No, I won’t tell you about the bad boys who made me drive an hour to get 52 suits cleaned and pressed, or the one who tried to give back the check and give him cash and go buy him drugs.
I had to abide by the contract his agent had agreed to. Suits were an anomaly but I did it anyway.
I’m talking about the good guys. I’ll talk about two right now that moved seamlessly from artist/professional to human being.
Antonio Benedetto, aka Tony Bennett, was a peach. My father was head of the place and we went over and spent 1/2 hour to make him feel comfortable. Next morning he walked across the plaza right under my “office” and no-one bothered him or asked for an autograph. He had no security, just us. He bought a casual shirt from the men’s store downstairs.
Any star of his caliber may have been shocked that no-one approached him to bathe in his limelight but he was secure in himself and I believe he thought locals/visitors were being respectful, not rude, for giving him privacy. I doubt that would happen these days.
Carlos Montoya was a joy after his manager drove me bonkers for months about the chair he was to sit in. I got every prop shop to open up to have him have a 17″ chair (I still remember this years later) and first I said we’re going to introduce you to the place you’ll be playing tonight. I brought him into the 5,000 seat venue and he looked at the orchestra setup for 74. He asked if he could go up there.
OK, sir. (I was 19). He sat in this first chair and said it was perfect, do we have another? It took five minutes and I went back and called the other dogs off. He came to the house that night and was just lovely.
Oh, a third. Henry Mancini. What a sweetheart. He just had performed and had to do a development reception at our home. He showed up in the kitchen for a glass of water and I gave him my personal octagonal glass (broken since then) and we sat at the kitchen table and just talked a bit. Me and Moon River. The nice ones.
Oh, there’s another, Buckminster Fuller (“Bucky”). We headed off to a rocky start because his people sent his presentation materials to the wrong town. It was my job to get them back before his lecture. He ended up giving me a book and signing it to me thanking me for my efforts. I can’t find it years later however it was a wonderful book on air travel and my parents hosted his 86th birthday (Mom made a geodesic dome-shaped cake) and their 62nd wedding anniversary.
They died shortly thereafter, not because of lunch or the cake. She went first and he went 24 hours later, bereft I am certain.
Two people loom large in our past, one chairman and the other search committee chair. They hired my father 35 years ago and I ran into them with our dogs. It appears we’re neighbors in a new town for us. Let me add gals to this (not many female performers were very personable) and I will say thank you to the grandson of the founder and his lovely, spirited wife. Over many years, they’ve always treated our family fairly and kindly.
I’ll talk to you about the Clancy Brothers another time (good story, I promise).
There were others but these are the standouts for me as a young college kid trying to make money for school. Enjoy your Monday. I remember all of this stuff as if it was yesterday. Is that strange or what? Dee
Cooking with Dee 