It was 184 years ago that plucky little Uruguay decided it had had enough of being Brazilian and headed out on its own. It was only ten years ago that this gentleman, one Santiago Salaberry, was Mr. Uruguay, and I think he makes a very suitable envoy of his homeland to the Café on this august occasion, don't you?Sharing the day are both King Ludwigs of Bavaria (the second of whom is the mad and fabulous one), tap empress Ruby Keeler, actor Michael Rennie (who was ill, you might recall, the day the earth stood still), let's-make-a-dealer Monty Hall, appalling television creation Rachael Ray, appealing Scotsman Sean Connery, and, last but in absolutely no way least, the irreplaceable force of nature that was Leonard Bernstein.
The Maestro, I have a feeling, likely knew and was amused at the thought that he and Ludwig II had so much in common; ditto Ruby Keeler. Frankly, I'm relieved, in a way, that he was spared knowing anything at all about Rachael Ray.
Ruby, Sean, Rennie & Lenny each possessed a self-confidence and comfortable physicality that made them each quite sexy in their own unique ways.
ReplyDeleteMonty gave us Joanna Gleason who, while a bit odd, will always be the Baker's Wife. Without her, the phrases, "What was that?" and "I need your shoes!" would rarely pass from my lips.
A poster of the Swan King's Neuschwanstein Castle still hangs in my childhood bedroom. Analyze that.
Ms. Ray? I got nothing. Pure dumb luck and proof of America's unending appetite for the appallingly average and comfortable.
A Key West Side Story:
Somewhere in the 90's, my dear Ed was waitering at a swanky restaurant/hotel in Key West. The kind of place where, for those in the know, there were drugs stashed in the toilet paper holders in the bathroom and joints buried amid the cigarettes on the tables.
Local celeb Jerry Herman came in one night with Carol Channing & Lenny Bernstein in tow. The two hits and a miss proceeded to get quite soused. The evening ended with Lenny atop a table, sans pants, carrying on outrageously.
On the Town, indeed.