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Applause

♪ In the movie plays of nowadays,

♪ A romance always must begin in June,

♪ Tales in magazines have all their scenes,

♪ Of love laid in a garden 'neath the moon,

♪ But we don't miss, that kind of bliss,

♪ What we want is this,

♪ A cup of coffee, a sandwich and you,

♪ A cozy corner, A table for two,

♪ A chance to whisper, to cuddle and coo,

♪ With lots of huggin ' and kissin' and you,

♪ We don't need music, lobster or wine,

♪ Whenever your eyes look into mine,

♪ The things we long for are simple and new,

♪ A cup of coffee, a sandwich and you.

♪ We don't need music, lobster or wine,

♪ Whenever your eyes look into mine,

♪ The things we long for are simple and few,

♪ A cup of coffee, a sandwich and you.

Evening ladies and gentlemen may I present Mr. Bertram Ross

Good evening ladies and gentlemen may I present Mr. John Wallowitch

No.

It was the 10th Anniversary of the Ballroom, the place was mobbed,

Mayor Koch was there, I told John I wasn't gonna sing. He said you'll sing.

I couldn't stand up and say no, no I'm not gonna sing.

John said I want you to say something before you sing

so they don't think you speak that way all the time.

So I said that this is a song written by Irving Berlin in 1914

and it is a a song that my father did not sing to me.

Old man Rosenthal lay sick in bed,

Soon the Doctor came around and said,

There no use crying this man is dying he can't live very long,

Send my son here to my side they heard the old man say,

I've got something to tell him before I pass away,

Soon his son was sitting by his bed ohhh what's the matter papa dear he said,

The old man said my son before my days are done, I want to you to know,

Cohen owes me $97 and it's up to you to see that Cohen pays

When I finished it and I decided to go out through the audience I cannot tell you

how many people grabbed me and said do you do Bar Mitzvahs? Do you do weddings?

And I said, do you do lawyers conventions? I said, I guess I could do anything

I didn't know what they were talking about.

So that was the beginning.

Gregg Dawson called John and said, why don't you two put an act together.

So I came home from school one afternoon

and John said Ray Dawson says that we should put an act together,

we open next Tuesday. I said open what?

He said we are getting an engagement with the Ballroom, opens Tuesday.

I said what are we gonna do? He said well we have to work now and put some songs together.

What we did to prepare for this particular occasion was to go through over

12,500 pieces of sheet music, didn't we Bert?

Yes

And we selected our 400 favorites

So lock the doors cause you're gonna be here till next week.

Yeah you're gonna love it.

Now some of the titles we are not doing, you may be very curious, some of the titles

No Man with Endurance Like the Man Who Sells Insurance

That's one of the titles we're not doing, very long isn't it, that song?

Here Comes That Memory I'll Hit it With a Stick

If I Thought I Could Live Without You, I'd Die

If Your Phone's Not Ringing, It's Me Calling

You have to think about that one too. How about If It Takes Two Hours to Make Philadelphia,

How Long Will It Take to Make You?

Joan of Arkansas, and the other was Swing Low Sweet Harriet

Our friend Gerald Marks gave us a song title, how about this song title.

I Wish I Had Died At the Alter

I like it. Do you know it?

I don't think they believe it, I don't think people believe this. Anyway Gerald Marks.

He wrote this on his honeymoon.

His wife told him, you're very clever why don't you write a Hillbilly song, called country music

So he did, they were on a boat going to Nova Scotia.

She wouldn't speak to him for 4 days.

She wouldn't speak to him for 4 days on their honeymoon so you can imagine

there was not much consummation occurring.

Calm her down

Anyway here it is, here is the song

I only made one mistake in my life,

That was the day I said please be my wife,

The moment after proposed,

I knew I should have kept my big mouth closed,

But like a fool I made you yes,

And got myself into this awful mess, this awful mess,

I wish I had died at the alter on the day I married you,

On the day I married you.

These were clubs that people all over the country had read about in the New Yorker

and were perceived as the place to go if you wanted to get a real taste of sophisticated New Yorkers did.

And to sit in one of these little rooms with about 4o or 5o other people and feel a connection with those people

and with a person singing songs on stage who really does to use the old cliche

"make you feel as if they are directing it all right to you" that's a very restorative experience

and uh I have experienced that repeatedly with John Wallowitch and with Bertram Ross.

So the critic John Wilson gave us a great review but was intrigued

and made an appointment with us to take us to dinner and interview us

which he did and he said well if you have known each other for so long,

how come you never did this before? I said well I was busy going on,

dancing worldwide tours and whatnot so it just never came about.

♪

Of course he had his career outside of Graham as well, as a terrific dancer,

but for me he is associated with Martha Graham's,

as Martha Graham's partner for 25 years,

so that was from the time I was born which was in the 50's through the 70's when I was in school.

I got a hold of this friend who knew dancers at the Graham Studio,

who knew Martha's secretary, said call him up and make an appointment

and go down and investigate classes so you can study.

Well I would pick up the phone and dial the number and hang up

I could not I did not have the, I couldn't believe it. I didn't have the nerve to make, to finish the contact.

