It's officially Summer

Despite what the weatherman says, another summer has come to Trenton.  Just open the door and the humidity and heat are back.  If you want to reminisce about the weather, Rita Albert Allen reminds us that the Yardley-Makefield Library will present a program by Mary Shaffer, author of a book about the devastating 1955 Flood. The program is free and open to all. 

I spoke with Bob Gross on Monday evening.  He sent me an e-mail earlier in the week with ID's of last week's featured picture.   In it, a group of young men, dressed to the 9's.   No word on where they were going all gussied up, but here's what Bob came up with.

In the picture from left to right:
     ?
     Harvey Stern
     Armand Ruderman
     ?
     ?
     Alan Plappinger
     Arthur Azarchi (in the Greenwood House)
     Leon Kartzmer


Well, this picture is a rare one in the archives.  It actually had some information on the back of the photo.   Here's what the information the archvies has.

The caption lists, Saul Millner, Harvey Stern, Mark Litowitz, Armand Ruderman, Mel Kartzmer, Irwin Kartzmer, Allen Plappinger, Arthur Azarchi, Leon Kartzmer.  
Good Job, Bob.   Anyone with any information on this week's picture, please e-mail the Trenton Jewish Project.


Also, this week, our third installment of my Skype interview with Sol Weinstein, who now lives in New Zealand.  This week, Sol makes the move from Trenton to LA.  From writing sports for the Trentonian to writing jokes for the biggest comedy stars of the last century, including  Bob Hope (This is a clip from a Bob Hope special that Sol co-wrote with his partner, Howard Albrecht--clips courtesy of Bob Mills, who wrote for Hope and is quoted as saying that "Sol Weinstein was the best song writer I ever worked with."

In the interview, pay particular attention to the part of the interview where he talks about writing a song which he gave to Bobby Darin.  It's called "The Curtain Falls" and it was performed in Darin's last concert at the Flamingo Hotel in 1963.  Here's a link a review of the album, which didn't come out until 37 years after Darin's death, in 2000.    

Here is a link to the lyrics.   

The song played a prominent part in the Kevin Spacey movie, Down By The Sea, that came out in 2004.  In addition to Darin and Spacey, Bob Hope (Hope clips, set to the song), Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Danny Aiello have all recorded it.  It's a great song and one of the many that Sol has written.  He also sings us a song or two that get a little racy, but as he says, "I assume we have an adult audience."  I would say so.  I haven't linked to the music for copyright reasons, but Sol does sing the words to us.




Enjoy.






Weinstein episode 3 .