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last night BRAVO showed a NAT KING COLE SPECIAL
what a great but troubled person he was !

this song seems fitting for today !

Love Nat Cole, hbg, and so did my mom. That is one lovely song, and the French lyrics were beautiful. Thanks, buddy.

One to match by Nat

Darling, je vous aime beaucoup
Je ne sais pas what to do
You know you`ve completely
Stolen my heart
Morning, noon and night-time too
Toujours, wondering what to do
That`s the way I`ve felt
Right from the start

Ah, Cherie!
My love for you is tres tres fort
Wish my French were good enough
I`d tell you so much more

But I hope that you compree
All the things you mean to me
Darling, je vous aime beaucoup
I love you, yes I do

More Nat.

If I May (w/ the Four Knights)
(Charles Singleton, Rose Marie McCoy)

I'd like to love you everyday,
If I may (If I may).
And dream dreams of you every night,
If I might (If I might).

And if I may, I'd like to say
I wish that you were mine.
If I had you, all I would do
Is adore you all the time.

I'd like to tell you of your charms everyday,
If I may (If I may).
I'd like to hold you in my arms every night,
If I might (If I might).

You're the object of my affections,
And if you have no objections,
I'd like to love you night and day,
If I may.

(I'd like to love you everyday,
If I may.
And dream dreams of you every night,
If I might.)

(And if I may, I'd like to say
I wish that you were mine.
If I had you, all I would do
Is adore you all the time.)

I'd like to tell you of your charms everyday,
If I may (If I may).
I'd like to hold you in my arms every night,
If I might (If I might).

You're the object of my affections,
And if you have no objections,
I'd like to love you night and day,
If I may.



If Love Ain't There
(Johnny Burke)

Better face the facts, ol' buddy,
And be prepared to take the blow.
You don't have to sit and study,
It's something anyone should know.

Shake hands... get your hat...
And go.

You can praise her eyes,
And adore her hair.
But if love ain't there,
It ain't there.

And you can walk her home
In the warm spring air,
But if love ain't there,
It ain't there.

And you can look
With a longing in your look,
And try every method in the book,
And worship the smile that kind of
Took you unaware.

And you can weep and sigh,
You can say, "Unfair".
You can almost die of despair.
But if love ain't there,
It ain't there.

You know, hbg and edgar. I have come to the conclusion that most creative people are troubled. Nat is no exception. If they deviate from the norm one hair, all eyes focus on that one variable.

Well, it's Sunday, so here is a hymn that my mom loved and done by many, including Nat and Elvis.

Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I'm tired, I am weak, I am worn

Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near
When my light is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When the darkness appears and the night draws near
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand
Guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I'm tired, I'm weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

Sometimes it's Bach; sometimes it's not. Although styles are different, the song is the same.

letty wrote :



there sure is a long list of those "personalities" - still some (simply through luck ?) seem to have been able to remain "normal" (whatever that means - some psychologists now claim that anyone who is "normal" , surely is not :wink: - where do i fit in :wink: ) .
so here is one of those guys who eventually got himself into a bit of trouble - i still liked his antics !
just watched him on YOUTUBE with victor borge trying to learn borge's phonetic spelling - both mrs h and i laughed so hard that it hurt !
hbg


DEAN MARTIN - Ain't That A Kick In The Head

Love it, hbg, especially your remark about Victor Borge.



He used to sit at the piano and play an up-side-down melody. Then he would turn the sheet music around, and it would be The William Tell Overture. Loved it.

This must be Italiano night, folks

Deano

Volare, oh, oh! Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Let's fly way up in the clouds,away from the maddening crowds

We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of
Where lovers enjoy peace of mind
Let us leave the confusion and all disillusion behind
Just like birds of a feather, a rainbow together we'll find

Volare, oh, oh! Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
No wonder my happy heart sings, your love has given me wings
Your love has given me wings, your love has given me wings

Italiano

Volare, oh, oh! Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Nel blu, dipinto di blu, felice di stare lass-

E volavo, volavo felice pi- in alto del sole ed ancora pi- su
Mentre il mondo pian piano spariva lontano laggi-
Una musica dolce suonava soltanto per me
Volare, oh, oh! Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!

Nel blu, dipinto di blu, felice di stare lass-
Nel biu, dipinto di blu, felice di stare lass

I guess that's it.