Finally I did I went down made and appointment and I had this long meeting with Eric and I took classes,

I took, and they were looking for a dancer for the company but I didn't know that. So I got raced through.

Bertram this, Bertram that, Bert that's very good, Bertram do this, Bertram do that, Bertram.

Someone said, do you know somebody here, why are they doing that? I had no idea.

The next thing I knew I was pushed into the intermediate class every Wednesday night there

was a thing called coaching class so I took that too. So I was taking three classes in a row.

Eric asked me to come in and help him once, do something, move some clothing racks through the streets.

I said I would do it and I came to school and he planned otherwise. He said, I won't do it today,

I'll do it some other time could you come back and do it. But Martha was sitting there, reading, looking very severe, serious

and I said yes I could come back some other time, just let me know when you needed me.

She said, Bertram, I said yes, she said, I think you can be a dancer.

Well I almost died. I remember running all the way home and her face lit up when she said it.

As Martha said she saw all her men in Bertram Ross, whether the role was created for him or not.

So he became her proto-type.

I used to be like Martha's safety gap or something,

she'd send everybody home if we had a lot, she's save it and say,

I'll work with Bert over the weekend, you all can have a day or weekend off,

do what you want and she felt secure.

And he was phenomenally important in the Graham institution

and you know he could not only help Martha with the movement choreographically

but help her remember her own steps, if that isn't about trust I don't know what is.

I think the most impressive thing for me was that in Clytemnestra Bertram comes on as

Agamemnon with grey hair plays that role magnificently dashes back stage at intermission,

washes the grey out of his hair comes back on at Oedipus in the same production,

and only Bertram Ross could do that and make them both characters totally believable.

I think that Bertram also had a great influence on Martha in that piece that she didn't believe in it

and Bertram kept saying it is one of the best you've done Martha, stay with it, keep with it, keep with it,

and it turned out to be the greatest dance theatre piece of the century.

The way Martha had choreographed it,

it was like very rich tapestry and like spectacle, then less spectacle, less spectacle,

until finally it dealt with 4 people. The composer called it, the family deadly portrait,

in which the whole family goes against the mother and finally do kill her.

My mother said, I have never seen such hatred in my life, and then finally it came out that, she said,

all I could see was the two of us. She projected herself onto that stage and that's what our life had been.

So I thought that was wonderful that she got caught up in that.

♪ If You Don't Love Me, I think I'll kill myself, If you don't love me,

♪ Maybe I'll kill you,

I'm walking beside you, isn't this fun now I'm stalking behind you, here's my gun

♪ I want my way love, You know I'm spoiled a bit, You must obey love, Or I'll throw a hissy fit,

♪ Always remember though your still my thrill, If I can't have you, Nobody will.

See that's what you call important music.

So I made my debut, I had worked some years with Ethel Barrymore Colt,

Ethel Barrymore's daughter, we toured. She was gonna go for the state department in Europe.

I got great reviews, so what happened was when the state department offered me to go to Europe too.

I could play my own concerts but then I had to play for her too, no skin off my back. Sixteen cities in Europe.

Right at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. That was scary because I was sitting in the Hotel Austioissersure

off in South Borg when, we thought the missiles were gonna drop on NY, we thought, scary.

I always think if John as a New Yorker, through and through.

His songs are about New York, his songs are about people in New York, things that happen in New York.

As a composer even when he writes some funny songs, some pattern songs he always has a very strong melodic touch to it.

And very amazing because many times you're playing on the lyrics, you're playing on the funny part of the song

and you don't pay too much attention to the music.But the music is always important with his songs, the way he structures them.

Do you have a favorite Wallowitch song?

There Used to Be is one of them.

There Used to Be?

I like that. I like all of them.

I like There Used to Be.

♪ There Used to Be words, There used to be music, There used to be music,

♪ There used to be melody, Melody, There used to be song, There used to be song,

♪ There used to be Moonlight, Remember that old thing, Stars up above, Remember those little things,

♪ There used to be romance, Remember that big thing, There used to be love, There used to be friends,

♪ There used to be family, But everything ends, You know that's not true, you know that's not true,

♪ With love in our hearts we'll keep it all going, Cause baby there's me,

♪ Baby there's me, and baby there's you, Baby there's you,

♪ Cause baby there's me and you.

I met him as a songwriter when I was a publishing early in the 60's.

And I was very attracted to his songs, though even at the time music was changing quite a lot,

in the rock and the folk and everything he was a sort of a a coming from another world.

Before lessons I was maybe 6 or 7 years old, 5 maybe even.

I was playing,

♪

by ear, a song called the Isle of Capri. I was so thrilled and I called my mother, we didn't have a piano.

My grandmother had a piano.

We didn't have a piano, so I kept begging my mother to come hear me play the piano,

so finally she came over and I was all ready to play this, and

I started playing, and she started talking to my grandmother

in Lithuanian and talked and never heard a note that I played.

I was absolutely destroyed.

But somehow I am laughing, I'm trying to laugh, I'm laughing

because if I go with the emotion that was there,

I won't talk another word.

