THE CABARET SCENES HALL OF FAME
From time to time, we will honor great performers, composers, lyricists, musical directors (both living and deceased), by election into our Hall of Fame. The venues in which they appeared also will be recognized and commemorated.
Our Esteemed Inductees (to date)
May/June 2015
BART HOWARD
by Rob Lester
He said that “the song poured out of” him “in twenty minutes,” but it sure has lasted: “Fly Me to the Moon” put composer-lyricist Bart Howard on the map with just that one audience-pleaser. Successful both as an uptempo number and its original setting as a romantic ballad, with its original title “In Other Words,” it has consistently been sung, swung and favored by singers and bands since its debut in 1954. Cabaret singer Felicia Sanders was the first to sing it, Kaye Ballard the first to record it, Peggy Lee’s TV performance on The Ed Sullivan Show and her disc caused widespread attention and she suggested its title change to the chorus’s first line. And upon the U.S. moon landing, the astronauts had Frank Sinatra’s version blasted after blast-off. While surely the most prominent feather in his cap, there’s much more to the art of Bart, the musically-powered Howard than that. He was born 100 years ago this June. In his book Intimate Nights, author James Gavin states, “Few other songwriters glorified romance or mourned its failure as passionately as Howard. His lyrics spoke of commitment, of the great love that lasts forever, or of the crushing pain when it ends. They captured an era when nothing seemed more enchanting that the thought of pledging one’s hand for a lifetime.” Thomas Fowler was Howard’s own companion of 58 years, until the music man’s death in 2004.
Born Howard Joseph Gustafson in Burlington, Iowa, he grew up in a musical family, with a mom at the piano and his dad playing mandolin, guitar and piano, the instrument Bart took to. He gave his first recital when he was 16, playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” among other selections. He left home the same year to tour as pianist of a dance band in vaudeville with the star attractions the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, much later subjects of the Broadway musical Side Show. Work brought him to New York City and the Rainbow Room, and he met the woman whom many consider the quintessential cabaret artist: Mabel Mercer. He became her accompanist and she his champion, singing and recording many of his works, beginning with “If You Leave Paris” (co-writer: Ian Grant) and including “Let Me Love You” and “You Are Not My First Love.” He found a home at the Blue Angel in Manhattan, where he was the emcee and pianist. A young Johnny Mathis was one of those who performed in the club, backed by Bart. He took the singer under his wing, suggesting repertoire and making sure he had a decent meal now and then. Johnny repaid Bart’s kindness by recording several of his songs, earning Bart enough so that he could finally quit the Blue Angel.
Over the years, his material (besides just his giant hit) was recorded by artists including Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Eydie Gormé, Andy Anselmo, Petula Clark, Dinah Washington, Steve Ross, Chris Connor, Lena Horne, Sylvia Syms, Morgana King, Shirley Horn, and in more recent years by Joyce Breach, Sarah Partridge, and Dianne Reeves. Portia Nelson, a songwriter herself, dedicated a whole LP to his work. KT Sullivan did a full nightclub act of Howard material at Rainbow & Stars, with the man himself featured, and it was released as a CD (her first). She also participated in another album, titled Bart!, which also included him along with William Roy and cabaret’s great lady, Julie Wilson.
“What can I say except: My songs are about love, that crazy mixed-up feeling as full of laughter and tears, simple understanding, bewildering rejection, comic bravado, and straight-faced foolishness. I always approach the writing of lyrics with a kind of smiling compassion for the poor creatures who keep trying to cope with this dear devil emotion. And, since words alone cannot tell the tale, I aim for melodies and harmonies that betray the anxieties behind the casual lyric observation.”
It is our not-so-casual observation that his songs are for the ages. In other words (to re-coin his phrase), his place is in our Hall of Fame.