Nat King Cole's singing style was SO smooth it suggests--wrongly I guess--that he was a very mellow untroubled fellow. He surely put me in a mellow frame of mind state...even more than Perry Como.
By the way, Letty, thanks so much for the dedication; it's the first time in my protracted life that I received such a delightful attention, and from such a delightful person. :wink:

You are quite welcome, JL. <smile> It's nice to have you with us again.

Nat was troubled for many reasons, honey.

The Nat King Cole Show debuted in 1956, making singer and jazz pianist Nat "King" Cole the first black man to host a nationally televised variety program.
The crooner's singing and television career is the subject of an American Masters documentary debuting on PBS Wednesday night. The show details how Cole reluctantly challenged segregation on television and in American society, but decided after a little more than one year later on the air, to end the show for lack of a corporate sponsor.




My Mamma was really displeased, and she didn't often show that, JL

Love this one, folks.

Answer me, oh, my love
Just what sin have I been guilty of?
Tell me how I came to lose your love
Please answer me, sweetheart
You were mine yesterday
I believed that love was here to stay
Won`t you tell me where I`ve gone astray?
Please answer me, my love

If you`re happier without me
I`ll try not to care
But if you still think about me
Please listen to my prayer

You must know I`ve been true
Won`t you say that we can start anew?
In my sorrow now I turn to you
Please answer me, my love

What A Diff'rence A Day Makes
Dinah Washington

[Music Maria Grever and Lyrics by Stanley Adams]

What a diff'rence a day made
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain

My yesterday was blue, dear
Today I'm part of you, dear
My lonely nights are through, dear
(Since you said you were mine)

What a diff'rence a day makes
There's a rainbow before me
Skies above can't be stormy
Since that moment of bliss
That thrilling kiss

(It's heaven when you find romance on your menu)
What a diff'rence a day made
And the difference is you

(What a diff'rence a day makes)
(There's a rainbow before me)
(Skies above can't be stormy)
Since that moment of bliss, that thrilling kiss

(It's heaven when you find romance on your menu)
What a diff'rence a day made
And the difference is you

Charted in 1934 by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra #5
Charted in 1944 by Andy Russell #14
Charted in 1959 by Dinah Washington #5
Charted in 1958 by The Four Aces
Charted in 1975 by Esther Phillips #20
Recorded (and sometimes charted) by a host of others

edgar, that's a perfect song for the end of a perfect day. Thanks, Texas.

Tomorrow is Oct. 1st here in my little corner of the earth, and I must say goodnight with this song of my childhood.

There's a song that autumn sings to you
It's a song of golden trees,
While the earth is resting dreamily
Neath a tapestry of leaves

Oh, the song that autumn sings to you
Is a song of yellow sheaves.

Goodnight, my friends

From Letty with love

Poetry In Motion
Johnny Tillotson

[Words and Music by Paul Kaufman and Mike Anthony]

When I see my baby
What do I see
Poetry
Poetry in motion

Poetry in motion
Walkin' by my side
Her lovely locomotion
Keeps my eyes open wide

Poetry in motion
See her gentle sway
A wave out on the ocean
Could never move that way

I love every movement
And there's nothing I would change
She doesn't need improvement
She's much too nice to rearrange

Poetry in motion
Dancing close to me
A flower of devotion
A swaying gracefully

Whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whooooooooa

Poetry in motion
See her gentle sway
A wave out on the ocean
Could never move that way

I love every movement
There's nothing I would change
She doesn't need improvement
She's much too nice to rearrange

Poetry in motion
All that I adore
No number-nine love potion
Could make me love her more

Whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

edgar, I know that song, so I searched for a poem to match it, Texas.

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
By: E. E. Cummings

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
who
a)s w(e loo) k
upnowgath
PPEGORHASS
eringint (o-
aThe) :l
eA


!p:
S a
(r
rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs)
to
rea (be) rran (com) gi (e) ngly
,grasshopper;

cummings really enjoyed being different, right? His poetry always moved.

Today is Julie Andrews birthday, so let's do a morning song by her.

Edelweiss Edelweiss
Every morning you greet me
Small and white
Clean and bright
You look happy to meet me

Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss Edelweiss
Bless my homeland forever

Let's hope that our hawkman can be with us today, folks.

A Happy 83rd Birthday to Jimmy Carter and 72nd to Julie Andrews:




and remembering Walter, Laurence, George and Sir Richard on their day:

Hey, Raggedy. Thanks for that great sextet of photo's.

