My Funny Valentine

Last night featured a 2 1/2+ hour immersion into the wonderful world of Rodgers & Hart. This was another retrospective at the Smithsonian put together by Robert Wyatt, whose programs are enjoyable although he loses track of time, so had to end with Babes in Arms and never got to The Boys From Syracuse and Pal Joey. Eileen adds that he commits every fault every presenter fears--knocks out the video, puts on the wrong CD number, and ignores the clock.

Nevertheless, his audio and video clips, plus his gloss on the careers of Dick Rodgers and Larry Hart, make the evenings memorable. He started with two blockbusters--Lena Horne doing "My Funny Valentine" -- probably the saddest and most delightful lyrics Hart ever wrote and then his last song, "To Keep My Love Alive," which features the most sublimely wicked lyrics probably ever sung on Broadway--in this case, by Hart's great friend, Vivienne Segal. He didn't get to it but she was the original singer of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" in Pal Joey. I also would have loved to have heard some stories of the interplay between Rodgers & Hart and John O'Hara, from whose stories, of course, Pal Joey derived.

I knew Hart was a strange case but did not realize that from 1935 on until he died in 1943 (at 48), he sank farther and farther into alcoholism. Wyatt did not mention that both Rodgers and Hart were bi (as was Cole Porter), but in Hart's case, he was so short with such a large head that he never did find the love he sought and that search is at the heart of his lyrics. It also seems clear that he was a true genius, in view of the speed with which he wrote. Rodgers was, too, and also not the nicest guy on the block, despite the ease with which he turned out melody after melody, first with Hart, then on a heavier basis with Oscar Hammerstein II, and lastly on his own, as he composed from age 14 until his 70s.

But the songs...There's a Small Hotel and I Don't Remember When and Blue Moon and Mountain Greenery (which he didn't get to, either. The picture you get, too, of Broadway in the 20s and even later in the 30s, even after talking pictures began to diminish the huge number of productions (264 in one year in the 20s!) on the New York stage. There's so many songs that when you hear them, you remark that you never knew that was by Rodgers & Hart. Remember Jimmy Cagney as George M. Cohan dancing up the proscenium as FDR in I'd Rather Be Right? Yes, they wrote it.

They did shows with Balanchine as choreographer and were a bit in awe of his reputation until he told them he'd design the dance in any way they wrote the music and lyrics. As with the other composers and lyricists, they had an early 30s period in Hollywood, when the stage was in the doldrums. There too, they succeeded. Of course, for their first five years, they had only flops until The Garrick Gaieties sprung them in 1925 with We'll Take Manhattan, written originally for some summer camp musical or Columbia varsity show.

They even were the first with an integrated show--integrating the songs and the plot, that is. It was a flop, alas, called Chee-Chee, so we had to wait for the Rodgers & Hammerstein kick-off, Oklahoma, for the first successful one. Hart, incidentally, who was dead before Oklahoma opened, turned down the chance to do it, based on Green Grow the Lilacs. I like to think he thought he was too corny, not that some of his own shows weren't. They did Billy Rose's Jumbo at the old Hippodrome. Wyatt doesn't know New York that well, so we shouted out that it was located at 44th St. and Sixth Ave. I didn't have the heart to add that for about a half-century it's been a parking garage.

Larry Hart's nephew was in the audience. There was also mention of Larry's brother, the comedian Teddy Hart, one of the many memorable stage folks I once was introduced to at The Lambs with my dad. He had been an original star in The Boys From Syracuse, and outlived his brother by about 35 years.

Always That Profession

It was a rare wonderful evening in the theater, the Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C., that is, doing Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, the other night. First, the play is one of his good ones. He wrote it in 1893, but the censors kept it off the London stage until the 1920s and even New York City took a decade to get it on the boards in 1905.

The leading ladies were Elizabeth Ashley as the title character and Amanda Quaid as her daughter, a "new woman" graduated but lately from Cambridge and upset that her mother is still engaged in her profession of running houses in various European cities. Two great company regulars--Ted van Griethuysen and David Sabin--played two principal male roles superbly.

It was great entertainment, including some music hall turns by a young woman named Caitlin Diana Doyle as the young Mrs. Warren. I recall Ashley in her youthful days playing Maggie the Cat in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; while she no longer can play those kinds of roles, she still has a strong capacity to hold your attention on stage.

Shaw's arguments are hardly as controversial today but the fulcrum now falls on whether Mrs. W. should have stayed in her business, even if you give her a thumbs-up on how she got into it and used it to make her way in the world. Both women relate well to our contemporary issue of workaholism--neither has any interest other than a narrow focus on her career, as both the architect hoping for some show of interest in the finer things such as art learns, as does a baronet who has always known how to enjoy his money.