January/February 2014
JOHNNY MATHIS
“We need a Little Christmas” and who better to usher in the season than Jerry Herman whose song has become part of our Christmas canon. He musicalized two of the iconic women characters in theater, Dolly and Mame. His songs have become part of the American Songbook, finding their way into cabaret rooms and concert halls: the title songs from Hello, Dolly! and Mame, “It’s Today,” “If He Walked into My Life,” “I Don’t Want to Know,” “Time Heals Everything,” “I Won’t Send Roses,” “I Am What I Am” and “The Best of Times.” As for Dolly, many greats have descended the staircase at the Harmonia Gardens, starting with Carol Channing in the original Broadway production and immortalized on film by Barbra Streisand. In between, Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey and Ethel Merman, for whom the score was originally written, graced Broadway, putting their indelible stamp on the character. From high schools to community theaters to regional theaters and back to Broadway, shows with scores by Mr. Herman have brought enormous joy to theatergoers around the world. He broke ground as part of the creative team that brought La Cage aux Folles to the stage, the first time a same-sex couple was center stage in a major musical. “Before the Parade Passes By,” we honor Jerry Herman as he celebrates his 80th birthday and induct him into the Cabaret Hall of Fame.
December 2010
JOHN KANDER & FRED EBB
Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb met in 1962 and a legendary songwriting team was born. Their first successful collaboration was on the song “My Coloring Book,” recorded by both Sandy Stewart and Barbra Streisand. But it will be the scores of the ground-breaking musicals they penned, and the stars they either made (Liza Minnelli) or re-introduced (Chita Rivera, Gwen Verdon), that place Kander & Ebb in the pantheon of musical theater. Their songs have entered the mainstream consciousness—“Cabaret” and “(Theme from) New York, New York”—and have found a home on the cabaret scene. As Nancy LaMott said, “Cabaret is not just a movie starring Liza Minnelli!” And where would both cabarets be without the musical genius that is Kander & Ebb?
Never hesitating to go to the darker side of the human experience, they have tackled Nazi Germany (Cabaret), murderesses and the sycophants that surround them (Chicago), political prisoners (Kiss of the Spider Woman) and the desperation of the Depression (Steel Pier). Their first Broadway show, Flora the Red Menace, was Liza’s Broadway debut and brought her her first Tony Award. The Happy Time, Zorba, 70 Girls 70, The Act, Woman of the Year, The Rink, Curtains—all carried the unique artistry of Kander & Ebb. In their new musical, The Scottsboro Boys, they once again deal with an insidious side of humanity, this time racism.
For putting social issues on stage while making the musical world go ‘round, we add Kander & Ebb to The Cabaret Hall of Fame.
July 2010
FRANK LOESSER
Where’s Charley?, Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Standouts in the pantheon of the American musical. It didn’t start out so successfully. His first Broadway outing was a flop, but it led to a Hollywood contract and his writing lyrics for over sixty films.
Born in New York City, Frank Loesser came from a musical family (his father taught classical piano and his older brother was a renowned concert pianist). More interested in pop music, Frank refused to study classical music, or take formal music lessons of any kind, instead teaching himself harmonica and piano. His first set lyrics were to the melodies of Irving Actman and it was their collaboration that led to that Broadway flop.
He made his composing debut with the 1939 film Seventeen. During the war, he was assigned to Special Services where he wrote lyrics for the camp shows. After the war, he found himself without a collaborator, became his own composer and wrote the hit Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.
It was back to Hollywood after the war but his big break came when he was asked to write the score for Ray Bolger’s biggest stage success, Where’s Charley? Frank finally had his first major hit. But it was the landmark production of Guys and Dolls that placed him among the notables of musical comedy. The show won the Tony Award for Best Musical and introduced a string of hits that have become part of the Great American Songbook. His next success was The Most Happy Fella, followed by the less-than-successful Greenwillow, which none-the-less produced “Never Will I Marry,” recorded by a young Barbra Streisand. He was back on top with the 1961 How to Succeed, which not only won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, but also took home the Pulitzer Prize. And let’s not forget his beautiful score for the film Hans Christian Anderson.
“Once in Love with Amy,” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” “My Time of Day,” “I Believe in You,” “Standing on the Corner,” “Luck Be a Lady,” “I’ll Know,” “My Heart Is So Full of You,” “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year”—all have stood the test of time and continue to be interpreted on Broadway stages and in cabarets. It’s only appropriate, then, that we honor Frank Loesser on the centennial of his birth by adding him to the distinguished honor roll of The Cabaret Hall of Fame.
April 2010
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
by Noah Tree
Shall we keep this simple? You want to go through the intriguing Stephen Sondheim canon again for his numerous precocities, all doubtless worthy of the appreciative cult scrutiny the works receive.
Perfectly understandable to this writer who enthusiastically ghosted the reaction to the first Sondheim tribute as “waves and waves of frenzied accolades….” But for such historical, and in the greater overview, minutial—not to be misconstrued as trivial—‘and then he wrote’ lists, there is the Internet.
