I was reminded of this immortal line from the immortal 1966 turkey, The Oscar, upon hearing the death today of famed and beloved crooner Tony Bennett, who said this line as the character Hymie Kelly in his film debut and mostly farewell. Bennett died at his home in New York at the age of 96. He would have turned 97 in a couple of weeks. Back in 2016, he was diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer's but wasn't revealed until five years later. However, no cause of death was given.
He performed onstage into his nineties, even after his diagnosis, still drawing crowds of fans both young and old. He was known for singing standards from the so-called American Songbook. The song most closely associated with him was "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." It was written in 1953 by George Cory (music) and Douglass Cross (lyrics). Tony Bennett recorded it in 1962, and it became his signature song ever since.
Vintage Bennett singing that song:
Snip from the linked article:
Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on Aug. 3, 1926, in Astoria in the Queens borough of New York City, he got his start in music after having studied singing at the American Theatre Wing. He was reported to have been discovered by the legendary African American singer Pearl Bailey, who hired him to open for her in 1949.
A year later, Bennett began to make his own mark, signing with Columbia Records and crooning hits such as “Rags to Riches” and “Because of You.” His signature hit, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” arrived in 1962 as a B-side that launched him to the A-list.
The songs effectively straddled the worlds of pop and jazz while earning critical acclaim: Bennett won the 1962 Grammys for record of the year and solo vocal performance.
Like Elvis, Sinatra, The Beatles, and a few others who were big stars in the field of music, Bennett tried his hand in acting, and he promptly got it nearly bitten off by all the savage reviews of his film debut, The Oscar. I am going to write a bit about this movie because it is about my most favorite bad movie of all time, with a ludicrous plot and more terrible dialogue than almost any other movie ever made.
It was adapted from a novel by Richard Sale, directed by Russell Rouse, and boasted a script from the likes of the famed writer Harlan Ellison, among others. As the title indicates, it was a film about the ugly backstory of the Academy Awards, with all the backstabbing and stepping on others to get ahead, all the sleeping around with dramatic coaches and others in order to get recognized. The film opens and closes at an Oscar ceremony complete with Bob Hope as host, which is something he had done in real life for many years. The ceremony was about to list the best actor awards, but we are treated to the hostile look of Tony Bennett at nominee Frankie Fane (Stephen Boyd*--who, though never nominated for an Oscar, had been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance as Messala in 1959's Ben Hur--he didn't win). At this point, Bennett, who was seated alongside Elke Sommer, who played Fane's wife, begins to tell the story of how Frankie Fane ended up being nominated for an Oscar. Most of the rest of the film is told in flashbacks. This was a movie known for an all-star cast, like 1968's Skidoo and also Candy. Like those other films, it was also a big flop financially and critically.
Fane was basically a sociopath, and Bennett's Hymie Kelly was not just his best and only friend until near the end of the film, he also served as Fane's conscience. But since Fane (especially as performed by the scenery-chewing Boyd) was incapable of a conscience, Kelly was used and abused by Fane. I am not going to give away the ending of this movie because it is one everybody should see at least once. I have seen it dozens of times and have it on DVD. (It took many years for this film to make it on DVD, like the aforementioned Skidoo.)
Here is a scene from the film showing Bennett's acting chops, what there were of them. After this film he decided he was better off singing:
By all accounts, Bennett was loved by everybody and nobody had a bad word to say about him. He battled drug abuse for a time, but he overcame that. He was married three times and had four children, one of whom, Antonia, is a singer in her own right.
With his death, the era of the old-time crooners has come to an end.
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*--It is a strange coincidence that Stephen Boyd, who was only 45 when he died, passed away while playing golf in 1977. Just a few months after his death, Bing Crosby, about thirty years older, also died after playing a round of golf.
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