Northbrook, Illinois 1961
It’s called the Villa Venice, a nightclub and casino in the suburbs, done up in red tassels with waiters dressed as gondoliers. They rowed you to your table in a real boat down a real canal. Sam Giancana owned the place and his friend Sinatra and his boys, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, appeared at the grand opening as a favor. Bernice and Seymour Popper are in the crowd, at a table with Sid and Babette Kaufman. Sid got them tickets. Sid Kaufman always gets them tickets.
A woman at the next table says, “No, he’s a real Jew. I hear he’s got a rabbi and everything.”
A man says, “Sammy can buy a rabbi and stick him on the lawn. Hey, you know what they call him in Harlem?”
“What?”
“The kosher coon!”
“Oh, Bill, shush.”
Dino comes out first and stumbles around a melody, murmuring: Drink to me only, that’s all I ax, ask, and I will drink to you…I left my heart in France and Cisco. The crowd laps it up. Dino’s so saucy. How can you not love Dino?
Sinatra follows and does a number, but he’s languid. Nobody in Chicago wants to hear “Chicago.” It’s embarrassing. What, you think we’re a bunch of yokels here in the Middle West, Frank? He slows the tempo a little. Toddlin’ town, he says, not singing, talking it, swingin’ town. Still the crowd doesn’t go for it and the song’s a bomb.
Finally Sammy comes on and everybody starts waking up. He introduces himself as Harry Belafonte and begins doing “What Kind of Fool Am I?” At first it gets a laugh. Sammy smiles wide, but then keeps going with it. The crowd stops laughing and starts listening. Sammy, my God, that voice. Even mocking Belafonte, even without trying....
Subscribe now to keep reading
Please enter your email to log in or create a new account.