It's nice to see that The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is now atop the best-seller list in the U.S. (or in The Times anyway). I for one have thoroughly enjoyed Larsson's Millenium series and managed to get hold of this third volume during one of my overseas jaunts before it was published here in May. Both his leading characters are highly attracting but the really great one is Lisbeth Salander, the 25-year-old bi Goth girl who is a genius computer hacker.

Another event of note was attending the Nationals opener versus the White Sox here Friday night to see seven innings pitched by Stephen Strasburg, the phenom. He was quite impressive but the Nats are so hitless that the one run he allowed stood unanswered for six more innings (the equalizer left him without decision rather than the loser) and then Chicago managed to score on a Nationals error in the 11th. The Nats are in a bigtime slump--another witness from upstairs in box 208 was Pale Hose fan Barack Obama and his girls, unnanounced in the stadium but noticed by some fans sitting behind me near the dugout.

Obama's Success Story

You might think from much of the media lately that President Obama hasn't been accomplishing much. Yes, health care took a long time but no one until now got very far and whatever its shortcomings, he got it done. It looks likely that financial reform will get through, too, thanks much to Goldman Sachs and their unabashed defense of giving advice out of two sides of their mouths. Two good Supreme Court justices--I assume Kagan will make it past the gauntlet of nonsense issues--will be on the bench this fall, making it looking good for when he gets to replace one of the stinkers. And in a hundred agencies that never get reported on, people are trying to undo the corporate welfare showered on the supposedly regulated industries by Bush's corporate agents.

But when you listen to tv or read the papers, even the Times and the Post, you'd think the man is mired in endless problems. Well, yes, there are incredible challenges. How would you like to balance retaining an important ally such as Turkey when Israel needlessly riles the whole world and we have some closed-minded types (I'm holding back, believe me) here siding with Netanyahu over the U.S. And then there's the Gulf, Mexico this time, not Persian. So-called pundits want us to keep relying on lying BP--despite total lack of evidence to support any basis for trusting corporations more than our government. Alas, the not-yet-reformed regulatory agency was still in the hands of corpsymps--and technically, tell me what else the government could have done when corporations enter an untreaded area without adequate backup plans.

So I for one am tired of hearing about economic royalists (remember FDR's great phrase), Tea Party yoyos, phoney populists, and all kinds of reactionaries being treated respectfully by the media that gives the President all this heat. This is the result of media concentration--the reactionaries yell about media being liberal but Rupert Murdoch owns a whole lot of it and he just peddles this nonsense.

We had eight years of non-regulation, corporate giveaways, trickle-down economics, and the world turned against us--ending in the biggest crash since the 1930s. One might think that people would think about where their best interests lie--not with the corporations who would happily ship your job away. I've enjoyed seeing the responses to this put out by the Coffee Party. Check it out on your nearest social media outlet.

What's Wrong With Haiti?

Although the story was the front-page right lead in Sunday's New York Times, it's likely that many people missed it, because it was about Haiti. People become accustomed to bad news out of Haiti so they skip each new chapter chronicling the continuing degradation of the already wiped-out country. The story was an investigation into what happened when Haitian police invaded a prison after an abortive effort at a prison break. It's likely that they killed more than 25 prisoners, many of whom they had long wanted to murder, and then buried them in a common pit.

My long-time colleague, Maury Geiger, was in town yesterday and told me more about the story. He is quoted in it--he has personally been trying to improve conditions, especially with respect to justice in Haiti, for many years. It turns out that he was at least part of the inspiration for the coverage by bringing the situation to the attention of the Times reporters.

Last autumn, I spent some time working with him in Port-au-Prince, where I witnessed the conditions at the National Penitentiary, which were sordid. It was some kind of blessing when after the earthquake wrecked the place, everybody took off. Haiti still has a system where people are arrested and there's no bail or pretrial release system so they stay in jail until trial which may follow years later.

The reason this situation persists is that (1) people with connections "arrange" to have relatives who are arrested released at the police station and (2) the people with influence in the society--judges, ministers, successful lawyers, academics--care less about the situation of those less well off, who constitute most of the population, than is true anywhere else I've ever been.

In working on court system improvement, you learn that complex procedures mean that everything takes longer and there is greater opportunity for corruption. We used to have a complicated pleading system in U.S. courts, but simplified it many years ago--by the mid-20th century. Things can still get hung up procedurally here but it's better than it had been.

The long history of attempts to assist Haiti through foreign aid also includes many episodes of corruption. Maury Geiger went on 60 Minutes some years ago with Mike Wallace to spotlight how crooked American contractors were stealing funds intended to improve the Haitian judicial system. But now we are face to face with the real problem: yes, France is always a villain because they managed to make Haiti--poorest country in the hemisphere--pay the French reparations for freedom since 1804. And the U.S. has tried hard but not had much success in improving anything there.

