I ENTERTAINMENT
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Sheila and Barry Levine
and the staff of
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&Co.
very warmly extend
Sammy Cahn: On top of the music world.
To Our Customers, Friends and Relatives
We are closing Friday, March 29 at 3 p.m.
We will reopen Saturday, April 6 at 9 a.m.
855-6622
6873 Orchard Lake Road, On The Boardwalk, West Bloomfield
John Wong
And Employees at
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Restaurant & Lounge
Wish Their
Customers and Friends
A Healthy & Happy
Passover
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I the purchase of a second entree. I
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GOOD THROUGH 4.30.91j
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82
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1991
Sammy Cahn:
Longtime Music Man
RITA CHARLESTON
Special to The Jewish News
W
ith more than 30
Oscar nominations
and four Academy
Awards to his credit, Sammy
Cahn is perhaps - one of the
world's most prolific lyricists.
Mr. Cahn's list of hits — in-
cluding "Bei Mir Bist Du
Schoen," which skyrocketed
the Andrew Sisters to fame,
Frank Sinatra's "My Kind of
Town" and Mario Lanza's "Be
My Love" to name a few —
bring back memories to
generations of appreciative
fans.
But the 77-year-old Mr.
Cahn is more than just a
talented songwriter. Ever
since he first got up on stage
at New York's 92nd Street
YM & YWHA in 1972, he's
been taking his one-man
show around the country. A
Broadway show based on his
life and called Words and
Music came out of that first
recital. It also opened a whole
new world to the man who
has always hated being in the
background.
"I just love being up on
stage," Mr. Cahn admits. "You
know, all songwriters are
frustrated by the fact that we
have to stay in the back-
ground all the time. It's
usually the composer who
gets to take the stage with a
piano and all that stuff. Well,
I don't like staying in the
background. I love being up
there. I discovered vaudeville
when I was only 10-years-old
and always had a secret year-
ning to be a performer. Mat-
ter of fact, if I had been born
in 1900 instead of 1913, I'd be
George Burns."
Although Mr. Cahn missed
that opportunity, he hasn't
done too badly over the years.
He entered the world as
Samuel Cohen on Manhat-
tan's Lower East Side. Early
in his career he changed his
surname to Kahn ("because
there was at the time a
popular comedian named
Sammy Cohen"), and later he
became Sammy Cahn to
distinguish himself from
lyricist Gus Kahn.
His parents were immi-
grants from Galicia. His
father, Abraham, ran a tiny
restaurant, while his mother
Elka was "the Jewish
Mr. Cahn says he
preferred to
distinguish himself
in the poolroom
instead of the
classroom,
Lourdes," Mr. Cahn recalls.
"People always came to her
with their problems."
At his mother's insistence,
Mr. Cahn became proficient
at playing the violin,
although she was less suc-
cessful in her efforts to instill
in him the ambition to
become a doctor or a lawyer.
Mr. Cahn says he preferred
to distinguish himself in the
poolroom instead of the class-
room, earning enough pocket
money for admission to the
movies and vaudeville shows,
which were his two prime pas-
sions in life.
Eventually he dropped out
of school and the violin allow-
ed him to start earning a liv-
ing, first playing at Borscht
Belt resorts in the Catskills,
then with a small orchestra