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# With your elbows on the sill | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
# And your nose against the pane | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
# You'll toss the pumpkin at Ichabod Crane | 0:00:08 | 0:00:12 | |
# You're one guy Paul Bunyan couldn't lick | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
# You're the god that whaled the daylights out of Moby-Dick | 0:00:16 | 0:00:22 | |
# Grown-ups don't know where to find that magic window | 0:00:24 | 0:00:31 | |
# But it's any window little boys look through | 0:00:31 | 0:00:36 | |
# There's so much for you to see | 0:00:36 | 0:00:40 | |
# So don't ever say to me | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
# That you've got a lot of growing up to do | 0:00:43 | 0:00:48 | |
# Cos I wish that I were growing down to you. # | 0:00:48 | 0:00:56 | |
Those records today sound like they were recorded yesterday. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:24 | |
He's always remembered and each year it gets bigger and bigger. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:29 | |
35 years from now, they'll not only call what Nat Cole was doing jazz, | 0:01:29 | 0:01:36 | |
they'll call it America's classical music. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
# Just you | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
# Just me | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
# Let's find a cosy spot to cuddle and woo | 0:01:46 | 0:01:51 | |
# Just us | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
# Just we | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
# I've missed an awful lot | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
# My trouble is you... # | 0:01:58 | 0:01:59 | |
Not only was the world ready for his music, | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
I think the world was ready for his colour. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
You say, "Finally, they get the right person on television!" HE LAUGHS | 0:02:07 | 0:02:12 | |
He was the first black artist who had his own television show. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:16 | |
And it was flawless. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
And every week it was a wonderful thing to watch. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
Incredible! It was a big thing, because it was highly unusual | 0:02:31 | 0:02:36 | |
to see an African-American hosting a show, period. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
But if anybody deserved it, Nat Cole was the guy. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
So this event did more for me | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
in looking at America changing, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
America beginning to awake... | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
awaken itself to a greater truth, to a greater reality. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
The pride was in the fact that the country was beginning to change. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:01 | |
You know, when people ask me about my background and Nat's, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:06 | |
it's so interesting, we were exact opposites. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
My husband was from a very, very kind, gentle family, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:15 | |
who were very poor, I understand quite poor. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
Nat was born in Alabama. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
You are pastor of the First Baptist Church in North Chicago, | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
-aren't you, Reverend Coles? -Yes, I am. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
But Nat was born in Montgomery, Alabama. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:31 | |
And we moved to Chicago when he was about the age of four. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:36 | |
-Little Nat was an inquisitive boy, wasn't he, Reverend Coles? -Yes, he was. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
"Dad," you said, "God can do anything?" | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
I said, "Yes, God can do anything, son." | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
He said, "I bet he cannot get bare naked | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
"and sit on this red-hot stove with no clothes on." | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:03:51 | 0:03:52 | |
At the end of the Civil War a great force had been unleashed. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
For the first time, millions of black people | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
had the right to move about the nation. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
And...the overwhelming common desire | 0:04:03 | 0:04:11 | |
among the slave population | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
was to get as far away from slavery as they could. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
And moving to the north | 0:04:18 | 0:04:19 | |
meant that there was an opportunity for employment, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
because the northern part of America was the industrial base. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:27 | |
Most Negroes at that time felt like they'd have better opportunities | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
in Chicago, a little better, and New York and California. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:36 | |
We wanted better. They wanted equal. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
And Nat King Cole also wanted the same thing everybody else wanted. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
We all wanted it and those who had talent | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
began to move and go away. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
And those who had skills began to go north and get better jobs | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
in the steel mills and the auto industry and things of that sort. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
And Nat, I guess, used that ability to sing and perform. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:01 | |
I feel that the panorama of progress, | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
telling the story of the Negroes' contributions | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
to the progress of America is a noteworthy and patriotic service to all freedom-loving people | 0:05:06 | 0:05:11 | |
whose hopes and aspirations find expression | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
in our democratic way of life. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
From Crispus Attucks to Ralph Bunche the Negro people have played | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
a significant part in the building of this great country of ours. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
America has meant much to the Negro | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
and the Negro has contributed much to America. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
It is a glorious history, that of the Negro in America. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
So it is with humble respect for those who helped make that history | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
but with great pride that I dedicate the recording of We Are Americans Too | 0:05:37 | 0:05:42 | |
to the youth of America, who are the inheritors of a great tradition. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
PIANO MUSIC | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
When Nat was a little boy, from what I understand, he showed his talent. | 0:05:56 | 0:06:01 | |
But the story that I was told, and I heard this a lot when he was alive, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:06 | |
so I'm sure it was true, he only had two lessons. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
And I think it was some friend of the family. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
He had two lessons but he picked everything up. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
It started with Yes, We Have No Bananas, I do remember that. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
And...it was like me just talking or something, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:22 | |
he was an absolute genius. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
And when he started kindergarten, he's played for the children | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
to march and at the age of 11 he played for the choir, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:32 | |
he played the gospel numbers and I played the slower numbers. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
I had such great admiration for him | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
as a singer and as a pianist and as a gentleman. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:41 | |
He was a class-act man. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:45 | |
# I like to riff | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
# I like to riff... # | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
So the music was jazz orientated, rhythm and blues or church. | 0:06:54 | 0:07:00 | |
# I like to riff SCAT SINGING | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
# I like to riff... # SCAT SINGING | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
All my life I've spent telling people | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
that they really missed the essence of this man, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
because they weren't aware, because of his very prolific singing, | 0:07:16 | 0:07:23 | |
that he was also one of the greatest jazz musicians, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
pianists in the world. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:28 | |
Nat as a pianist was a giant. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
Unfortunately, he was such a big star as a singer, being a singer, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:36 | |
it overshadowed his piano playing. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
Sometimes, I get a real kick out of playing the piano. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
Of course, I don't do it too much publicly | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
because, like I said, most of the people come to see Nat King Cole, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:50 | |
they want to hear him sing. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
I imagine maybe that's because | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
they only know of Nat King Cole as a singer. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
Of course, some of the older fans have heard of me as a jazz pianist. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:04 | |
I still have that constant fight of them saying, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:09 | |
"How much piano are you going to play | 0:08:09 | 0:08:10 | |
"and how much singing are you going to play?" | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
And...I don't know, but I like it. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
Such a fantastic piano player and a wonderful jazz piano player. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:23 | |
There's a lot of people still don't know in this country | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
what a great piano player Nat King Cole was. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
The level of excellence he had could not be denied | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
and it eventually made its way through the challenges | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