Thus for nitty-gritty serious consideration—setting aside the lyrics-only works, as if West Side Story with Leonard Bernstein, Gypsy with Jule Styne and Do I Hear a Waltz? with Richard Rodgers could be set aside—let us merely consider main events. The composer/lyricist events.
Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, The Frogs, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins, Passion, WiseGuys/Bounce/Road Show.
These diverse musical excursions of the mind have a common denominator: a subtext of intelligence. They ingeniously amuse, involve and most importantly inspire thought. Sondheim’s lyrics are either deceptively conversationally straightforward, an emotional pin-prick to the heart, or a rat-tat-tat ricochet of fiendishly clever word play which, for all its intricacy, never loses the inherent cogent meaning. He uses similar construct with his scores, again sometimes disarmingly pared down to expose achingly exquisite reality.
If you have had the good fortune to experience his artistry in the theater, you are the richer for it. If not, listen to the recordings. Take away the talented collaborations, the staged spectacle, it’s the words and music that are irreplaceable. The ichor of it all.
Stephen has supposedly said it was difficult to find a rhyme for orange. It is, conversely, easy to rhyme Sondheim.
His rhyme is brilliant.
March 2010
IRA GERSHWIN
by Mark Nadler
Upon the publication of his book, Lyrics on Several Occasions, one of his idols, P.G. Wodehouse, sent Ira Gershwin a note wherein he stated: “I’ve always considered you the best of the whole bunch.” What made Ira Gershwin, if not the best lyricist of the 20th century, certainly one of the top three or four? Whether writing with his brother, George, or with myriad other songwriters, Ira Gershwin matched words to melody so seamlessly that it’s impossible to know “which came first.” He could be endlessly inventive with the English language as in “‘S Wonderful,” “Tschaikowsky (and Other Russians),” or “It Ain’t Necessarily So” (is there a better rhyme ANYWHERE than “He made his home in that fish’s abdomen”?!). He could also be breathtakingly simple, as in “Long Ago and Far Away,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” or “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
As a craftsman, Ira knew so much about lyric writing that he not only knew when to use rhymes and inner-rhymes, he also knew when to use no rhymes at all. When setting a lyric to the melody George came up with for “I Got Rhythm,” Ira kept stripping it of rhymes (as they made the song too sing-songy) until he came up with a lyric that has only two rhymes (once the chorus begins)—both in the bridge.
Although Ira is best known for writing with his younger brother, he collaborated with more than two dozen other composers including Vincent Youmans, Sigmund Romberg, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Harry Warren, Johnny Green, Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Arthur Schwartz, Burton Lane and even Aaron Copland. Nonetheless, when George passed away in 1937, (when Ira was only forty and still had more than twenty years of writing to do), the depth of Ira’s knowledge of loss made his songs even richer. “The night is bitter, the stars have lost their glitter.” That opening phrase of “The Man That Got Away” sums up the entire experience of deeply felt loss in ten words. It is so profound and yet so simple.
Ira prided himself in being able to write lyrics that were colloquial. His lyrics are the way we speak. Maybe that’s why so many of his lyrics have entered the vernacular. Just try saying the phrases “Who could ask for anything more?” or “But not for me” or “Good riddance. Goodbye!” without hearing in your mind’s ear the music that’s attached to them. You can’t. Maybe that’s why his songs are timeless. Cabaret singing is, more than anything, about the reading of the lyric, so it would be absurd to have a Cabaret Hall of Fame that doesn’t include Ira Gershwin. He truly believed that his songs would not last; he felt that his brother was writing for posterity and he was just writing popular songs that would be forgotten as soon as the next one took its place. Well, Ira, “who’s got the last laugh now?”
October 2009
BARBARA COOK
Another Barbara took The Great White Way by storm with performances in Plain and Fancy, Candide, The Music Man and She Loves Me. “Broadway’s favorite ingenue,” her silvery soprano delighted audiences. When the stage roles were gone, she began a second career as a concert and cabaret performer, triumphing with her 1975 Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall. From the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House to Café Carlyle and Feinstein’s, she continues to win new accolades with her honest approach to her material.
Her voice has gotten richer, her warmth as glowing as ever and her interpretive skills have grown deeper. As with the other Barbra, she knows the heart of the song is the lyric and she can pinpoint the truth with the best of them. Actually, few can compare. Just listen to her deliver a Sondheim lyric. Breathtaking!
