Today marks the 85th birthday of the late, great and brilliant composer/lyricist John Wallowitch. When he died in 2007, New York seemed palpably dimmer, and he is greatly missed by his legions of friends, family and fans around the world, who adored him both onstage and off. Anyone who counted him as a friend (as I did) would vouch for the fact that he was a kind and attentive friend, a wicked and razor-sharp wit with few equals, in addition to being a monstrously talented and prolific composer/performer. His songs were recorded by world famous singers (Tony Bennett, Shirley Bassey, Blossom Dearie, Shirley Horn and many others). He was often (and quite proudly) compared to one of his great idols, Noël Coward. Like Coward, John wrote both the words and the music to most of his songs. In one of his more brilliantly wry bits of wordplay, in his song, "Cosmetic Surgery," John wrote:
"In a matter of weeks
With the modern techniques
For improving physiques
They have altered their beaks
And they've lifted their cheeks
And now everyone speaks
In society's cliques
Of the changes that science has wrought
Of the changes that money has bought!"
Perhaps John's friends miss him the most on Christmas Eve, when John had his annual gathering in front of Irving Berlin's mansion on Beekman Place, overlooking the East River, where we would sing "White Christmas" and other Berlin tunes. I was rather a latecomer to these annual singalongs, as John started the tradition in 1982, when Berlin was still living there. The New York Times summed it up in a 2005 article on Berlin: "The second year, after the caroling, the singers, to their astonishment, were welcomed into the kitchen, where they were greeted by the 95-year-old Berlin. "He was standing there in his bathrobe and slippers, and it was so touching," Mr. Wallowitch said. "He kissed all the girls and hugged all the guys and said, 'This is the nicest Christmas present I ever got.' "
(Irving Berlin's Beekman Place mansion--now The Luxembourg House)
This is the cover to John's very first record (above), titled This Is John Wallowitch! (1964-Serenus Records). If it looks somehow stylistically familiar, it could be because it was designed by a then-unknown Andy Warhol (who was at the time the lover of John's brother, Edward, who was himself a noted photographer). John told me that he asked Andy to crop off the top of his head, as he was self-conscious of his baldness and couldn't afford a toupee!
If you weren't fortunate enough to have known John personally, if you lived in Manhattan over the past 30 years or so, you may have caught him on his weekly cable TV show, which against all odds, he continued doing for decades. He called it "the only piano bar on television" and would play a half-hour medley of tunes, some of them phone-in requests. He sat behind a rather worse-for-wear upright piano with a little tip jar on it. It seemed to run late at night quite regularly, as many times in the 80's, his would be one of the few television options for insomniacs in the wee hours. But in spite of some rather ghastly studio conditions and a budget of roughly 4 bucks a week, he was able, through sheer force of personality to craft an entertaining and often hilarious half-hour of TV. It was something of a "right of passage" back then to drunk-dial the number on the screen and try to rattle him. But John's rapier wit could certainly handle the lame antics of sozzled fratboys. That was my favorite part of the show. He could mop the floor with them with one barbed retort.
(Above: John with his close friend, Lynn Lobban, one of the finest purveyors of his songs)
John was an inspiration to and tireless supporter of up-and-coming fellow performers. And he continued performing right up to the very end, while he was fighting a prolonged and dreadful battle with cancer. Despite the ravages of his illness, he never complained and carried on, "business as usual". He even recorded a full, live album just a few months before he died. It's called A Miracle on 71st Street and is inspiring, indeed. If you weren't aware of his grave condition, you would never guess it from the way he rallied his every ounce of professionalism and talent to deliver this, his final career epilogue. Truly a thing of wonder.
John asked me to help him to create a poster for what would be one of his final cabaret performances (below). He was very fond of this (And, granted, I sort of "borrowed" the theme from the poster for the film Being John Malkovich):
I like to look at it now....it would be a wonderful thing to be in a room entirely filled with John Wallowitches! But there was only one of him, and sadly, we don't have that one anymore. But in his music, and in the great memories of his mischievous wit and marvelous and singular wisdom, I feel greatly blessed to have known him for the brief while that I did.
A wonderful documentary overview of John's life with his longtime partner, Bertram Ross (who was Martha Graham's most frequent stage partner--and whom I, sadly, never knew), "Wallowitch & Ross: This Moment" is available on DVD:
John's "swan song," recorded just weeks before his death in 2007. A remarkable recording, indeed:
(John at the keys, rocking out with....Oprah ??)