to the forefront of American music history and royalty. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
He was certainly listening to all the great piano players, | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
because he had touches of genius even at the very early age. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
I think he was only 19 or 20 years old | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
when people started hearing him play, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
in an era where it was dominated | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
by some of the greatest pianists in history. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
The pace was set. And Art Tatum, that was it, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:59 | |
and Fats Waller and Earl "Fatha" Hines. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:05 | |
So he had his work cut out but he had a lot to listen to. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:09 | |
I know that Nat was great, | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
because I heard it from people who were great, like Art Tatum. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
And Oscar Peterson, of course, was a giant in the industry | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
any he recognised Nat's virtuosity very early on. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:23 | |
Nat had great roots in the jazz world | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
and was very sympathetic to a lot of very modern things, | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
even the bebop things that were coming in | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
during the reign of his popular trio. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
When I say popular, meaning the trio | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
that was garnering all of the hits on the hit parade at the time. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
Nat was still at times reverting back to his jazz background | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
whenever he had a chance, because of his artistic curiosity. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
I think Nat would be the type of person that would grow | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
and progress as a player anyway. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
There's music from your past, Nat. Let's go back in time | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
and meet these gentlemen who were all members | 0:09:55 | 0:09:57 | |
of Nat Cole and his Royal Dukes, | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
a band that you formed when you were only 16 years old. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
-How about that? Yeah! -LAUGHTER | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
Ladies and gentlemen! | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
Here's some guys that I grew up with. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
-They all came. -His father used to be the president | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
-of the musicians' union in Chicago. -He still is. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
And here's your brother Eddie Coles over here. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
# I'm lost | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
# I'm like a king without a throne | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
# I'm lost... # | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
Nat married when he was 19 years old to... | 0:10:31 | 0:10:35 | |
His wife was much older than he was | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
and, evidently, Eddie very strongly objected. I don't... | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
I wasn't there. I mean, I don't know exactly what happened, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
-but I know Nat said they had a fight... -SHE LAUGHS | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
..because he was getting ready to go to California. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:53 | |
# If you ever plan to motor west | 0:10:53 | 0:10:57 | |
# Travel my way, take the highway that's the best | 0:10:59 | 0:11:04 | |
# Get your kicks on Route 66. # | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
I heard the story about him being a pianist | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
working this place wherever he was working | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
and the singer didn't show up. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:17 | |
And a guy told him, "Well, you got to sing." | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
He said, "No, I'm a piano player." | 0:11:19 | 0:11:21 | |
"You going to sing or you going to lose your gig, one of the two." | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
He said, "OK." And Nat King Cole was born. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
Come on, what the matter with ya? | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
I said play! | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
HE SINGS DRUNKENLY | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
You sing it. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:36 | |
-Do you know the words, Cole? -Yes, but... -Do like the man says. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:41 | |
This guy spends as much as four bucks in here some nights. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
-But, you see, I just can't sing. -Well, you better learn how fast. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
-Come on, boy, you can sing it. Come on. -Sing. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
-# I've just found joy -That a boy! | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
# I'm as happy as a baby boy... # | 0:12:03 | 0:12:07 | |
Amazing to find that even in that situation, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
he attracted the right team of individuals around him | 0:12:11 | 0:12:15 | |
from the ranks of the white world, if you will, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
who really believed in him. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
I first really got to know Nat Cole when I was working at a place called Ciro's, | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
which was a very famous nightclub on Sunset Strip. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
And one of the acts that we booked there was Nat Cole. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
He'd been working downtown at a place called the Tiffany Rooms, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
but I was convinced that Nat Cole had great youth appeal. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
So we brought him up for graduations in January and in the spring. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:41 | |
And he packed the place. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
And he sat down and just sang | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
and it was like the sound of the gods, you know. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
And Nat didn't play jazz on stage because he said people would talk. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
So two o'clock in the morning, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
I had enough on the head bartender to send him to jail and on the chef to have him go with him, | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
so we would save a couple of bottles of champagne | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
and some hot and cold hors d'oeuvres | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
and we would invite ladies to come in and listen to Nat. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
Just a work light and Nat at the piano playing jazz. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
And it was the most sought-after invitation in all of Los Angeles. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
And he showed us that he could hang in there with the best of the best. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
Sinatra was the phenomenon of his time, | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
but when they mention Sinatra, | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
they also mention this African-American man, Nat Cole. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:44 | |
They were the two best stylists around | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
in that period of time. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
And...I think they had a lot of respect for one another. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:56 | |
And they had a lot of the same great qualities, | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
they were both family men. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
They used to smoke a lot and they drank moderately. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:10 | |
And that was the...kinship between the two of them. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
It's like they were a god. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
You're talking about two of the greatest talents in the world, | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
which will never happen again. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
While you're making a change, I'll drop a tune in here somewhere. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
All right. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
Oh, boy! Ring-a-ding-ding-ding! | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
-Ring-a-ding-ding! -LAUGHTER | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
# She gets too hungry for dinner at eight | 0:14:42 | 0:14:47 | |
# She loves the theatre and she doesn't come late | 0:14:49 | 0:14:55 | |
# She'd never bother with people she hates... # | 0:14:57 | 0:15:02 | |
He actually built Capitol Records, | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
because every record he made went to number one on the Billboard charts. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:11 | |
Nat had a lot to do with building that tower. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
He was a legend before we really have words for it. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
Nat was part of our lives. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
He wasn't just a singer, wasn't just a performer, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
he was part of the culture. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
Capitol was THE singers' label. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
And they really... I think Capitol had a great reputation. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:32 | |
I was very secure at Capitol, | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
I was at Capitol for 40 albums in 20-some years. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
Capitol was THE record company to be with at that time. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
# Unforgettable | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
# In every way | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
# And for ever more | 0:15:53 | 0:15:58 | |
# That's how you'll stay. # | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
Nat was managed by a big man, his name was Carlos Gastel. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
Carlos Gastel was from Honduras and he was huge | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
and he did occasionally like a beverage, you know. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
And I would call Carlos and say, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