Because it was so devastating.

Although she didn't, I don't think she meant that.

Somebody, other people have said, when I tell them the story they say, oh yes she did, what kind of mother is that.

But I also understand the kind of situation they were in.

A little store, which my grandmother had had before.

I mean we are talking about a little store.

It had one gas heater, the house we had, lived in, had a coal stove.

one gas heater in the store period. End of story.

I wouldn't mind singing one more song, The Runaway, the one that you wrote when you were how old?

Thirteen.

Thirteen.

My big hit.

When you were 13 I think it is an incredible song for 30

That's only 14 years ago, when I was 13.

Do you remember it?

Yeah.

♪ Runaway as far as your heart will go. Runaway pretend that it isn't so,

♪ Runaway don't let the heartache set in. Runaway don't let the teardrops begin,

♪ Tell yourself tomorrows another day. Tell yourself your love is along the way,

♪ Runaway that's all my poor heart can say. I'll runaway far away from you.

Thirteen, God, who were you running from at 13?

Oh, I was in love all the time, when I was a teenager, sure.

Thirteen I mean to write that song.

Adele Oronio

How do you know that when you are 13? Who?

Adele Oronio.

Is that a woman or a man?

A woman of course you're sick.

I thought you were always supposed to know from the beginning when you are gay.

Well, when did you find out you were gay?

Bertram's in this movie or whatever it is.

When did you find out that you were gay?

I haven't come out yet. I don't know.

You will.

I never asked about that stuff before.

Yes you did.

But Runaway. Runaway's good.

So Runaway was about Adele.

Not really, it was about

That's pretty articulate for a 13 year old

It was about, I think the lyric needed improvement myself.

Oh I don't think so, I think it was a perfect song.

♪

I remember when I first wrote it I went up like that, which is wrong.

Yeah.

Well maybe it's not.

Tell yourself tomorrows another day

How did you know to tell yourself that at 13? I never knew that.

It might have been even a little younger then 13.

Tell yourself your love is along the way, when your 13.

Since you couldn't tell anybody else who was gonna give you advice.

Yeah but it is about convincing yourself that you are gonna be OK.

I guess that is what I did but I just didn't know how to write a song about it.

I studied piano I guess since I was five. I never wanted to be concert pianist.

My mother was trained to be a concert pianist.

I never did hear the end of that,

because she said she had to give up her career to take care of me.

My mother was very competitive. She had very little patience with me.

So that I pretended I was reading music but had already set it to memory,

because if I ever made a mistake in front of her sometimes she would lose her temper

and slap me and claw me and scratch me.

I used to think certain people weren't cut out to be mothers,

she was one of them I felt.

But as far as my love of music was, she took me to the Philharmonic,

she also belonged to many groups for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

She did believe, I must say I give her credit for that,

that is was a mother's duty to watch and to give the if the child showed any talent in any field

to be given the opportunity to express it and develop in it

I can remember as a small child and saying I know why I draw,

I said that's the one thing you don't know anything about, that's completely mine.

So right away she got in touch with Pratt Institute, my mother enlisted me in a drawing class.

I was saying earlier, I used to go over to my grandmothers house and I would play, whatever I would play,

It Looks Like Rain in Cherry Blossom Lane, that big hit.

My grandmother said, she was a woman of few words,

she said, "do dat".

In other words, with your life, she was saying do that, so I did have encouragement.

I had taken lessons from the lady the Lithuanian piano teacher, her name was Francis O'Savage,

and I thought she was very glamorous. She used to drive, ride around in a 1937 Ford V-8 or

Ford is that V-8 or a V-8 is a juice or something. Anyway she would do that and she was very tall,

I thought she was beautiful but actually in a way wasn't I guess, but she was my 1st piano teacher.

And I never studied until I was 11 which is late. I studied with her for some years,

it was so painful for me to learn to read music

I used to sit there and literally cry. But I was determined. I was determined.

I knew that that was going to be my salvation, I guess I thought that even then.

♪

♪ Tiny World of Mine, Persian rug and old piano,

♪ There's a faded photograph up there upon the wall,

♪ Write a song a day, Hear the notes and paint the pictures,

♪ Put your life on paper get it down and tell it all,

♪ Laughter in the Spring, Heartbreak in the fall,

♪ Speeding past the broken pieces, Slowing to a crawl,

♪ Don't forget a thing, Count your loves, Count your losses,

♪ Everything's OK if you can say today is fine, Sure you gotta try,

♪ Sure your gonna cry, But for the price I've paid,

♪ I'd never trade this tiny world of mine

♪ Write a song a day, Hear the notes, Paint the pictures,

♪ Put your life on paper, Get it down and tell it all,

♪ Laughter in the Spring, Heartbreak in the fall,

♪ Speeding past the broken pieces, Slowing to a crawl,

♪ Don't forget a thing, Count your loves, Count your losses,

♪ Everything's OK if you can say today is fine, Sure you gotta try,

♪ Sure your gonna cry, but for the price I paid I'd never trade this tiny world of mine.

Up until that time I didn't know quite what I wanted to do,

I was gonna teach French, I thought I would teach French in High School.

