Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins" at Shenandoah Conservatory

Opening night is a success, "Alternately funny, terrifying, creepy, infuriating, and heart-wrenching, Assassins takes us all on an intense, arresting journey to a limbo populated by the men and women who have entered American history books for the wrong reasons." so says the director (daughter, Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby) in her notes on the program.

So we are in the car after all the photos, hugs and congratulations and granddaughter Eliza, aged 11 years, says "Can we go out with the cast to Buffalo Wild Wings?" (the show called for a child in some scenes and a small part as "Billy Moore" and Eliza had fulfilled these roles seriously with great dedication).  Eliza assured her mother there was some reason why she could go into school later the next day!  So mother says, "Yes" and "do you want to be dropped off home" to me?  "Hell NO, I never want to be dropped off home, I want to go where the action is."  As my Judy friends from New York can attest to!  Like grandmother, like mother, like daughter, as I mentioned to a friend later that night.

We lose Eliza to her new friends, 18-22 year old college students. Mom and I sit with a group of guys and get to talking about the great artists we had seen.  Carolyn tells them the classic story when I had nearly been arrested for audio taping and photographing Billy Joel, way back in the days when they were more strict about those things.  Also the times when a group of us used to line up for days for tickets for Paul McCartney and others.  She remembers seeing Sammy Davis Jr. at the Circle Star Theatre in San Carlos when she was about 8 years old, (remembers the book report she did) also Frank Sinatra and Mac Davis.  Sadly Judy was gone before my children could see her, but I did take Carolyn to see Jim Bailey (a Judy impersonator) in San Francisco. 

I begin to wonder if I am responsible for producing two performing arts children by taking them to see the "greats" when they were in their formative years?  I never will forget the expression on the face of fifteen year old son, Adrian, when we sat in the front row at the Flint Center in Cupertino for Woody Herman and his big band, or watching Gene Kruper play, the master drummer of all time.  Is this what made him the musician that he is?

But back to the discussions after the show.  I was so glad to hear that the young people are still crazy about the "greats" of the previous years.  Billy Joel seems to be a consistent favorite; not that Joel is gone but his days of the big concerts are over.  I think I must have gone to 15 or more of his concerts with my kids, way back before they could drive, and later when they drove me.

I am lucky to enjoy my children's careers.  I look forward to Carolyn's next directorial play, Pride and Prejudice in April and Adrian's Big Band concert with Bob McCheery, trumpeter from Los Angeles in February with the Dixon High School Band.

Judy's friend, Frank Sinatra

I feel it is time for me to write another blog. Before I left home I watched a television special on my local PBS station featuring Frank Sinatra and I realized that I had not written much about his friendship with Judy.

Frank Sinatra had a two week run at Carnegie Hall in the mid 1980s and he recorded one of these nights to give as a Christmas gift to his family and friends, and it had not been shown on television before.   One of his songs was "The Man (Gal) that Got Away" (Gershwin/Arlen) and although I do not usually like ANYONE singing one of Judy's songs, this particular version was absolutely beautiful.  He combined it with "It Never Entered my Head" (Rogers/Hart). I feel that as Sinatra grew into his older years he brought a greater sensitivity to his music.

Sinatra had great respect for composers and arrangers and made certain he gave them credit either before or after each song.  This was something I noticed when I took my children to see him at the Circle Star Theater, near San Francisco in the mid 1980s.  I loved his relaxed chats with the audience; accepting flowers and a bottle of Jack Daniels from fans. He seemed to be very happy then and I remember him saying that this (singing) was really all he wanted to do.

Of course singing was really all Judy wanted to do also.  They both loved to entertain. Although they had never appeared in a movie together (except perhaps in one of those mega star movies) they were great friends and often performed on radio programs together and this is where you can find their duets.

I love the photo taken at a night club where a very young Sinatra is kneeling talking to an equally young Judy who is sitting at a table with Van Johnson, I believe.  Sinatra is the person who called Judy every day when she was at Peter Bingham Hospital in Boston towards the end of her stint at MGM.  He sent a record player, records and flowers.

He was also the one who hired a bus and took a group of her friends to see her perform in Long Beach for a benefit for handicapped children in 1955.  There is a audio of the show floating around the fan base--and at the end of the show Judy must have gone off to change and Sinatra brings all the stars on the stage and introduces them.  There is some talk of someone singing and Sinatra says "I'm not following that!" and suggests that Dean Martin or Sammy Davis Jr. entertain.  He thoroughly understood her genius and once commented words along the lines "that when we have all been forgotten, Judy will not".