Her recent cabaret outings have been lessons in what the art form is all about. Those fortunate enough to be in the audience or those young singers lucky enough to attend her master classes know what has been known for years: Barbara Cook is in a master class all her own and it is with great joy that we add her to The Cabaret Hall of Fame.
October 2009
BARBRA STREISAND
Actress, singer, director, producer, composer, activist, philanthropist. Broadway, Hollywood, Television, Recordings. Tony, Oscar, Emmy, Grammy awards. Her name is Barbra. It all began at a talent contest in Greenwich Village, leading to club engagements in New York City and around the country. Her voice has been her entree into every aspect of the entertainment world. But the voice alone, unique as it has always been, was only part of what made her a must-see performer. She always said she was an “actress who sings” and she brought an actress’ instinct and skill to the interpretation of the lyrics, telling the song’s story in a new and exciting way. The combination of her powerful, multi-colored voice and deep understanding of the lyrics introduced audiences to a unique style of singing. Think of some of her best film moments (“My Man”; “Papa, Can You Hear Me?”) for proof that the singer is best served by the actress. She was a trailblazer in other ways. She certainly didn’t fit the mold of the typical girl singer: not in looks, dress or attitude. She broke that mold and made it possible for the likes of Cher, Bette Midler and even Madonna. She has mellowed over the years (at least in her performing style), the voice more refined, the approach sometimes too polished on recent recordings. But in concert, without the technology of the recording studio, what made her a star is evident. As Stephen Holden wrote in 1994, “Barbra in concert is Barbra at her best.” Indeed!
For a lucky few, Barbra returned to her nightclub roots with a performance at the Village Vanguard in September, proving, once again, it’s best never to second-guess Streisand. The occasion was the celebration of her latest recording, Love Is the Answer, on which she is backed by Diana Krall and her quartet. With her return to a small Greenwich Village club, this is the perfect time to name Barbra Streisand to The Cabaret Hall of Fame.
June 2009
COLE PORTER
Just to list Cole Porter’s enduring songs would take pages. As captivating today as when they were written well over a half-century ago, and heard often in the songlists of cabaret artists, “Night and Day,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” “Anything Goes,” and “Love for Sale” are but a few evergreens of Porter’s copious songbook. He was a one-man team. Unlike many iconic songwriting pairs—Rodgers and Hart, later Rodgers and Hammerstein, George and Ira Gershwin, Lerner and Loewe, Kander and Ebb—he was both composer and lyricist of his songs.
Although he had authored several musicals while at Yale (including one starring his close college friend, Monty Woolley), Porter’s earliest attempt at commercial theater was a flop, and he headed for Europe, where he soon became a darling of the social set. Returning home in the 1920s, his next Broadway musical, Paris, fared better and included “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love).” The following year, Porter’s Fifty Million Frenchmen introduced “You Do Something to Me,” and a year later, his Wake Up and Dream included “What Is This Thing Called Love?”
A 1937 riding accident crushed both of his legs, and Porter would endure dozens of operations and chronic pain for the rest of his life. That notwithstanding, he continued to work, penning the words and music for close to two dozen more Broadway shows and Hollywood films, including Can-Can, Silk Stockings, High Society and the triumphant Kiss Me, Kate. He was born in June 1891 and though he died forty-five years ago, his songs live on.
June 2009
LENA HORNE
On nightclub stages, on records, on Broadway and on the screen, Lena Horne has long been on top and on target. Turning 91 this month, her glow and glamour remain, her influence and stardom monumental. She was last on disc embracing songs of friend Billy Strayhorn. (His biographer, David Hadju, told us, “Lena loved Strayhorn like she loved no other man, and she said that, through him, she found something greater than stardom. She found herself.”) Lena herself gets the biographical treatment with James Gavin’s forthcoming book. Though she’s had her real-life share of “Stormy Weather,” she’s a survivor and an inspiration, a blazing talent and a trailblazer for racial equality and opportunity. Live performances on disc and DVD, including her career-spanning triumph, The Lady and Her Music, capture much magic, fire and finesse—likewise her legacy of personalized studio versions of standards from the Great American Songbook. They are treasures—and so is she.