Know all of those famous faces, but I, for one, am confused about Sir Richard and Laurence. Damn, I miss BioBob. Hope is all right.

Wasn't Richard Harris' last movie, The Unforgiven where Gene Hackman called him "the duck of death"?

Don't care for this song much, but it's the only one that I could find, folks.

MacArthur Park


Written by: Jimmy Webb
Sung by: Richard Harris or Donna Summer, equally silly.

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

[break]

There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why

[break]

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Oh, no
No, no
Oh no!!

That's Laurence Harvey from the original "Manchurian Candidate", "Butterfield 8" with Eliz. Taylor and many more, and Richard Harris who was King Arthur in the movie "Camelot" and yes, he was in "Unforgiven" and so many more and I like the way he does "MacArthur Park".

I just found out about Laurence, Raggedy. It has been so long since I heard MacArthur Park by Richard, that I can't recall if it were silly or not. Thanks for the info, PA.

I didn't see the remake of The Manchurian Candidate, but the first one was fantastic. I think that there were problems involving that movie. Not quite certain what they were.




Laurence Harvey (1928-1973) b. Joniskis, Lithuania.

Born Lauruska Mischa Skikne in Joniskis, Lithuania, Laurence Harvey changed his name after emigrating to South Africa. After serving in Egypt and Italy during WWII, he returned to Johannesburg to continue his theatrical career. He moved to Britain in 1946, and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and spent time with the Manchester Library Theatre. In 1948 Harvey made his feature debut in the thriller House of Darkness (1948), this resulted in lead roles in Cairo Road (1950) and There is Another Sun (1950). Harvey continued to languish in second features until cast in the noir thriller The Good Die Young (1954). After a sequence of co-star roles including Romeo and Juliet (1954) and I Am a Camera (1955), in 1956 he appeared opposite comedian Jimmy Edwards in Three Men in a Boat.
After a series of disappointments, Harvey earned universal fame for his role as the ruthless social climber Joe Lampton in Room at the Top (1959), for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination. He followed it with varied roles in John Wayne?s The Alamo (1960) and The Long and the Short and the Tall (1960). Later, Harvey was to achieve his greatest success as the brainwashed assassin in John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate (1962). In 1963, Harvey made his debut as a writer and director with The Ceremony, a disappointingly lacklustre drama. A small role in John Schlesinger's Darling (1965) and Life at the Top (1965), the belated sequel to Room at the Top, followed as Harvey?s career began to dry up and focus on European productions. His final film as actor and director was Welcome to Arrow Beach (1974), released after Harvey died of cancer in 1973 aged just 45.

I saw both the original (with Laurence Harvey) and the remake of Manchurian Candidate, and although I love Merle Streep (who plays the Angela Lansbury role), I thought the remake was terrible.

Nothing silly about MacArthur Park the way Richard Harris sings it, Letty. At least nothing that I'm aware of.

Here's a song for my Raggedy friend.

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights Lyrics

Out on the wiley, windy moors
We'd roll and fall in green.
You had a temper like my jealousy:
Too hot, too greedy.
How could you leave me,
When I needed to possess you?
I hated you. I loved you, too.

Bad dreams in the night.
They told me I was going to lose the fight,
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.

Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.

Ooh, it gets dark! It gets lonely,
On the other side from you.
I pine a lot. I find the lot
Falls through without you.
I'm coming back, love.
Cruel Heathcliff, my one dream,
My only master.

Too long I roam in the night.
I'm coming back to his side, to put it right.
I'm coming home to wuthering, wuthering,
Wuthering Heights,

Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.

Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.

Ooh! Let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
Ooh! Let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
You know it's me--Cathy!

Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.

Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.

Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!

Was that silly, PA?

Stanley Holloway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born 1 October 1890(1890-10-01)
London, England, United Kingdom
Died 30 January 1982 (aged 91)
Littlehampton, England, United Kingdom

Stanley Augustus Holloway (October 1, 1890 - January 30, 1982) was an English actor and entertainer famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He was also renowned for his recordings of comic monologues.




Life

He was born on the 1 October 1890 in Manor Park, East Ham, Essex (now Greater London), England, and attended The Worshipful School of Carpenters in Stratford nearby. His first job was as a clerk in Billingsgate fish market, but from 1907 he was performing in end of pier concert parties at English east coast seaside resorts, including Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea where he appeared for three years in Bert Graham and Will Bentley's concert party at the West Cliff Theatre, 1911 - 1913. He was then recruited by established comedian Leslie Henson to feature as a support in Henson's own more prestigious concert-party. He planned a career as a singer and went to Milan to train his voice, but the outbreak of war in 1914 changed his plans.

