An Extraordinary Life: How I Met Marian Anderson, Rock Hudson, John F. Kennedy, Paul Newman, Lily Pons, Rachel Welch and Other Legends by Being Me...

By Richard Kendall

Richard Kendall's first book, An Extraordinary Life, is an extraordinary tour-de-force. Richard shares with us in a very personal way his passion for music and politics by taking us on a tour of his meetings with the top stars in opera and the legends of the political world (with a few Hollywood stars - who happened to be opera lovers as well - added to the extraordinary tour). He has a special place in his heart for those individuals among us who can simultaneously create beauty and inspire us, but can also exhibit humility and warmth and generosity of spirit utterly devoid of artifice or phoniness. And Richard, with his own humility and his sheer joie de vivre, as well as his comfort with the art of honest conversation, brings out the warmth and the humor in all he meets. It turns out he is the right person in the right place at the right time! In a particularly engaging chapter, he describes his audition for the Los Angeles Master Chorale in front of Roger Wagner, who had a talent for creating fear and awe among those who aspired to join the Chorale. Richard successfully wowed the master by enjoying himself, having a little fun, and most of all taking the perspective that the audition would be an interesting learning experience. To his shock, Richard had exactly the kind of voice Wagner was looking for. For his opening chapter, Richard selected an apt quote from Marian Anderson, who aspires to a world where we don't see a black singer or a white singer, but only see a colorless soul. From the first to the last chapter of the book, Richard clearly has a "colorless soul" himself, seeing the essential humanity in political figures on the left or on the right, and the real person behind the "celebrity." The most engaging, and touching, chapters in the book have to be his sensitive descriptions of his friendships with his two favorite divas, Lily Pons and Joan Sutherland. Both divas clearly knew a kindred spirit when they met him, and opened up their hearts to Richard. Sutherland invites Richard's mother, who inspired Richard's love of opera and his interest in writing, to keep her company backstage after one of her numerous sold-out shows. And Pons gives Richard a lesson in the proper French pronunciation of Au Revoir, after graciously hosting him and some of his music students at her Palm Springs home. When it comes down to it, Richard has clearly created his own extraordinary luck by being extraordinarily humane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 19, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453596593

Book preview

Contents

Marian Anderson

The Beatles

Dom DeLuise

Ray Evans

Indira Gandhi

Judy Garland

Rock Hudson

John F. Kennedy

Kathryn Kuhlman

Jayne Mansfield

Patrice Munsel

Jim Nabors

Paul Newman

Pat Nixon

Eleanor Roosevelt

Risë Stevens

Joan Sutherland

Tom Tryon

Roger Wagner

Raquel Welch

Lily Pons: A Special Tribute

Dedication

This book is respectfully and lovingly dedicated to my wonderful and beloved mom, the greatest celebrity that I’ve ever known!

The former Ruth Benshoof (1907-1964) possessed innate wisdom, towering faith, and an endless love and compassion for others. This marked her as a truly special person in the lives of everyone that she touched.

Mankind could never bestow upon me an honor that could ever come close to that of being her son. Divine Providence, in His Master Plan, had already taken care of that.

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Acknowledgments

To Nancy Berecky, for typing and retyping the original manuscript. The reason . . . just so I could be the first one to read it! She did a superb job throughout . . . my grateful thanks!

To Diana Kyle, who was instrumental in helping to find a title for the book, and, who gave me non-stop enthusiasm, support, and encouragement.

To author James Rogers, who gave me the final impetus to get this project going and to explain the joy and happiness that results from writing a book.

To Mona Goss, who constantly reminded me to get busy and write it!

To my precious Mom, with heartwarming memories of her loving encouragement for me to write stories about animals when I was ten years old. I still have those stories.

To Billie Lai, at Non-Stop Printing in Hollywood, for her very helpful and very professional assistance in handling the resolution and printing of all of my photos—a great job, beautifully done!

To the remaining scores of friends through the years who have encouraged me to tell these stories—

To all of the subjects in this book, my grateful thanks for your incredible inspiration, making it possible for me to put these special meetings into words.

And finally, to my beloved Missy and Moses who quietly kept their Daddy company so that he could write undisturbed.

Foreword

This book is essentially not about me. Instead, it is about my personal encounters with notable world personalities.

Some of these meetings were planned while others were totally unexpected. Each singular meeting was a special experience, a treasured memory, and a unique moment in time for me.

I have relied on a highly retentive memory and a personal diary-journal started at age fourteen, which continues to the present. I have also kept a very extensive library (starting at age ten) of concert, recital, and opera programs. A political scrapbook that started with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945) that continues to President Barack Obama offered a first-class reference for subjects of a political nature.

These sources have helped me immeasurably in the factual descriptions of these meetings.

For readers who grew up in the ’50s, it will provide a nostalgic look back at happier, more secure, and less stressful times.

For younger readers, it will present a glimpse of an entirely different era. Things moved at a much slower pace then. There were fewer nonessentials to distract. People still talked to each other. Today, the art of conversation is becoming extinct due mainly to the presence of the infernal cell phone.

However, these basic losses are mitigated by advances in other areas like science and technology.

Yet some things never change—ignorance, bigotry, prejudice, and hate are ever present. There has even been as escalation in some areas. Look at the political insanity that presently prevails in our Congress! Like we’ve heard so often before, The more things change, the more they remain the same. It still applies.

We cannot and should not go back in time. We must value our present existence, build upon it, and look forward and beyond to greater expectations.

Marian Anderson

(1897-1993)

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It happened one day in late March during my first year of teaching in a small town in northern North Dakota. Yes, it did get cold in the winter up there, down to forty or fifty degrees below zero!

I had just read the newly published autobiography of singer Marian Anderson. I had heard her many times on The Telephone Hour, a radio program on Monday nights.

Then I noticed in a Minneapolis paper that the distinguished singer was to appear April 6 in a recital in Northrup Auditorium in Minneapolis. I immediately ordered two tickets and called my mother, telling her that we were going to attend—that she was to board my train at New Rockford. We would go down on a Friday, hear the recital on Saturday night. I could take the train back to Tioga on Sunday night and get back to school on Monday morning.

One of my teenage musical dreams was to someday hear and meet these great artists that I had heard on the radio program The Telephone Hour. My anticipation knew no bounds. My mother had exposed me to great music starting early. I saw my first opera, Carmen, in Winnipeg at age ten.

We arrived in Minneapolis at 6:30 a.m. followed by a quick breakfast and hotel check-in. We then did some shopping and saw Cinerama at 2:00 p.m.

A crowd of more than four thousand people greeted the artist as she walked onstage in her commanding regal manner. She was followed by her longtime accompanist, Franz Rupp.

The program included the Handel and Schubert sets, plus Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix (My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice) from the opera Samson and Delilah, and an encore, Comin’ Thro’ the Rye, concluded the first half of the program.

After intermission, songs by Cyril Scott, Benjamin Britten, and Celius Dougherty were followed by four spirituals including her signature song "He’s Got the Whole World in His