11 years. I couldn't be happier. I
have a great partner. We support
each other and have fun together. It's
a perfect match. I will give the advice
now that was given to me — "Never
marry an actress.''

JN: When you look back on all the
women you've known, do you think
you would have led that kind of life
if AIDS had been in the picture?
EF: No, I wouldn't have, but I tell
you I did not sleep around with any
woman who came along, any woman
that I pursued or pursued me. If you
chalk that up against any other per-
son who was a star and had what I
had — charisma, a fine singing
voice, money, fame and, believe it or
not, at one time I was adorable — I
think I was discreet. It definitely
would have been a different life with
the problems of today.

JN: What are you doing now to
maintain a drug-free life?
EF: I live a healthy life. I try to eat a
very bland diet, but when I go on
the road — I was just in
Philadelphia, New York and New
Jersey — my diet goes out the win-
dow. I don't drink coffee or anything
with caffeine. I take water aerobics
exercise, and I try to keep up with
my wife, who is too fast for me. She's
my age but younger than anybody
I've ever known. She loves to work,
gets up early and goes to bed late.
She has more energy than I tried to
get from the drugs I had taken. I
love to make her happy because she

makes me very happy.

JN: What's been the role of Judaism
in your life?
EF: I'm very proud that I'm a Jew. I
couldn't be anything else. Everything
in my singing and in my thinking is
Jewish. I'm not a very religious man,
but I'm a very Jewish man. Debbie
said she was going to raise our chil-
dren Jewish, but before I left for
Europe with Elizabeth, [I] went to
see [Debbie] and the children, and
she said she wasn't going to raise
[Carrie and Todd] as Jews because
she didn't love me anymore. After
she married Harry Karl, who was
Jewish, he told me he contributed to
the Methodist Church that [Debbie,
Carrie and Todd] went to, because
[the Methodists] never said a bad
word about Jews. I think it was a
horrible thing to say.

JN: How are most of your days
spent now?
EF: Betty loves to go to the opera
and the symphony, and I go with her
although not as much as she wants.
I'm an old movie fan, and I made
her almost as bad a buff as I am. We
have great big screens in our house
[in San Francisco], and we enjoy
watching [movies] at home.
Sometimes, like kids, we go out to
two or three movies in a day.

JN: Is there one song you've sung
that's expressed who you are more
than any of the other songs?
EF: The song that expresses a great deal

for a lot of people — it had great mean-
ing for me when I heard it — is "Oh!
My Papa." People of all ages relate to it,
and I hear that wherever I go now.

JN: Do you have any ties to
Michigan?
EF: Detroit was one of the major
cities that bought my records. I used
to appear with all of the DJs all over
Detroit, and I worked at a theater in
Flint. I had a terrific relationship
with Jack the Bellboy, Ed McKenzie.
I used to appear on his show for
hours at a time. That was at the
beginning of my recording career,
when I also used to go to the race-
track in Detroit all the time.

JN: Are you close to your brothers
and sisters?
EF: We were seven kids. My father
died in '72, and my mother died five
years ago at the age of 90. My moth-
er had such a hard life with us kids,
and my father didn't make it easy for
her. She was mentally abused. I never
saw any physical abuse, but my sis-
ters and brothers told me that did
occur. I got all the breaks, and he
never got a break. He worked very,
very hard. I retired him in his early
50s. The only ones left in my family
are my kid sister in Philadelphia and
my brother in Baltimore. We are in
contact. I'm the only one in my fam-
ily who hasn't gotten diabetes, but
I'm waiting for it.

JN: Do you think you would have
been better off emotionally if you

had not had all the fame at such a
young age?
EF: I enjoyed my fame and success at
an early age. I thoroughly enjoyed
being in the spotlight and the lime-
light. I'm a total ham. Before an audi-
ence, something turns on inside me. I
was born a performer, and even
though I was once very, very shy, my
biggest thrill is being before an audi-
ence. I challenged that with romance,
and I tried to combine the two. It
worked, but then it didn't work.

JN: Have your feelings changed
since you wrote the book?
EF: My regrets are real, and I'm sure I
didn't mention all of them. I made
big, big mistakes. If it could have hap-
pened, I would have lived differently
and made some drastic changes.

JN: What do you want people to
think of you?
EF: I've tried to be a good person.
I've not been successful all the time,
but that's always been my goal. I've
tried to be nice and friendly, but I
guess I went against that when I
wrote the book. 0

Eddie Fisher will appear at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 13, at the D. Dan
and Betty Kahn Building of the
Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield. The program is
co-sponsored by the Marvin and
Betty Danto Family Health Care
Center. (248) 661-1000.

wit

Eddie Fisher: "I'bu're nu t
supposed to applaud iv' the.
temple, bztt when I sanu,
co11gregatio11 applauded.

Fisher ivith first wile De
Rtynolds. "The truth
is that our life together
a sham for the media.

10/29
1999

Detroit Jewish News

t.

83