Or I was gonna go into the decorating business because all my aptitude tests in school,

nothing mentioned music. It mentioned everything else, painting, English, it mentioned languages,

design, interior design, decorating things like that, all kinds of stuff like that. No music.

But the Army, I would fight in the USO for the piano, fight, I would push people away. I became violent.

I play better than you, get off.

I went to Oberlin to find myself because I was interested in painting

I was interested in theatre, the one thing I would never admit to was dancing.

A notice came through for the war effort they were trying to recruit artists to come to Washington,

I had no idea what that would mean. But I thought being patriotic and I went to Washington.

Well I had a very sensitive interviewer, he said, what do you want to do?

I said I'd like to offer my knowledge, my painting knowledge for camouflage.

He said on no no no, they don't do anything in camouflage.

There is no designing, you have a certain amount of things, it is mainly ditch digging

and putting up tents and flat things with those different designs on. He says that is not what you want.

So I went into, oh I got into map reproduction, and I took the course and

I never worked so hard in my life. Finally I got overseas.

I was in the Army for 18 months, in the infantry;

you know the infantry was never the same since I've been in it. I'll tell you.

Going into the Army was a blessing in a curious way, it got me out of South Philly for once

and I met all these other people, and all kinds I mean all kinds of people.

I mean some insane guy named Rick and I forget his last name, who had just come back from the,

wearing wedgie shoes, and bleached blonde hair and plucked eyebrows.

This is a mast---- sergeant right. He said yes I did everybody in Patton's Army,

I mean you know what are we talking about, weird, I met everybody and I was really thrown into this, into this melange.

That experience was so enormous that I came back from this other whole big world out there to little South Philly,

and my mom and dad who had worked so hard all their lives, this little store.

God, I can't even tell you how much I love those people.

But how much I am sure I hurt them because children do, you grow up and you have to leave

and that hurts them, and you fight too. There was a lot of stuff going on.

But they - salt of the earth, great.

The architecture was so fanciful in these German cities and little towns,

they would have these sweet little houses that looked like gingerbread houses and roses,

I am just trying to put down what it looks like, not what it feels like.

I did a WAAC review

and I choreographed it and of course people said, oh you are very talented

you should continue your dancing when you get out of the Army. I finished I wouldn't discuss it.

And I wrote when I was in the Army to my sister-in-law June, and I said when I get back I'm gonna become a dancer.

Absolutely no memory of that when I came home. Forgot that I ever wrote that and it didn't come up until analysis.

I found out that that is what I wanted but I was really blocked on it. I went back to the Art Students League

and began studying painting again and the Graham company opened in NY and I stood online to get tickets

and I get to the box office and they only had $3 that was very expensive for Broadway, $3.60

and I get there the only seats they had left I have no right to spend that money, why I'll never know,

I started tormenting myself and finally I would go. Later in analysis I learned that that was important to me,

that was like food, so you give up something else, you don't give up what you really love doing.

When I came back from the Army, I said I wanted to try out for Olga Samarov.

Olga Samarov was the divorced wife of Leopold Stokowski and she taught piano.

Olga Samarov was actually born in Oklahoma and her real name was Elsie Hickenlooper.

Now she invented herself, she invented herself and people would take these

Russian names because nobody would take an American pianist seriously.

You are not gonna go hear a concert of Chopin by Elsie Hickenlooper.

Nobody is gonna walk across the street.

Hello my name is Elsie Hickenlooper, but you hear

Hello my name is Olga Samorov, it's a whole different thing isn't it.

I tried out a Julliard the next year cause I had gained my courage and

I had studied with, well I had, my technique was really very good, I had a natural technique,

which had evolved naturally, I mean from my body, I didn't have any kinks, any kinks in my technique anything,

there was nothing I wouldn't be afraid of anything. The curious thing is that Julliard knocked it out of me.

I studied with Lonny Epstein and secured my scholarship, secured a scholarship to Julliard,which I held for the next 7 years.

I studied with her for 4 years and I thought that she had totally destroyed me by that time.

So I was now suicidal after five years at Julliard all over again.

I thought I would then switch teachers again because I didn't know any better.

I had heard from Vincent Jones back at Temple University about a woman named Abby Whiteside in New York City.

But I thought well she's not main stream and she's not Julliard,

Julliard is a big name, that's what attracts you, you know.

They offered me a position at Julliard to be a teacher, like a fellowship thing,

I was no more prepared to be a teacher, what would I teach?

I was in pain, physical pain now which when I was a kid I never had any of that, before I came to the big school.

Besides aging rapidly, my hair falling out in every single drain in New York,

clogging the drains of New York City. And being depressed as hell.

Nothing, they weren't teaching me anything,

they were not teaching me how to play the piano.So I finally after 8 years, gave up the ghost and rather than commit suicide

I searched out Abby Whiteside the lady Abby Whiteside.

She changed my life in 5 lessons, after all those years, got me back.

I still have to everyday have to I think we all do in whatever our crafts are, you have to.

