind it. There were two comics on the apron doing a stolen act about baseball. They both dove in the pit. The skinny one landed in the string section. The chubby one in the percussion. Some of the audience hit the panic bars to the nearest exits and ran out of the building. When the cop on the beat asked what in the name of Blarney caused that roar, all he got was a lot of mumbo-jumbo about a mad elephant; and he said he was going to jail the one responsible for pissing off the poor beast.
I was in the wing directly across from the elephant and while I couldn’t see what led up to the roar, I did hear the gush of the animal’s water. Thinking she was going to run directly across stage, I headed up stage toward the loading dock.
The poor critter had the same idea and cut cross on the diagonal. She busted through the two backdrops that were in, the one for her act and the one behind that for the act following.
There were sets and props in her way and she turned them into toothpicks. I skidded to a stop just in time to miss any debris from the the door to the loading ramp flying in pieces, followed by the loading dock door to the outside explode. I ran up the ramp and out of the building in time to see Tantar run across Hennepen Avenue, causing a driver to hit the brakes, twist the wheel, and jump his car on the curb, lest he be broadsided by an elephant. I kept running to follow her.
And as I was running, I asked myself why. I couldn’t say nice elephant and bring her to a halt or warn anyone in her path to get out of her way. I guess the answer was because I could. I wasn’t a stagehand, or I would have to be helping Big Irv and his crew cleaning up the destruction. I was still just a kid gofer following a rampaging behemoth, not your every day experience. I soon realized where she was headed. The big pond in Loring Park. I was the one who brought her here the second day she was in town.
Will had asked me if there was a lake or river nearby that Tantar could bathe in. There was, but the pond in Loring Park was closer. Early the next morning we went there, and almost every morning since, Will and Tantar went there. Sure enough, she was standing in the pond with only the upper parts of her body showing. Will had parked the truck and trailer on the street and was walking down to the pond.
‘We’ll leave her until she decides to come out, George. The water is calming her down. I sure don’t want her to do the performances left today. Tomorrow she’ll be ready.’
She was ready… but not willing. Each time he got her close to the loading dock entrance, she balked and roared and backed up. Day after day was the same. Tantar would not enter the theater. She was okay performing on the street and okay giving rides to the children. And when Trader Jack&Company went to the next gig and the next gig, she did everything but enter the theater.
‘Looks like your stuck with an elephant who hates vaudeville, Will, and I’m stuck with another dog and pony show,’ &Company said after a good month of catering to this elephant. ‘Time to call it a wrap to Trader Jack&Company.
‘I made a deal’ she continued, ‘and bought a Great Dane bigger than the pony. He’ll do what the pony does and evidently do more tricks than just let the dogs jump on his back. I’m having new costumes made with a lot more skimp than my usual. Make up for the loss of the elephant with more sex in the act.
‘And I am sick of being called &Company!’ she said, raising her voice.’ ‘ I have a name, Will, in case you or anybody else cares. My name is Cecelia, Will. CeCe for short. The name of my new act will be CeCe&Company, dog and pony show extraordinaire. Hell, I might even pick up lose change by buying a saddle and giving kids rides on the Great Dane.’
‘Sounds like a good plan, &Co… CeCe.’ He reached out and touched her hand. ‘ I better get thinking on my next move.’
‘Did you think I’d leave you without a plan, Will? No. Now Trader Jack and Sheba, ( that name, Tantar will bring back too many bad memories), will work the petting zoos across country in time so you get to San Diego before autumn ends. Work the petting zoos around San Diego and La Jolla. Who knows, you might even end up owning your own petting zoo. You both will like the petting zoos better than the Vaudeville stage. There’s no DC hot pockets in petting zoos.’
Over the years I got my stagehand card and worked with Big Irv and the others. Got to work CeCe&Company several times before the geek acts killed Vaudeville. Will Strothers never came back the town, but he would sent word, filling me in on the petting zoo that he and his wife and kids run, and how they got two younger elephants for giving rides and they put Sheba out to pasture. He says she likes retirement…no hot DC pockets; but she does miss giving the kids rides. and Will should know, he’s an elephant whisperer.
And thus puts a wrap
to Old Georges tale
of the
Elephant In Vaudeville
Stay tuned for more
Elephants in Show Biz
ELEPHANT IN VAUDVILLE (1)
When old George finally retired after almost 70 years as a stagehand, all in the same theater even though the theater changed owners and names many times during George’s employ, he did in retirement, as he did when working, he sat in his special booth at the Napoli restaurant and talked to anyone who cared to listen, even if he had told the same stories over and over. A lot of stories from his 70 years as a stagehand.
Here’s my favorite, about the elephant in Vaudeville, prefaced by how young George started working, first as a gofer and eventually a stagehand, when he was barely ten years old.
As Told By Old George
(many times)
Yup, when I got to be ten I knew it was time to earn more money than I had been by mowing grass and shoveling snow. I heard about the bill poster who worked out of the basement of the Hennepen Vaudeville House, in downtown Minneapolis. And how he had a lot of kids posting handbills for him. I went to the theater to try and get paid for posting bills.
Bills were advertisements for a coming attraction like a circus or a big name entertainer, politicians before elections. A kid took a canvas sack full of handbills, a brush and bucket of paste. You pasted the bills on any surface, a building, a fence, a light pole, over a previous posted handbill, but never on a US Post Office street- mail box. And throwing any away or bringing any back was the end of the job for the slacker.
The Hennepen, aka the Orpheum, was a first class vaudeville house on the Keith-Albee circuit presenting the biggest names in the business like the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, etc.. Three shows a day, noon and two in the evening. Seven days a week. When I got there, they were loading in sets and drops for some upcoming acts. I stood there and watched, fascinated. Waiting to sneak in that loading dock door and get to the basement.
‘Hey, kid’, the big guy, obviously the boss, came up to me and said, ‘Go to Cal’s Hardware…You know where Cal’s is?’ I lied and nodded yes. ‘ Tell him Big Irv needs six stage pegs and a spool of trick line. And get it back here in a hurry.’
I tool off running and asked the first cop I saw where Cal’s was. Mrs. Cal took care of me and I made good time getting it back to Irv. Irv flipped me a nickel and told me to run to the saloon down the street and tell em Big Irv wants a quart of beer. This time Irv flipped me a dime and told me I was a darn good gofer and I should hang around the loading door or the stage door. I did and made more money than I could have posting handbills, with a lot more fun and variety. And I got quite an education. Learned things I never would have learned in school or catechism.
The elephant story started with a hoofer, song and dance man, named Will Stromers. He hung around backstage by the front masking leg hoping an act would get sick. or not show up on time and they would put him on stage. Hoping to break a leg.
(Break a leg means get past that first masking leg and onto the stage. You didn’t get paid until you broke that leg. So to wish a person good luck, you tell him To Break A Leg.)
Will Stromers was a hustler. Fair entertainer, but one heck of a poker player, especially on hands that he dealt.
(Will and I hit it off from the start. He tried to teach me his brand of poker, a little slight of the hand with the cards and a way to read the other players. He had a tough tine getting me to do the slight of hand bit but I learned the reading the other players by his telling me in great detail every move in his two biggest hands, winning a share of the &Company act and winning his elephant.)
On one such hand he told me about was how he cleaned out Roper of Roper&Company for Roper’s share of the act. He now owned half of a above average dog and pony show, as well as a half interest in a Model T Ford and a big trailer to transport the act that also could be place to sleep in if the money was tight. He had an interest in &Company. She was a looker and was the big attraction when she was on stage. She was a looker even when she was wearing her bib overalls to work in. But his interest in &Company was just like Roper’ strictly wishful thinking. Roper warned him, try to come on to &Company and she’ll sic the dogs on you. She had a partner in the act, not in bedroom.
In the act, Roper had worn a Stetson hat and cowboy clothes while he did rope tricks.
When Will flopped at trying to twirl a lasso, &Company suggested that Will wear a sombrero and Mexican cowboy clothes and a fake bandito mustace, learn to crack a bullwhip and do a lot of pointing. The act became Carlos&Company.
Learning to crack the bullwhip was both pains taking and painful. The pony hated him and was forever trying to hit him with its hind legs. &Company warned him to just learn to jump out of the way and never try to retaliate. The audiences loved it.
The act broke legs all around the big circuit. Will still played poker but for small stakes and on the up and up.
Until the day Will walked to the stage door and saw Timbo and his elephant Jimbo. Timbo was beating on the elephant with his bullhook and poking Jimbo with the sharp end. ‘What did he do to get a beating like that?’ Will asked.
‘Just giving her a pre- show wake-up call so she does okay in the act. Wake up, you son of a bitch!’
‘Is that its name?’ Will asked. ‘I thought its a female.’
‘Yeah, but the son of a bitch answers better to that name. My grandfather gave her this name when he bought her for me.’
‘Your grandfather?’
Yeah. I use to be a song and dance man until the old man saw me perform. Figured I’d go farther with a different act. Bought this animal and hired a circus roustabout to teach it tricks.’
‘And to teach you how to beat the crap out of her,’ Will mumbled. ‘Say, there’s a friendly poker game in the green room after the last show. You like poker?’ Will asked stretching the truth, knowing full well this jerk’s ego compelled the jerk to believe he was a real card shark.
The first thing Will had to do to have the promised game was to round up some others to play. &Company said sure, and so did four stagehands.
Even when he wasn’t dealing, Will used his skill to see to it that &Company was winning and Timor was losing. He left the hands fend for themselves.
The sun was just cracking when Will was ready to go for the jerk’s jugular. Seven card straight, Will dealing. Will gave Timbo ace up, two aces in the hole. Will showed a two of hearts. The next three cards gave Timbo a pair of eights and a smile to his face. He bet big, forcing everyone to fold. Almost everyone. As he was reaching to pull in the pot, Will met the bet, emptied his pockets and borrowed more from &Company. Timor called. He figured a raise here might cause Will to fold.
It looked like Will was betting a flush. The final card. Down. Timor’s pair showing, gave him first bet. Will followed by seeing the bet and raising. Not enough money to raise, he used his interest in Carlos&Company in order to raise and get more collateral to continue.
&Company quickly gave him a dirty look and a kick in the shins.
The bickering over the worth of Carlos&Company resulted in Will calling and another raise. A big one. Timor was hooked and Will was reeling him in.
Timor put up the elephant, the trailer, even the Tin Lizzy. Not afraid to bet it all because he trusted his aces full. He laid down his hand and told Will to show his flush, which Will did, pulling out the necessary deuce. As Timor reached for the goodies, Will told him to forget the flush and look at his four of a kind deuces.
‘Ain’t they beauties?’ Will smiled. ‘Looks like you’ll have to get another grubstake from grandpa,’ Will added.
‘Yup’, Timor said, in disgust. ‘Tell you what, you grubstake me enough to get to grandpa and I ’ll give you the extra feed for the son of a bitch, the saddle kids can ride in, the bullhook’…
‘You can take the bullhook and sit on…hard. Bring it with you and grandpa can use it for a fireplace poker.’ Will could have argued that all that came with the elephant anyway, but he just wanted this jerk gone.
‘And throw in the safari costume and anything else pertaining to the act and its a deal,’ &Company said.
Timor started walking across the street to the bus station. Will went and whispered in Jimbo’s ear. Jimbo raised her trunk and bellowed. Will found out two things: he was an elephant whisperer and that elephant loved him.
&Company laid out the new act. Trader Jack&Company. Will would wear the safari outfit, bring Tantar, the new name, on stage to join &Company, the dogs and the pony. Until Tantar could do tricks to fit the act, Will would do a of pointing, get the elephant to accept dog jumping on her, and staying away from the kicking pony. But the pony stopped kicking at Will after the elephant warned it to lay off the kicking.
&Company was genius, the new act was a smash and when she upped the price of the act to make up the expense of Tantar, the promoters were happy to meet it. Prior to the matinee and between the performances, Will sold rides to kids to add to the act’s coffers.
And then came the matinee where the elephant was in the wing waiting to go on, and she pissed in the hot pocket that the side lights were plugged into. DC current no less. Would have killed a man, but the elephant jumped forward and pulled free.
(Old George always smiled at this point. ‘Took a while,’ he would remark, ‘But I got to the elephant in Vaudeville story like I promised. I’ll finish up in a bit.’ And then, as always he lit a Camel cigarette, poured a fresh cup of coffee and leaned back, smiling thinking what he would tell in a bit.’)
Stay tuned for the conclusion
ELEPHANTS IN SHOW BUSINESS
Elephants are in the working class of animals that include horses, camels, dogs etc. They are the biggest and as such, can do the heaviest work. And as they are so big they are the costliest to feed.
Their strength is their great asset. Their tusks are their great liability. Ivory! Poachers kill the animals just for their tusks and leave nature take care of the bodies.