"Pal of my cradle days, why have you forgotten?" | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
I said, "Carlos, why don't you come by for a taste?" | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
So Carlos would come by for a taste about five or six o'clock at night. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
I put his bottle of gin on the bar and a bottle of vodka on the bar | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
and we would have a taste. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
And by two o'clock in the morning, I had a contract with Nat Cole. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
And the next morning Carlos would call and say, "Pal of my cradle days, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
"last night while we were having fellowship, did we negotiate any kind of...?" | 0:16:39 | 0:16:44 | |
"Oh, yeah," I said, "you convinced me to bring Nat back." | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
"I convinced you?" "You insisted and so we signed a contract." | 0:16:47 | 0:16:53 | |
"Signed another contract?! On what money?" I said, "Same money." | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
I didn't want him to take a cut | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
because of these multiple appearances. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
Carlos says, "You got me!" "I didn't get you, you demanded it, Carlos. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
"You're a big guy, I couldn't argue with you." | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
So anyhow, Nat would say to me, "Did he do that again? What do you do to him?" | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
I said, "Nat, we have a beverage once in a while." | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
When I first started with Nat, when our association began, I told him | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
that I didn't think I should get any money | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
until the trio made 800 a week. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
And Nat didn't think this was fair | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
because he thought I may have to wait a long time, you know. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
But a couple of weeks later, we got lucky and Cheryl Corwyn | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
at the Orpheum here in Los Angeles | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
gave us a job at the theatre for 1,000 a week. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
I might add that that was a lucky week for Cheryl Corwyn too, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
-because the first week the King Cole Trio played the theatre grossed 30,000. -Boy! | 0:17:39 | 0:17:43 | |
-Nat, it's been a lot of fun all these years. -Thank you. -Thank you, Carlos Gastel. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
SCAT SINGING | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
I first met him in Las Vegas | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
when he was working at the Sands, in the big room of course, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:10 | |
and I was a little piano player in the lounge. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
And...he would often times after he got through his show, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:19 | |
he would come into the lounge to see the show or hear me play. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:24 | |
And once he knew that I was a piano player and singer, we became instant friends. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:29 | |
Even though I was working the lounge, | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
Nat could not go in the main room, he had to go through the kitchen. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:37 | |
These great, great stars were not allowed to walk through the casino | 0:18:37 | 0:18:42 | |
and they were not allowed to live in the hotel. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
I was staying in first-class hotels and Nat is staying | 0:18:45 | 0:18:51 | |
in either a private room or in black hotels which were awful. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:56 | |
And...we were playing to segregated audiences. | 0:18:56 | 0:19:01 | |
It got so bad, I was really embarrassed. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
And finally I started staying at the black hotels. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
And I had a ball. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
They're making millions of dollars for the owners of the hotels | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
but yet they had to live in the black section of Las Vegas, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
in really low-down little motel rooms | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
that were very seedy and terrible. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
All of us... Lena Horne, they emptied the swimming pool. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
For the length of her stay at that hotel the pool was out of order, | 0:19:29 | 0:19:35 | |
because she dared to go in one day. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
It was a strong, strong colour barrier, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
which fortunately...has been removed. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
The mentality in the music world | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
was different than the world as a whole. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
So they had humility and they could put up with that | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
without going to the death. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
Two hotel incidences. Rock Island, Illinois was one. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
And all I remember is I had to appear in court for my husband. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:05 | |
The lawyers always said, "Let Maria do it." | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
Why did I sue them? Because they refused us. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
Absolutely. We... I wouldn't listen, | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
I would have gone to court any time they wanted me to. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
I wasn't intimidated at all and I think our attorney saw that. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:27 | |
Nat had a lot to do with...removing that and so did Frank. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:33 | |
When Frank went out, he would go into a hotel | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
and if the hotel would not accept Frank's black musicians, | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
Frank didn't stay there either. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
So Frank had a big effect on the colour barrier. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
Of all the performers I've worked with, I think the two of them | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
had more to do with removing the colour barrier than anybody. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:55 | |
Because of his stature and his carriage and the way he was, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
he would never put himself in a situation where he was the... | 0:20:59 | 0:21:04 | |
he was a negative person. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
Everywhere you went Nat Cole was not just accepted, Nat was loved. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
And, I think, as a result he probably had a more positive effect | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
on racism than many of the militants, | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
many of the people who were actively fighting racism. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
Nat just showed that it was acceptable | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
that there were no colour barriers. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
# My kind of lips | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
# Your kind of lips | 0:21:31 | 0:21:33 | |
# When love comes stealing | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
# Encourage that feeling | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
# My kind of love... # | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
He was loved by everybody. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
There was something... | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
magical about him, not only musically but as a person. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:55 | |
He was a true gentleman. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
He was the example of someone who... | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
could break through those racial barriers | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
and make what seemed impossible, you know, during the lynchings | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
and the Ku Klux Klan and coloured bathrooms and white bathrooms, | 0:22:08 | 0:22:13 | |
this was the breakthrough. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
This man who, again, spoke through his music. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:20 | |
A man of few words, but who walked the talk. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:25 | |
He had a charisma that was unbelievable, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
so everyone liked him. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
I'm sure there are people that were anti-black, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:37 | |
they didn't even realise he was black. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
They just liked the man for what he was. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:44 | |
He really loved what he was doing, | 0:22:44 | 0:22:46 | |
he was really passionate about what he was doing. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
His message was, "This is me, this is my music. I want you to accept me for that." | 0:22:49 | 0:22:54 | |
He was our beacon, he was the person who was out there | 0:22:54 | 0:22:59 | |
exposing himself to all this, you know, negativity | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
and shining through it. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
He was... He was untouchable. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
# Or is it a fact that I'm ugly? # | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
What was so strategic about Nat | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
was the fact that it was Nat, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
a man who had by all measure | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
met what it was that white America said black people should be. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:28 | |
He was extremely gifted, | 0:23:28 | 0:23:30 | |
a man possessed of genius when it came to his music, when it came to his singing. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:36 | |
By all measure everybody thought he was indeed the greatest singer in the world. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:41 | |
And...when he went on the air, the things that he did, | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
and the way in which he delighted us | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
was everything he would've wanted somebody in that position of opportunity to display. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:54 | |
But he did. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:56 | |
Anybody with a brain accepted Nat for what he was, a superstar, | 0:23:56 | 0:24:01 | |