In World War I, he enlisted in the Connaught Rangers infantry regiment. After the war he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1920 as a Temporary Constable but had left by the beginning of 1921.

After the war, he found his first big success is the show The Co-Optimists which ran from 1921 until 1927 and was then filmed. A second run of the show from 1929 developed his comic song and monologue repertoire, which launched his recording career with records of his own created character, "Sam Small," and Marriott Edgar's "The Ramsbottoms" selling world wide.

He spent the 1930s appearing in a series of cheaply made movies, but which included some notable work in Squibs (1935) and The Vicar of Bray (1937). He also recorded "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm", a ditty by R. P. Weston and Bert Lee about the ghost of Anne Boleyn haunting the Tower of London, seeking revenge on Henry VIII for having her beheaded.

His career changed again in 1941 when he played in a major film production of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. He then took patriotic, morale boosting, light comic roles in The Way Ahead (1944), This Happy Breed (1944) and The Way to the Stars (1945).

After World War Two he had notable roles in the smash hit Brief Encounter , as Mr Crummles in Nicholas Nickleby, and a cameo role as the grave digger in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. He then became a mainstay of the Ealing Comedies productions, making classics like Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Titfield Thunderbolt.

His film output had made him enough of a public name in the United States to land him the part of Alfred P. Doolittle in the Broadway stage smash hit My Fair Lady, after Jimmy Cagney turned it down. He had a long association with the show appearing in the original 1956 Broadway production, the 1958 London version and the film version of 1964. He entitled his autobiography Wiv a Little Bit of Luck after the song he performed in these productions. He received his only Academy Award nomination for the performance, but lost to Peter Ustinov.

He was still performing English character parts into his eighties. He died in a Littlehampton nursing home on 30 January 1982, aged 91.

His son is the actor Julian Holloway, best known for being in some of the 'Carry On films. Julian and Roald Dahl's daughter, Tessa, are parents to Sophie Dahl, actress and model.


Trivia


He was named after the explorer Stanley of "Dr Livingstone I presume" fame.
The lion "Wallace" who "ate up poor Albert" in one of Holloway's famous sketches, was named after Marriott Edgar's step-brother, Edgar Wallace
The lion "Wallace" (see above) is often said to have been named after Wallis Simpson. This is not true. However Holloway did develop a rather skittish follow-up to the lion theme which did refer to Wallis Simpson ("also a man-eater")

Walter Matthau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Walter John Matthau
Born October 1, 1920(1920-10-01)
New York City, New York
Died July 1, 2000 (aged 79)
Santa Monica, California
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor
1966 The Fortune Cookie
BAFTA Awards
Best Actor in a Leading Role
1974 Pete 'n' Tillie ; Charley Varrick
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1976 The Sunshine Boys
Tony Awards
Best Featured Actor in a Play
1962 A Shot in the Dark
Best Leading Actor in a Play
1965 The Odd Couple

Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 - July 1, 2000) was an Academy Award-winning American comedy actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with fellow Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon.





Biography

Matthau was born in New York City, in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, and attended Seward Park High School. His original surname is often shown as Matuschansky, but this is not true (see Original Name Rumour below for a detailed discussion). His real name, as records from his youth prove, was Walter John Matthow. However, he was also called "Jake", so he occasionally signed his name as "Walter Jake Matthow". When, as a young man, he began acting in the Yiddish theatre in New York, he decided to change the spelling of his name. He believed that "Matthow" looked too brash and crude and opted for the "more-elegant" spelling of "Matthau", and kept it for the rest of his life.