Elephants are a means of transportation. A smoother ride and a better disposition than a camel. Over the years, elephants have become valuable in various countries in many fields of labor such as pushing train- cars in train-station yards. They are used in teak harvesting in Burma. They move through the forests without the need for a road, even in the muddiest of conditions. Unlike tractors they do not destroy the land and the trees.
Elephants are symbols of good luck and peace. History is filled with elephants given as gifts between rulers. The King of Scotland to the Anglo ruler of Britain. Louis IX of France to Henry III of England. Invaders like Alexander the Great and Hannibal received elephants as peace offering from the rulers of the lands they conquered.
Both these men used elephants in their marches to conquer their known worlds. Elephants were used in the Crusades and thus became favorites of the Popes. An albino elephant was given by the King of Portugal to Pope Leo X at the Popes ordination.
In the early 17th century, a female elephant named Hansken toured Europe performing tricks, thus introducing elephants to show business, both as performers and workers setting up circus tents etc..
The standard of
elephants in show business was
JUMBO
Jumbo was born in Sudan. After two poachers killed his parents for the ivory, the poachers took the young calf to an Italian exotic animal dealer, who then brought it to Trieste and sold it to a German zookeeper who quickly sold it to a Paris zoo. It was the first African elephant to set foot in Europe. All the countless other elephants that Europe experienced were Indian elephants.
A big reason for this elephant being sold so quickly was the animal was growing and growing and was eating more and more.
Jumbo was it’s name. As he soon became larger than any other known elephant, the name ‘Jumbo’ was used to depict anything of extra large size like jumbo shrimp or jumbo jet.
The youngster was ill cared for in France and arraignments were made to have it treated in London by Matthew Scott, who went to the French Coast to pick it up. Scott had never encountered a sicklier beast. Sore all over. Feet rotten, on the brink of death. Scott brought Jumbo to his stable outside London. Months of 24 hour days, hard work, veterinary expertise, and whole lot of love brought Jumbo into the realm of good health. Scott had worked a miracle. And fought to have the young giant stay in London.
The head of the London Zoo, Adam Bartlett, negotiated the trade of Jumbo from the Paris Zoo for a rhino, a jackal, two eagles, a pair of dingoes, a possum and a kangaroo”.
Jumbo was enclosed in a circular cement enclosure. He hated it! He actually wore down his tusks rubbing them against the wall. Scott suggested finding a sweetheart for Jumbo. One was found on the west coast of Africa and brought to London. Barely four years old, Jumbo fell in love at first sight with ‘Alice’ and the two became life long companions.
They also became the Zoo’s most popular attractions. Children of all ages flocked to see the pair for the almost 17 years the two lived at the London Zoo under the watchful eye of Matthew Scott. While Alice was the size of most female elephants, she could almost walk under Jumbo’s stomach.
(When Jumbo died his shoulder height was 10 ft 7in.
His weight was almost 7 tons.)
Both Jumbo and Alice loved the water and Matthew Scott go the Zoo to build a concrete pool big enough for the two could cavort to the delight of the zoo attendees.
Jumbo had two great loves in the zoo, Alice and children. A conveyance was strapped to his back and children were given rides. Winston Churchill said he rode Jumbo several times. Queen Victoria never rode him but she enjoyed watching him.
During one ride,a little tyke broke free from his mother and ran to Jumbo. Jumbo stopped immediately, reached out and clasped the child in his trunk. When the screaming mother got close to Jumbo, to ‘rescue her child’, Jumbo picked the lad up with his trunk and then set it down next to the astonished mother. He loved little ones.
He also loved Matthew Scott. It was Jumbo’s first tour of the US, a tour arranged by PT Barnum. It meant separating Jumbo and Alice and both tried to break free and reunite. Both on the ocean voyage and the tour itself, Scott spent almost all the time comforting the grieving behemoth. The two got drunk together.
It was in Ottumwa, Iowa, when Scott and Jumbo heard a tremendous noise. Thirty elephants had pulled their stakes out and were stampeding towards Jumbo’s special tent.
Jumbo grabbed Scott and, went to the gate of the enclosure. The herd of mad elephants came at him. He stood firm after placing Scott between his legs. He stuck out his trunk and fought off the black mass of animals trying to get out of the enclosure.
Scott couldn’t begin to imagine how many innocent people on the ground, Jumbo saved from death. Scott knew for sure that Jumbo had saved him from certain death.
I wish Scott would have told us in his book what that many elephants were doing in Ottumwa, Iowa, but he didn’t. He just related the incident.
PT Barnum learned a lot from that tour. Jumbo would be a big hit in the US. And Jumbo had to have Alice and also, if possible, Matthew Scott.
(Barnum was a hustler all his life. At age 60, he bought a circus and revolutionized circuses for good. Move them cross country by rail. Parade it to its location. Set it up in at least 2 tents. The big tent, aka the BigTop, another one for freaks and oddities, and a special attraction like Jumbo had its own special tent. With the exception of the merchandise tent, each tent demanded a price to enter, as did the entrance gate where the tickets were sold.)
Barrett, head of the London zoo was relieved when he sold Jumbo and Alice to Barnum. He was elated to hear Scott proclaim, ‘I go where Jumbo goes’.
Jumbo was growing cranky and both the elephant and his trainer were drinking too much. Jumbo liked his booze, a habit he picked up from Scott. Barrett looked upon Jumbo as an accident about to happen. Knowing the sale would evoke an uproar, he sold Jumbo anyway.
(Barnum paid 10,000 and made it all back in the first three weeks, booking the circus in Madison Square Garden .)
The sale did cause a turmoil in England. Over 100,000 school children signed a petition to Queen Victoria to stop the sale. She tried but couldn’t. Jumbo was lost to England forever.
Barrett quickly bought two elephants that could carry children around the zoo. Winston Churchill never said if he rode one of the new elephants.
Drunk or sober, Jumbo was a big attraction in the US and Canada.
It was in the railroad classification yard in St. Thomas, Ontario where Jumbo was killed. The circus performances in that locale were over and the loading of the acts an equipment was underway. Jumbo was walking along a track with a young elephant, Tom Thumb when a train came barreling down on them. Jumbo tried to pull Tom Thumb to safety but the train hit Jumbo broadside and killed the beloved animal. Tom Thumb suffered a broken leg.
And thus ended
Jumbo
a hero in his life and in his death
and the most famous elephant in
Show Business
Elephants in all phases of their use suffer horrendous abuse. Their food is substandard. They are often cuffed on one leg, the legcuff attached to a chain attached to stake in the ground. The legcuff too often cuts into the animal’s leg and just it’s presence keeps the elephant from lying down and sleeping.
And then there is the BULLHOOK, a long metal or wooden rod with a sharp metal hook at the tip, much like a fireplace poker. This hook is poked in the animal’s skin, legs, side, head. It is used as punishment and also as a training weapon to teach an elephant how to work or how to do tricks.
If a bullhook is not handy the abuser grabs anything nearby, like say, a club or even a pitchfork that was used in the London Elephant Abuse Case, a trail that brought elephant abuse to the eyes and horror of the world.
In 2011 all elephants were banned from from circuses along with other wild animals like lions and tigers that were ‘trained’ to perform tricks unnatural to them, like sitting on a stool or standing on a ball. Country after country banned their use. In 2017, Ringling Brothers circus did away with all animals, even performing dogs and prancing horses.
Did that stop elephant abuse? Sadly it continues today in public zoos and private ‘ranches’. Take Anne the elephant in the abuse trial. She was placed in a compound where there wasn’t another elephant within miles. Elephants are family animals. They need the companionship of other elephants. Anne basically was placed in solitary confinement.
I have stories
both personal and related to me
both funny and sad
of elephants
in Show Business
which I will be posting
over time
NEVER KNEW SPOCK
I was watching Leonard Nimoy in an episode of Twilight Zone the other night. He played a GI in Corrigador. He had mud all over his face and a total of six words.
Leonard served in the army. He joined just after he got a acting part in Queen For A Day and a ballplayer in TV’s Rhubarb. Money was tight. So were opportunities to act.
The advice given him to forget theater in Boston and New York. California is where it is at. Huh!
He served 18 months in Fort Ord, then service in Fort Benning and Fort McPherson. He served in the Special Services Division, a branch devoted to entertainment and ‘soldiers with talents and a backgrounds in acting, music, and writing were encouraged to provide entertainment for their comrades’. Leonard had a background of acting in the Jewish theatre sphere in Boston, where he also studied acting at the university there. All this combined to keep him in the US instead of getting shipped to Korea.
He was discharged in 1955 with the rank of Staff Sergeant and an urge to continue to act. During those army years he acted in many movies produced for the Armed Forces.
Back in L.A. he got more and more work and bigger parts. TV was in it’s infancy and multitude of new series demanded more actors.
In addition to roles as GI’s. Leonard Nimoy, son of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, raised as a city boy through and through, got many roles playing native American Indians. Sometimes a bad Indian. Sometimes a good Indian. He just had that kind of face.
In 1964, Leonard Nimoy had a small part in The Lieutenant, a series created and with some episodes written by Roddenberry. When Roddenberry saw Nimoy’s face, he didn’t think Indian, he thought alien. In 1966, when he was working on his hoped for new series, Star Trek, he remembered Nimoy and cast him as the Vulcan Spock. Leonard was the only actor in both the pilot and the series.
A big change had to be made after the pilot because Jeffery Hunter, the lead in the pilot, quit. His wife, Barbra Rush, wanted him to go back to movies. Heck John Ford liked him and he had even played Jesus in one movie. Never happened. He got roles in TV series like Daniel Boone andThe Green Hornet, but not movies. He tripped and hit his head and died of a concussion at the age of 42.
In the revisions the network for Star Trek the network, NBC,said Spock had to go. Those ears…Too satanic. And Nimoy was too wooden. Roddenberry fought, defended the ears and pointed out Nimoy was not wooden, only ‘logical’ and it took a hell of an actor to pull it off. He won. The series went to a different starship with William Shatner playing the main role of Captain Kirk.
Shatner had been performing since he was 5. He had small parts in a few motion pictures, and a good background in live theater at Stratford in Toronto and on Broadway. He had many small roles in TV and was the lead in The Twilight Zone in the episode where he looks out the window and sees a monster on the wing, trying to destroy the plane at 20,000 feet, and he is the only one that can see the monster..
Shatner had a great deal in common with Nimoy starting with his family were Lithuanian Jews. While he achieved stardom in Star Trek, he continued his career and even today he’s pestering he wants to do an well aged Captain Kirk.
Nimoy has many recorded albums that shows off his singing talent. Some of the songs are from musicals like Camelot and Fiddler On The Roof, that he starred in on various stages. Shatner sang a bit but recorded spoken- word albums of songs. Nimoy wrote books of poems. Shatner wrote a series of scifi novels. Nimoy directed many Star Trek movies along with others like Three Men and Baby. Shatner directed several based on his scifi novels and one Star Trek, #V,
The two remained friends for most of their lives. As they grew older, they went to a lot of Star Trek conventions and during one Shatner had secretly filmed Leonard and used the footage in a documentary he was producing. Their friendship ended.
I met Shatner at a private party in La Jolla. He had came to the ‘Vincent’ performance. He professed that he ‘just loved it’, a fact disputed by Sandy Nimoy. She said he slept through most of it. Sandy said Shatner was jealous of her husband and tried to top everything accomplished. When Leonard introduced me to Shatner, filling him in on my contributions to ‘Vincent’, Shatner shook my hand quickly and went back telling Leonard his latest accomplishments. “Well, what do you think of Mr. Cold Fish?” Sandy asked me later. “Shatner is civil only to people he thinks can help him out”, she said.
I never watched Star Trek. Too busy when it was running and I really wasn’t a scifi fan. I was aware that Leonard Nimoy was a big hit playing an alien in it. In spite of all the movies and TV hours Nimoy spent entertaining vast audiences, the majority of people remembered him as Spock, first and foremost.
Not me. I never knew him as Spock. So when I worked with him off and on those three years, he was Leonard Nimoy to me, a talented actor and my friend.
When we took out Vincent the first Star Trek movie was finally slated to premier, and one of the major rumors was that Spock died in it. Nimoy was constantly bombarded with questions about the movie.
Is it true that you will never play Spock again? How does Spock die? Say, didn’t you use to be Dr. Spock in Star Wars? Etc! Etc! Etc!
He held fast and said he would only field questions about Vincent, in Iowa. I had to the set up in the evening as a background to a TV reporter doing an interview with Leonard. The first thing the would be Barbra Walters did was to tell me and the hands to keep silent. Now it is impossible to put up the set and hang the lights in silence so I just told the hands to find a place to hide.
Twice she asked what happens to Spock in the movie. Twice Leonard refuses to answer, stating questions about Vincent ONLY. The third time Leonard steps up to the cameraman and tells him reload so he can catch the entire scope without a break to reload.
Nimoy then steps back and relates how in the movie the starship lands on earth. Spock visits a museum that contains many paintings by Van Gogh, including a self portrait with after he cut off is ear. Spock is so taken by this work of art, he takes a knife and cuts off on of his own Stupid F@#+ing ear. Believe it or not, that ace reporter broadcasted her scope on the late news.