a vision of hope, and a vision of intelligence and tolerance and love. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:07 | |
I think that right now would be a good time for us to pause | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
and sort of review some of the events that made all of this possible. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
-I'm with you. -OK? | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
And with a little music and drama, perhaps we can recreate | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
-the highlights of our careers up to date. -OK. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
-Won't you begin? -Age before beauty. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:24 | 0:24:25 | |
The time, the early '40s, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:27 | |
I was playing piano in a little cafe in Omaha, Nebraska, | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
when I wrote a song based on an old joke my father used to tell. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
The song? | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
ORCHESTRA STRIKES UP | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
# Straighten up and fly right | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
APPLAUSE # Straighten up and fly right... # | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
When I was going to Africa...during the war on a troopship, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:50 | |
they were playing what they called V discs. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
All the record companies would make special records for the troops, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:58 | |
where the troops would play it on the loudspeakers in mess halls etc. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:03 | |
And I heard this wonderful jazz pianist... | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
with an instrumentation of bass, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:12 | |
piano and for the very first time I heard electric guitar. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
And I found out it was called the King Cole Trio. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
And I was completely mesmerised by that music. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
And the first song I heard him sing was Straighten Up And Fly Right. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:27 | |
It crossed a bridge, it came from jazz to pop | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
and it was very commercial and people liked it for what it was. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:43 | |
They didn't say it was jazz, | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
they didn't say it was pop, it was they liked what they heard. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
# Said now listen, Jack | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
# Straighten up and fly right | 0:25:51 | 0:25:53 | |
# Straighten up and fly right | 0:25:53 | 0:25:57 | |
# Straighten up and fly right. # | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
And it was all new, there was no-one else like it. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
# Ain't no use in diving | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
# What's the use in jiving? | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
# Straighten up and fly right | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
# Cool down, Poppa, don't you blow your top | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
# The buzzard told the monkey, "You are choking me | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
# "Release your hold and I will set you free" | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
# The monkey looks the buzzard right dead in the eye | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
# And said, "Your story's so touching but it sounds just like a lie." # | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
My job was to go out and get a new song...recorded, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:32 | |
or get it performed by artists on radio, | 0:26:32 | 0:26:39 | |
television was not even around, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
and to promote the song. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
So I went to see different people to see if they would perform the song. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:51 | |
One being Duke Ellington. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
We will now give you our conception of the most popular | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
composition in recent years, that haunting melody Stormy Weather. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
And he had two girl singers with him, one was called Joyous Cheryl | 0:27:06 | 0:27:11 | |
and the other was called Maria Ellington. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
So I said, "Which one you want me to show it to?" | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
And he says, "Show it to Maria Ellington." | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
I said, "Is that your daughter?" | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
"No, that is not my daughter. That was her marriage name." | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
Ivo was as usual plugging a song and he brought this song down to me. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:33 | |
So finally he said, "Would you come to the office and I'll play it." | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
I went up there, I was bored to death. I said, "It's awful." | 0:27:37 | 0:27:42 | |
She said, "That's the worst song. I wouldn't sing that." | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
"OK, enough of that." But she was so pretty and I'd just got out of the Army | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
and I made an advance at her...towards her. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:57 | |
And she read me a riot act. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
"Who do you think you are?" and this and that. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:02 | |
Of course, he tells the story that he tried to hit on me, | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
I don't remember that. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:07 | |
I remember him in a brotherly-like fashion | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
and we're still very good friends. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
Months later, Nat is working the Copa and he says, "I got a night off, | 0:28:11 | 0:28:19 | |
"I want to go to Zanzibar and see the show. Why don't you come with me?" | 0:28:19 | 0:28:25 | |
I said, "OK, great." | 0:28:25 | 0:28:27 | |
He said, "I met a girl the other day, she's very pretty. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:32 | |
"She works... She's in the show." | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
So I said, "Which one of the two?" | 0:28:34 | 0:28:36 | |
And he points to Maria. I said, "Oh, I'm dead." | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
I first met Nat in New York City in the club Zanzibar. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:44 | |
The King Cole Trio came in to sub for the Mills Brothers, | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
who were doubling between the Paramount Theater and the Zanzibar. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:53 | |
That was in 1946. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:55 | |
# I've just found joy | 0:28:55 | 0:28:59 | |
# I'm as happy as a baby boy... # | 0:28:59 | 0:29:05 | |
The best evening in our life together | 0:29:06 | 0:29:11 | |
that I ever spent with my husband was... | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
..one night when he took me home and he parked right in front. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:23 | |
And we sat there. It wasn't night, it was about 4.30 in the morning. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:27 | |
And we had the radio on and this great, great record came on | 0:29:27 | 0:29:35 | |
narrated by Elliott Lewis, it was done by Gordon Jenkins about New York. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:42 | |
It was one the greatest things I ever... We were listening to that. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
# Sits on a nice lake | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
# But it hasn't got the hansoms in the park | 0:29:48 | 0:29:52 | |
# It hasn't got the skylines after dark | 0:29:52 | 0:29:55 | |
# That's why New York's my home | 0:29:55 | 0:29:58 | |
# Let me never leave it | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
# New York's my home sweet home. # | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
I fell in love with him that night. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:05 | |
The reason I'm hesitating with that story | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
is it sounds very dramatic, but it was true. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
And he held my hand. It was really kind of schoolboy/schoolgirl-ish. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:16 | |
And I'll never forget it. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:18 | |
And he said to me, "I've never met a girl like you before." | 0:30:18 | 0:30:21 | |
# I love you... # | 0:30:21 | 0:30:26 | |
I absolutely did not fall in love with Nat Cole at first sight. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:31 | |
He sent me some champagne by his valet and I sent it back. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:36 | |
And I said, "I don't drink," which I didn't. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:38 | |
I took advantage of the wonderful invitations. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
And then he was getting ready to go out of town about a week later. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:46 | |
And just kind of funny he said, "I have to leave but I'll be back." | 0:30:46 | 0:30:51 | |
And so he came up to me the day before he was leaving and he said, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:55 | |
"You want to go?" | 0:30:55 | 0:30:58 | |
And I remember nodding. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:00 | |
So I went to the drugstore and bought a toothbrush and got on the train. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
We went to a Chinese restaurant | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
and while we were eating, in the midst of the meal, he just looked at me | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
and said, "If I can get my divorce, would you marry me?" | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
# I think of you every morning | 0:31:15 | 0:31:22 | |
# Dream of you every night... # | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
I think my husband and I, basically, were just meant for each other. | 0:31:25 | 0:31:31 | |
Everything that was wrong with him wasn't wrong with me | 0:31:31 | 0:31:33 | |
and everything that was wrong with me wasn't wrong with him. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
He just... He was not a...a take-charge type in a home, | 0:31:37 | 0:31:43 | |
not at all. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
They complemented each other. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:47 | |
-And... But, yeah, I think she really truly adored him. -Uh-huh. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:53 | |
# There was a boy | 0:31:56 | 0:32:01 | |
# A very strange enchanted boy | 0:32:01 | 0:32:06 | |
# They say he wandered very far | 0:32:06 | 0:32:10 | |
# Very far over land and sea... # | 0:32:10 | 0:32:15 | |
While we were on our honeymoon in Mexico, a very dear friend of ours sent us a telegram. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:24 | |
