Professor Irwin Corey

[paul secor]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

[Bright Moments]

93 and still performing - wow.

[Christiern]

Amazing, I thought he was long gone--and then to still be performing is truly wonderful. I thought of him as being "old" 24 years ago, when some people threw a party in my honor, and he was among the guests:

[Bright Moments]

Amazing, I thought he was long gone--and then to still be performing is truly wonderful. I thought of him as being "old" 24 years ago, when some people threw a party in my honor, and he was among the guests:

what an interesting group!! inter alia:

genya ravan - rocker famous for her song "i wont sleep on the wet spot no more"

ruth warrick - AMC's pheobe tyler

geoffrey holder (i think he was in those 7up commercials - "ah the cola bean!"

wish i was there!!!

Edited April 16, 2008 by Bright Moments

[7/4]

what an interesting group!! inter alia:

genya ravan - rocker famous for her song "i wont sleep on the wet spot anymore"

David Liebman was in Ten Wheel Drive.

[Dave James]

I remember him from his appearances on the Tonight Show. A genuinely funny man with a one of a kind sense of humor. I think Carson really liked him. Glad, and somewhat surprised, to see that he's still around.

Up over and out.

[Christiern]

It was quite an eclectic group of guests (an estimated 2000, actually) and they had a special sunken area roped off for me and my personal guests. I was standing at the foot of the stairs, talking to a bewildered and somewhat amused Dan Morgenstern when I saw his face drop. He had just finished asking me, "what is this all about?" when Liberace, clad in something white, silky and sparkly, approached, led toward us by one of the tuxedoed security people. Before I could answer Dan's question, Liberace said, "Chris, I love your party. I looked around at this wonderful crowd and said to myself, 'I love it!'."

I didn't think Dan's face could drop any farther, but it did. I should point out that I had never met Liberace before, but he acted as if we were old friends and you can imagine how inexplicable that was to Dan!

Professor Corey was admitted to my inner circle and I remember vividly looking over towards the bar and seeing him wildly gesticulating as he explained something to Ruth Warrick and my mother (whom they had flown in from Seattle).

To get back to the question Dan asked me, I have to confess that I myself did not know what the party was all about, but when they approached me about throwing it, I asked that it be a fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund--which it was.

BTW, Evan, Ruth W. was indeed Phoebe Tyler, but she was also one of Orson Welles' wives in "Citizen Kane"--a more distinguished notch in her career cane.

Edited April 16, 2008 by Christiern

[Bright Moments]

BTW, Evan, Ruth W. was indeed Phoebe Tyler, but she was also one of Orson Welles' wives in "Citizen Kane"--a more distinguished notch in her career cane.

indeed she was!!! a wonderful actress and i would think a delightful person.

[Christiern]

Yes, Ruth was wonderful and very down to earth. When she came to a press party held for my Bessie Smith Songbook, she stepped up on the bandstand (it was held in a small, mostly black NYC bar) and joined in, singing blues and gospel tunes to which she knew the lyrics. I was impressed.

[Brownian Motion]

The year Thomas Pynchon won the National Book Award, 1974, his editor couldn't lure him to the award ceremony, so instead he hired Irwin Corey to address the gathered men and women of letters. The Professor percolated along at a highly abstract level, and no one was any the wiser for years and years.

[Bright Moments]

please tell me a little about odetta chris - i have only heard her "odetta sungs dylan" - it did not impress me.

[Christiern]

I really don't know what to say other than that she is a wonderful, warm person and a dear friend of many years who not only has recorded excellent albums of folk songs and blues, but also is a fine actress. I have always thought that she should have pursued acting harder, but it wasn't easy to make t in the theatre when Odetta began to explore that part of her talent. She has done Shakespeare in Canada (Stratford), she was in the dreadful "Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman" (the TV film in which Cicely Tyson did her Godzilla number) and she had an important role, Nancy, in "Sanctuary" (Faulkner), a 1961 film that starred Lee Remick and Yves Montand.

Back in the 70s, when I was in bed with hepatitis, Odetta surprised me by showing up at my apartment with an absolutely fantastic homemade soul food dinner. Cannot say enough good things about Odetta the person or Odetta the artist.