And so it went
over and over
always remembered first
as Spock
Leonard titled his first memoir
I Am Not Spock
TINA TURNER
On April 5, 2023 Harry Belafonte died
On May 1, 2023, Gordon Lightfoot died
On May 24, 2023, Anna Mae Bullock, aka Tina Turner died.
Thus the common show-biz
belief that deaths come in three
was fulfilled
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
This pop icon was just a teenager when she came out of the audience and requested to sing in Ike Turner’s band. Request denied. Not to be denied. She jumped in and sang with another act in the concert.
Turner was sold. He signed her, changed her name to Tina Turner, a name he then copyrighted, and featured her in his act. Audiences loved to hear her sing and Ike loved to beat her around, out of jealousy and the fact he could without reprisals from this underdeveloped naive teenager. When she told him enough was enough, and she was leaving, he grabbed a wooden shoe stretcher and wailed on her. But on stage and on records, the two were big hits, breaking out of the ‘Chitling Circuit’ into the show business world of desegregated audiences. They arrived when Phil Spector produced their breakthrough single, ‘River Deep – Mountain High’. They entertained the likes of artists like Elvis Presley, Elton John, Mick Jagger, etc., in their Las Vegas mansion.
Jagger says he got his dance moves by watching Tina Turner.
Life was good for Ike, in the 70’s, but Tina wanted her freedom from this vicious tyrant. The divorce was finalized in 1979. Ike ended up with two cars and the rights to her stage name, something she fought for. She got the rights to the name by forgoing all claim to royalties earned from their time together. The judge tried to talk her out of it, but she wanted her stage name even at the great cost. It was her first, but not last, attack on the lesser rights of women.
The early 80’s saw her struggling with a few hit singles and albums. In 1984, her album, ‘Private Dancer’ changed her from just another pop artist into Tina Turner, a unique force in the music business. When the album was dubbed her comeback album, she laughed and said it wasn’t a comeback, it was the arrival of the real Tina Turner.
She was 44 when the album came out, an age most would have considered over the hill for a pop artist. She said she never thought the song ‘Private Dancer’ was about a sex worker or she might not have sung it. But then again, she commented that we hav all been placed in situations where we sold ourselves one way or another.
The album included her great hit that won the Grammy as Song of the Year, and was her only #1 hit, ‘What Has Love Got To Do With It?’.
Her life has been told in three memoirs she wrote: in a jukebox musical entitled ‘Tina’, she corroborated on and which won a Tony on Broadway and a Olivier in London: and she also oversaw the the acclaimed documentary,’Tina’: and in the bio motion picture, ‘What Has Love Got To Do With It’, starring Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike. Tina not only had a hand in writing the screenplay and she did the singing while Bassett mimed it. The movie was Bassett’s first and won her a Golden Globe ward as Best Actress and an Academy Award nomination in the same category.
Tina Turner, in addition to a Extraordinary career as the most successful female rock artist ever, (with record sales over 60 million, seven times Grammy Award winner, and having sold more concert tickets than any other female performer in history, twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall 0f Fame, first as Ike & Tina Turner and 30 years later as Tina Turner, a solo performer, recipient of countless honors musical awards both in the US and Europe, ), acted in 61 movies, mostly action films, and prime time TV series. She was honored with a Kennedy Center Award and other prestigious awards both in the US and Europe. Other honors: named the 17th greatest pop singer by Rolling Stone Magazine. Appeared on the cover of the second Rolling Stone Issue and many times after, John Lennon was on first issue cover. Received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bern. Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings wrote their hit, ‘She’s a good hearted woman in love with a good timing man’, after reading an article about Tina and Ike, the two timing man. Her rendition of ‘Golden Eye’ was the theme for the James Bond film of the same name.
And in 2020, Mattel released a Tina Turner ‘Barbie’ doll.
In her later years she married a German music executive, Erwin Bach, they had lived together for 27 years prior, and the couple moved to Switzerland. Three weeks later she suffered a stroke and had to learn how to walk again.
Her health deteriorated at a rapid clip over the years due to kidney failure and intestinal cancer among other major illnesses. On the evening of May 24, 2023, she died.
I only worked her once. I did not really meet her, but the wardrobe people said she was sweet and easy to talk to. The roadies said the same about her.
As far as working the show, I can say ‘working’ is the right word. What with the action of changing sets and costumes, it was like a beehive. We were all huffing and puffing, but Tina was cool. She just went about singing and dancing without a problem.
In an interview with CBS, Tina Turner was asked if there was anything more in life she wanted. She replied, ‘When asked if there is anything more in life that she wanted, she replied, “No. I have everything. When I sit at the Lake Zurich in the house that I have, I am so serene. No problems. I had a very hard life. But I didn’t put blame on anything or anyone. I got through it, I lived through it with no blame. And I’m a happy person.”
And having achieved
true and lasting happiness
her greatest wish was
‘to help others to become
truly happy
as well’
And thus a wrap on these
three artists
who did with days of each other
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
On April 5, 2023 Harry Belafonte died
On May 1, 2023, Gordon Lightfoot died
On May 24, 2023, Anna Mae Bullock, aka Tina Turner died.
Thus the common show-biz
belief that deaths come in three
was fulfilled
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
There are many singer/songwriters that hail from Canada, but without a doubt, the most proficient of them is Gordon Lightfoot. He may have written more well known songs than the rest combined. And these songs have not only been recorded by Lightfoot, they have been covered by countless artists. To put a tag on them, they fused folk with pop and country rock. Nothing pretentious. Just down-home songs anyone can identify with.
Take his ‘Early Morning Rain’. As sung by him, his rich baritone voice backed by his 12 string acoustic guitar stamps it as a Lightfoot hit. His lyrics stamps it as a piece of life a lot of us identify with.
Have you ever been away from home and lonesome.? Have you ever identified with Kristofferson ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’? If so, you can also identify with Lightfoot’s ‘Early Morning Rain’? The first was written by an Rhodes scholar, ex Army helicopter pilot, working as a janitor Columbia Record in Nashville while trying to break through as a singer/songwriter, refusing to work in the well paying field of education lest it divert him from his dream in music. On Sundays, he walked the streets of Nashville for recreation.
The second by a Canadian lad who formal education ended with a study of jazz composition in Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles. On Sundays he would go out to the airport and watch the planes take off, knowing that one of those planes that would someday bring him back home to Canada. He always visioned taking a flight to Toronto in the early morning rain.
Both songs were hits for the composers, although for Lightfoot, not so much in the US. His biggest hit record in the US was ‘Sundown’. Not that he wasn’t known and liked in the US. He was played constantly and his albums were always popular, as was his concerts. Both songs had countless covers by a variety of big name artists from all genres. The cover of ‘Sunday Morning’ by Johnny Cash surpassed the original by Kristofferson. And the cover of ‘Early Morning Rain’ by Elvis Presley way surpassed the Lightfoot version and the cover by Peter, Paul, and Mary is the only Lightfoot composition to be a #1 hit in the US.
Lightfoot loved playing in front of live audiences. His tours included the US and Europe, as well as his beloved Canada. These tours were not only self-satisfying, they introduced his new songs and showed him what worked and what didn’t. The new revisions showed up in new albums. The tours were also fertile ground to work on new compositions.
I worked more Lightfoot concerts than any other musical entertainer. My first Lightfoot concerts, ten in all that week, came during the off-season at the Guthrie, my first year at the Guthrie. I worked at least two Lightfoot concerts every year until I retired, well over a hundred all toll. My last Lightfoot concerts were two were two sold-out (5,822 seat hall) at Northrop Auditorium just before I was forced to retire due to leukemia.
Up until then I had experienced good health, which was not the case for Gordon Lightfoot. The work, the hours, combined to sink him into alcoholism which sometimes clouded his mind, his talent, his relationships and weakened his immune system.
He was fortunate to have a caring brother to steer him, acting in the roles of stage/tour/business manager and guardian angel.
In addition to both being 12 string guitar virtuoso s, Gordon and Glen Campbell had something else in common, a mirror-image brother who was also their main man.
Gordon Lightfoot had attacks of Bells Palsy, a condition that left him unable to sing until it left him. He developed serious heart problems including a stroke which almost ended his career. Heart problems that eventually ended his life.
I witnessed some of his hard work to overcome the effects of the stroke. He was slated to give a concert at the State Theater in Minneapolis. The local hands were called in early in case the show had to be canceled and packed up. Lightfoot was on stage with his band. He had reversed his hands in his playing his guitar. Not that he would be able to handle more than a small strumming, an illusion of his usual work, while the real playing came from the guitarist in the band. His brother, watching in the empty house, gave the okay and the show went on that night with few of the audience ever the wiser about the change.
Lightfoot had so, so many admirers among his peers. In 2012, he joined a small group of Canadian performers, Paul Anka, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell inducted into the US Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Anne Murray, a Canadian songstress, with 4 Grammys and over 56 million albums sold world wide said he was a role model for Canadian entertainers. “”He was really proud of the fact that he and I stayed at home and had international careers. Neither one of us wanted to go anywhere. He thought that was wonderful.”
Gordon Lightfoot was elated when Bob Dylan covered ‘Early Morning Rain’ in his album Self Portrait. He was really elated when Bob Dylan said Gordon Lightfoot was one of his favorite songwriters. Dylan said his personal Lightfoot favorites were ‘Shadows’, ‘If You Could Read My Mind’, and of course ‘Sundown’. Dylan said he liked listening to Lightfoot and wish the song would never end. Dylan, the first and only winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature based on his song lyrics, said, after Lightfoot’s death, that Lightfoot never made a bad song. Dylan mentioned the themes of loneliness and suffering in the search for happiness in relationships. He gave ‘ Sundown’ as an example.
The song is not about love but about jealousy. Jealousy of the lifestyle of a prostitute, Cathy Smith. The same Cathy Smith that would go to jail for supplying the lethal dose of heroin to John Belushi. At sundown, while he was busy working on new songs, she hit the bars to drink and carouse. Hardly a love song.
‘If you could read my mind’ is certainly his most personal song he wrote. The song came to him while sitting in an empty house in Toronto that he and his 1st wife, Brita, had moved out of and he was now trying to sell. The year was 1969. The marriage had taken place in 1963 and deteriorated almost at once. The divorce came in 1973 and produced two children, Ingrid and Fred.
The song reflects his personal grief and loneliness and grief.
‘I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost
That you can’t see’
This song has been covered over 200 times by artists like Streisand, Glen Campbell, Johnny Mathis, and Johnny Cash.
Lightfoot liked railroads and wrote about Canadian railroads in songs like ‘Steel Rail Blues’, and the Canadian Railroad Trilogy, a work commissioned by the CBC in honor of Canada’s Centennial year. It depicts the optimism of the railroad age and the sweat and blood it took to build the railroad from ocean to ocean.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
The wreck of
the Edmund Fitzgerald
The Edmund Fitzgerald set off from the port of Superior, Wisconsin on 11/10/1975, carrying 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets that eventually would end up in a steel mill near Detroit, Michigan. The taconite was squeezed out of the leavings in the Mesabi Iron Range near Hibbing, Minnesota, the town where Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan was born and raised. It was converted to pellets in a smelting plant there and shipped by rail to Superior and loaded on the Fitzgerald. Big Fitz had logged 787 round trip voyages on the Great Lakes up until then and was the prima donna of the fleet.
The weather forecast was typical for November and the predicted storm was slated to miss the Lake altogether. It didn’t. It hit the Fitzgerald about 1am with vicious waves over ten feet tall. By 3am the winds were over 50 and carried a snow blizzard. Two other ships helped the Fitz to what would be a safe port, but at 9:30 pm all contact was lost. The Coast Guard radioed the two ships to start looking for survivors. There were no survivors.
On 11/14/75, the US Coast Guard found the wreck and determined that all hands, 29 veteran seamen had lost their lives. The bell from the ship is in the Mariner’s Church in Detroit and is tolled 29 times each dusk to honor the men of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Gordon Lightfoot, who spent many hours of recreational sailing on Lake Superior, was inspired to write his ballad, ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ after reading an article about it in the 11/24/75 issue of Newsweek. He wrote and recorded it December of 75.
Lightfoot says it is the favorite of all his songs that he wrote and recorded. He has very few people agree with him, citing his works and recordings like :Sundown’ and ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ as their favorite Lightfoot hits. This view is backed up by the lack of any major artists covering the song. But the view of being the favorite rings with the Mariner’s Church, aka Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral of Detroit.
May 1, 20, 2023
The bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Tolled
30 times instead of 29
The additional toll was to honor
the man who immortalized
it in song
Canada lost a hero
And all of us
lost a great
Artist
THE GHOST OF THE GUTHRIE reblog 10/24/23
If you are looking for a ghost story to scare people sitting around a campfire, this isn’t it. Nor is it a cute story of a friendly ghost like Casper or a bumbling ghost like Cantorville. This ghost didn’t drag the chains of miserhood like Marley, nor carry with him an icy aura of fog like Hamlet’s father.