I wish I remembered the exact words, | 0:32:24 | 0:32:26 | |
but it was akin to "what a wedding gift! | 0:32:26 | 0:32:31 | |
"Nature Boy complete smash all over the world." | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
We were excited. I don't think we realised how big it was till we got home. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:40 | |
I don't think we really did. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:42 | |
# A magic day he passed my way | 0:32:43 | 0:32:48 | |
# And while we spoke of many things | 0:32:48 | 0:32:52 | |
# Fools and kings | 0:32:52 | 0:32:55 | |
# This he said to me | 0:32:55 | 0:33:00 | |
# "The greatest thing you'll ever learn | 0:33:02 | 0:33:10 | |
# "Is just to love | 0:33:12 | 0:33:17 | |
# "And be loved in return." # | 0:33:17 | 0:33:25 | |
We bought the house immediately, | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
at least six months after we were married. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
When he moved to Hancock Park and moved into that community, | 0:33:57 | 0:34:00 | |
it was not an easy time for him or his family. Nobody wanted 'em. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
The restrictive covenants on real estate, | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
although it wasn't a written law like in the South, it's written that blacks cannot own property. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:14 | |
The neighbours didn't want black people in the neighbourhood. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:19 | |
And they did everything to make him uncomfortable. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
# ..in return. # | 0:34:21 | 0:34:28 | |
-When we were first married there was bedlam everywhere. -SHE LAUGHS | 0:34:33 | 0:34:37 | |
It was just... They were just... | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
When I think back about it, it's just... I have to say it's amusing, | 0:34:40 | 0:34:46 | |
because we were, thank God, so young that I was just angry. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:51 | |
I never felt any fear or anything like that, | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
although there were people who were worried, concerned, you know, about that. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:57 | |
And he was. | 0:34:57 | 0:34:59 | |
We didn't act abnormal at all when this happened, it just happened. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:05 | |
They had a meeting in the neighbourhood, | 0:35:05 | 0:35:08 | |
the lawyers that lived there... | 0:35:08 | 0:35:13 | |
and very affluent people. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:18 | |
Something about it being their community | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
and they really just didn't want any undesirable people in there. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:25 | |
I don't know how they had the guts to say it, | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
but I understand that my husband stood up | 0:35:27 | 0:35:29 | |
and said he agreed with them and any time any undesirables came, | 0:35:29 | 0:35:33 | |
he would be the first to speak up. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:35 | |
I mean, he let them know. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:37 | |
But, that goes back to the way my husband was, you pushed him, | 0:35:37 | 0:35:42 | |
you're going to get it all. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:44 | |
The saddest personal incident was the poisoning of our dog. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:52 | |
Somebody threw a piece of meat, poisoned meat over the wall | 0:35:52 | 0:35:56 | |
and poisoned him. | 0:35:56 | 0:35:58 | |
It went on...I would say little things for maybe a year. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:04 | |
My daughter remembers it more than I did that they wrote on the lawn. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:08 | |
They burned in the word "nigger". | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
In, you know, big letters. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
And again this is an isolated incident, but it was so powerful, | 0:36:14 | 0:36:18 | |
you know, burned in the lawn. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
And the fact that they could even do this, | 0:36:22 | 0:36:24 | |
there was supposedly very good security in Hancock Park. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
The shadow of that word was always there. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:31 | |
It was just...there. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
All the people who were protesting that he moved to their neighbourhood | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
maybe protested for another reason, | 0:36:38 | 0:36:40 | |
they were afraid of their property values. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:42 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:36:42 | 0:36:43 | |
And...they all had his records in their house, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
but they signed a petition to get him out. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
You either have to think of it as, "Oh, how stupid can people be?" | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
Or it was a real tragedy, you know. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:57 | |
But being as young as we were, we were, I think, able to handle it | 0:36:57 | 0:37:04 | |
and I think we did concerning the times handle it very well. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
There's a woman that lived down the street from us, | 0:37:08 | 0:37:11 | |
she asked my father to come and perform at her little luncheon. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
If he wouldn't mind playing a few songs. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:18 | |
And he did. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:20 | |
And he sent her a bill. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:22 | |
-And she was, you know, mortified. -SHE LAUGHS | 0:37:22 | 0:37:26 | |
But I thought that was such a great story, you know, | 0:37:26 | 0:37:29 | |
because people were so insensitive and so, you know, taking advantage. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:36 | |
Marie, would you introduce us to the children? | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
Yes, this is Natalie Maria, better known as Sweetie. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:41 | |
-Say hi, Sweetie. Say hi. -Sweetie? -Hi! | 0:37:41 | 0:37:46 | |
-And this is Carole, better known as Cookie. Say hello, Cookie. -Hello. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
But he always wanted, evidently, he told me he had always wanted to have children. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:56 | |
That was very important to him. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:59 | |
We had adopted our first child, who was my sister's child. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
My sister died and we had adopted her. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
Then I became pregnant and Natalie was born. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
And that at that time was to him just... Oh! | 0:38:09 | 0:38:13 | |
I know most men feel like this when the children are born, | 0:38:13 | 0:38:17 | |
but it was very, very important to him to have a child. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:21 | |
I do remember that Nat would come to rehearsal | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
and bring this adorable little girl with him | 0:38:24 | 0:38:26 | |
who would sit there and watch her daddy. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
And she listened and she learned and she grew up to be Natalie Cole. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:33 | |
You know, every time I walk into the Capitol building I just get chills. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:39 | |
Because I remember being there with my father, you know, | 0:38:39 | 0:38:42 | |
and just trying to stay as out of the way as possible | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
so he wouldn't tell me I couldn't come with him again. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
It's just such a wonderful memory because, you know, as a kid that's... | 0:38:50 | 0:38:58 | |
Who knew that I was going to grow up to be in that environment as well? | 0:38:58 | 0:39:03 | |
For me it was just fun, you know, | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
and a chance to be with my father. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:07 | |
BOTH: # What to do? | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
# What to do? Has me guessing | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
# It seems I can't learn my lesson | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
# Every time I'm with you I'm confessing | 0:39:15 | 0:39:20 | |
# I just don't know what to do. # | 0:39:20 | 0:39:23 | |
I was about six, Cookie was about 11. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:27 | |
And it's a hysterical little song, it's just the cutest. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:32 | |
And they just let the tape roll and we were kind of clowning | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
and acting up and giggling. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
It's a beautiful, sweet, sweet little record. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:44 | |
But I did stay close to Natalie | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
as she grew up into the lovely, talented, gifted, | 0:39:47 | 0:39:51 | |
exciting woman she is. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:53 | |
Then she did a big record with him. Was it Unforgettable? Yeah. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:58 | |
# The song of love that clings to me | 0:39:58 | 0:40:03 | |
# How the thought of you does things to me | 0:40:03 | 0:40:07 | |
# Never before | 0:40:07 | 0:40:12 | |
# Has someone been more | 0:40:12 | 0:40:17 | |
# Unforgettable | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
# In every way... # | 0:40:21 | 0:40:26 | |
I was talking to my manager and I said, you know, | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
"I've really started to think I want to do a record of my dad's music." | 0:40:30 | 0:40:36 | |
And my manager, you know, he was pretty...flexible. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:42 | |
And he was like, "Yeah, yeah, that's not a bad idea." | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
We went to the record company and they said... | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
Well, the last record I had done was so-so. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
I wasn't even that happy about it. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
It was called Good To Be Back. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:57 | |
And...this was after I'd got out of rehab, got myself together, blah, blah, blah. | 0:40:57 | 0:41:03 | |
And...the record company said, "Well, you really should be coming off of a hit record | 0:41:03 | 0:41:10 | |
"before you do a record like what you're talking about, this tribute to your dad." | 0:41:10 | 0:41:14 | |
And I said, "Well, what if I don't have another hit record?" | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
Nobody could answer that. SHE LAUGHS | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
Basically, I was able to leave, get out of my contract. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
You know, when you fast-forward to the Grammys that night | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
when Unforgettable won everything. | 0:41:28 | 0:41:31 | |
