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Traveling ★★★
with the stars
by Tim Boxer
NEW YORK-SAM I.EVENSON used to say, “The nch like to take
care of the poor between Christmas and New Year’s. Between New Year’s
and next Christmas the rich prefer to take care of themselves.” (Sounds
like Reaganomics!)
The American humorist had so rijuch talent that it overflowedjn the
family. It trickled down to 22-year-old Keith Levenson. He is the
composer-lyricist of an off-Broadway musical called “The City Suite,”
| olaying at the West Side Arts Theater on 42nd
(Street’s Theater Row.
"The show is a musical,” Keith said,
|“about the first time you fail in love in
(Manhattan.”
His father is Robert Levenson, Sam’s
Inephew, a vice chairman at Doyle Dane
|Bernbach advertising agency.
Keith is also working on an opera based
Ion James Agee’s “A Death in the Family.”
1 He’s writing it with David Margolis, who
I performed in Stephen Sondheim’s musical,
‘Merrily We Roll Along,” which had a short
I life on Broadway this season. (Agee’s novel
[had been adapted as a play by Tad Mosel in
[the past. Now Keith is turning it into an
| opera.)
Eddie Fisher recognizes talent, and uses
Tim Boxer Keith as his accompanist and music director.
“If Sam Levenson had lived,” Keith said, “he probably would have
told me to stay out of show business, to get a job as a teacher, which he
was And 1 did loo. I teach music and drama at Riverdale Country
School. Some of my students came to see the show.”
* * *
EARI. WILSON, America’s No. 1 celebrity columnist, has a
heartwarming article on “Unforgettable Sam Levenson" in the January
issue of Reader’s Digest.
It was 1946, at a night club where hopeful comedians were trying out
for a spot in the limelight, when Earl first met Sam, a 34-year-old Brooklyn
higtr school teacher. Earl-was impressed that “he didn’t stoop to dirty
jokes or dialect, as some of the other fledgling comics did, to get cheap
laughs ”
Sam was doubtful whether he should take the plunge and become a
stand-up comic, but Earl encouraged him; “I’m a Methodist from Ohio,
but I see myself and people 1 grew up with in the stories you tell.”
When he started earning a six-figure income, Sam got more advice
from Earl, who suggested it was time he lived on Park Avenue with the other
celebrities. Sam insisted on his beloved Brooklyn. When he did move to a
larger house, it was in Queens.
He was modest to everyone, even at home. His daughter Emily rushed
home from kindergarten and exclaimed, “Mommy, Mommy! I just
found out Daddy is Sam Levenson!”
Sam came from a family of eight children (two others died at birth).
His parents came from Russia. They were poor, but cleanliness was a
rule, as was respect for parents and authority. Mama’s menu consisted of
two choices: “Jake it or leave it.” Papa ran a tailor shop, never made
more than $20 a week, but there was no question he was the head of the
household. As Sam put it: "Papa raised us on Parents’ Magazine. He
never read it. just rolled it up and whacked us on the behind.”
Education was the road to success, and in America education was
free Thus the family produced a doctor, dentist, artist, two business
executives, a housewife, a show business assistant and a Sam Levenson, the
teacher and story teller.
He died in 1980 at age 68 His wisdom and insights continue to inspire
and enlighten the generations that follow.
GEORGE KAL1NSKY, for 14 years the official photographer and
art director at Madison Square Garden, is finishing his seventh book.
1 his time it's about Tracy Austin, the top women’s pro tennis player, to
be published in March by NAL. He still manages, though, to find time to
visit his father every week at Hollywood Memorial Hospital in Florida,
where Samuel Kalinsky is critically ill at 77.
I he ADL chapter in Hallandale was set to honor Samuel Kalinsky at
a testimonial dinner. I hen he went into the hospital. All the guests came
to the dinner and everyone doubled their checks in his honor A
committee was sent to the hospital to present him with a plaque and
express their love for Kalinsky
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PAGE 11 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 5, 1982