It’s a tale of a young man who resembles most young men that are bothered by depression, but this young man took the final step to cure it and is lost in the in-between.
Every theater worth its salt has a ghost. We had one at the old Guthrie Theater. His name was Richard Miller.
Bullied in school, ignored at home, Richard was a loner all 18 years of his life. He discovered skiing and it became his passion. Freedom. Excitement. There was people around him, some even envious of his skill; and he didn’t have to interact with them. He was gaining confidence, self-esteem. And then he took a bad fall. He worried that he might never be strong enough, physically or mentally, to ever ski again.
He did work up enough courage to enroll at he U of Minnesota and to get a job as an usher at the Guthrie Theater. Being a student was a disaster; but he loved being an usher, helping people without having to interact with them. His fellow ushers respected his distance and his desire to not mingle with them. He loved the plays and concerts. He was feeling good again.
But gradually the hell he was experiencing trying to stay in college began to outweigh the peace he was experiencing as an usher. Severe headaches! Severe depression! Until…
He borrowed money from his mother on the pretext of buying ski boots. Then he went to Sears and bought a gun instead. He parked his car in the far corner of the Sears lot. And he ended his life.
In the letter he wrote, he asked his parents for their forgiveness for what he was about to do. And he asked that he be buried in his Guthrie usher uniform. He said the hours spend at the Guthrie were the best times he ever had in his life. His parents complied with his request.
The parents offered to buy his uniform from the Guthrie; but it was not necessary because that style uniform was going to be replaced in a few weeks. The Guthrie was doing away with the old fashion uniform with epaulets and braids. The new uniforms would not be ornate and brown, but simple, and a dark blue color.
After Richard’s death there was occasional talk of a ghost haunting the theater, but such talk occurs in many theaters. And nobody connected the possible haunting with the death of Richard Miller. It wasn’t until a small group of ushers used a Ouija board to contact the Ghost of the Guthrie, that the legend became ‘fact’.
Many of the ushers lived commune style in an old house not far from the theater. They lived only for the day and their motto was: A little wine, a little weed. That’s all we need. Oh, also some munchies.
Kevin, the Guthrie House Manager lived there also; but unlike the others, Kevin was also a grad student a the U, and was working on a thesis concerning ghosts in the theaters of America. He got Scott H. and two other ushers to help him find out if there indeed was a ghost in the Guthrie. He promised them a little weed, a little wine, and they said fine. Oh, also some munchies.
After the show that evening they hid in a room until they were sure everyone was out of the theater. Then they set up a folding table and four chairs. Kevin took the Ouija board and planchette out of a cloth sack and began to explain how it would be used and expounded on his research and paper to date. The other four each had a glass of wine from the carton and passed around a joint.
The atmosphere was perfect for their project. The only lights present were the various red exit signs and the ‘ghost light’, a low incandescent bulb on a mic stand to prevent anyone who had to go into the dark theater from getting hurt in the dark. It was the last task stagehands always do before quitting for the night. Kevin called his crew to order.
The first question asked if there was a ghost in the theater. To the surprise of the four, the planchette went to the YES. That got their attention. What is the ghost’s name? The board spelled out RICHARD. The wine glasses were drained and the joint passed around before the next question. The four looked out in the house where the ghost light was projecting a weak glow and creating weird shadows. Kevin asked softly, ‘Where is the ghost now?’
SUGGEST LOOK TO THE TECH ROOM
The term ‘tech room’ stumped them until Scott thought maybe it meant the lighting/sound booth. He said he looked to the back of the house, to the booth above the last row of seats in the balcony. He pointed and froze. The others looked to the booth.
The booth was dark except… There was a figure of a man standing in a hazy glow. Either he was in the booth proper or was floating high above the seats in front of the glass of the booth. He lifted his arm and waved.
The wave broke the ice. Kevin managed to grab the board and planchette but everything else was left as the four broke for the side door.
Mickey, a shop carpenter, came on stage in the morning to put the ghost light away. When he saw he went into the shop and got help removing the remains of the night. The only thing not mentioned when the story went around the theater of what they found on stage, was the dime bag of grass. Scott thought Mickey maybe pocketed that for himself.
The name Richard was connected to Richard Miller. Sightings became more frequent and believed without a doubt by the Guthrie employees. Some customers called to complain about the usher that stood in the Alpine Slope aisle, Richard’s favorite aisle to work, to watch the play, or to walk up and down during the performance, to help if needed.
For Instance, one customer called to extend thanks to the usher who pointed out that his cars keys had fallen on the floor by his seat. And usually such callers thought the usher was perhaps the head usher because his uniform was a different color and fancier then the others.
At various times he was seen by actors, musicians, wardrobe people, and stagehands. Cliff, the head shop carpenter, was the last person you would think who would believe in ghosts; but after he got off the elevator to the supply room on Level 8 and saw a figure standing in a hazy glow at the far end of the room, he quickly got what he came for, went back in the elevator, and became a staunch believer.
Joey B., the stage carpenter, had at least two encounters with Richard, both times in the little Green Room in the basement. The first came when he popped in for a cigarette. He saw a figure in an old usher uniform standing in the corner. Joe said he thought maybe he was having a problem with his eyes, the figure was kind of hazy.
‘Look’, he said to the ‘usher’, ‘This room is off limits to you guys. I won’t rat you out but…’ The young man said he was sorry, and according to Joe, just disappeared into thin air. When it was explained to Joey who he had chased from the little Green Room, Joe scratched his head and said, ‘Well, I’ll be damned!!
The second time was when an actor asked Joe to look in the little Green Room for a prop, a little money sack, that he would need later on in the show. He looked all around his dressing room and figured maybe he had dropped it when he was in the little Green Room. Joey looked around the room and didn’t see it. Just as he was about to give up, a voice said, ‘Joe, suggest you look on the floor beside the sofa.’ Sure enough there it was.
Joe looked to where the voice came from and saw the now familiar figure standing in his hazy glow. ‘Thanks, Richard,’ Joey said and brought the prop to the actor’s dressing room.
No one ever accused Richard of trying to scare anybody on purpose or of doing anything malicious. For the most part people were startled, not scared, by an encounter with the Guthrie ghost. Sometimes well after the fact.
An actress new to the company had lucked out and found a parking place right in front of the theater. It was raining hard when she ran to her car only to find that her car wouldn’t start. After several tries there was a knock on the window. A Guthrie usher was trying to tell her what to do. She opened the door and told him to get out of the rain.
He did and suggested she wait a bit and then hold the gas pedal to the floor when she pushed the start button. It worked. She asked the usher if he had a ride and he said no. She asked where he was going and he said down by Sears. She said she would take him. When she stopped at the red light at the end of the block, she turned to talk to the young man; but there was no one in the car with her. She hadn’t heard the door open or shut and there was a wetness on the seat where the usher had sat.
She told the story in the dressing room the next day. The dresser asked her what kind of uniform the kid had on. When she described it, the every one in the room agreed that she had met the ghost of the Guthrie and filled her in on Richard. She screamed! But she confessed at the end of the season, each time she drove past the Guthrie’s main door, she looked to see if Richard was standing there. She never had a chance to thank him for his advice.
Some, like Oscar, a college student and the evening Stage Door man, were deathly afraid of meeting Richard. When Oscar checked at night to see that all the proper doors were locked in the theater he carried a machete with him. He said he wasn’t afraid of running into anybody who shouldn’t be in the theater, he carried the machete in case he met Richard the ghost.
We pointed out to him that a ghost has no substance, just vapor. He could swing at Richard all night and only cut air. I told him about the old saying that you should never bring a knife to a gun fight, and I added, or to an encounter with a ghost. Oscar realized what we said was the truth and he gave his two weeks notice the next day.
A few took a meeting with Richard as just a matter of fact. Eva, an older, very proper, extra got on the backstage horn during a performance and demanded to Milt, the stage manager in the booth, that he teach that young ghost, Richard, the proper etiquette of theater.
She told how she had to exit down the Stage Left tunnel, hurry to her dressing room, change costumes, and hurry upstairs for a backstage crowd entrance. She said she almost missed the entrance because that young ghost, Richard was standing right in her way in the tunnel. She had stop and ask him to please move.
‘Well, did he?’ Milt asked.
‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘But only after going on and on about how sorry he was. Then he just… Dissipated. Poof! You have to instruct him proper stage etiquette. He could have caused me to be late for my entrance.’
‘And how do I get in touch with him?’ Smoke signals?’
‘Of course not,’ Eva said sharply. ‘Just leave him a note on the Call Board.’
‘Okay, I will,’ said Milt, ‘But Eva he’s just a ghost. If he ever gets in your way again, just run right through him.’
‘I will not! That would be rude!’
Milt quickly turned off his talk button so she wouldn’t hear us laughing up in the booth.
And then there others who joked about possibly encountering the ghost.
After each time I had to lay out on a catwalk thirty feet above the stage or stand on a full extended extension ladder to hang or focus or work on a lighting instrument, I swore that if I ever met Richard I would ask if he would want to work on the crew. He would have no problem floating up and doing that kind of hairy work. Joey B always agree with me that Richard would love to work on the crew.
I was up in the catwalks, just finished with the electric’s change over into the next evenings show, and was heading to the elevator on Level 8. I stopped when I heard someone say, ‘Hi, Don.’
He was surrounded by a hazy glow in the center cove area. But he wasn’t standing on a catwalk. He was floating over the hole thirty feet above the stage floor.
I answered, or at least think I did, ‘Hi, Richard.’ Then I turned forgetting all about taking the elevator past where Richard was, and walked back and climbed down the ladder to the booth. I took the long way to go down to the stage that night. And later, while having a much needed beer in the Dram Shop, Joey B asked me if I had offered Richard a job on the crew.
‘Ah, darn it,’ I confessed, ‘It completely slipped my mind.’
Over the years there was always some ritual to help Richard cross over into the next world. There was a minister, then a priest, a rabbi, Wicca priestess, even a Druid. None of the rituals worked longer than a few weeks except for the Druid’s.
The Druid was an Irish-American actor from Chicago, who one night after a lot of refreshing drinks up in the Dram Shop loudly proclaimed that he was a Druid. He grabbed a broom handle for a staff and announced he was going on stage to exorcise the ghost of Richard Miller.
From what I heard it was a show to behold. A lot of shouting the same Gallic words over and over along with some altar boy Latin and a lot of banging the ‘staff’ on the stage floor. Ended with some Xrated Chicago language ordering Richard Miller to begone and never darken the door of the Guthrie Theater again.
The spectators loved it and bought drink after drink for the Druid. It didn’t go well with Richard though. The very next performance a few customers complained about an usher standing at the top of the Alpine Slope and actually booed when a certain actor made his first stage entrance.
Then a Native American shaman was enlisted. I had quit the theater so I wasn’t around when the shaman performed his ritual. It started at sunrise and went until sunset. Spectators walked in and out of the theater proper and watched the dance, listened to the drum and the singing, smelled the smoke from a small charcoal burner that was fed with different kinds of grasses. The spectators all agreed, it was a beautiful show. And it worked! Richard Miller was never seen again. The Guthrie had lost its ghost.
I have mixed feelings. I am happy for Richard that perhaps he has finally crossed over and is at rest at last. Yet I am sad at losing him. Richard was an important member of the old Guthrie’s family and history for over two decades. But I am also glad that Richard wasn’t around when they tore the old Guthrie building down. That would have really shocked his system. I know how it affected mine.
There’s a new Guthrie Theater now. It is an exquisite theatrical complex on a high bank overlooking the Mississippi River. I know Richard would never have gone to the new theater. It lacks some important things that the old theater had – memories. Memories for Richard, memories for those of us who were fortunate enough to have worked in the old Guthrie.
And to those of you who do not believe in ghosts, I offer these words of Shakespeare’s Hamlet for you to ponder:
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
That are dreamt in your philosophy.
And that’s a wrap.
WAILING CUZ A WAYLON (reblog)
Recently, I have carried on a conversation with JC of B.C. Canada, (My Favorite Westerns on WP), about the folk group The Byrds and the artists that went solo after the breakup.
I have also been asked by Lloyd Marken of Australia, (Back To The Drawing Board on WP), to name some of my most unforgettable concerts I worked as a stagehand.
This reblog contains both topics. From back in the day, here’s my post:
@The Guthrie
When the original Byrds were breaking up, people figured that Roger McGuinn would be a big solo act. Sue Weil, the promoter for the Walker, was one of the first to book him. She booked him for 2 shows at the Guthrie, and as a front act, she booked Waylon Jennings. Later she confided to me that she had never heard of Waylon when she booked him.
Well, I had heard of him and so did most of the people who bought tickets, especially those wearing cowboy boots. In fact, most of the people who bought tickets had never heard of Roger McGuinn, the main act.