And one of my acceptance speeches was, "Thank you, Capitol, for letting me out of my contract." | 0:41:31 | 0:41:37 | |
SHE LAUGHS A lot of people got fired | 0:41:37 | 0:41:41 | |
because of that situation. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:44 | |
Because they didn't have the vision to, you know, do a record like this. | 0:41:44 | 0:41:49 | |
But we came up with the idea of doing it with Unforgettable. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:52 | |
By then we had hired Andre Fischer, who I was then married to, | 0:41:52 | 0:41:56 | |
and David Foster. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:58 | |
David had to go to New Jersey to get the master of Unforgettable. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:05 | |
It had been sitting in storage for who knows how long. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:10 | |
And Al Smith, the engineer, was like, "What am I going to do with this?" | 0:42:10 | 0:42:14 | |
Back in the day, tracks were done all at the same time, | 0:42:14 | 0:42:19 | |
so it really was a technological coup, you know, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:24 | |
that Al was able to lift Dad's voice off of the old Unforgettable track | 0:42:24 | 0:42:31 | |
and put it on the new one that we recorded. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
I kind of did want a boy, | 0:42:48 | 0:42:49 | |
because of Nat and his baseball and all of this, you know. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:54 | |
He just loved sport. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
So we were talking about it and I said, "Well, it would be just my luck to have another girl." | 0:42:56 | 0:43:02 | |
Just like that I said to him, "Let's adopt." | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
And I said it just like that. And, of course, he said yes to everything. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
He said, "OK." And I don't remember how long afterwards, | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
we were all having breakfast one morning and the phone rang. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
And I went to the phone and they said, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:17 | |
"Mrs Cole, I think we might have your boy." | 0:43:17 | 0:43:19 | |
Well, it was like a movie scene. We left, all of us, got in that car and left. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:25 | |
The Children's Home Society was on Adams Boulevard, not really that far from our house. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:30 | |
We got in the car, we flew. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:32 | |
And we got over there, and this was Willie Smith's ex-wife, | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
and she had brought this little boy in in a little jumper suit. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:41 | |
He was five months old. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
She left the baby with us and about 15 minutes later | 0:43:43 | 0:43:46 | |
she came back in and said, "You really don't have to make up your mind, | 0:43:46 | 0:43:49 | |
"Mr and Mrs Cole, right now, because sometimes..." | 0:43:49 | 0:43:53 | |
And Nate interrupted her, he said, "What are you talking about?" | 0:43:53 | 0:43:56 | |
He said, "Get the paper, whatever I'm supposed to sign. We're leaving." | 0:43:56 | 0:44:01 | |
And he said, "This is my boy." Then we left. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:05 | |
President Kennedy came as a favour to my dad | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and showed up at her ball. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:51 | |
And there's a picture of her dancing with him, you know, | 0:44:51 | 0:44:55 | |
and I just could not believe that I could not be there. SHE LAUGHS | 0:44:55 | 0:45:00 | |
And we hadn't been sitting there, I don't think, 15 minutes, | 0:45:01 | 0:45:04 | |
before this gentleman walked up - I don't remember who now - | 0:45:04 | 0:45:08 | |
and mentioned something in Nat's ear. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:10 | |
And Nat was, I think, eating and he looked up like this... | 0:45:10 | 0:45:14 | |
He had funny... He had funny expressions sometimes, anyway. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:17 | |
He was...like that. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:19 | |
And he said, "The President's coming," to me. | 0:45:19 | 0:45:23 | |
I said, "What?" "He's coming over here." | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
And then, of course, by that time, | 0:45:26 | 0:45:29 | |
a few minutes later, here come all these secret servicemen, | 0:45:29 | 0:45:33 | |
and here comes Jack Kennedy. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:36 | |
Well, one of the few times, again, in my life, | 0:45:36 | 0:45:40 | |
that I just couldn't believe it. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:42 | |
And he just stood up there at the podium | 0:45:42 | 0:45:45 | |
and he said, "Thank you very much. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:47 | |
"I am so glad that I was able to come by." | 0:45:47 | 0:45:50 | |
He said, "It's the least an itinerant president | 0:45:50 | 0:45:52 | |
"can do for a man like Nat Cole." | 0:45:52 | 0:45:55 | |
The United States... | 0:46:04 | 0:46:05 | |
One of our great cultures that we've created, for a young country... | 0:46:05 | 0:46:09 | |
..was elongated improvisation. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
Jazz. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:17 | |
Jazz changed the history of music. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
And it's strictly American. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:23 | |
Jazz is strictly American. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:25 | |
And people love it, especially in Europe. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:28 | |
I was doing Sunday Night at the Palladium at the time, | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
and Glyn Jones, who worked for the Grade Organisation, | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
Glyn phoned me, he said, "Bruce, I know you were thrilled | 0:46:38 | 0:46:42 | |
"about Nat King Cole coming over." | 0:46:42 | 0:46:44 | |
I said, "Well, he's my idol. I love this man." | 0:46:44 | 0:46:47 | |
So, he said, "Well, he's here now." | 0:46:47 | 0:46:50 | |
He said, "We've got two pianos backstage | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
"and we were wondering - we've had a word with Nat - | 0:46:53 | 0:46:56 | |
"and we were wondering whether you could do a number with him." | 0:46:56 | 0:47:00 | |
'I said, "Do a number with Nat King Cole? That is fantastic!"' | 0:47:00 | 0:47:04 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, last night on the Palladium show | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
I had one of my biggest thrills - | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
one of my biggest thrills all day - | 0:47:09 | 0:47:10 | |
to meet the star of our show last night. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:12 | |
He is now very, very thrilled to be here this evening. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, the very, very wonderful Nat King Cole! | 0:47:15 | 0:47:19 | |
'We put this number together. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:22 | |
'He said, "What number can we do?" | 0:47:22 | 0:47:24 | |
'I said, "Well, Paper Moon is up-tempo. Paper Moon would be good."' | 0:47:24 | 0:47:29 | |
He said, "Yeah, now, what key do I do that in? What key...?" | 0:47:29 | 0:47:32 | |
I said, "You do it in F. | 0:47:32 | 0:47:34 | |
"Well, anyway, I know it in F, so we'll do it in F." | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
He was, "Oh, great." | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
So, we worked that out, ten minutes. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:41 | |
A couple of choruses, he sang the first eight, | 0:47:41 | 0:47:44 | |
I sang the second eight, and so on, and so on. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
Then he played a little piano solo, | 0:47:47 | 0:47:48 | |
I played a piano solo, | 0:47:48 | 0:47:50 | |
and then we finished together. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:51 | |
That was all done in TEN minutes. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
-Very good luck to you... -Thank you, Bruce. -..and what's it going to be? | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
I'm going to sing, erm... | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
Oh, no! That's my favourite! | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
-It is?! -I love that! | 0:48:02 | 0:48:04 | |
He sat at the piano | 0:48:04 | 0:48:07 | |
and played me his latest LP, and sang... | 0:48:07 | 0:48:10 | |
all the numbers from his latest LP. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:14 | |
Now, can you really imagine that happened? | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
I have to think quite a few times myself! | 0:48:17 | 0:48:21 | |
But he did that for me, having not met me before. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:24 | |
He was so...so wonderful. | 0:48:24 | 0:48:28 | |
I was just overwhelmed - the fact that he did that | 0:48:28 | 0:48:31 | |
just for me, personally. | 0:48:31 | 0:48:33 | |
HOLDS FINAL NOTE | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
He loved Japan because he got to meet the whole baseball team. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:59 | |
I mean, they loved him and he loved... | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
That night, I think Nat was in heaven. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:04 | |
Australia...was, I think, the people, | 0:49:10 | 0:49:12 | |
more than anything else, that amazed him. | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
Thousands of people at the airport. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
Very nice meeting you, but now if you don't mind... | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
You gotta sing another song, I bet, right now? | 0:49:22 | 0:49:24 | |
I'd LIKE to sing another song. | 0:49:24 | 0:49:26 | |
Oh, do us a favour for me, buddy. Sing 'er her favourite, will ya? | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
What's that? | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
# They tried to tell her she's too young...# | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
And I tell you what, love, if she doesn't embark | 0:49:34 | 0:49:37 | |
on the sea of matrimony soon, it'll be too late. | 0:49:37 | 0:49:40 | |
-Well, it's been very nice... -Nice meeting you. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
-You're a real gent. Thanks very much. -Very... | 0:49:42 | 0:49:46 | |
Oh, love, she's fainted! | 0:49:46 | 0:49:47 | |
NEWS REPORT IN SPANISH | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
They love him. | 0:49:55 | 0:49:57 | |
We almost bought a house there. We were there twice. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
It was a lovely time for Nat. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:02 | |
He loved it. He loved the musicians, he loved working with them. | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
In fact, even after he died, | 0:50:05 | 0:50:08 | |
I was invited back there. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
They have, I understand, a... | 0:50:10 | 0:50:12 | |
a sculpture of him - I was told - over there. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:15 | |
The second time we went back, | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
we were in the car going to work, | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
and they stopped our car, | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
and they put the guns in the car, | 0:50:22 | 0:50:24 | |
in the windows, and the guy said, "That's Nat King Cole." | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