There were a lot of bad habits at one time that you were into. You have to be aware, you have to conscious,

I have to be conscious that I am, that every, that my gesture, that my original gesture

my approach to the piano is pelvic, it's got to be from that place.

You cannot, it is not gonna come from here or from here or from the feet or whatever.

It's got to be from your center. Which is where all art comes from. I mean that is what it's about.

So my approach to piano, I don't always think of it but, it has to come, all the big muscles in the back take it not the little babies.

I have to think of it constantly still.

I used to sit around with the company and listen to the company talk

and hear stories about that Martha would never say to somebody you're out and fire them.

What she would do is call somebody else in to learn your part at night with somebody else teaching you

and then you would come to rehearsal and dance behind this person and they would be rehearsing

and suddenly realize that there was a person behind them doing the same part

and they would get so nervous they would quit and then Martha didn't have to face firing them.

Martha asked me one night if I wanted to go into the company.

She said, now Dale Senet is in analysis and his analyst feels they are very close to getting someplace with him

and this is not the time for him to go off on tour, so would you fill in for him.I said, being very shy, she must have just loved that.

I said, ummhumm, that would be nice. She said you don't have to join the company if you don't want to.

I said oh no that would be very nice. I can't imagine I said that but it was that scene,

and she said I could think about it because Dale had to find a replacement so he could continue his analysis.

So I came in and she said, Bob Cohan will teach you the part and I used to meet him at night

and we would go upstairs and study and he'd show me the dance and rehearse.

Finally Martha said I think you are ready now to come into rehearsal, and I was mocking the dance in the corner behind Dale,

just like they said she did. But I never thought since she made a such a convincing story

and she said Bertram would you take Dale's part now and let Dale stand out and you go into this scene.

So I did it and she said that was fine, this that and the other thing. Then I never saw him again

and I went off on tour and then I was performing at Connecticut College, they have the summer course there.

Martha was up there teaching and I shared a room with Dale Senet. Dale and I sat up chatting

and reminiscing and he finally said, I was so hurt, he said,

I had not a clue that Martha was displeased with my performing, my dancing.

She never let on, then you came in and began doing. I said but you had analysis, he said, I never went in to analysis.

He just called me about a month ago. He said I read in a magazine or something where I mentioned that story about,

he said you are the only one who ever told the truth about that.

♪

But I was a great admirer of the Martha Graham Company and of course I,

Bertram Ross was one of the people. But I thought they were all so great, so tremendous.

My friend, Neal Currer, we went backstage to meet Martha and Neal said,ooooh he said, she is weird,

she is a weird woman. She was trying to be very folksy. She had this big piece of Noguchi sculpture

which was from the Oedipus thing Night Journey and Bertram had played Oedipus we had just seen the performance that night.

I was a great admirer of Bertram Ross, he's like a God way up there, completely unapproachable, you never saw him anywhere.

Martha but Martha was the hostess after these concerts and she was saying,

Oh yes, this Noguchi it reminds me of a piece of Swiss cheese, she was being adorable, a piece of granite,

you know very folksy, I'll give her folksy.

Anyway the curious thing was that I was a fan, I wasn't vociferous,

I didn't pursue it constantly because I was music was my interest and I was playing a lot of clubs and stuff like that.

Doors were opening for me, I was in analysis, had been in analysis and I made my debut,

I confronted my Minotaur you know. Is that what you confront, I think that is what you confront is a Minotaur.

I went to a record store and there was this strange record cover, first of all this was an eye catcher, this is John Wallowitch

I was intrigued with that so I bought it then there was another one which was called this is the other side of John Wallowitch.

So I made an album and Andy Warhol had done the covers you know for these to two albums,

first two piano albums and Bert Ross had picked them up and then he played them and he liked them

So I called my friend Mary Hinkson who was also back from the tour, soaking in a tub for her muscles,

and I said did you ever hear of John Wallowitch, she said no, who is he,

I said he is a pianist I just bought these records and I'll play you one,

So I put it on and she said play me another one,

another song and she said they are like tone poems.

Bert tells a story about how he played them for Mary Hinkson over the phone

and they were like tone poems, you see I've heard these stories you know.

And then the 3rd person I asked was my cousins' wife, my cousin Ross's wife if she knew.

He talked to Maxine Hann and she said I've been trying to get you two together for yearsor something to that effect, and Maxine I adored.

Do you know him, have you heard, she said, yes I had dinner with him last night, would you like to meet him and I said yes.

He came to the Barbara Harris the Golden Apple Award something that Q magazine did.

They got me a very good seat and during intermission I was introduced to him.

I met Bertram and I said to Bertram,

something to the effect, what are you doing these days and he said,

well I'm working with Martha, oh Martha Ray I thought, you're working with Martha Ray,

I thought you know they don't make much money with the Graham company, so he probably goes out to Vegas and does the,

here this glorious epic figure working with Martha Ray but who knew.

So he was oh no, Martha Graham, I know you're with Martha Graham, that I know, my God I've been,

And he had bought these albums of mine he was crazy about the albums it was interesting.