Waylon put on a show and a half during that first show. I liked it, and so did the audience. The first act usually played just half hour, forty five minutes, but the audience didn’t want Waylon to quit. I got an order over the backstage squawk box to bring up the house lights. It came from McGuinn. I told him I only take orders from the promoter. Sue came on and told me to bring up the lights as soon as Waylon finished the song.
When McGuinn came out for his set, the first thing he did was make a crack about how the front act must think he was the main attraction. Some people stood up and left. McGuinn just stood and stared at them. More people walked out. Finally he started to sing. A lot more people walked out. The more he sang, the more people walked out. By the end of his show, there was only about a quarter of a house. He didn’t bother to do an encore.
Between the two shows, I went backstage. I could hear McGuinn screaming in his dressing room. Waylon’s manager was standing in the hallway listening. When he saw me, the manager smiled and invited me out to the bus to have a beer. Tour buses were still scarce. First one I was ever in. The manager told everybody who I was and gave me a beer. Waylon offered me drink of tequila, I declined. Somebody passed a joint to me, I declined. Waylon hadn’t bothered to stay backstage to watch McGuinn’s set but a couple who did had already told Waylon what had happened.
Waylon’s manager filled him in the discussion between McGuinn and Sue, the promoter. McGuinn had demanded that Waylon not play for the second show. Sue said no. If he played he could only play for 15 minutes. Sue said no. He couldn’t take any encores. Sue said no again. The second show would be just as the first show. McGuinn said if that’s the case, he wouldn’t go on. Sue said fine with her. The audience seems to like Waylon better than McGuinn anyway. She was sure Waylon could do the show by himself. And, she pointed out, she would sue McGuinn for breach of contract. Sue said it would be a win-win situation for both the audience and her. Everybody in the bus laughed and hoped McGuinn would stick to his threat about not going on.
The second show of the night was no different than the first show. The cowboy-booted audience stomped and cheered Waylon on. McGuinn called the booth again and told me to bring up the houselights. I again told I only would take orders from Sue. Waylon did his gig, did one encore, and left the stage. He called the booth and thanked me, said he was leaving right away and would see me someplace down the road.
Just prior to going on, McGuinn called up the booth yet again. He told me to leave the houselights full on so he could bad mouth anybody who left early. I once again told him that I would take orders only from Sue. She came on and told me to do just the way we always do.
When McGuinn came out, instead of just going into a song, he started out by saying he was tired of listening to shit-kicking caterwauling, and asked the audience if they were in the mood for real music. Now I never heard anybody yell ‘Fire’ in a theater, but McGuinn’s words came close to it. And once again, instead of just going into a song, he bad mouthed the people leaving, which only served to have more people stand up and leave. He just stood there staring. Finally the people that wanted to leave had left, and the few that stayed waited for him to start performing. His second show was shorter than his first. Again, no encores. He just stomped off stage.
I worked Waylon many times over the years, both as main act, and as a member of the Highwaymen. The last time I worked Waylon was at Mystic Lake Casino. The sound man tried but he couldn’t resurrect the old fullness of Waylon’s voice. And Waylon didn’t bother to play the mean guitar that got him his start in show business. He just strummed it. It was obvious that the ‘good times’ had caught up with him. He never announced it but it was his last tour. The press announcement was he quit the touring to be close to his family, not that his health was failing. In the few years he had left he lost a leg to diabetes, but he showed his children the value of education. He went and got his GED diploma. He died way too young, but he left a us good music and memories.
I did work McGuinn again, once. He was front act for Bob Dylan. He behaved himself. Maybe he had finally matured. He did have some success over the years, but nothing like Waylon’s. For that matter, nothing like David Crosby whom he personally fired from the Byrds. And his personal legacy probably will never equal that of Gram Parsons, whom he also personally fired from the Byrds. Seems he loved firing as much as he loved covering Bob Dylan hits.
Now the biggest thing going for him is his web site called FOLK DEN. I enjoy it. He is trying to keep a lot of folk songs from being forgotten. Now, I might forget some of the songs that he sings on his site; but I will never forget working him at the Guthrie, when he tried to get Waylon Jennings fired, and the two audiences fired him instead.
TONY BENNETT-AGE 95+ (Reblog)
On July 21, 2023, we lost a great singer, an ardent Civil Rights activist, and one hell of a nice guy. Tony Bennett died.
Up until now, I have not interrupted my series of blogs concerning Harry Belafonte; but it is only fitting that I do so with a reblog about Tony Bennett. They both had so much in common. The same age and life span of 96 years. Children of the Great Depression, Harry Belafonte grew up in Harlem, NYC, Tony Bennett in Astoria, a working class neighborhood in NTC. Served their country in WWII. Used the GI Bill to study for their dreams of making it in show business.
Both reached the top with their musical ability, albeit in different genres. Belafonte in calypso/folk. Bennett in pop/jazz. Both were discovered and helped by Pearl Bailey. Both, in spite of failing health, continued to contribute, in words and actions, right up to their deaths.
And both were Civil Rights activists from the get-go. Both marched shoulder to shoulder with Martin Luther King in the fight for equality in our country.
In 1965. prior to the third and decisive Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Harry Belafonte recruited Tony Bennett to march. Bennett needed no persuading.
Tony Bennett, Coretta Scott King, Dick Gregory and Harry Belafonte were guests of honor during M.L.K Gala at The Atlanta Civic Center in Atlanta Georgia, January 13, 1982.
On 4/5/2009, on an anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, the two honorees in the annual A Great Night in Harlem held at the Apollo Theater, were 92 year olds, Harry Belafonte and Tony Bennett. Both were honored for their lifetime achievements in the Arts and in their Civil Rights Activism.
On 11/28/2012, both men were honored at the UNICEF Snowflake Ball for their work with UNICEF.
Both men received the Kennedy Center honor for Performing Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom and were also honored by the United Nations.
And now we have lost both of these giants.
But their art and humanity
Lives On.
Tony Bennett – Age 95 +
On his 95 birthday, Tony Bennett with Lady Gaga performed at Rockefeller Center. They did another show the next day. The advanced billing proclaimed it was the last time Bennett would ever perform. His son/manager, Danny Bennett announced that because of age frailty his father official retired. He did not mention that his father was afflicted with Alzheimer’s.
A month later Tony cut an album, Love For Sale, with his costar Lady Gaga.
Singing was an important part of his life even as a youngster. At the age of 10, standing next to Mayor La Guardia, Anthony Dominick Benedetto sang at the opening of the Triborough Bridge in New York City. Even though he had to drop out of school to help support his family, he continued to try and advance his singing career by working as a singing waiter and going to amateur singing contests, landing a small gig at a club in Paramos, New Jersey, under the stage name Joe Beri.. And all the while trying to earn a decent wage in Hoover’s Depression, a impossible task that made him an outspoken Democrat from then on.
When he tuned 18 he was drafted. The War in Europe was nearing the end. The Battle of the Bulge had reduced the German Army to slow combative retreat. The Allies were pushing the Germans back to their Father Land but at a heavy cost on both sides.
In March of 45, Benedetto was sent to the front in the 255th Infantry Regiment which had suffered enormous casualties in the Bulge and continued as it led the assault to push back the Germans to their homeland and hopefully their surrender. As Tony described the fighting as a ‘front row seat in hell’. House to house, hedgerow to hedgerow. Wondering if the next dawn would be his last. Somehow he escaped death and physical damage. But the insanity caused Benedetto to be an outspoken pacifist from then on.
He took part in the liberation of a German concentration camp which held a number of American POW’s. This event only increased his hatred of War.
After VE Day he was assigned to Special Services as a singer. But that plum duty was short lived.
He was seen dining with a soldier, a friend from high school, a black soldier. Demoted for this US Military ‘crime’, he was transferred to a desk in Grave Registrations. Funny, while he couldn’t dine with a black soldier, he could work on registering the proper graves of the dead soldiers, regardless of their color, religion, or any other difference. This punishment did nothing to change his acceptance of people.
Nor did he take a hiatus from his goal of being a professional singer. He found he could entertain in the military by using his old stage name, Joe Beri.
His discharge brought Tony a chance to advance his singing via the GI Bill. He enrolled in the American Theater Wing, a school more dedicated to the theater arts rather than the teaching of music, especially pop music. He was taught in the bel canto method, a 19th Century Italian Operatic school of preserving one’s natural voice and respecting both the melody and lyrics.
He adopted the style of certain musicians, like Stan Getz and Art Tatum. And he followed Frank Sinatra’s respect for the lyrics of the song, No crooning like Bing Crosby but crisp and precise pronunciation of each and every word.
There were several recordings done in a small studio under the Joe Beri name, but none took off. Pearl Bailey hired Tony to open her show in Greenwich Village where Bob Hope saw him and hired him to go on tour. Hope told Tony Benedetto to shorten his name to Tony Bennett. After sending a demo to Columbia he was signed by Mitch Miller to help fill the void of Sinatra who had just left Columbia.
The first Columbia recording for Bennett was a cover of The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, accompanied by the Marty Manning Orchestra and it had a modest success, which prompted Miller to have Bennett work with Percy Faith.
Faith, the originator of ‘easy listening’ put a lush arraignment to Bennett’s singing Because of You, a song from the movie I Was An American Spy. Ten weeks #1, way over a million record seller. Tony Bennett made the big time. With the song still on the charts, Tony did something he would be known for his whole career, he introduced himself to a brand new audience..
Hank Williams was the hottest C&W artist of the time, one of the best of all time. Williams had a big C&W hit of his Cold Cold Heart and recognizing the greatness of the song, Tony Bennett cut a recording of it. It helped both men because it introduced them both to a new audience, one of the first crossover hits. Williams telephoned Bennett and told him how much he loved Bennett’s version and he plays it on the juke box all the time.
Bennett’s next record, Blue Velvet was hit with the teenagers and he played a run of 7 concerts daily at the Paramount Theater in New York City. Rags to Riches followed and was another #1 hit. The producers of the upcoming musical Kismet got him to record A Stranger In Paradise, a song from the show in order to promote the opening. It worked and the recording hit #1 in Britain, and the young man from Queens became an international sensation.
In the late 50’s Ralph Sharon became Bennett’s pianist, arranger, conductor, and confidant. Sharon persuaded him to get back to his jazz roots, to forget the sugary songs, and work with jazz instrumentalists like Herbie Mann and Art Blakely. Sharon worked with Bennett for over 50 years.
Sharon almost made a grave error when he put a copy of a song in a drawer and forgot about it; but years later, he remembered it and brought it out for a tour that included San Francisco. I Left My Heart In San Francisco far exceeding the boundaries of the Bay Area and became Bennett’s signature song.
(The first time I worked Tony Bennett was a two concert night at the Guthrie. When we were almost done with loading out the sound equipment, Tony came up to me, shook my hand, told me how much he enjoyed working with us, and asked if he and Ralph could work out something on the piano, which was still on stage. I told him fine and when the sound was loaded, I sat backstage and enjoyed a private Bennett/Sharon concert.
What I didn’t know at the time was Ralph Sharon had taken a few years off from working with Bennett to avoid the endless touring and this was their reunion concerts, and I was privileged to be present when they worked out details of what they thought should be improved on.
Although I worked Tony Bennett many times, one concert was at Orchestra Hall. In addition to Bennett, I worked Anthony Benedetto.)
The other talent Anthony enjoyed as a youngster was drawing, painting when he could afford oils and canvases. Once he became an established singer he turned to art as a relaxation. Oils, water colors, still life, landscapes, and portraits of the likes of Ellington, Fitzgerald, Gillespie, Mickey Rooney, and others.
His amateur status as an artist soon became professional. His works are in in galleries round the world. There are three hanging in the Smithsonian. All his art is singed Anthony Benedetto, which allows them to stand alone, not on the crutch of the famous ‘Tony Bennett’.
(The concert at Orchestra had a large screen and Anthony Benedetto’s art was projected on it as Tony Bennett sang downstage. I was on a spotlight in the balcony, a perfect place to see the painting projections and hear the Tony sing and Ralph on piano. What a treat!)
The 70’s s started out strong for Tony. He worked and recorded with jazz greats like Basie and Adderly. Then the Beatles turned the pop music into the dominating force. Bennett tried his hand at pop and failed. He tried acting and one picture convinced him to forget it. The one positive was he participated in the Civil Rights marches.
He moved to London and became a modest hit with his own talk show. Came back home and started a recording company which turned out two fine Bennett jazz records; but with no experience in distribution, the company failed.
At the end of the decade, Bennett had the IRS on his back along with a cocaine monkey. His music career was nothing except for gigs in Vegas. He almost died from a drug overdose. Enter his son, Danny, an aspiring musician whose career was going no where fast. He devoted his time to getting his father’s life and career back on track.
He convinced his father to stick to the American Standard tunes with jazz backing. Forget Vegas. Take gigs in small venues. He brought back Ralph Sharon just in time for me working the two of them at the Guthrie. Thank you, Danny.
