Now I'm Catching On by Bob Cole

Author:Bob Cole [Cole, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Published: 2016-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

10

1972

When I’m on the road, whenever I get the chance, I love to take in a show—especially if I’m in New York. I remember one time we were doing a series with the Rangers and I said to Ron MacLean, we’re going out tonight. He said no, he wasn’t interested—the boys were going out for Italian food and he was going with them.

“I’ve got two tickets for a Broadway show and you’re coming with me,” I said.

“I’ve never been to a Broadway show,” he said.

“Well then, you’re coming for sure.”

So he reluctantly agreed to go with me. I had two tickets to Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. We got there and we had great seats and we were talking to people as the orchestra was warming up. And the curtain rises and Ron looks at me, rolling his eyes, and I’m thinking, this isn’t good. Then the orchestra comes in and he brightens up and in the end he loved it. He told me that he’d had the best night in New York that he could remember. We walked back to the Hilton, where we were staying, and all the guys were there and Ron was singing all these songs from Anything Goes. We had a marvellous time.

—

I ALWAYS CHECKED the papers in whatever town I was in just in case something good was going on.

On another trip to New York, there was this place right across from the hotel called The Blarney Stone—an Irish pub, and of course there are a million of those in Manhattan. Right next door to it there was a nightclub, and I found out that Sarah Vaughan was playing there.

Good God, I’ve got to see her. So I went in early and gave the guy at the door a couple of extra dollars and told him I wanted a good seat up front. Now I’m alone, and sat right up front—there was only a little dance floor between me and the stage. I was an hour early—one of the first people there. I’m sitting there all by myself. And the drummer of the band stood up and got into a heavy argument with somebody all the way across the room at the front door. The language was terrible. He was giving it to this guy and the guy was trying to explain something back to him but he wasn’t listening. I learned later that this was the famous drummer Buddy Rich. Apparently, he had a reputation for that sort of thing.

Now that’s over and the room has filled up and the show is going to start. The warm-up act for Sarah Vaughan is a comedian—Flip Wilson. This was before he had his own show on television and became pretty famous. So Flip comes out and he’s got everybody going but I’m not really into it. I’m patiently waiting for Sarah Vaughan to come out and sing. I’ve got a great seat. It’s perfect.

Flip was going on and on. And when he was finished he said,

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