We went to Ross and Maxine's that night and we were talking and we left there and we said

we would call each other and I didn't think anything of it. I thought nothing of it, and Tony and I were writing all these songs

and all these songs about yearning for romance and I had given up on the whole thing, it was all over a thing of the past.

And I was content, I thought well I now gonna get a pot belly, I 'm gonna get up in the morning I'll teach some piano lessons

and then I'll play my Bach, I'll get the coffee going play a little Bach and become portly and venerable.

I felt very apathetic to Bertram. Because I felt the vast loneliness, we were talking about being abused by people.

And I guess I called him, I suppose I better call him I'm feeling guilty I better call him.

And that was I can't believe it over 30 years ago.

And we were a, very happy with each other and decided to move in together and

he went away to London and that's when this song was written, Tony and I were working on

♪ Thank the Lord I'm here at last, Now I've found London town,

♪ Never thought I'd live to see the city on the Thames,

Where's that sky of gray,

♪ Where's that foggy day, The Gershwin's had their say but now I'm here to tell you,

♪ My love went to London, and left me behind, I'm going to London and I'll find him,

♪ Piccadilly Circus may be where I'll meet him, Oh I'll rush right up to him, lovingly I'll greet him.

So.

I had to leave shortly after we met, I don't know how shortly, to go to London to perform

and John wrote a song while I was gone called My Love Went to London.

I had never had a song written for me so that was an experience.

Tony Bennett just recorded it, how many years later? About 30 years later it was this new song.

♪ They all said we'd never would be happy, They laughed at us and how, But ho ho ho who's got the last laugh now,

♪ Nothing's impossible I have found but when my chin is on the ground, I pick myself up dust myself off start all over again,

♪ I can see the sun on high though we're caught in the storm, I can see where you and I could be cozy and warm,

♪ Let the rain pitter patter cause it really doesn't matter when the skies are grey, Long as I can be with you it's a lovely day,

♪ I'm putting all my eggs in one basket I'm betting everything I've got on you,

♪ You say tomatoes and I say tomatoes you say potatoes and I say potatoes, tomatoes tomatoes potatoes potatoes

♪ let's call the whole thing off let's call the whole thing off

♪ The glamour, the romance, the service, No need to be nervous Oprah darling at all,

♪ Cause we're having a fabulous ball, There's no train can compare to the show train,

♪ This gently a glow train, This dream that's come true, The train is a dream made just for you.

This is a career, I'll tell you I've done a million things, I've played a million places

and loved almost every minute of it and shall continue to do so.

Martha used to say and say it a lot in class, I love Bertram but I'm not in love with Bertram, something like that

even if I hated him we have to get through something on stage I mean you can't allow that to stand in the way

you have to overcome that. She used to say things to me like, when you learn to hate me, I said why should I hate you?

She said you'll see. I know when the big blow-up came and I finally left, I forget who was interviewing me,

somebody from either Time magazine, they said you sound like a jilted lover. I said well I guess it was like that.

I think it is so poignant the way he ends his own chapter in my book, saying you must know this is the saddest day of my life

when he resigned from Graham in '73.

When Bertram resigned from Martha Graham horrible moment, horrible, horrible,

painful and we have not recouped from it still because it is so painful.

But it was like those moments if you're in analysis but it's like you kick in something you know

that something is a kind a revelation and it's right you just feel

I remember when you decided to do it, you knew it was right but it was like cutting off your leg

There are so many joyous things that people have idealism,

you know I just thought Bertram should have stayed but that was my thing,

I didn't tell him that at the time because I couldn't do it, he was too caught up with it, but what am I doing,

I'm sitting her crinkling

The practical thing is to have stayed, the practical thing was to have stayed but Bert couldn't stay against his

Principals

I didn't think he would say yes and I said Bertram would you like to come and teach at my studio and he said yes and he's been here ever since.

Alright and go, one two three, two two three, three two three four, the accent and one and two

and three four balance, shift through the waist, three four reach five six rotate seven and then around eight

and then drag one, two and shift three

Bertram wondered because he was a choreographer whether he had made a mistake by spending all that time

with Martha Graham and I feel that he was destined to do that. That her works would not have been what they were

if Bertram hadn't been there at her right hand always making, and he still is a choreographer

and he's done a wonderful piece for my company called Nature Dancing which again is very very witty

and I intend to revive it, but he is a choreographer and a painter and a musician

and a writer you name it he is a Renaissance man.

I think we are ready, it is actually a great honor and it's a great pleasure

cause you know that for two years you have been hearing about the famous man, and so it gives me great pleasure

to introduce Mr. Bertram Ross.

Thank you, will you be seated please. One hip three four seesung seesung bella seesung seesung

He is a great artist and someone who represents something that I love very much

the Graham technique in it's finest, in it's most dignified classic beautiful way and it's very important

that he be known to the world of dance because he is so special and so truthful

To the hip.

keep in in progression, right, let the elbow come up, hip hip

and travel as fast as you can low to the ground

Rectangular. Oh oh sorry.

Since we stopped, see there is a thing of letting, like dropping the personality

the performing personality for a moment just to make a point so you

Yes the circle shape is quite renowned, sad to say it can be found in a dirty lowdown,

you know what I mean? Just for that moment.