While Tony’s fans stuck with him, he and his songs were unknown to the younger generations. To cure that Danny got him booked several times with Dave Letterman which led to MTV taking an interest and Tony Bennett Unplugged resulted in bringing not only young fans but also a contract again with Columbia, which led to Unplugged winning Album of the Year. Like Sinatra had done, he forewent recording singles and concentrated solely on albums.
Theme albums featuring the works of a great such as Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong followed along with his Duets album where he sings with a pantheon of great singers like Barbra Striesand. Elton John, Paul McCartney, among others. Albums with just him backed up by jazz artists.
He teamed with the talented K.D. Lang in both recording and live concerts. Later he would do the same with Lady Gaga, who would sing with him in Duets II, along with the voices of Willie Nelson and Amy Winehouse and others.
As the accolades and honors poured in, he continued to work for charitable and political causes. He wrote two books of his memories. There was a big to-do when he reached the age of 80, little did anyone suspect he would have another 15 years of work ahead. At age 88 he recorded another Grammy winner, Cheek to Cheek, which debuted at #1 on Billboard. And he went on an extended tour with Lady Gaga. There was another big to-do when he reached 90, followed by a singles recording of Fascinating Rhythm which he had recorded a few weeks short of 69 years before. At the age of 95, he cut his album. Love For Sale.
The last time I actually spoke to Tony Bennett was New Years Eve, 2015, in an elevator at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas. Bennett was appearing that evening at the Paris where my wife and I were staying. Tickets for his performance had been long sold out and much too expensive for us anyway.
(I was going to the lobby when the door opened up and Tony Bennett got in.I offered condolences on the death of his friend, Ralph Sharon. Tony smiled and said it was a great loss after all those years working with his friend.
Tony asked if I knew Ralph; but the elevator stopped at Bennett’s floor and ended our conversation. He wished me a Happy New Year.
And as the door closed he gave me a thumbs up.
RIP MR. BENNETT
BELAFONTE (2)
Harry 2
To write about Harry Belafonte and not include Sydney Poitier, or vice versus, would be impossible. They were closer than brothers. They were Friends.
Belafonte & Poitier
Their friendship began at the age of twenty and lasted into their nineties. Poitier was two weeks older than Belafonte and died two years before him.
They were both of Caribbean heritage and were born in the US, thus making both US citizens. Poitier’s being born in Miami, FL, was an accident. His parents came to Miami to sell produce they raised in the Bahamas. His mother was expecting but not a month or so….but baby Sydney couldn’t wait. He was premature, but healthy.
Poitier lived in the Bahamas until he was 15, when he went to Miami. At the age of 16, he moved to New York. He enlisted in the army at 16, but received a medical discharge shortly after.
Their friendship started because both had a desire to act. They met while attending The New School Dramatic Workshop, NYC. It’s faculty had teachers like Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. Students included Marlon Brando and Tennessee Williams and other to-be giants of the theater.
Both Belafonte and Poitier studied under the GI Bill, but they had to work also to live in NYC. Belafonte got as a stagehand in the American Negro Theater in Harlem. Poitier got work there as a janitor.
They both auditioned to join the acting company. Belafonte was selected, but Poitier had two problems. His inferior education hampered his ability to read and memorize. Also, he was tone deaf and couldn’t sing. He worked hard to correct the first and was accepted. While in the lead of a production, at the American, Belafonte ‘took sick’ one night. His understudy stepped in. The understudy was Sydney Poitier. It was a big break for Sydney and he proved he had acting talent.
The two friends lived in a cheap apartment in Harlem and pooled their monies in common pot to meet expenses. Before long, Belafonte began to make better wages because he got gigs singing in NYC clubs. And even though he contributed more to the pot, the expenses for both were taken out fifty-fifty
They even went fifty-fifty on seeing Broadway plays.
The expense pot was tapped to buy a ticket… just one though. The first one would use the ticket to see the first act of the play and then he would go out on the street and give the other a recap of what took place. Then, the second one would take the ticket stub and watch the second act and recap later that to the other.
Arts
Both had a strong inclination to work in the arts; but more than just work, they wanted to forge a new inroad for blacks in the arts, equality with whites. This fire paid off. They cracked the racial ceiling.
In 1956, Harry Belafonte was the first black, along with Sammy Davis Jr., to be nominated for an Emmy. In 1960, Harry Belafonte was the first black to win an Emmy. CBS revue, ‘Tonight With Belafonte’.
In 1958, Sydney Poitier was the first black to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Male Actor. The picture was The Defiant Ones. He did not win.
In 1964, he was nominated for his work in Lilies of the Field. This time he won the Best Male Actor Of The Year Award. The first black to win to win this award. It would be 26 years before another black, Denzel Washington, won it. The movie casts the black policeman in a negative role, something Poitier would not have considered.
In his first costarring role,The Defiant Ones,he transforms his character, an escaped black convict, from bad to good, as the film progresses. So good. He has the audience rooting for Tony Curtis to save him from the death trap he was sent into.
In The Heat Of The Night was the first major motion picture with a black actor as the lead in what was an almost all white cast. What was considered to be a potential box-office bomb turned out to be one of the top movies of all time. It took Best Picture Oscar and Rod Steiger got Best Actor. Sydney was completely ignored.
It was set in Sparta, Mississippi, but filmed in Sparta, Illinois, because after the lynch mob tried to capture Belafonte and Poitier, Sydney refused to film in the South. He did have to film a few scenes in the cotton fields of Tennessee and slept every night with a gun under his bed.
The shell of the movie has Poitier, Virgil Tibbs, a very good Philadelphia homicide detective, first getting arrested for murder when all he was doing was waiting for the train to go back home. He had been to Sparta visiting his grandmother. Learning who this black man really is, Rod Steiger, the police chief, asks Tibbs’ boss in Philly to loan Tibbs to Sparta to help solve the murder of a prominent businessman. Tibbs doesn’t like it, but he does and he solves the murder.
The core of the movies though, portrays the hesitance of blacks and whites to trust each other even after the civil rights seemed to be having a positive influence in America. . A black man. In the South, investigating a crime even though the finger points to the most influential man in the county, Larry Gates as Eric Endicott, as the man behind the crime.
The highlight and mos stunning scene is when Endicott slaps Tibbs and Tibbs slap him back. A black man slapping a white man!
Poitier said years later that he took the role only on the guarantee that he would slap Larry Gates, and that slap would remain in all versions of the movie. The director, Norman Jewison, a Canadian, happily agreed.
Civil Rights
In the fight for Civil Rights, both marched shoulder to shoulder with Martin Luther King, Jr. They helped plan and participated in the 1963 March on Washington that was climaxed by King’s I Have A Dream. And sadly, both helped plan the1968 Memorial honoring the fallen leader.
In their Civil Rights work, both took great risks. Risks that could damage their careers, like a boycott of their work. Risks that could get them killed like so many martyred Civil Rights figures. Risks like being chased by a gauntlet of hooded KKK enforcers, in Alabama, using cars and pickups, trying to run them off the road to lynch the two black trouble-making Yankees.
Poitier and Belafonte were blacklisted by McCarthy, accused of being Commies. But in the long run, both received many honors for their Civil Rights work. Honors such as Presidential Medals and honorary Humanitarian Oscars.
As they gained success in their careers, they continued to fight for Civil Rights in different ways. Belafonte was outspoken and donated much of his time and money to the cause. Poitier selected movie roles that advanced the acceptance of blacks, never a role that exploited them.
In the words of Shari Belafonte:
“They both focused on making this world a better place for all people,
not just people of color.”
And that is a wrap for Act 2
Coming up
Young Harry Sings
To be continued
BELAFONTE (1)
Harry 1
There is a popular belief that when one famous person dies, within several days, two more famous persons die. Recently, three died on the same day. A pioneer in music. A trailblazer in movies, stage, and TV. And a shining example of a fearless activist in the fight to make the world a better place for all.
Harry Belafonte, nee, Harold George Bellanfanti, Jr., was born in Harlem, NYC, March 1, 1927. On April 25, 2023, Harry Belafonte died, and the world lost a trio of greatness in his death. He had a great many achievements to be tallied in those 96 years. Hall of Fame achievements in show business and in humanitarianism. And he valued his success in the later over his success in the former.
When he was just a toddler, 1932. he was sent to Jamaica to live with his grandmother and returned to Harlem in 1940 for a better education. Four years later, he embarked on his journey of dedication to do what he believed in. At the age of 17, Belafonte dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Navy.
US Navy – 1944 -1945
It was the height of the US involvement in WWII. It was also the age of the segregated military. Very few blacks were allowed to fight and perhaps die for their county. And those few who were, were in completely black-outfits, like the Tusagee Airmen.
(It wasn’t until then President Harry Truman signed the Executive Order, on July, 25, 1948, that abolished segregation in the US military. A major step leading to Civil Rights.)
Just as blacks were brought to America as slaves to do the heavy lifting, blacks were confined to do much the same in WWII. Harry was assigned to Port Chicago, CA, to load ammunition on ships bound for the Pacific Theater. He got there just a few days after Port Chicago experienced the largest home-front disaster of the war.
On 7/17/1944, there was a munitions explosion as two ships were being loaded, killing 320 black sailors, who had no training whatsoever in the loading of munitions. For months prior, the men had complained and asked for training and safety measures…only to be told to just do the work and shut up. This disaster also had serious repercussions in the already shortage of ammo in both theaters of war
Even after that horrendous disaster, work at the port continued as usual. Finally, a month later a strike was held to demand something to be done. The Navy’s answer was to put 60 of the strike leaders in prison for over a year. And told the others to do the work and shut up.
Young Harry Belafonte took part in the strike, but was not considered one of the leaders. He did however get his first lesson in racism at the highest level of the American way of life…a lesson that would serve as a foundation for his fight for Civil Rights in the years to come.
(It took 79 years before the US condemned the racist action and exonerated the 60 men and recognized the 320 who died carrying out an unlawful order.)
Upon his discharge at the war’s end, he returned to New York City, the city he loved most. While working as a janitor, he was given a ticket to see a production at the American Negro Theater. And he found his new goal, to act.
That’s a wrap for Act One
Coming up
Harry & Sydney
Actors/Activists/ Friends
To be continued
THE URBAN COWBOY
THE URBAN COWBOY
Of the three famous cousins Ferriday, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggart, and Mickey Gilley, Mickey Gilley was the youngest… and led a more normal life than his two cousins, free of scandal and addictions and self-imposed tragedies that marked the lives of the other two, free of the animosity many people had for the other two.
And in spite of all this, he had the shortest life, 86 years, and was the first to die, 5/7/2022.
Oh, I am not endorsing a life style like Jerry’s or Jimmy’s in order to have a longer life span. I am just stating a fact.
Mickey lived across the Mississippi River from Ferriday and his two cousins. But that did not stop him from coming under their influence. He often went with them at night to listen to the Blues at the Ferriday nightclub. He learned to play and the guitar from Jimmy, and the piano from Jerry. His family moved to Texas about the time he started high school. In Texas, traditional Country Western/Grand Ole Opry music prevailed, although he never forgot his roots in Jerry’s boogie-woogie and Jimmy’s gospel.
WINE
For someone whose drinking habits were modest, an occasional beer from a long necked bottle, Mickey Gilley was best known for selling beer. That is, he was co-owner in Gilley’s Club, the world’s largest honky-tonk saloon. Located in Pasadena, Texas, it seated 6,000, and was usually filled every night. It was the size of a football field and had tables for sitting at, tables to shoot pool at, tables to shoot the bull at while watching people getting bucked off the mechanical bull, and still have plenty room to line dancing. In short, it was a way of life for it’s regular beer drinking patrons.
Esquire Magazine did a feature on two of these regulars. James Bridges saw it as another Saturday Night Fever with C&W replacing disco. He sold the idea to a studio, wrote an adaption of the article, and directed the film.
John Travolta jumped at the chance to dance in another film. Debra Winger jumped at the chance to restart her stagnant movie career. Mickey’s partner jumped at the idea of Gilley’s as the film’s location. Mickey was noncommittal.
He saw it as an opportunity the club and himself, but…He had dislikes the magazine article and he hated the mechanical bull.
Gilley had been on tour when his partner bought and installed the mechanical bull without asking Mickey’s blessing,. Mickey hit the roof. He didn’t like the ugly piece of scrap metal and the loud excitement it created. He reasoned that somebody could get injured and sue them big time. But it was too late to remove it, it was standing room only with people, drinking a lot of long necked bottles of beer, waiting their turn to ride it and/or make a fool out of themselves. YIPPEE!!!
The movie had a talented cast, who had to compete with the other costars, namely, the mechanical bull, the Honky-Tonk saloon, C&W music, cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and domestic violence. The movie made Gilley’s an icon and a boon to the makers of cowboy boots and hats.