No, the real problem is the Haitian government and underlying it--forget all the dictators and their stooges--is the upper crust of Haitian society, the people who live at the top of the hill above Port-au-Prince. These are the lawyers and judges and ministers whom I heard discuss the problems and explain why nothing can be changed. We have had ugly corporate types in the U.S. both in the 19th century and right now who exploited everyone, especially workers, but would plead ignorance or whatever when confronted. But in Haiti, these makers and movers of the justice system just don't care. And for so long as they are in control, nothing will change.

Post From Portsmouth

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is one of those nicely-surviving old towns that you always mean to visit and spend a few days touring but usually don't. Lots of the old town stands as original buildings befitting one of our northern-most seaports. Some years ago when I was doing some work in New Hampshire, Eileen and I visited a large restored area called Strawbery Banke, accent on the peculiarities of spelling, a la shoppe. It was fun and perhaps even better than going to its more famous relative, Williamsburg, where we will be next weekend (and are unlikely to spend any time touring the tourist area).

I did drive through downtown today and enjoyed an early season farmers' market even if they ran out of lobster rolls by the time I arrived, so I had to have one at Bob's, the stand amidst the outlets across the bridge in Kittery, Maine. My raison de visite was the annual convention of the Horatio Alger Society, of which I have in my declining years become a more regular attendee. As with other such groups, the average age of members is rising and the number in attendance falling in direct proportion.

I've belonged to the society longer than almost all active members but have been an irregular attendee at the conventions owing to my travel schedule and conflicts. I enjoy knowing a number of the members all of whom I never would have known through any other likely way of meeting. Ive not hosted the convention--usually when I actually volunteer to do that it means I will somehow leave the group and be unable to deliver, sometimes causing hard feelings: I couldn't host the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks because I changed jobs and some people took umbrage. I will try to do it one of these years, though, or risk being the oldest member who hasn't done it.

If you like book collecting, the convention is fun. I like late 19th century juvenile literature because of the Americana it conjures up for me. In an era without tv or movies or radio or Ipods, children read Alger and Oliver Optic and Henty and J. T. Trowbridge and Edward S. Ellis (the last two were American frontier adventure writers). We know that Lincoln enjoyed the rough humor of Artemus Ward. I find it enjoyable to be with people who know an immense amount about things like the third states of first editions, or the broken type on page 46 of another.

Alger wrote mostly in New York City and conveys a very definite picture of the metropolis in the 1870s and 1880s. He had limited ability at setting a plot--basically, he had one which he repeated about 100 times. But his descriptions of New York settings are worth knowing and his values are fine, as appropriate for us as for the Gilded Age inhabitants for whom he wrote.

It seems he gave most of his earnings to good causes such as the Newsboys Lodging House, and it may have been in the form of penance for this quietly defrocked Unitarian minister, who was thrown out of his pulpiy on Cape Cod for undisclosed reasons that are familiar to us as regards clergymen today. He also contributed to the American popular literature in yet another way: his assistant Edward Stratemyer finished six of his novels and them proceeded to invent, write, and eventually oversee a factory-like operation -- the Stratemyer Syndicate -- that produced Tom Swift, the BobbseyTwins, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and several other series for children.

The Society established an official repository for a fine collection of Alger at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, which isnt too far from O'Hare Airport. The retired librarian at NIU now lives in Durham, New Hampshire, and hosted this convention. The high point for me was returning to Newick's restaurant on Dover Point, where you can get the finest fried clams in the world, or at least the only ones I will deign to enjoy, on a level with Faidley's crabcakes in Lexington Market, Baltimore.

The Other Mr. Goldstone

Richard Goldstone is one of the world's most distinguished jurists. He was outspoken in his opposition to apartheid in the bad old days in South Africa and he has been outstanding in his defense of liberty and liberties on South Africa's Constitutional Court. Despite the amazing success of South Africa in avoiding bloodshed--entirely, I suggest, because of the inspired leadership of Nelson Mandela, the conversion of this country from a bigoted authoritarian state to a true democratic republic has not been easy. Mandela will not be around forever, either. People like Goldstone have proven their mettle in a hard testing ground.

Benjamin Netanyahu, in contrast, has a reputation as someone who speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He owes his position as prime minister of Israel to the lawless settlers who doctor records and use force to steal land from Palestinians and block any peaceful resolution of the long-term issues. So clearly is he "owned" by the extreme right in Israel that he cannot deal reasonably with President Obama, so the latter quite reasonably pays him scant attention any more.

Netanyahu and his ilk have tried to stir up the worldwide Jewish community against Justice Goldstone because he led a UN-sponsored inquiry that said that both Israel and Hamas committed atrocities during the last war. They even tried to threaten Goldstone with bodily harm if he attended his nephew's bar mitzvah. This all reminds me of the nonsensical position espoused with some success in America some years ago by the late Norman Podhoretz that anyone who questioned any policy of the Israeli government was anti-Semitic.