He said, "Oh." | 0:50:28 | 0:50:29 | |
We went through like that. | 0:50:29 | 0:50:31 | |
# Wa-oo, wa-oo, wa-oo | 0:50:35 | 0:50:36 | |
# Wa-oo, wa-oo, wa-ay... # | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
When it came down to the nitty-gritty, | 0:50:41 | 0:50:44 | |
I had to take over. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:45 | |
Not only was she keen on it, she was instrumental in helping it. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:50 | |
# How she feels so sad... # | 0:50:50 | 0:50:52 | |
They wanted to make a change. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:54 | |
She wanted to get more into - then we would've said - today's music. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:59 | |
So he decided he wanted to add a bongo player. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:04 | |
Musically, we had Joe Comfort on bass and Irving Ashby on the guitar. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:13 | |
I was on the conga drums more than the bongos, | 0:51:13 | 0:51:17 | |
and Nat, of course, was the star. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:19 | |
They were saying, "What are we going to call the group | 0:51:19 | 0:51:22 | |
"now that we've added another musician?" | 0:51:22 | 0:51:26 | |
So they said, "Well, call it the King Cole Quartet." | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
So I said, everybody knows that Nat is the piano player, | 0:51:29 | 0:51:35 | |
and Nat, now, is doing the singing | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
so I said that he's the star. | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
So I said call it Nat King Cole And His Trio. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:44 | |
Well, they were very upset that I put my two cents into it. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:48 | |
They read the riot act to me. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:49 | |
But, that's what it became. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:52 | |
It became Nat King Cole And His Trio. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:54 | |
Here's a black trio that hires a white guy | 0:51:54 | 0:51:58 | |
to join the trio | 0:51:58 | 0:52:00 | |
and nobody knew that it had ever happened before. | 0:52:00 | 0:52:05 | |
No matter how much the trio and I didn't like the fact | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
that we were being made... | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
I don't know how to say it - we weren't second-class citizens, but | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
we were not as important in the trio | 0:52:15 | 0:52:17 | |
as we had been from the beginning. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:19 | |
You know, because he... | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
He was starting to do things with big bands added, | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
and we didn't get to play instrumentals any more. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:29 | |
I'm talking now three years into when I was there. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:33 | |
# I guess I always will | 0:52:33 | 0:52:35 | |
# I hope we'll never depart | 0:52:35 | 0:52:39 | |
# Dear, with your lips to mine | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
# A rhapsody divine | 0:52:42 | 0:52:44 | |
# Zing! Went the strings of my heart... # | 0:52:44 | 0:52:47 | |
I was, thank God, smart enough to realise how talented he was. | 0:52:47 | 0:52:52 | |
But I have always felt | 0:52:52 | 0:52:55 | |
- and I really feel - | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
that he had the talent and I gave him everything else. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:02 | |
His wife was smart. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:05 | |
She said, "Nat, you're one of the world's greatest singers." | 0:53:05 | 0:53:09 | |
And she said, "I tell you what, don't play the piano. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
"Then you will stop the controversy. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:16 | |
"You will be on one side, | 0:53:16 | 0:53:18 | |
"you won't be straddling the fence." | 0:53:18 | 0:53:20 | |
And a lot of musicians hated his wife for doing that. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:24 | |
What I say, if I went to a Nat Cole concert, and he didn't sing, | 0:53:24 | 0:53:27 | |
I would've felt I'd wasted my money. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:30 | |
The thing that Nat had was that wonderful sound, | 0:53:30 | 0:53:34 | |
that... # Mona Lisa... # | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
It was just... | 0:53:37 | 0:53:38 | |
It wasn't exaggerated, | 0:53:38 | 0:53:40 | |
because that's the way he sang, that's the way he spoke. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:44 | |
My husband never mispronounced a word. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:46 | |
Never. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:48 | |
I just know that came from our relationship. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:51 | |
It couldn't have come from anywhere else. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:53 | |
# Many dreams... | 0:53:53 | 0:53:56 | |
# Have been brought to your doorstep... # | 0:53:57 | 0:54:02 | |
Over the years, I never figured it out, | 0:54:04 | 0:54:06 | |
and then one day it came to me, and I said - "He just waits!" | 0:54:06 | 0:54:10 | |
And then he sings. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:11 | |
And then he waits, and then he sings, and then he waits, | 0:54:11 | 0:54:14 | |
and then he sings. And it's wonderful! | 0:54:14 | 0:54:17 | |
Because if I didn't hear Nature Boy, | 0:54:17 | 0:54:20 | |
and Mona Lisa, I mean, | 0:54:20 | 0:54:23 | |
that would've been a tragedy for me. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:25 | |
And I'm a musician a person who likes his piano playing. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:28 | |
But his voice and his choice of material... | 0:54:28 | 0:54:31 | |
He was the genius at selecting material. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
And his way of approaching them, | 0:54:35 | 0:54:36 | |
he kept them from getting bogged down. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
He made everything acceptable, easy to accept. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
There was nothing about his performance that was not | 0:54:43 | 0:54:47 | |
absolutely perfect. Flawless. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
# Mona Lisa | 0:54:50 | 0:54:54 | |
# Mona Lisa. # | 0:54:57 | 0:55:06 | |
And I dunno why, man, but it just resonated with me. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
He just had this mesmerising quality to his vocals. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:17 | |
And I was sold. I was done. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
Just the way he played. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:21 | |
Just the way he sang. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:22 | |
There was something about him that, for me, was magic. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:25 | |
It wasn't something that you could study and learn. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:28 | |
Just to watch him play and sing was a joy. | 0:55:28 | 0:55:33 | |
Today they record a lot of albums in pieces. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:36 | |
When you go into the Capitol archives | 0:55:36 | 0:55:38 | |
and look at Nat King Cole's work - | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
or listen to Nat King Cole's work - | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
you don't hear pick-ups. | 0:55:42 | 0:55:43 | |
You don't hear any pick-up on Sinatra, | 0:55:43 | 0:55:45 | |
and you don't hear any pick-ups on Nat. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:47 | |
Nat started at the top and went to the bottom, | 0:55:47 | 0:55:49 | |
and if a technician made a mistake - | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
cos Nat didn't make mistakes, he had perfect pitch - | 0:55:52 | 0:55:55 | |
they would take it from the top. | 0:55:55 | 0:55:57 | |
BIG BAND INTRO | 0:55:57 | 0:56:00 | |
# In the evenings | 0:56:00 | 0:56:01 | |
# May I come and sing | 0:56:01 | 0:56:04 | |
# To you | 0:56:04 | 0:56:06 | |
# All the songs that I would like | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
# To bring to you... # | 0:56:10 | 0:56:13 | |
DRUM ROLL | 0:56:15 | 0:56:17 | |
The Nat King Cole Show! | 0:56:17 | 0:56:19 | |
Because of the political climate at the time, | 0:56:19 | 0:56:23 | |
and the climate in general in the nation, | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
when Nat Cole had a TV show, that was super special. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:31 | |
And, although I only saw it maybe once or twice, in those days, | 0:56:31 | 0:56:35 | |
I had to see it to believe that it was really true. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:39 | |
Because, word-of-mouth did not convince me | 0:56:39 | 0:56:41 | |
that a black man had a TV show. I had to see it for myself! | 0:56:41 | 0:56:44 | |
Here's a tune that I hope will bring back | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
a special memory to you. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:50 | |
# There will | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
# Be many other nights | 0:56:54 | 0:56:58 | |
# Like this... # | 0:56:58 | 0:57:00 | |
This wonderful 15-minute performance on television, | 0:57:01 | 0:57:05 | |
which I loved. | 0:57:05 | 0:57:07 | |
It's one of the classics of that era. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
And Sammy Davis and all the musicians he brought along with him. | 0:57:13 | 0:57:18 | |
# There will be other songs to sing... # | 0:57:18 | 0:57:22 | |
Maybe ten years earlier it could not have happened. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:27 | |
But Nat made it happen, | 0:57:27 | 0:57:28 | |
and the timing was just right. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:31 | |
A man possessed of genius | 0:57:35 | 0:57:38 | |
when it came to his music, | 0:57:38 | 0:57:40 | |
when it came to his singing. | 0:57:40 | 0:57:42 | |
By all measures everybody thought he was indeed | 0:57:42 | 0:57:45 | |
the greatest singer in the world. | 0:57:45 | 0:57:47 | |
When he went on the air, the things that he did, | 0:57:47 | 0:57:49 | |
and the way in which he delighted us | 0:57:49 | 0:57:51 | |
was everything that you would have wanted | 0:57:51 | 0:57:54 | |
somebody in that position of opportunity to display. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
We knew that Nat was very exceptional, | 0:58:12 | 0:58:14 | |
we didn't know whether it would ever pass on, | 0:58:14 | 0:58:17 | |
but he did show that it could be done. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:20 | |
That's what the big thing was. | 0:58:20 | 0:58:22 | |
It was a victory for America that this place opened up, | 0:58:22 | 0:58:26 | |
and Nat's greatness was part of what prevailed. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:30 | |
So, from that degree, we had a pride in the moment. | 0:58:30 | 0:58:32 | |
A pride in what was taking place. | 0:58:32 | 0:58:35 | |
It was his way, by not making political statements | 0:58:35 | 0:58:38 | |
or anything like that, but just being... | 0:58:38 | 0:58:41 | |
..a very wholesome human being. | 0:58:43 | 0:58:46 | |
Musically and intellectually, so far above | 0:58:46 | 0:58:49 | |
what people were accustomed to hearing on television at the time. | 0:58:49 | 0:58:53 | |
If he can do that, I can do that | 0:58:53 | 0:58:56 | |
because that's how those things happen. | 0:58:56 | 0:58:58 | |
It's a chain of events, you know. | 0:58:58 | 0:59:00 | |