Try it.

Ok I did it a little bit

But I want to hear it

You want a lot

You were thinking it, I want to hear it, I don't want you to just only think it. I want to hear it a little bit.

A trickle of red

No it is not a big AHHH see

Just a little item

A trickle of red

That is stretched of course

That is stretched like the 1st one?

A trickle of

But AH is short

You're alone going nowhere, first you rise then you fall,

but certain dreams come true my life is always new, for it's filled with you after all

I don't mind that

I love that song

I don't mind that, singing great, I love the way you sing darlin' you are singing better than ever

A little closer than we are (if that's possible) Just a closer than we were before

John undoubtedly deserves more stature than he has in a commercial sense

because we don't have any other people writing the way he does in a style that Cole Porter

and Noel Coward and their colleagues from a time past wrote in

It's amazing that I haven't been successful, no no no but I mean,

I should have had a Broadway show years ago, simply because of that but

then I foolishly made my concert debut so they got all confused about me

♪ It takes a life to realize what life is all about and life is all about this moment,

♪ I'm here with you before we're through what secret will we tell,

♪ I learned to know you well this moment,

♪ How soon to soon the hours fly,

♪ I hear the clock go ticking by, I won't pretend that time has been my friend.

♪ I bring my song to sing my song, For you until the end and as I live my days,

♪ I count the wondrous ways, That brought me here to praise this moment,

♪ How soon too soon the hours fly. I see my life go rushing by, I only hope that time will be your friend,

♪ We live a life to give a life with love oh don't you see, So if you'll agree,

♪ Then come along with me, I only guarantee this moment

I find that the songs have a very strong sentimental pull. And when I knew him,

when first I knew him, he was much more bitter about what was not happening to his career as a song writer,

I can understand it, because the music business is a very tough business and it can be very cruel,

especially to someone who is not willing to change, also cannot change really, wants to be what it is.

Did you ever do it like that before?

Never did it like that. You have to, why do you like it that way? It's better than...

♪

With John and Bertram we used to go many years to sing in front of Irving Berlin's house

on Christmas Eve which was really wonderful. That is something, his love for Irving Berlin and for his music,

but it represents more than just a love for one composer. It is the love affair with the whole world of music.

When I was a little boy I made my professional debut playing the piano on the Lithuanian Furniture Company radio hour.

I played an Irving Berlin song, a song called So Help Me. Well that 1st Christmas Eve in 1967

I was walking Bravo the weimaraner around the neighborhood and I stopped in front of Irving Berlin's door at 6 O'clock

and intoned, inwardly White Christmas and I'll be Loving You Always, I started crying because I was just in awe

that I was there and that I had moved into the Beekman Place area, I mean I couldn't believe it from South Philly to there you know.

So I did that for 15 years, not every night, every Christmas Eve. Every Christmas Eve 6 O'clock I would to this dark old house.

In 1982 I met Steve Elmore on the street, wonderful actor singer, and I asked what he was doing in the neighborhood,

he said I was looking at Irving Berlin's house. So I said Steve,

I told him about my experience of this inward private thing, private moment I was doing.

He said gee that's great, can I join you? But eventually I relented, then he said

OK John since you are gonna let me come and sing, can we sing out loud instead of inwardly.

I also said yes and then we asked Bertram Ross and he said yes, and Mary Jane Miracle and Bob Dagny.

We went around that Christmas Eve we sang I'll Be Loving You Always and White Christmas and burst into tears and left.

It comes with the territory. Well word got out and next year there were 17 people that wanted to do this.

So what better excuse as you know in Manhattan for a cocktail party. Well the place was in good shape,

the apartment was in good shape, we had some good crystal in those days, before it all disappeared,

and but you know how it is you're breaking glasses in the fireplace. The important thing was that it was 4-degree temperature that day,

4-degrees with the wind whipping off the East River. Well 17 people came we rehearsed those two songs

and then at 5 minutes to 6 we were there and I was about I was ready to ring the doorbell when

Fiddle Veracola who happens to be here tonight. Fiddle Veracola said...

Actually you weren't gonna ring the doorbell.

Did I rush off, what did I do, what did I skip?

Aren't you going to ring the doorbell is what she said.

I was about to ring the doorbell...

No you didn't want to ring the doorbell that is the whole point of it.

Oh that's right, I got it mixed up. I did not want to ring the doorbell, that's it, that is the 1st time I made that mistake.

Well you see there it is.

And I was reluctant. Fiddle Veracola said to me...

Aren't you gonna ring the doorbell?

Didn't you Fiddle? And I said why would I ring the doorbell?

And she said, because he very well might want to hear what we are doing

and he may be looking at television and he won't even know we are out here, she said.

Well I never thought, she did say that. I never thought that Irving Berlin was there in the 1st place,

this dark old house and here it is 4-degrees, he would be up in the Catskills with his family

in front of a roaring fireplace at the age of 96, or in Bermuda, you know in the Bahamas somewhere enjoying himself.

He had a couple of bucks, I knew that.

