The guy who portrayed himself here as "Frankie Houlihan" passed away. He was 93 years old. He said of his life that he was a child of vaudeville, a swing era cornet player, a soldier in Uncle Sam's army, a recovered heroin addict, a par

I remember,Standing with my fatherIn front of the SunsetOn East 35th streetWhile my father smoked a muggle,Listening to Jimmie's clarinetFloat from the second floor windowAcross the street at the Apex ClubI watched young Benny climb the stairsPer

When I was a child in the twenties there were no liberals as best I could tell. There were socialists, especially writers, that vaudevillians loved to have hanging around, even though vaudevillians were far too entrepreneurial in spirit to ever

When I was a kid on the stage and I would raise my eyebrow at a certain moment or make a gesture in a certain context and the audience would react one way or the other, it didn't take a whole lot of smarts to know whether I should raise my eyebro

During those "retirement" years that I spent as a dishwasher and line person at the food kitchen, it took me a short time to realize that there was something different in conversations of our clientele and a long time to realize what it was