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Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie

The Thought Exchange


            They had us all at One Singular Sensation, the opening song to the documentary American Masters - Marvin Hamlisch: One Singular Sensation, a celebration of Marvin Hamlisch's life. Hamlisch's music is in us all, and the face of the man behind the music was always there in the back of our minds. But to add the story of the man behind the music in an hour and a half on film does more than honor his memory and his life, it makes the music all the richer. It really does. It reminds us as well that these documentaries - putting into history video of those that have first-generation memories of working with him, is part of the responsibility of each generation now. Hundreds of years from now, they will matter, perhaps more than they do now. I have to get this off my chest. The theater was filled with those of us over forty. One of our party was a twenty-something-year-old and she had no idea who he was? I thought it was a fluke so I texted another twenty-something-year-old and she actually answered, "Didn't he have a role in How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days?" What have we done? Created a generation that has no idea who our Mozarts are? Note to parent selves. Make your children listen to your music in the car, not their iPads. You owe it to our music.A little Hamlisch history. Accepted to Julliard at six years old, (must be one of the youngest ever right?), Marvin admits that his first-generation Jewish family, having just escaped from Nazi extinction, puts a lot of pressure on a guy to be something special. They saw he had a gift to play anything he heard, and his father marched him up the Julliard stairs where he said, "God learned to play scales." We see that Hamlisch was also nothing if not calculating because he realized that if he learned to play concert piano like they wanted him to, he could then take what it offered and apply it to the songwriting he loved.Part of what makes the movie are the interview snippets with Hamlisch about his thought process in writing the music. Memories ... in the corners of our minds .. inspired by the bells in the courtyard of the opening scene of The Way We Were and Streisand's ability to hold a note. It was his score for The Way We Were that skyrocketed him to join the pantheon of great composers. Ice Castles for the movie about skating where he heard the swing of the skates on the ice and recreated it in the melody. You hear it then, and you know that he had greatness larger than the simplicity of his music might have suggested to you.A Chorus Line. The documentary suggests it changed the course of the downward spiral of New York City, and while I think that is a bit far-reaching, I will say that twenty-one curtain calls opening night shows the new territory it took, both in storytelling on stage and innovation for song. "Marvin created a separate musical story for every character, a song that was just for them," said one of the cast members. I think it brought out that Hamlisch created the music for the story, not expecting the story to follow his music. So, he was a humble composer. And, oh so approachable. Someone says in the film that he believed all music was equal. Classical. Pop. When I line up a classical music lover next to a Broadway groupie, I assure you they do not think of themselves as equal. I like that he did.A couple of things. In the Q&A after the film, Dori Berinstein, the director and screenwriter was asked why she made it. "I loved and was obsessed by Chorus Line," she said. Her love of the man was obvious throughout the movie and while that makes her a person who recognizes talent, it doesn't give her the distance needed to show all the sides of a complicated man for a documentary. Exploring only his greatness takes something away. She admitted they just finished editing on Tuesday night. That time pressure editing shows in the last half hour of the film. I believe they will go back to the editing floor. I hope they do. This film will be important to future generations who need to understand the enormous contribution he made.And, there are some missing pieces, like why he died? What did he die of?I have to tell one of the stories just in case you don't have the opportunity to see the movie. Marvin's mother was... well, let's say she was a bit overly involved with Marvin. She didn't want him to fly because airplanes can go down and with it her son whose greatness would be lost in a towering inferno of burning engines and fuel. So, she put him on Amtrak's train to Chicago with a sack dinner, flew to Chicago (if the flight went down she would have sacrificed herself selflessly for his greater good), and met the train in Chicago where she gave him more food and flew to the next stop all the way to Los Angeles. You have to love the Jewish mother stereotype who has her kind of devotion. But, lest you think love is blind, when asked in an interview who was her favorite composer, she answered, "Gershwin. He's second," she said and pointed to her son.Postscript: Kudos to American Masters for making this possible. What would we do without you? And, then there is Judy Garland who discovered Hamlisch, Peter Allen, and Andy Williams to name a few. Way to share the wealth.
    

Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love

Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg

Henry & Me

The Lucie Arnaz Show


            Yussel Rabinovitch (Neil Diamond) is a young Jewish cantor performing at the synagogue of his imperious father Cantor Rabinovitch (Laurence Olivier). Yussel is married to his childhood friend, Rivka (Caitlin Adams), and has settled down to a life of religious devotion to the teaching of his faith.But on the side, he writes songs for a black singing group, and when a member of the quartet takes ill, Yussel covers for him at one of their gigs by wearing black-face. The nightclub engagement is a success, but one of the patrons at the nightclub notices that Yussel's hands are white and calls him out. A fight ensues and the band is arrested. Yussel's father comes to the jail to bail them out and finds out that there is not a Yussel Rabinovitch there but a Jess Robin. His father questions him about this later and Yussel tells him it is a professional stage name he uses when performing. His father tells him that his singing voice was to be used for God's purposes, not his own.Bubba (Franklyn Ajay), a member of the "Four Brothers" singing group, is Yussel's best friend, although he knows him as 'Jess'; Bubba informs him that the band has got a gig in Los Angeles performing back up vocals for a successful singer, Keith Lennox (Paul Nichols). Shortly after Bubba leaves, Yussel begins composing a song that will eventually become "Love on the Rocks". His wife Rivka notices him writing the song in his free time and senses that Yussel yearns for a bigger stage for his voice, but her values keep her grounded to the home life they have built together.Bubba calls Jess from LA and informs him that Lennox really loved "Love on the Rocks" and wants to record it, but they need Jess to come out for two weeks to oversee the recording session. Jess finally sees this as the opportunity he has been waiting for, but his wife and his father are opposed to him going. But later at a bar mitzvah his father relents and tearfully lets him go.When Jess arrives in Los Angeles, he is picked from the airport up by music agent Molly Bell (Lucie Arnaz). She takes him to the studio where Lennox is recording, and Jess is shocked to find out that his ballad is now being recorded as a hard rock song. During a break in recording, Jess asks the producer and Lennox if he can perform the song as a ballad, as he intended, so Lennox can get an idea of the framing of the song. They allow him to do it, and while recording the song, Molly decides that Jess's performance is the way the song should be done. However, Lennox is not convinced and fires the group.Later, Molly gets a tip from a friend as to where a booking agent, Eddie Gibbs (Sully Boyer), is having lunch. She gets into his car, uninvited, and has him listen to Jess's recording of "Love on the Rocks". When Eddie asks her who it is, Molly tells him that it is the new opening act for Zane Gray's new television special. Gibbs is not amused and says he can't book anyone from just a tape recording sight unseen. However, she manages to get Eddie to visit a club where Jess has managed to get a gig playing, thanks to Bubba, who is working there as a waiter. Eddie comes in and watches him performing "Amazed and Confused" and then leaves. Jess thinks he has blown it, but Molly tells him "..he hates loud music... you he loved... you open for Zane Gray."Meanwhile, back in New York, Cantor Rabinovich confronts Rivka about Jess going to California, and reminds her that her place is by her husband's side, and if she goes to California, maybe she can bring him home. She relents and goes.On Jess's opening night, as he performs the songs "Summer Love" and "Hey Louise", Rivka shows up and meets Molly, and tries to tell her that their Jewish values are such that Jess cannot possibly stay. The audience gives Jess a standing ovation, and he heads backstage and is reunited with Rivka. At the after party, Jess is met by an enthusiastic crowd and is given a recording contract. Despite Jess asking her to stay, Rivka says she wants something different. Realizing she has lost him, she leaves before Jess can catch her.Days later, Jess meets up with Molly by the Santa Monica pier and confesses his love for her, telling her that he and Rivka have split up. As time passes, the two grow closer to each other while Jess's career continues steadily. His father shows up to visit him and attempts to persuade him to go back home, but Jess refuses, insisting that he's making a name for himself with his music career. Jess reveals that he and Rivka are divorcing, which devastates his father. To make matters worse, Molly suddenly arrives home. Jess tries to explain the matter to his father, but to no avail, as he angrily disowns his son and leaves in tears.Emotionally broken by the incident, Jess struggles at his recording sessions, taking out his anger on his band mates, until he finally storms out and drives away aimlessly. When his car runs out of gas on the highway, he hitchhikes far away for a few weeks, taking up singing at a country bar somewhere in Texas for the next few months. Eventually, he returns home to Molly when Bubba tracks him down and tells him that she has given birth to a son. Molly once again meets Eddie Gibbs in his car and persuades him to let Jess perform on Zane Gray's television special.At rehearsal, the day before Yom Kippur, Leo shows up and tells Jess that his father is in the hospital with high blood pressure and won't be able to sing Kol Nidre at the synagogue. Jess is initially reluctant to go to his father, vowing that he is dead to him, but Molly insists that he go back to him or else she'll feel guilty about it. Jess ultimately agrees and returns to sing at the synagogue. He tries to make amends with his father, but he refuses to speak to Jess, until Jess tells him that he now has a grandson, at which point they finally reconcile.The film ends with Jess performing "America", with his father and Molly in attendance.
    

Lucie Arnaz

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