was a little pisherkeh from Brighton
Beach and Connie Francis gave me my start," songwriter
Neil Sedaka said.
He told how Connie recorded one of his early
songs, Stupid Cupid, and turned it into a monster hit of
the late ‘50s. "It was my ultimate kvell."
Sedaka took to the piano and serenaded Connie
with a medley of his signature songs, including Breaking Up
Is Hard To Do.
That got hearty applause from young and old
alike among the 700 guests at the New York Friars Foundation
Applause Awards Gala in June at the Waldorf-Astoria. The
foundation is the charitable arm of the Friars Club, aiding
performing arts groups and assisting needy artists with a
college education.
Jay Black, who fronted the popular Jay and
the Americans, said he always enjoyed listening to Connie
Francis. He said his favorite was a Jewish song, "Where the Goys
Are." (Cue laughs.)
Friars Club president Freddie Roman
presented Connie with an Applause Award. Everyone dutifully rose
to applaud. Except two actors — a senior Italian and an elderly
Jew — who portrayed Mafia types in their career: Dominic
Chianese, 80, who was Junior on The Sopranos,
and Abe Vigoda, 90, who was Sal Tessio in The
Godfather.
Vigoda looked like he died years ago and doesn’t
know it. In fact comedian Stewie Stone, the Friars vice
president, gently nudged him: "Abe, was the ground cold when you
got up this morning?"
Freddie, who marveled that "the biggest stars
come for our events and nobody gets paid," presented an Applause
Award also to Leonard A. Wilf for his far-reaching
philanthropy. He was a founder of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial in
Washington DC and the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York. In
honor of his father Harry, Leonard built Wilf Park in
Jerusalem as well as the Children’s Hospital at the Shaare Zedek
Medical Center.
"Leonard owns the Minnesota Vikings football
club," Stewie noted. "He doesn’t want a plaque — he wants a
quarterback!"
At 72, Connie Francis proved she can still hold
an audience in thrall. She sang This Land Is Your Land
as well as Hava Negila to much acclaim.
She has recorded many Jewish songs in her life,
including such favorites as Oh Mein Papa, Mein
Shtetele Belz and My Yiddishe Momme.
How did she learn Yiddish?
"I was brought up in Newark," she told me. "If
you weren’t Jewish you needed a password to get in. Also I read
Leo Rosten’s book, The Joys of Yiddish."