I stumbled onto a story about his Lizzie Borden Parties in Saratoga, NY, while reading back issues of The New York Times! Our member had actually made the NYTimes! See The Hatchet: Issue Aug/Sept, 2004, Vol. 1, Issue 4.
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Thank you all so very much! I'm flattered by the attention, and am so pleased to have "met" so many terrific folks at this forum. And, to receive a birthday greeting in Lizzie's own handwriting...how can it possibly get any better than that?
I'm honored!
Stuart.
Thanks, Audrey. I spent the day in NYC yesterday. I went to see and off-Broadway show called Souvenir, which made me think of you. It was based upon the life of Florence Foster Jenkins, the society matron/songstress that had a huge following, even though she was an absolutely dreadful singer (a la Mrs. Miller).
Judy Kaye (who has a fabulous voice) learned Mme. Jenkins' "style" down to the last note, and had the audience screaming with laughter. But at her final concert at Carnegie Hall (2,000 people had to be turned away!), she finally realized that people were laughing at her. She never did it out of vanity...but the music she heard in her head is what was important to her. As she said, toward the end of her life: "Some people may say that I couldn't sing, but no on can say that I didn't sing."