Surprisingly, the movie introduced Mickey Gilley to a host of people, but did little to enhance his record sales. Only two of his hits came after the movie. One from the soundtrack, a cover of the great Ben E, King song, Stand By Me.It did start him to establish a series of mini honky-tonks, all called Gilley’s. Then he opened up one of the first musical theaters in Branson, Missouri, helping it to become the entertainment mecca of middle America.
His cameo, playing himself in the movie, led to a minor career in TV acting.
As for the original Gilley’s, Mickey and his partner broke up shortly after the movie and they closed the place down. The vacant structure burned down a year later.
WOMEN
Good old southern boy, Mickey, married his first wife, Geraldine. when he was only 17. The marriage last 8 years and 3 children, who were raised by their mother. He married his 2nd wife, Vivian, a year after the divorce, and that marriage last until her death in 2019, and produced his 4th child.
His last marriage was to Cindy Loeb and lasted a shade under 2 years, ending with his death. She was a long time business manager for his night clubs and musical career Now she manages his estate.
Unlike his 2 cousins, Mickey never had a scandal that involved his wives and or other women.
SONG
Where else would a talented guitar and piano player living in Texas and listening to the endless C&W songs on the radio, go, but to Nashville, home of The Grand Ole Opry. He quickly found work as studio musician playing piano and or guitar.
Others in the group included Kenny Rogers, bass player and Glen Campbell, guitar player extraordinaire. This group of studio musicians played on most all of the songs cut in Nashville at the time, no matter who was doing the singing or what record company. It was steady work and good money for those musicians who were waiting for their chance to take the mic,
When his cousin, Jerry Lee, busted loose with A Whole Lot of Shaking, Mickey decided to make his move to signing. He cut his first single in 1959, Kenny Rogers on bass; but it was good he kept his day job.
His singing success was nil, just more cutting records that were never distributed. Only one of his recordings earned him some money. It was used in a TV ad selling baby food. But he kept trying.
Then 15 years from his first attempt, his singing career broke loose…and that was by accident.
Mickey was certain that the song She Called Me Baby would be a winner. He still needed one for the B Side of the record and chose, as a lark, to cover a hit from 1949, A Room Full Of Roses. When it was played back to him, he hated it. He complained that the steel guitar was too loud and that he had got lost in the piano solo, and… But the rep of the record said said enough is enough, it’s only a B Side fill- in; and the record company couldn’t afford to waste more money on Gilley..
Fill- in! That fill- in gave Mickey his first start as a C&W mainstay. Thanks to the B side, it was his first record to be distributed nationally. Mickey had egg on his face over his dismissal of the cut.. Kind of like his disapproval years later of the mechanical bull.
The record was one of the few hits for Playboy Records, a venture of Hugh Hefner to show case a girlfriend, Barbi Benton. More an attempt to impress a girl than to actually actually be a record producer, Hef sold the Playboy Records when Barbi moved out of the mansion.
Now at the age if 38, Gilley had the start of career in music that he dreamed for years.
Mickey followed through with a number of C&W hits in the traditional style of prevelent in Nashville during the 70’s.
There were other hotbeds of Country music besides Nashville. Memphis, thanks to Sun Records and it’s early stable of Elvis, Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. And in Austin, the Outlaw music of singer/songwriters Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson was coming on like a fast moving train. But Mickey stayed put in the Eddie Arnold/Grand Ole Opry scene in Nashville. That was the kind of man he was, loyal to the horse that brung him.
The 80’s saw a change in C&, even in staid old Nashville. Glen Campbell, Kenny Rodgers, and others were very successful in Country Pop, which crossed over into pop radio stations and introduced twang to a much larger audience.
Gilley never achieved the phenomenal success those two friends from the studio orchestra days achieved, but he did okay.
He had 39 Top Ten Country, singles, 17 of which hit #1 in the 15 years. But then in 1986, county music reverted back to it’s traditional roots with young talent like Clint Black, Randy Travis, and Reba McEntire racking up the hits. This time he didn’t follow the trend. He was content to ease into a life of semi-retirement.
He got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted along with his two famous cousins in the Delta Music Hall of Fame in Ferriday. The HOF is basically a museum dedicated to the three cousins. It’s not Graceland, but it draws a lot of visitors and keeps Ferriday on the map.
For 2 years he was The Academy of Country Music New Comer of the year, and in 1976 swept the honors as best entertainer along with best single and best album of the year, for the single and album, Don’t All The Girls Get Prettier At Closing Time,
He included some Gospel in his playlist, but never wore his religion on his sleeve like Cousin Swaggart. He did enjoy Cousin Jerry’s vocals and his piano style and played many duets, live and recorded, with The Killer over the years.
Mickey Gilley was popular, easy to talk t, good listener, and had a great many friends, in and out of the music scene. He never turned down a request to help a friend. In 2009, he was helping a friend move when a bench fell on him and broke his back. He went through extensive therapy but his back bothered him the rest of his life. It took a year but he did manage to get back to singing on stage, but he could never play the piano again.
This back problem was responsible for him taking a bad fall that resulted in brain surgery. His health deteriorated. His wife, Vivian, became more of a nurse than a wife, and preceded him in death by a few years.
Persuaded by his manager and soon-to-be-third wife, Cindy Loeb, he recorded an album, Kicking It Down The Road, a mix of some old, some new. This was in 2017. A year later he recorded another, Two Old Cats, all duets with his friend, Troy Payne. It was good therapy to help ease his pain.
. . . . . . .
I had worked Mickey on a few occasions, but had no direct contact with him. He came to the Minneapolis Auditorium in a package concert on in three concerts I worked. There was a Nashville promoter who would put several C&W B-List artists on one card and tour some big cities. He would bring a group to Minneapolis a couple times a year.
For the most part, the artists kept to themselves in a green room the promoter stocked with food and drink. The only one that spent any time backstage was Dottie West. She was friendly to the hands, especially Mark, the stage carpenter.
When Mickey became a name act, he performed at the Flame, a small C&W honky-tonk saloon, but never was booked in a big venue that the union worked.
Looking back now, I wish I had seen more of him. He rightfully earned a reputation as a talented, hard working professional, whose hat size never grew when he mad the big time.
Mickey never gave up
his chasing his dream
and finally caught it
Mickey Gilley passed away on 5/7/22.
His cousin, Jimmy Swaggart officiated at the funeral.
His other cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis was in a hospice
and would join Mickey 5 months later.
P.S. :The last of the three cousins coming up, next.
.
.
THE KILLER
The Killer has vacated the arena!
On 10/28/22, Jerry Lee Lewis, age 87, died. His death was reported three days after he was falsely reported to have died. Since he was on the doorstep for several years, his death was not a surprise. His living that long was a great surprise. Considering the environment he grew up in, his life style, and the many tragedies suffered, both by accident and self-inflicted, the odds favored he probably wasn’t going to see 30. And yet he outlived every original inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and had a life span greater than the departed members of the Country Western Hall of Fame in which he was recently inducted into as a performer and influencer.
The Environment: Ferriday, Louisiana. A dot on the map near the Mississippi border, just up the road from Baton Rouge. Aa town of mostly blacks and steeped in the Blues, highlighted at Haney’s Big House, a famous ‘house of the Blues’.
The small minority of whites in and around the town were poor farmers eking out a living, mostly blood relatives, sharing both a short living span and a Pentecostal religion that featured fire and brimstone preachers and hymns.
His Early Life Style:
Music. Church music and the Blues. This escape from the hard-pan reality of his home was shared with him by two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. Those three were destined to put Ferriday on the big map with a boast of more famous people per square foot than any other place in the USA.
Influenced by an older cousin, Carl McVoy, a big time piano player, the three adopted the piano as their get-out-of-Ferriday weapon.
Jerry’s parents mortgaged their farm to purchase a piano of his own so he didn’t have to beg to use Mickey’s or Jimmy’s. Then his parents sent him to a Bible Institute in Texas where he would play only religious music.
He got kicked out when he decided to add some back-home boogie-woogy at a church assembly. A strong indicator of his future life style. He pounded each day just as hard as he pounded the keys on a piano.
His dad then put a piano in his pick up and traveled from town to town so Jerry could entertain from the mobile stage. His mother told him to ’Kill them dead’. And thus his nickname, The Killer, was born.,
Tragedies:
His older brother died in an auto accident. His three year old son, living with Jerry’s ex, drowned in a swimming pool. Another young son died in a car accident shortly after. His 4th wife drowned in a swimming pool just before the divorce settlement was final. His 5th wife ODed just 77 days into the tumultuous wedding. His gun ‘accidentally’ went off and shot his bass singer’. The gate at Graceland was closed when he tried to drive in to visit Elvis.
His black-listing by the hypocrites in the pop music industry at the time when it was found out the 13 year old once removed cousin was not just on tour with him for kicks, she was his wife. Dick Clark, the tsar of determining whether an artist and or a single would be a hit or a miss, along with the payola- radio DJs judged Jerry Lee to be an unfit star even though he was a pioneer in the fledgling rock and roll industry.
Self Inflicted ‘tragedies’.
WINE:
Perhaps an occasional TBird or some bubbly but like a true son of the south, white lightning in poor times, Jack Daniels when he could afford it. His alcoholism was augmented with tokes of Blue’s grass, sniffs of snow, and above all, pills of many colors. His life might not have been as hectic if he had faced up to all his addiction not just the pills. He did go to the Betty Ford Clinic to overcome the pills that had caused a major removal of part of his stomach.
Every time he had a problem with a gun, both he and the gun were loaded.
In spite of these addictions, he outlived so many of his friends and compadres in the business with similar problems, like Elvis and Johnny, Waylon, Little Richard, etc..
WOMEN:
Seven wives! Wife #1 was a sometimes- thing competing with other women who often charged for their services. Wife #2 did not charge, but her brothers and their shotguns made Jerry pay a price by forcing him to marrying her, even though he was still married to #1.
Wife #3 was, Myra. the 13 year old 2nd cousin that he ogled when she was 12. Later he used the argument that he never was married to her because he was not divorced from #2 when he married #3. The ‘marriage’ last 13 years with, according to Mayra a total of only 14 nights nights they spent together.
Bigamy wasn’t a factor in ending the marriages to #4 and #5. Death was. Wife #4 moved out within a month but the divorce didn’t come until ten years later, shortly before the divorce became final Another accidental drowning in a swimming pool.
Jerry married Wife #5 less than a year later. This lasted 77 days. OD was the stated cause of death but the bruises on her body was enough for Rolling Stone Magazine to demand a Grand Jury investigation. Lewis was cleared. A year later he married Wife #6, Kerrie.
For 14 years she nursed him through his addictions and their aftermath…his roller coaster career which now included his revision of traditional country and western music. They were separated but remained married for another 17 years.
His 7th marriage, 2012 to his death, was to Judith Brown, former wife of his 3rd wife’s brother. From all reports it was free of things that marked his other marriages…things like adultery, physical and emotional abuse, not living together. Etc. Of course it took place in the twilight of his life when he was too old to do most of those things.
Other women besides his wives…well it seemed like he never passed up his opportunities, free or paid for.
SONG:
A pioneer in introducing Rock and Roll to the world. A pioneer in introducing Country/Western to a greater group of listeners with his boogie-woogie style.
His musical feats are too numerous to list in this blog…just as the performers he influenced are.
Every note he sang or beat out on a piano was pure Jerry Lee Lewis. Hymns – He would take a well known one like My God is Real, put a Jerry Lee touch to it, even if it got him in trouble. Rock and Roll – Move over Little Richard, this cracker is pounding the path to bring R&B into the world of R&R, no matter if Dick Clark finds me offensive or not. As much as he respected the talent of Hank Williams and Tex Ritter, he thought there was room to update the genre, be it a new song like What Made Milwaukee Famous, or an old standard like Mexicali Rose, or a recent hit like Crazy Arms, his first recording, and swing it, no matter if Eddy Arnold’s Nashville wants me in the Grand Old Opry or not.
There is music and there is music by Jerry Lee Lewis.
Always a big fan of his, I only had the opportunity to see him perform just one time
In 62, my pre-stagehand life, Lewis was slated to appear in a nightclub close to where my wife and I were going broke in a cafe we and the bank owned. Joe, the club owner promised us good seats for the show. It was canceled due to the drowning of Jerry’s little boy.
The next opportunity came when he appeared in a club where the Mall of America is now. The club was found to be a money laundering operation after about two years. The owners let it be known that if I, or any other stagehand union official, entered it, even via a paid ticket, we could expect to be used as batting practice. Needless to say, I passed up on seeing Jerry Lee perform there.
Finally, towards the end of my stagehanding days and Jerry’s touring days. I got to work his show at Orchestra Hall. It was promoted by an out of town promoter who had a Jerry Lee show in Iowa the previous night.
