High School, Chapter 12

 It's just after Labor Day and the first day of high school has finally arrived.

I just woke up from a deep sleep.  

Wow!  

I had the greatest dream ever.

Can it come true?

In the past year, I was intimidated by girls.

I was afraid to initiate conversation with them.  

Why?

They might laugh at me.

I'd be humiliated.

Can I overcome that fear?

When you walk through a storm,

Hold your head up high,

And don't be afraid of the dark, 

At the end of a storm,

there's a golden sky,

and the sweet silver song of a lark,

walk on through the wind, 

walk on through the rain, 

though your dreams be tossed and blown,

walk on, walk on,

with hope in your heart and you'll...

The End.

  

Irvine Auditorium

Irvine Auditorium is located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia at the corner of 34th and Spruce Streets.  Construction was completed in 1932.  

I was there one memorable weekend evening in November 1963 for a concert with two performers.  The first was a Black stand-up comedian, Godfrey Cambridge.  The second, a Black vocalist, Dionne Warwick.  Were the choices a little unusual since the audience, 1,260 Penn students, was almost 100% white?  It was 57 years ago, but I remember.

Godfrey Cambridge at the time was thirty years old.  Two years later, Time Magazine described him as "one of the country's foremost celebrated Negro comedians."  Godfrey was indeed funny that night.

 Godfrey was born in New York City to parents who had emigrated from what is now known as Guyana.  After graduating from high school, he attended medical school for three years before deciding to become an actor.  In 1962, Godfrey received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the play, Purlie Victorious.

"In addition to acting, Cambridge had major success as a stand-up comedian.  By 1965, he was earning as much as $4,000 a week...in all respects a headliner, working the best places.  His routines were imbued with biting sarcasm and topical humor.  

Sadly, Godfrey died of a heart attack at age 43 while filming a TV movie in which he was portraying the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Dionne Warwick was not yet twenty-three years old that night in 1963, but seemed so mature, appearing before a large audience.  She had been discovered the previous year by the composer, Burt Bacharach, and the lyricist, Hal David.  

Dionne's first single, "Don't Make Me Over," was released in November 1962 and rose to number 21 on the Pop Chart.  I'm sure she sang it that night at Irvine Auditorium.  I've been a fan of Dionne's ever since.  

Dionne went on to become a big star.  Some of her other top songs over her long career are That's What Friends Are For, I Say a Little Prayer, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, I'll Never Love This Way Again, Walk On By, Alfie and How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye.

Dionne Warwick celebrated her eightieth birthday eight days ago on December 12th.     

      

Mary Todd

 Mary Todd was born December 13, 1818 (202 years ago today) in Lexington, Kentucky, the fourth of seven children.  Her father was a wealthy banker, who owned slaves who worked in their fourteen room house.

At school, Mary studied French, literature, dance, drama and music.  After graduating in 1839, she moved to Springfield, Illinois to live with her married sister, Elizabeth Edwards.

That same year, Mary met a tall, prominent, but poor lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.  After an on again, off again, on again relationship, they married November 4, 1842 at her sister's home.  The marriage lasted more than twenty-two years and produced four sons.  

My mother, Margaret (Karch) Lasky, also produced four sons: Joel, Paul, Ted and me.

Mary's eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, born in 1843, was a lawyer, businessman, US Secretary of War in President James Garfield's Administration and an Ambassador to the Court of St. James, appointed by President Benjamin Harrison.  He died in his sleep in 1926 just shy of his 83rd birthday.

Mary's second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, was born in 1846, but died four years later of tuberculosis.

The third was William Wallace Lincoln.  He was born in 1850 and died 1862 of typhoid fever while living at the White House while his father was president.

Mary's youngest child was Thomas (Tad) Lincoln who was born in 1853.  He died at 18 years of age from an undetermined cause.

After Mary was widowed in 1865, she returned to live with her family in Illinois.  In 1875, Robert Todd Lincoln had his mother institutionalized because of her erratic behavior.  Mary was later released into the custody of her sister.  

Mary then moved to Pau, France for four years.  Afterwards, she moved back to her sister's home in Springfield, Illinois where she died of a stroke in 1882 at the age of 63.      

Charade

The dictionary defines charade as "an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance."

There is a connection between the above definition and the 1963 romantic mystery film Charade, produced and directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and which starred Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy.  

Henry Mancini's original song (Charade) was nominated for an Academy Award  (won by James Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for Call Me Irresponsible in Papa's Delicate Condition).

What a cast!  Hepburn (Roman Holiday), Matthau (The Fortune Cookie), Coburn (Affliction) and Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke) are all Academy Award winners.  Grant (a two-time Academy Award nominee) received an honorary Academy Award "for his sheer brilliance in the acting business," according to his presenter, Frank Sinatra. 

Filmed on location in Paris, Charade tells the story of five former American soldiers who stole a quarter of a million dollars ($2,100,000 today) from the U.S. government during WWII and twenty years later try to retrieve it from a hiding place, each for themselves.  One of them, Charles, is found dead at the beginning of the film.  He had the money, but hid it from the others.  But where?  That is one of the film's mysteries.  

Three of the remaining four ex-G.I.s, Herman (Kennedy), Leopold (Ned Glass) and Tex (Coburn) are desperate to find the stolen loot, but are murdered, by whom?  A CIA administrator (Matthau) and a mystery man (Grant) are also looking for the money.  And they all believe Charles's widow (Hepburn) knows where it is, but she claims ignorance.

At the film's climax, the CIA administrator is really one of the original group of thieves (Dyle) who murdered the other four.  The mystery man is really an American government official (Brian) whose job it is to find stolen U.S. government property.  

Caught between the above two (Dyle and Brian), the widow doesn't know whom to believe.  Finally, she correctly trusts her romantic instincts to believe Brian, who saves her from the murderer (and later asks her to marry him).

And where is the money?  In plain sight.  On a plain ordinary envelope addressed by Charles to his wife are three rare postage stamps worth a quarter of a million dollars.