May 2009
TONY BENNETT
Like some cabaret hopefuls, a fellow originally named Anthony Dominick Benedetto began as a singing waiter in New York, earning $15 per week. Many nightclubs, concert halls, scores of records and over a dozen Grammy Awards later, Tony Bennett’s still going strong, starting May at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and turning 83 this summer. Always a believer in singing the Great American Songbook, even when it meant severing his recording company relationship in the rock era, he persevered. Albums include songbooks of Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington, with other CDs dedicated to classic songs introduced by some of his favorites (and ours) Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire and Billie Holiday. This down-to-earth performer is also an artist—musically and with a paintbrush. With his career given a resurgence via his manager son Danny and MTV Unplugged endearing/introducing him to a new generation, he remains vital and in love with music and his fans. He left his heart in San Francisco—or with any audience—and in the songs.
May 2009
JOHNNY MERCER
Prolific and terrific, warm or witty, Johnny Mercer was, to employ one of his song titles, just “Too Marvelous for Words.” That 1937 song had music by Richard Whiting, father of Mercer protegee and friend and another of our Hall of Fame-rs, singer Margaret Whiting, now President of the music education-focused Johnny Mercer Foundation. Most often writing just the lyrics, the Southern charm of this Georgia native found its mots justes in collaborations with such composers as Harold Arlen (“Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Blues in the Night,” Broadway scores St. Louis Woman; Saratoga), Hoagy Carmichael (“Skylark,” “Lazybones”), Gene DePaul (scores of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; L’il Abner), Henry Mancini (Oscar winners “Moon River,” “The Days of Wine and Roses”), as well as Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, Andre Previn, Fred Astaire, and—posthumously—Barry Manilow. Mercer wrote words and music for “Something’s Gotta Give” and “Dream,” a song that became the title of a Broadway show using many of his songs and featuring cabaret favorites John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey (they met working on this show) and Miss Whiting.
This is Mercer’s centennial; he died in the year of our country’s bicentennial, 1976. He was also a singer and recording artist, co-founded Capitol Records, had his own radio shows, and performed in the Lyrics & Lyricists series at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y. Expect to hear lots of Mercer during his 100th—that’s fine by us.
May 2009
JAN WALLMAN
New York cabaret owes a big debt of gratitude to Jan Wallman. A nurturing music lover and businesswoman, she famously ran the original Upstairs-at-the-Duplex and the clubs bearing her name. She insisted on paying the performers salaries, rather than a portion of the cover charge. Her eagle eye for talent spotted stars-to-be Woody Allen, KT Sullivan, Claiborne Cary, Judy Kreston & David Lahm, and Joan Rivers, who presented her with the MAC Award for Lifetime Achievement.
She remains active in cabaret as a MAC Advisory Board member, cabaret producer, and CabaretExchange.com reviewer. Jan says, “I have great hope for the future of my favorite entertainment medium!
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April 2009
ERVIN DRAKE
Composer/lyricist Ervin Drake has spent a lifetime creating captivating melodies and lyrics that have endured as popular favorites as styles metamorphosed through pop, rock, hip-hop, heavy metal and rap. He was barely in his twenties when he enjoyed his earliest blockbuster with Eddy Howard and his Orchestra’s million-selling recording of his “Rickety Rickshaw Man.”
That skyrocketing song would shortly be followed by equally successful and memorable achievements. Drake’s lyrics for “Good Morning, Heartache,” helped make it one of Billie Holiday’s signature songs, and his way with words pushed “Tico Tico,” “Quando, Quando, Quando” and “Perdido” into the country’s consciousness and onto the repertoire of the country’s top bands. Ervin helped craft“I Believe,” a song popularized by Frankie Laine that still holds the record for weeks as the number-one song, and that later was Barbra Streisand’s opening song on her chart-topping mega-hit CD, Higher Ground.
His lyric potency notwithstanding, as a tunesmith Drake was equally magical. “It Was a Very Good Year” took Frank Sinatra’s recording of it to the top of Billboard’s “Easy Listening” charts, and won Grammys both for Sinatra and arranger Gordon Jenkins. Tony Bennett, The Kingston Trio, Della Reese, Ann Hampton Callaway, Ray Charles and The Turtles all cut recordings of it.