Most people that Netanyahu now attacks want a fair settlement far more than he does. I think of Jimmy Carter and George Mitchell. Netanyahu's minions would have you believe that they too are anti-Semitic. Our president has tried mightily to have everyone in the Middle East see the U.S. as a fair dealer only focused on bringing peace to this beknighted region. Now that he is showing some success on the domestic front, his international standing and effectiveness may rise in tandem.

Note: In case you were wondering, the first Mr. Goldstone was the character in the movie musical version of Gypsy played by the late Benny Lessy, to whom Mama Rose--Rosalind Russell, but originally, of course, Ethel Merman--sings "Have an egg roll, Mr. Goldstone" when he decides to take a chance as a vaudeville operator on their act. Lessy was memorable in performing the part--he's just in one great long scene--without ever saying a word.

Reunions--Not in Vienna

Yes, that was the title of a rather talky Robert E. Sherwood play of the 30s that featured the Lunts and sometimes Noel Coward, I believe, which meant that even if it wasn't the greatest vehicle, they all must have delighted audiences. But I just returned from a 40th reunion--law school, no less. They did have some other reuning classes there and it was encouraging to see the far more populous 50th reunion class--complete with Mike Dukakis, tank-less this time--yes, they did look old.

This time, a nice number of friends showed up, so that made the reunion. Over the years, the law school has turned over all planning to the development people, and if they feel what they've done for a reunion weekend makes sense, their instinct is to do exactly the same thing again. I skipped most of the programs since the weather in Cambridge and Boston was spring-like and pleasant.

But I did make a class forum on retirement--led by a woman who was contemplating forced retirement from partnership at an old-line Boston firm where she was a partner in trusts and estates, naturally. She couldn't face life without that. My old friend and best man, Guy Blynn, remarked helpfully to me that 40 years ago, that firm wouldn't give him the time of day as the old ethnic walls were just beginning to break down. But we kept listening to these people whining about how their firms were effectively forcing them out by pushing them to delegate work to cheaper-billing associates. Again, Guy noted that since they were the partners, they had helped create this engine that dispatched its drivers before they were quite ready to be bounced.

He's fully retired and I'm semi-retired. I didn't think there was anything I would say about what I did that would interest most of the attendees, since I went in a rather different direction from all of them way back when. There were some very constructive ideas if anyone bothered to listen: a friend and classmate both at college and law school described how he had organized an entire program in his large law firm to represent people litigating their immigration status. Someone said to another old friend whose law firm had imploded and whose days as counsel at another had ended that he must have retired, only to elicit the far more straightforward response: "Hell no, I was fired!"

We did indulge in some nostalgia-tripping: when Noah Griffin arrived, he outlined a path that included walking through Longfellow's garden (the house isn't yet open for the summer), the monument opposite the State House on Beacon Hill to the Glorious 54th Regiment of Glory fame, where we met an excited re-enactor, and then the current Brattle Book Shop near the Common, always a wonderful place to spend some time searching for something you never knew you needed. Seamus at the Parker House ran through some of the amazing history of that famed hostelry. We even caught the tail end of the Princeton-Harvard lacrosse game, with the Crimson upsetting the favored Tigers.

Boston and Cambridge have changed a lot, especially on the dining front, but you wouldn't have known it from our choices. Lunch at probably the only true "joint" left in Harvard Square, Charlie's Kitchen, which now has a beer garden; late night snacking at the still-laden-with-MSG Hong Kong, and late dinner at the now ultra-unfashionable Anthony's Pier 4. Hey, they still make a nice broiled schrod. Sure, Legal is better but why go there when they're in your neighborhood.

My conclusion was that change is coming, albeit late, to my law school class. I remember my 25th, when there were four of us not in suits and the other three were from California. Now I bet half the attendees were both jacket-less and tie-less. You may think that's sexist but hey, there were 20 women in our entering class of 540. Now women make up 53% of a law school class.

The new dean spoke, describing all kinds of new initiatives and new courses, all of which made my head spin because, finally, in my old age, the place is getting much more open and broad-minded. It has adapted to changed times when not everyone will be heading for a large firm. I did smile when I heard that one "new" idea was to have required courses on Legislation and Negotiation in the first year. My wife learned Legislation from the late great Father Drinan at Georgetown back in the 80s and she's been teaching Negotiation 9and ADR) at GW for the past fifteen.

It's nice to see Harvard evolve but they are hardly the first. A bit like the time in World War II in the Pacific when somehow the Seabees managed to get set up on an island before the Marines arrived; thus the welcoming banner, "The Seabees are always happy to welcome the Marines".