Well I was overcome by you know that giant emotion called fear,

of the ringing the doorbell, my friends didn't want me to do it but I did it, I eventually did it.

The door was flung open, the housekeeper said what can I do for you?

And I said we are here to serenade Mr. Berlin on Christmas Eve.

She said isn't that nice I'll go right upstairs and tell him.

Well we didn't expect that, didn't expect that

this was well we were agog, we started singing White Christmas,

there are several people here tonight who were there,

Pat Nemser, Jacqueline Parker, and we are singing White Christmas

Tears in our eyes

And tears streaming, a lump

Frogs in the throat, gagging, fortunately we all didn't gag at the same time.

And all the lights in this 5-story mansion were starting to come up, symbolism was rife,

like the lighting of a giant Christmas Tree to me and Bertram pointed out on the 3rd floor that

the shade was being drawn mysteriously, well we were thrilled, and we sang I'll Be Loving You Always

which was written for as you know Ellen Mackay and then I thought the program was a little short

so we repeated White Christmas and then we were going around Beekman Place.

It was like a scene out of a movie cause just as we were turning the corner

the door opened up and she waved something and she said

come back, come back, so we ran back to his house

And she said Mr. Berlin would to thank you, and I said we would like to thank Mr. Berlin

for all the beauty that he brought into this world and for us especially

and she said I don't mean that he wanted to come out on the sidewalk tonight to thank you

but you know its 4 degrees, as if we didn't know.

So in we went

No so she said he would like you to come inside he will greet you personally in the house. So.

In we went there he was in the kitchen in pajamas, slippers, bathrobe,

bright bright eyes and he said,

This is the nicest Christmas present I ever got.

Bertram Ross is, Bertram Ross is let me just say it, I'll have to say it,

he is my life, he's my life that is it, he is my life...

My music is my life too but I mean, but he is an incredible human being, he just

how he put up with Martha and elevated her and revered her and brought

and worked with her and gave her all of that and did all of that, out of the sheer love of doing the art,

without thinking about oh is my name gonna be there, am I getting this much money?

Without thinking of that at all, I mean it is too otherworldly for me I'll tell you.

When we did this in the Paiz in the Park in London

Bertram invented a choreography for the 2nd of part of this.

This is Irving Berlin's jungle song. Second part of this song and by the next morning London was agog.

Rumor has it that the Queen Mother was seen on the lawn of Windsor Castle executing the steps

that you will see Bertram do in the opening of the 2nd chorus of this wonderful jungle song by Irving Berlin,

the year 1925 from the Coco Nuts. This song is so so politically incorrect that it was banned

from the recent revival of the Coco Nuts, so there.

Monkeys upon a tree never are very blue, they never seem to be under par that is true,

Not like the ones you see on a bar in the zoo, Monkey's upon a tree do the monkey doodle doo,

Oh oh oh oh among the mangos,

Where the monkey gang goes,

You can see them do, you can see them do, the little monkey doodle doo.

Oh oh oh the little monkey playing on his one key gives them all the cue, Gives them all the cue,

To do the monkey doodle doo,

Let me take you by the hand, Over to the jungle band, I am the jungle band,

If you're too old for dancing, Get yourself a monkey gland and then let's go, Oh then let's go,

A little dearie there's the Darwin's Theory telling me and you, telling me and you, to do the monkey doodle doo.

Do the monkey doodle doo, To do the monkey doodle doo, do do ta do.

We met way beyond the time when people usually meet but I would love us to be, you know nubile and 27

and racing across like two young zephyrs or stallions whatever those things are that race across things,

Unicorns, beach and all that part of it, that would be nice, but that's another lifetime coming up somewhere, but this this will do.

OK Bertie I guess we did it huh?

I guess so. It's just the beginning.

Only the beginning. I say I'm only beginning.

If I can remember.

You are my toad, I am your frog, Aren't you happy we met on this log,

And we've been friends forever,

Hiding from owls and hopping in heather, You are my toad I am your frog,

You shine the silverware, I'll find the Spode,

And we'll celebrate Christmas while we're trimming the tree, Toad, Frog and me,

You have really think it's terrible isn't it.

You are my frog I am your toad, Remember last winter it finally snowed,

And Christmas was white and stormy, My friend the frog built a fire to warm me,

I got the flu, I had a pain,

I bought some (no you didn't you ordered, oh I ordered), I ordered some bubbly sparkling champagne,

And by New Years Eve happily our health simply glowed, Frog and Toad, Frog and Toad.

Take it again from the top.

Boychik

Boychik, then you have have to do this.

I'm not doing that it hurts.

♪

It's never to late to become what you might have been,

Don't trust how you feel, you can still grab that wheel and give it another spin,

You are never too old to make up your mind to make a brand new start,

Never too weak to forcefully speak to a world that seems to be falling apart,

You gotta erase that old frown from your face if you can't get a lift,

Your doctor will wipe all your sorrows away so you don't look constantly miffed,

And once in while break out in a smile and watch your joy begin,

Cause if it don't rise up to the challenge of life that's your ultimate sin,

And it's never too late to become, You'll be making the Universe hum,

Oh it's never too late to become what you might have been.