Music and lyrics for the long-running Broadway musical starring Steve Lawrence, Robert Alda and Sally Ann Howes, What Makes Sammy Run? were from Drake’s fertile pen. Almost half a century later, “A Room Without Windows” is still a favorite of cabaret vocalists. He followed that Broadway show with book, music and lyrics for Her First Roman starring Richard Kiley and Leslie Uggams. If anyone wants to compile a catalog of Drake’s songs, they’ll need enough time, and paper, to list more than 500 of them.
Always dapper and energetic, and with his wife, Edith, at his side, Ervin is a regular figure at New York’s cabaret boîtes. Occasionally, he’ll yield to a plea and take to the piano to reprise some of the numbers he’s penned. As he turns ninety years old this month, we at Cabaret Scenes join in honoring him for his accomplishments and his vivacity. We lift our glass and say, “To life!”
April 2009
EARTHA KITT
by Elizabeth Ahlfors
The outstanding thing about Eartha Kitt was that beneath the onstage glamour, she really was not Eartha Kitt at all. She was Eartha Mae. Eartha Kitt was the diva, the actress, the original Catwoman, the charismatic chanteuse at the Café Carlyle. Eartha Mae was a sharp, bright woman who spoke seven languages, took what was dealt her in a tough childhood and formed a life and career that suited her. She learned about hardships early and developed the strength and fierceness to prove, “I could do something constructive to prove that I was a worthwhile person.” She became the inimitable but often imitated Eartha Kitt, but she never forgot to remain Eartha Mae.
She died of colon cancer on Christmas Day with her only daughter,Kitt Shapiro by her side. Just a few years ago, she commented, “Life has really been marvelous. I don’t think I would have done anything differently.”
Eartha Kitt was born of mixed racial parentage on a cotton farm in South Carolina. Her father left when she was very young. Her mother left soon after. “I don’t remember my mother; I didn’t even know she existed.” Eartha Mae was given to live with various families and, at age eight, to avoid being “beaten and abused,” she was sent to “the lady up north,” who was referred to as her“aunt.” Living in Harlem, she learned to play piano a bit, sang in the choir, acted in plays, and eventually attended the New York School of Performing Arts. Eventually Eartha Mae went on her own, leaving school and working as a seamstress.
“I was never struck by the music. As far as being a blues singer, or jazz singer, or pop singer, I had none of those ideas at all. I was struck by the theater, but I didn’t start out to be anything in the theatre.” On a dare, she auditioned and was accepted into the Katherine Dunham Ballet Company. “I had no intention of being in any part of show business, but music was there along with dancing and drumming and anything else they needed.” With the company, Eartha was suddenly touring the country and the world, where she learned she had an affinity for languages.
Eartha remained in Paris as a nightclub singer, and in 1950, she was cast by Orson Welles in a play, Dr. Faust. A big break came when she was cast on Broadway in New Faces of 1952. A recording career followed with hits like “C’est Si Bon” and “Uska Dara,” appearances in leading nightclubs, film roles in St. Louis Blues and Anna Lucasta, and in the ‘60s, a television role as Catwoman on the Batman series. Revlon named a popular lipstick, Fire and Ice, after her.
On Broadway, she was nominated for three Tonys—for Mrs. Patterson, Timbuktu!, and The Wild Party. She was also nominated for two Emmys and two Grammys.
“I don’t think anyone can teach you how to sing; that’s something you’re born with, but then you have to use it (correctly). I am very cognizant of how I phrase; I phrase according to the way I feel about the words and the music underneath those words. That’s the way I choose songs. I have to have some kind of relationship, emotionally or comedy-wise, with those words in order to adopt that song to my interpretation.”
In the club acts, most recently her annual appearances at the Café Carlyle, Eartha was known for relentlessly aiming her songs toward specific audience members—sometimes young, usually older, always male. She remained svelte and limber, still kicking high in her eighties.
Eartha was an activist and was blackballed in this country after speaking out about the Vietnam War during a White House luncheon in 1968. Her career shut down, contracts were pulled, friends disappeared. The CIA kept a dossier on her and she moved to Europe for ten years until returning to star in Timbuktu! Quietly, she established Kittsville, a community center in Los Angeles to help keep children off the streets. She established two schools for black children in South Africa by selling her autographs. She adopted the lady who had brought her up Harlem. Eartha had a tough shell around her but believed, “The glass is going to be full. Maybe not 100 percent, but 99 percent full, and I don’t let anyone take that feeling of positiveness away from me.”