Seeing the difficulty Jerry Lee had in walking around backstage, it seemed unlikely he could perform onstage. He was escorted, helped, on with a stunning girl on each arm. He sat down on the piano bench… and reverted to the Jerry Lee Lewis of old. His voice was strong and he used all parts of his anatomy to pound on the keys of the piano. He played for close to an hour and one half, without leaving the stage. And then went to the front lobby to meet and greet.
We were almost done breaking down the sound and lights when the promoter came backstage to thank us and wanted to find out the number and size for our tee shirt tip. He never came back with the shirts;
He had been met and greeting by a cop and a warrant for his arrest. It seems the night before this snake oil slickster had not only skipped out without giving the hans the promised tee shirts, he also skipped out with the portion of the gate owed to the venue. We never heard if gave Jerry Lee his money or not.
So if by chance, Mr. Promoter, if you are out of jail and still alive, and you read my blog, you still owe me a tee shirt.
So to close, RIP Killer.
There will never be another like you.
And now I will listen to my favorite Jerry Lee Lewis cut, Mexicali Rose.
PS: Stay tuned for an upcoming post on Mickey and Jimmy, the other 2 famous cousins.
STARRY, STARRY NIGHT
My last post, The Shadow Circuit, convinced me that interest in Don McLean was very high right now. His walk out of the NRA Convention. It is the 50th anniversary of his American Pie. His mental breakdown. His Starry, Starry Night/Vincent has surpassed American Pie in popularity today.
The Vincent Van Gogh Immersive Experience has taken major cities in the US and Europe by storm. Every time one of his paintings is auctioned off, it breaks fiscal records. To think the man died a pauper and only sold one of his works while he and his brother were living. His sister-in-law took control of his work and got him placed in the hierarchy of the Impressionists.
I thought this would be good time to re-post my blog Starry, Starry Night, from 2013. And last, but not least, it brings back fond memories of back-in-the-day, when I was a lot younger.
House lights go down for the second act of VINCENT, but the stage lights remain dark. Then Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night fades on the two picture sheets that are upstage of the set. Music fades in, Don McLean’s recording of his song, Vincent, aka Starry, Starry Night. The song continues as a montage of Vincent’s paintings appear on the screens.
In the ambient light from slides you can make out the silhouette of Leonard Nimoy. He stands off to one side, his back to the audience, looking at and enjoying the art along with the audience.
The music fades out. Starry Night reappears for a moment and then fades out also. Backlights fill the stage and Nimoy turns as the front lights fade in and he resumes as Theo Van Gogh telling us about his brother, Vincent.
Selecting the Van Gogh paintings was hard because of the volume of great works and the little time allotted to show them. Selecting the music for the interlude was harder.
Leonard wanted Don McLean singing Vincent from the very start; however he had a friend he relied on for advice who thought the song was Pop, unfit to be part of ‘serious’ art. The friend, an artistic director of a regional theater, was pretentious to say the least. He never said Shakespeare, but always said ‘The Bard’. Theater was always spelled theatre and ‘Arts’ should never be coupled with ‘Crafts’. He backed off somewhat when it was pointed out that the very same recording was played hourly at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and a copy of the sheet music was buried in the museum’s time capsule.
Don McLean, singer/songwriter, troubadour/poet, is an American treasure, but not exactly a household name. He is mostly identified with his American Pie aka The Day The Music Died, known for it’s mysterious lyrics and it’s extraordinary length. ‘Drove my Chevy to the levee and the levee was dry.’ His second most famous work is Vincent, his ode to Van Gogh. ‘And now I understand what you tried to say to me”.
American Pie represented a sad time in McLean’s life, the death of an idol, Buddy Holly. Vincent reflected the sadness of his early life especially after the death of his father when Don was only 15. It was written on a brown paper bag during a period of marital problems. McLean had always identified with Van Gogh, who was never appreciated during his lifetime, and is reflected the lyrics ‘They would not listen, they’re not listening still. Perhaps they never will’.
Outside of an excellent rendition by Madonna, American Pie is left by other recording artists for McLean. His recording of it was voted #5 of the 365 Songs of the Century by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Vincent, on the other hand, is covered by many other artists, like Julie Andrews, Julio Ingesias, Chet Atkins, and my favorite cover, Jane Olivor.
His song, And I Love You So has been covered by the likes of Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey, Glen Campbell, Howard Keel, a cover by Perry Como reached #1in the Easy Listening genre. His song, Wonderful Baby, was dedicated to and recorded by Fred Astaire.
In his recordings and his concerts, his repertoire includes his own compositions as well as songs identified with singers like Sinatra, Buddy Holly, his mentor, Pete Seeger, Gordon Lightfoot, and Marty Robbins.
When Ray Orbison released his song Crying, it was received just so-so. McLean cut a cover of it that hit #1 in the international market. Orbison made a rerecording of it, using some of the innovations of McLean, and it is now a classic. Orbison said McLean had the best cover of any of Orbison’s songs and said McLean had ‘the voice of the century’.
Don McLean was also responsible, indirectly, for another classic, Killing Me Softly With His Song. Lori Lieberman, singer/songwriter, said that she was so touched by Don McLean in concert, singing his song, Empty Chairs, inspired by McLean looking at Van Gogh’s painting of The Chair, that she wrote a poem as soon as she got home. The poem was set to music and Roberta Flack’s version was 1973’s Record Of The Year.
Dennis Babcock, Guthrie’s Special Events Producer, and the man who put the production and tour of VINCENT together, booked in Don McLean in concert during our VINCENT rehearsal period. Great concert! First time I ever worked McLean. First time Nimoy ever saw him in person and met him. McLean saved Vincent/Starry, Starry Night for the encore and dedicated it to Leonard and the upcoming tour of VINCENT.
As usual, I was house electrician for the concert. When I asked McLean about his lighting preferences, he just smiled and told me to do as I wanted. I did. Used various gels for mood, slow color transitions, sometimes just back light to silhouette him.
When we were knocking down the concert equipment, Eric, Nimoy’s dresser and the self appointed major domo for the tour, came on stage.
‘Don,’ he said, in his dramatic basso voice, ‘I know that your lighting of VINCENT is in the tradition of the stage; but frankly, it is vanilla pudding. Now your lighting of the concert tonight reflected Van Gogh and his paintings. You should incorporate that into VINCENT. Be bold! Spice it up!’
‘Well,’ I confessed, ‘I have often thought about doing just that, but I don’t know if Leonard go for it.’
‘Who do you think brought up the idea? And I agree with him. Leonard had to go out to dinner with Mr. McLean and he asked me to mention it to you. So you could perhaps have some of it in tomorrow’s rehearsal.’
I didn’t need much time at all. I had it pretty much finalized by the time rehearsals started the next day. The key was my use of colored backlights. In his last years, his most ambitious period, in and around Arles in southern France, he used a preponderance of cobalt blue and amber yellow In one of his letters to his brother, Theo, Vincent defended his use of new colors and bolder brush strokes talking of
“vast fields of wheat under troubled skies”.
The play’s set had two picture sheets a backdrop. The backlights hung downstage of them, in such a way as to avoid spilling any light on the sheets. There were three distinct parts of the set.
Stage Right was Theo’s office, a desk and chair. The backlight for this section was the cold heavy blue of Vincent’s midnight sky on cloudless nights.
“Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue”
Stage Left was Vincent’s studio. A rough built table with a paint smeared smock on it. A palette and brushes. A stool. An easel. This backlight was the yellow amber of Vincent’s home and sparse furnishing at Arles. His sunflowers.
“Morning fields of amber grain”
Center stage was the neutral zone where the two colors combined. I controlled the intensity of the two backlight colors, in all three sections depending upon where Leonard was and the mood at the time,
“Colors changing hue”
Leonard liked the new lighting. Erik liked the new lighting. Sandy, Leonard’s wife at the time, liked it.
I knew I had aced it when, on opening night, Alvin Epstein, the Guthrie’s Artistic Director, told me that my lighting was like bringing a Van Gogh painting to life.
But naturally there was a voice of dissent. The Pretentious Pal felt my lighting was vulgar, unfit to be part of serious art. He suggested that Leonard get a ‘real’ Lighting Designer. And naturally he knew the names of several of who he had used in his theater. Leonard said thanks but no thanks. When Leonard was approached by Babcock about a Guthrie production of the skeleton version Leonard first brought to town, Leonard agree and wanted me to be involved and to light it.
At the risk of bragging, theatrical reviewers seldom mention the lighting, and yet in almost all the reviews we got around the country my lights were not only mentioned but also praised. When we played a benefit for The Pretentious Pal’s theater, he really cut loose on me. After all I was a stagehand and lighting was art and the two should be kept separate. And I was not only a stagehand, I was a union stagehand!
I didn’t bother to tell him that this was not the first time this union stagehand designed lights at the Guthrie. And this union stagehand had crossed into his sacred world of ‘Art’ in another way. A few years before I won a prize in a national One-Act playwriting contest, and my play had been published and produced.
In respect of Leonard and Mrs. Nimoy, I listened his criticism and then silently walked away. After I left though. the Nimoys had quite a few words to say to him about his rudeness.
(Hey, Mr. Pretentious Pal, VARIETY ‘The Bible of Show Business’ said in their review of VINCENT, “Donald Ostertag’s lighting was Excellent”. And they also liked the use Don McLean’s recording of Vincent, in the play.)
The entire of tour of VINCENT consisted of three separate legs. The first was produced by the Guthrie. The second was a month in Boston, Leonard’s home town, and was under Leonard’s production. Once again, The Pretentious Pal came and offered suggestions during the rehearsal. And once again, tried to get Leonard to drop Don McLean’s song and Don Ostertag’s lighting. Again, the answer was thanks but no thanks. The next year the third leg went back on the road to other cities. The third leg was produced by Leonard and another producer.
Neither Dennis Babcock nor myself took the show out on the third leg. Since it was no longer affiliated with the Guthrie, Dennis felt he should concentrate on his ‘day job’ at the theater. He found a Tour Manager to replace him.
My life had changed drastically. I had left the Guthrie and had been elected as Business Agent/Call Steward for the local as well as working off the Union Call List. My three oldest sons were working as stagehands and also going to college. In a few years, they would be joined by the two younger sons. I had missed so much of their growing up; but once I went on the Extra Board, I got something that few fathers get, a chance to work shoulder to shoulder with my sons. And over the years, I also worked with four nephews, a young cousin, and a future daughter-in-law. My days on the road were over as well as my days as a lighting designer foe the Guthrie.
When Leonard found out that I was not going out with him, he said he wanted two stagehands to replace me. I sent two out with him. Dennis and I were involved with the rehearsals, which took place in Minneapolis followed by a week of shows at the Guthrie. Then it was off to Atlanta with Dennis and I going along to help with the first real stop.
Oh, of course, The Pretentious Pal had come to Minneapolis town for the rehearsals, and again with the his suggestions to change both the lighting and the music. Again, Leonard stood firm on my lighting, but he did cave on the music. Don McLean was replaced by a classical piece of largely unknown music by an unknown composer.
The music had two things going for it. The composer had lived in Arles at the same time as Van Gogh, although they probably never met nor even knew of one other. The second thing in the music’s favor was the album cover was a Van Gogh painting of ‘A Bridge Near Arles’.
That leg of the tour ended with a filming of the production for VCR distribution and also to be shown some 50 times on the A&E network. That was also the end of Leonard Nimoy in the stage production of VINCENT.
I stayed away from the filming and left it to the two hands. I did however sit in with Leonard and a few others for the showing of the finished product.
I had been forewarned by the hands that although the credit read that the lighting was based on a concept of Donald Ostertag. Don’t believe it. It was basically, all the white lights available are turned on, then off.
As soon as the film started, Leonard wanted to know why my lighting wasn’t used. Julie, Leonard’s daughter, who was around during the filming and had worked with the camera crew on locations of IN SEARCH OF, explained that the director said the colors and cues wouldn’t work in the film. Leonard didn’t like it that my lights were left out and said so. I just sat there, not wanting to present my view that my lights would have transferred to the film.
The excuse was bogus. Basically, this was a case of the LA boys going to fly-over-country, filming a VCR as quick as possible, and then back to L.A.. Surf’s up!
Leonard’s second comment was at the top of the second act. ‘Never should have replaced Don McLean with this music,’ he muttered. I guess you could say that The Pretentious Pal finally got his way, even if Leonard did not like it.
Thirty plus years later:
The VCR was upgraded to DVD with some added commentary and stories by Leonard for which he received a small fee. Now, he could have used it to buy photography equipment for his new profession or other things; but true to his nature, he divided up the money and sent checks to those of us who had worked on the VINCENT tour.
What a compliment to know your work was still appreciated some thirty years later.
And just recently, Don McLean’s past work was appreciated in a very big way. The notebook that he used to work out the lyrics of American Pie recently was bought at auction for $1,200,000, the third highest money ever paid for an American literary manuscript. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer, more talented artist. Just too bad he didn’t save that paper bag he used to write out the lyrics of his Vincent.
And that’s a wrap – for today.
Don Ostertag: Off Stage 