During World War II Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in England as a B-24 Liberator radioman-gunner, in the same bomb group as Jimmy Stewart. He reached the rank of Staff Sergeant and became interested in acting. He often joked that his best early review came in a play where he posed as a derelict. One reviewer said, "The others just looked like actors in make-up, Walter Matthau really looks like a skid row bum!" Matthau was a respected stage actor for years in such fare as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and A Shot in the Dark. He won the 1962 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a play. In 1952 Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mr. Peepers with Wally Cox. For reasons unknown he used the name Leonard Elliot. His role was of the gym teacher Mr. Wall. In 1955 he made his motion picture debut as a whip-wielding bad guy in The Kentuckian opposite Burt Lancaster. He appeared in many movies after this as a villain such as the 1958 King Creole (where he is beaten up by Elvis Presley). That same year, he made a western called Ride a Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy and the notorious flop Onionhead starring Andy Griffith and Erin O'Brien. Matthau also directed a low budget 1960 movie called The Gangster Story. In 1962, he won acclaim as a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely are the Brave. He also played a villainous war veteran in Charade, which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

In addition to his busy movie and stage schedule, Matthau made many television appearances in live TV plays. Although he was constantly working, it seemed that the fact that he was not handsome in the traditional sense would keep him from being a top star.


Success came late for Matthau. In 1965, aged 44, Neil Simon cast him in the hit play The Odd Couple opposite Art Carney. In 1966, he again achieved success as a shady lawyer opposite future friend and frequent co-star, actor Jack Lemmon, in The Fortune Cookie. During filming, the film had to be placed on a five month hiatus after he suffered a heart attack.

He won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for that movie, and also made a memorable acceptance speech. He was visibly banged up, having been involved in a bicycle accident shortly before the awards show. He scolded nominated actors who were perfectly healthy and had not bothered to come to the ceremony, especially three of the other four major award winners: Elizabeth Taylor, Sandy Dennis and Paul Scofield.

Matthau and Lemmon became lifelong friends after making The Fortune Cookie and made a total of ten movies together, including the movie version of The Odd Couple (with Lemmon playing the Art Carney role) and the popular 1993 hit Grumpy Old Men and its sequel Grumpier Old Men with Sophia Loren.


Matthau was married twice, to Grace Geraldine Johnson (1948-1958), and Carol Marcus (August 21, 1959 until his death on July 1, 2000). He had two children, Jenny Matthau and David Matthau, with his first wife, and a son, Charlie Matthau, with his second. His grandchildren include William Matthau and Emily Roman. His son, Charlie, directed Matthau in the movie The Grass Harp (1995).

Walter Matthau died of full cardiac arrest on July 1, 2000, in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 79. After heart surgery, doctors discovered that he had colon cancer, which had spread to his liver, lungs and brain. However, on his death certificate the causes of death are listed as cardiac arrest and atherosclerotic heart disease, with ESRD and atrial fibrillation added as "other significant conditions contributing to death but not related to [primary] cause..." (see [1]) with no mention of the cancer.

He is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, next to fellow actor George C. Scott.

Almost exactly one year later, Jack Lemmon was also buried at the cemetery, after dying from cancer. After Matthau's death, Lemmon as well as other friends and relatives appeared on Larry King Live in an hour of tribute and remembrance; poignantly, many of those same people appeared on the show one year later, reminiscing about Lemmon.

His widow, Carol, died of a brain aneurysm in 2003.


Original name rumour

There is a persistent rumor that his birth name was Matuschanskayasky, which is false, as are the rumors that his name was Matashansky or Matansky, or any of the other reported names. In truth - as reported by the authors of Matthau: A Life by Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg (along with Walter's son, Charlie Matthau), Walter was a teller of tall tales. In his youth, he found that the joy of embellishment lifted a story (and the listener) to such enjoyable heights that he could not resist trying to pass off the most bogus of information, just to see who was gullible enough to believe it. Matthau told many stories to many reputable people - including the Social Security Administration.

When he registered for a number, he was amazed that they only wanted him to write his name, and offer no proof of his identity. So, as another of his traditional goofs, he wrote that his true name was "Walter Foghorn Matthau".

The "Matuschanskayasky" name rumor culminated with the release of 1974's Earthquake. The executive producer, Jennings Lang, had worked with Matthau the previous year on the film Charley Varrick, and convinced him to take a small cameo role in the film - the small part scripted only as a "drunk at the end of the bar." On a whim, Matthau agreed to take the part, without compensation, on the condition that he not be credited under his real name. After Matthau agreed, the part of the "drunk" was expanded to provide comic relief for the film, the character offering toasts to various people (Spiro Agnew, Bobby Riggs, and Peter Fonda), as well as delivering the punchline "Hey, who do you have to know to get a drink around here?" in the midst of a bar devastated by a major earthquake.

As requested, when it came time to insert the credits for Earthquake, the long name "Matuschanskayasky" was used, as agreed, by Jennings Lang and Matthau.