She had one husband, the father of her only daughter, Kitt. Her daughter married, had four children, and managed her mother’s career. Eartha Kitt—the performer—provided Eartha Mae with a comfortable home in Westport, Connecticut, minutes from her daughter’s family. She was surrounded by memorabilia collected from travels through the years: posters, photographs, and her own needlepoint tapestries and rugs. “Needlework is relaxing, it’s therapeutic, and I love the idea of being able to actually see how my time has been spent.
“I don’t live big. I do believe in living comfortably but I’m not interested in showing off.” She said, “I don’t follow an organized religion—I live according to the rhythm of life. I go along with whatever the cards are dealing for me at that time.”
Family and close friends will love and remember Eartha Mae. The world will remember the distinction and excitement of Eartha Kitt.
November 2008
IRVING BERLIN
If there ever was a person in the world of popular music who exemplified the American dream, it was Irving Berlin. Arriving on American shores with his Russian immigrant parents when he was four years old, and forced by the time he was ten years old to sell newspapers to help support his family after the death of his father, Berlin would become one of The Great American Songbook’s most significant and most prolific composers and lyricists. His career encompassed writing the music for 17 films and 21 Broadway musicals. He was, among many of his peers, an acknowledged first among equals. In an oft-quoted response to a question regarding Berlin’s place in American music, Jerome Kern replied, “Irving Berlin has no place in American music—he is ‘American music.’”
From 1911 and Berlin’s chart-topping “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” followed in 1914 by his first Broadway show featuring the popular dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle, Watch Your Step, many of Berlin’s songs have become perennial favorites. His “Blue Skies” was sung by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, the very first feature-length talking film in 1927. “White Christmas,” “Easter Parade” and “God Bless America” (at one time proposed as a new national anthem) are as much a part of the American songbook as “American the Beautiful” or the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Amazingly, Berlin never learned more than the rudiments of reading music or playing the piano. His specially-built piano that relied on a lever to change keys is legendary.
For almost half a century Broadway musicals and Hollywood films benefited from Berlin’s brilliance, and his songs were popularized by a legion of stars, including Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Ethel Merman, Ray Charles and Ginger Rogers. Bing Crosby’s recording of the Oscar-winning “White Christmas” may well hold the title of thebest-selling record in history.
A fitting addition to our Cabaret Hall of Fame, Irving Berlin’s heritage includes his Broadway mega-hit, Annie Get Your Gun, and what might understandably be every performer’s theme song, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”
October 2008
BLOSSOM DEARIE
Blossom Dearie’s cool touch at the piano and her distinctive “little girl” voice has brought her international acclaim for more than fifty years. She is as much at home with traditional Berlin, Porter or Rodgers and Hart as she is with jazz, bebop or swing, executing engaging renditions colored with an irrepressible sense of whimsy.
While still in her twenties, following early stints as a “girl singer” with Woody Herman’s Orchestra and the Alvino Rey Band, she moved to Paris. There, she hit it big with her musical group, The Blue Stars, and their French-language rendition of “Lullaby of Birdland.”
Her return to the U.S. in the late ‘fifties had fans flocking to her engagements at the Versailles, the Blue Angel and The Village Vanguard. On television, she was a welcome guest on Dave Garroway’s Today show, Jack Paar’s Tonight show, and the Johnny Carson show. Verve and Capitol Records, Fontana Records in the U.K., and later her own company, Daffodil Records, have released dozens of Blossom Dearie albums featuring her fresh interpretations of well-known standards.
In recognition of her contributions to the world of cabaret, in 1983, Blossom Dearie was the first recipient of the Mabel Mercer Foundation Award. To this day, she has never ceased charming and entertaining cabaret goers, in recent years filling Danny’s Skylight Room week after week.
October 2008
NANCY LaMOTT
Nancy LaMott, who died in her early forties, was called “the greatest cabaret singer since Sinatra.” In her brief career, she touched many hearts with the purity of her voice and her simple, honest approach to a lyric. Whether live or on record, backed by a piano or full orchestra, her passion for singing and her generosity of spirit were the hallmarks of a great entertainer. Stephen Holden, in The New York Times, said that “She brought to everything she sang a clean, clear sense of line, impeccable enunciation and a deep understanding of how a good song could convey a lifetime’s experience.” The Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout wrote, “The best cabaret singer I ever heard…heartfelt, irresistibly appealing.” Even the uncompromising John Simon, in The New Yorker, said of LaMott, “She fully fathoms what a song is about, and then, rather than merely singing it, lives it.”
