I ENTERTAINMENT Harriet and Jack Goldberg Sheila and Barry Levine and the staff of STAGE &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 Tart itβ€˜ Restaurant & Lounge Wish Their Customers and Friends A Healthy & Happy Passover SOUTHFIELD [T3.00 OFF DINNER] 110% OFF CARRY-OUTS Purchase 1 entree receive $3.00 OFF I the purchase of a second entree. I I One per person, per order. Sun.-Thur. I I Doesn't apply to split orders. LtEARL CITY GOOD THROUGH 4.30-91j NO MINIMUM OR MAXIMUM! One coupon per order. Offer good every day. LPEARL CITY GOOD THROUGH 4.30.91j 11 MILE ROAD BETWEEN LAHSER & TELEGRAPH 354-3700 ROSEVILLE 20753 13 Mile Rd. (At Little Mack) Rosernack Shopping Center 293-4640 FAX 354-0647 ROCHESTER HILLS 2601 South Rochester Rd. (North of Auburn Rd.) 852-0170 Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. Call 354-6060 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 β€” 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 β€” 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