Vividly recalled by those who admired her, the 2007 posthumous release of a CD recorded just weeks before her death in 1995, Nancy LaMott: Live at Tavern on the Green, was greeted with a combination of exuberance and solace.
June 2008
DONALD SMITH
Mabel Mercer enchanted a young Donald Smith, who soon was not only a fan, but a tireless advocate. His devotion expanded to include the music she is renowned for. Accordingly, he has been, for decades, Cabaret’s “Pied Piper,” leading others to the music he cherishes. Founder and guiding spirit since 1985 of the Mabel Mercer Foundation, he created the annual Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention. From its beginnings in 1989 in New York, he has exported the event to Chicago, San Francisco, Palm Springs, The Hamptons, London, and a just-completed Fourth Annual Cabaret Convention at Sea. More than any other single person of our time, Donald Smith has ennobled cabaret, enriched its public image, enlarged its audiences, and enhanced the public’s appreciation of the Great American Songbook and its performers.
June 2008
MARGARET WHITING
“Moonlight in Vermont,” “That Old Black Magic,” “My Ideal,” “It Might As Well Be Spring”— Margaret Whiting made these and many more songs into enduring hits during her long singing career. Signing at age 18 with Johnny Mercer’s then-new Capitol Records, she went on to become one of the nation’s top-selling recording artists as well as a headliner in musical theater and cabaret. Margaret serves today as president of the Johnny Mercer Foundation, which promotes the art of popular songwriting.
May 2008
JOHN WALLOWITCH
John Wallowitch was a classical pianist before he became an accompanist and a performer at Greenwich Village’s legendary cabaret spot, The Duplex. In the decades following, his convivial personality as an entertainer endeared him to cabaret audiences everywhere. A prolific and waggish songwriter with well over a thousand numbers penned during his lifetime, he loved performing them. Some became cabaret standards as other singers adopted them, with lyrics that varied from forthrightly facetious, through whimsical and satirical to sensitive and serious.
May 2008
JULIE WILSON
A vocalist for more than a half century, Julie Wilson played leads in Broadway and London musical theater. But since the days of her long-term roost at St. Regis Hotel’s Maisonette in the 1950s, she has been the quintessential cabaret performer. She quickly established the persona of a femme fatale with numbers such as “I’m a Bad, Bad Woman (But I’m Good, Good, Good Company).” Now in her eighties, she perpetuates that image with songs such as “I Never Do Anything Twice.”
April 2008
BARBARA CARROLL
In her eighties, Barbara Carroll is a lioness on the keyboard who remains at the peak of her form. Every spring and fall for a quarter-century, Barbara—majestically tall, slim and stylish—held forth singing and playing at the piano of the Carlyle Hotel’s upscale Bemelmans Bar. More recently, as elegant and as dazzling on the eighty-eights as ever, she’s the featured performer at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room for Sunday brunch.
April 2008
MABEL MERCER
The name Mabel Mercer is synonymous with cabaret. From her supper club origins in Paris, she had the cream of society’s elite at her feet. Any night might find The Prince of Wales and Wallis Simpson, Cole Porter, the legendary Bricktop, American millionairess “Joe” Carstairs, and similar newsworthy figures in her audience. Reaching American shores in 1938—where she was greeted by Marlene Dietrich—Mercer became an equally admired and avidly sought performer in New York’s club scene. An infatuated Frank Sinatra lauded Mercer’s delivery with, “Everything I know about phrasing, I learned from Mabel Mercer.”
April 2008
BOBBY SHORT
An icon of New York sophistication, Bobby Short embodied qualities that late-nighters relished in cabaret’s intimate surroundings. His extensive repertoire of ballads, a husky voice that could talk most songs far more effectively than many could sing them, and his elegant home base at Café Carlyle for well over thirty years, placed him in almost nonpareil position among his peers.
April 2008
ELAINE STRITCH
Another octogenarian, Elaine Stritch is as hot a performer as ever, possibly more so. With so many awards and accolades (Tony Award, Emmy Awards) for her work in films, the theater and television, cabaret folk may have to share our adoration of Stritch with others, but there’s no denying when she takes the microphone in any cabaret room, it creates an anticipatory hush and never disappoints. Her 2002 one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, was a true landmark event, its successors equally prized.