So it was very significant. | 0:59:00 | 0:59:02 | |
Although he had a lot of trouble, it was still very significant. | 0:59:02 | 0:59:05 | |
He didn't expect no free ride, | 0:59:05 | 0:59:07 | |
and nobody expected he would have a free ride, but, erm... | 0:59:07 | 0:59:10 | |
if anybody could pull it off, he could. | 0:59:11 | 0:59:14 | |
Thank you. Now, if you would all just get a little closer | 0:59:14 | 0:59:17 | |
to your television sets, we don't want you to miss a word. | 0:59:17 | 0:59:20 | |
I had left Ciro's and the Frontier | 0:59:20 | 0:59:23 | |
and all those nightclubs and gone to NBC, | 0:59:23 | 0:59:26 | |
primarily to bring the guest stars who used to work the nightclubs. | 0:59:26 | 0:59:30 | |
So, they were listening to me, at that point. | 0:59:30 | 0:59:34 | |
And so, I said, "This man is magic." | 0:59:34 | 0:59:37 | |
And I took Alan Livingston, and I took Hal Kemp... | 0:59:37 | 0:59:41 | |
"Come out to Ciro's and sit there | 0:59:41 | 0:59:43 | |
"and listen to this man, and see what happens." | 0:59:43 | 0:59:45 | |
You couldn't get in, | 0:59:45 | 0:59:47 | |
the audience was young, | 0:59:47 | 0:59:48 | |
the audience was primarily white, | 0:59:48 | 0:59:50 | |
because black people could not afford that cover charge, | 0:59:50 | 0:59:53 | |
and you saw magic happening. | 0:59:53 | 0:59:56 | |
If those people go home, | 0:59:56 | 0:59:58 | |
turn on the television set, | 0:59:58 | 1:00:00 | |
they would love to see Nat Cole. | 1:00:00 | 1:00:02 | |
So that was the whole pitch that I made. | 1:00:02 | 1:00:05 | |
And guest stars... Guest stars wanted to work with Nat Cole. | 1:00:05 | 1:00:08 | |
And now, ladies and gentlemen, | 1:00:08 | 1:00:10 | |
here is a young man who has had a meteoric rise in show business. | 1:00:10 | 1:00:14 | |
A modest fellow, | 1:00:14 | 1:00:16 | |
whose greatest pleasure it is to entertain everybody. | 1:00:16 | 1:00:20 | |
Let's really say hello to... | 1:00:21 | 1:00:23 | |
-Tony Bennett! Yeah! Yeah! -CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 1:00:23 | 1:00:26 | |
# In the middle of an island | 1:00:29 | 1:00:33 | |
# Lived a king in all his glory... # | 1:00:33 | 1:00:36 | |
Nat was the ultimate god of doing it the right way. | 1:00:36 | 1:00:41 | |
I mean, he had a television show | 1:00:41 | 1:00:44 | |
that was so flawless | 1:00:44 | 1:00:46 | |
and perfect... | 1:00:46 | 1:00:48 | |
I was fortunate enough to be on his show also, | 1:00:50 | 1:00:53 | |
and he had the most wonderful guest artists on the show. | 1:00:53 | 1:00:58 | |
And he had Nelson Riddle, who is the... | 1:01:00 | 1:01:03 | |
He was the one that discovered Nelson Riddle. | 1:01:03 | 1:01:05 | |
Sinatra adapted Nelson Riddle to his great charts, | 1:01:07 | 1:01:11 | |
but really Nat was the one that found this great orchestrator | 1:01:11 | 1:01:15 | |
in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, | 1:01:15 | 1:01:18 | |
and said this is who I want to record with. | 1:01:18 | 1:01:20 | |
He was absolutely obsessed with his music. | 1:01:20 | 1:01:25 | |
That was more important to him than anything. | 1:01:27 | 1:01:30 | |
And, my mother respected that, | 1:01:31 | 1:01:34 | |
even though she took a back seat, if you will. | 1:01:34 | 1:01:38 | |
Possibly too often. | 1:01:38 | 1:01:40 | |
Nelson Riddle was probably one of the fathers of pop music. | 1:01:40 | 1:01:43 | |
In many ways Nelson was a lot like Nat. | 1:01:43 | 1:01:47 | |
He was a gentle man, he was enormously creative, | 1:01:47 | 1:01:50 | |
very inventive, very supportive, | 1:01:50 | 1:01:53 | |
and he did love Nat Cole. | 1:01:53 | 1:01:56 | |
My impression was he respected and loved Nat | 1:01:56 | 1:02:02 | |
and really loved working with him. | 1:02:02 | 1:02:04 | |
I think that he felt... | 1:02:04 | 1:02:07 | |
I think that he felt a great deal of sympathy for Nat | 1:02:10 | 1:02:15 | |
given the difficulties that Nat ran into | 1:02:15 | 1:02:19 | |
as a black man competing in a white world. | 1:02:19 | 1:02:22 | |
You know, one of the most important factors in the success of a record | 1:02:22 | 1:02:25 | |
is the musical arrangement, | 1:02:25 | 1:02:27 | |
arrangements like Begin The Beguine and In The Mood, Marie, | 1:02:27 | 1:02:30 | |
and one of today's leading arrangers is our own Nelson Riddle. | 1:02:30 | 1:02:34 | |
BAND STRIKES UP | 1:02:34 | 1:02:37 | |
The product of this man's imagination | 1:02:37 | 1:02:40 | |
is familiar to everyone who enjoys popular music. | 1:02:40 | 1:02:44 | |
When he finishes an arrangement, | 1:02:44 | 1:02:47 | |
Nelson hands the score | 1:02:47 | 1:02:49 | |
to his chief copyist, Vern Jocum. | 1:02:49 | 1:02:53 | |
First of all, I met... | 1:02:53 | 1:02:54 | |
Nelson and I met some years before that. | 1:02:54 | 1:02:56 | |
Nelson did some arranging for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra | 1:02:56 | 1:02:59 | |
after I had left the orchestra, | 1:02:59 | 1:03:02 | |
and we were friendly through the years until, obviously, | 1:03:02 | 1:03:05 | |
up until the time we began to work. | 1:03:05 | 1:03:08 | |
But, when I heard the things that he'd been doing with Nat | 1:03:08 | 1:03:11 | |
I said I've got to work with this guy, | 1:03:11 | 1:03:13 | |
because he's absolutely marvellous. | 1:03:13 | 1:03:15 | |
And he really did some beautiful orchestrations. | 1:03:15 | 1:03:18 | |
Wonderful orchestrations. | 1:03:18 | 1:03:21 | |
He and Nat fitted so well, that I was trying to be | 1:03:21 | 1:03:25 | |
as successful as a vocalist with Nelson, as Nat was, | 1:03:25 | 1:03:29 | |
and I never did find out whether we made it or not. | 1:03:29 | 1:03:32 | |
I think they empathised with one another, | 1:04:05 | 1:04:07 | |
around the sentiments of the blues. | 1:04:07 | 1:04:10 | |
Because they both suffered, erm... | 1:04:10 | 1:04:14 | |
I won't call it depression, | 1:04:14 | 1:04:17 | |
but they were melancholy fellows. | 1:04:17 | 1:04:20 | |
Deep down inside. | 1:04:20 | 1:04:22 | |
APPLAUSE | 1:04:22 | 1:04:26 | |
Nelson, that was really wonderful. | 1:04:26 | 1:04:28 | |
We'll be back in just one moment. | 1:04:28 | 1:04:29 | |
I was doing a gospel album called | 1:04:31 | 1:04:36 | |
Rhapsody in Sacred Music. | 1:04:36 | 1:04:39 | |
And we were recording this album at Capitol Studio A - | 1:04:39 | 1:04:45 | |
about 40 musicians - | 1:04:45 | 1:04:47 | |
and a guy who was a hot mixer around town | 1:04:47 | 1:04:52 | |
was our mixer that day - Val Valentin. | 1:04:52 | 1:04:56 | |
And Val liked what he heard | 1:04:56 | 1:04:58 | |
and, unbeknownst to me, he... | 1:04:58 | 1:05:02 | |
..he made a copy of the tape | 1:05:03 | 1:05:07 | |
and took it to a guy by the name of Lee Gillette, | 1:05:07 | 1:05:10 | |
who was the head of A&R at Capitol Records, | 1:05:10 | 1:05:13 | |
and was producing Nat Cole's albums. | 1:05:13 | 1:05:18 | |
And, erm, the rest is history. | 1:05:18 | 1:05:22 | |
It was only a short time that I got a call from Lee Gillette, | 1:05:22 | 1:05:25 | |
and the call was | 1:05:25 | 1:05:29 | |
would I be interested in doing a Christmas album with Nat, | 1:05:29 | 1:05:33 | |
and what do you suppose the answer was? | 1:05:33 | 1:05:37 | |
# Chestnuts roasting on an open fire | 1:05:37 | 1:05:42 | |
# Jack Frost nipping at your nose | 1:05:44 | 1:05:47 | |
# Yuletide carols being sung by a choir... # | 1:05:50 | 1:05:55 | |
I knew Ralphie was another gentleman, | 1:05:57 | 1:06:01 | |
he was very much into gospel music | 1:06:01 | 1:06:04 | |
and he was a terrific arranger. | 1:06:04 | 1:06:06 | |
# ..a turkey and some mistletoe | 1:06:06 | 1:06:09 | |
# Help to make the season bright | 1:06:09 | 1:06:12 | |
# Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow | 1:06:15 | 1:06:21 | |
# Will find it hard to sleep tonight... # | 1:06:21 | 1:06:26 | |
There was one incident where they did do his face strangely. | 1:06:26 | 1:06:30 | |
I don't know who did it, who was responsible for it, | 1:06:30 | 1:06:33 | |
but it was outrageous. | 1:06:33 | 1:06:35 | |
It made it look like he had padding on his face | 1:06:35 | 1:06:38 | |
and they painted the padding. | 1:06:38 | 1:06:39 | |
It was terrible - ugly, ugly. | 1:06:39 | 1:06:41 | |
They put make-up on him to make him | 1:06:43 | 1:06:44 | |
appealing to the white audience in America. | 1:06:44 | 1:06:48 | |
Because they said, "Well, amazing talent | 1:06:48 | 1:06:51 | |
"but we can't present in a way that would be offensive." | 1:06:51 | 1:06:55 | |
And, at that time, blackness was very, you know, was very offensive. | 1:06:55 | 1:06:59 | |
This was the blackest man I'd ever seen in my whole life. | 1:06:59 | 1:07:02 | |
I mean, it's obvious the man was black. | 1:07:02 | 1:07:04 | |
In fact, he was dark black. | 1:07:04 | 1:07:06 | |
His skin was dark. | 1:07:06 | 1:07:09 | |
He was not beige, | 1:07:09 | 1:07:11 | |
it was pure black. | 1:07:11 | 1:07:13 | |
It's like going...going to a circus | 1:07:13 | 1:07:16 | |
and seeing a man who's white | 1:07:16 | 1:07:17 | |
and they put a lot of make-up on him, | 1:07:17 | 1:07:20 | |
to make him look like a clown. | 1:07:20 | 1:07:22 | |
To me it was ridiculous. | 1:07:22 | 1:07:23 | |
He is what he is. Why change him? | 1:07:23 | 1:07:26 | |
You're deceiving the public by | 1:07:26 | 1:07:29 | |
taking a man who IS black and trying to make him white. | 1:07:29 | 1:07:31 | |
# Friendly, freshening Rheingold | 1:07:31 | 1:07:33 | |
# Always happily dry # | 1:07:33 | 1:07:35 | |
We were able to get Rheingold to sponsor. | 1:07:35 | 1:07:38 | |
That was the main sponsor. | 1:07:38 | 1:07:40 | |
# Rheingold is my beer | 1:07:40 | 1:07:42 | |
# It's extra dry | 1:07:42 | 1:07:45 | |
# One reason why it is my beer... # | 1:07:46 | 1:07:49 | |
My wife Jolene had been a Rheingold Girl | 1:07:51 | 1:07:54 | |
so we were very close to the head of the Rheingold company, | 1:07:54 | 1:07:57 | |
and we brought him in to hear Nat | 1:07:57 | 1:08:00 | |
and he loved him. | 1:08:00 | 1:08:02 | |
And when he was at Ciro's he saw the audience, | 1:08:02 | 1:08:04 | |
he saw the place was packed, | 1:08:04 | 1:08:05 | |
we couldn't get in, and they wouldn't let him off stage. | 1:08:05 | 1:08:08 | |
Well, there's an audience of great acceptance. | 1:08:08 | 1:08:11 | |
He said, "Wait, those are the people who drink Rheingold beer." | 1:08:11 | 1:08:14 | |
So it wasn't easy to sell the show, | 1:08:14 | 1:08:16 | |
but when the South came out against it, and started cancelling stations, | 1:08:16 | 1:08:20 | |
Rheingold could not stay with the show. | 1:08:20 | 1:08:22 | |
His ratings were not good in a lot of the South. | 1:08:22 | 1:08:26 | |
They did not broadcast his programmes. | 1:08:26 | 1:08:30 | |
They were anti-black. | 1:08:30 | 1:08:31 | |
I didn't think he had a chance. | 1:08:31 | 1:08:33 | |
There were too many people against the fact that there was | 1:08:33 | 1:08:37 | |
a black man on national television, | 1:08:37 | 1:08:40 | |
and it just wouldn't go. | 1:08:40 | 1:08:43 | |
There was resistance to anything intelligent in the South, | 1:08:43 | 1:08:47 | |
at that time. | 1:08:47 | 1:08:49 | |
They were still living as cave dwellers. | 1:08:49 | 1:08:52 | |
That's their loss. | 1:08:52 | 1:08:54 | |
You know? | 1:08:56 | 1:08:57 | |
That's stupidity. | 1:08:57 | 1:08:58 | |
At the time, there were far more who liked it than didn't. | 1:08:58 | 1:09:03 | |
-Nat, can I give you just a little suggestion? -What's that? | 1:09:03 | 1:09:06 | |
Nat, you're doing wonderful now, | 1:09:06 | 1:09:08 | |
but you need a style when you sing. | 1:09:08 | 1:09:10 | |
AUDIENCE LAUGHS | 1:09:10 | 1:09:12 | |
Style? You want to show me? | 1:09:12 | 1:09:13 | |
Well, there was a guy, I remember... | 1:09:13 | 1:09:15 | |
I saw a guy many years ago, | 1:09:15 | 1:09:16 | |
used to work with a trio, erm... | 1:09:16 | 1:09:18 | |
He played the piano - wonderful. King something, his name was. | 1:09:18 | 1:09:21 | |
It went like... Start like this... | 1:09:21 | 1:09:24 | |
-MIMICS NAT: -# I used to walk with you | 1:09:24 | 1:09:28 | |
# Along the Avenue | 1:09:28 | 1:09:30 | |
# Our hearts were carefree | 1:09:33 | 1:09:35 | |
# ..and gay... # | 1:09:35 | 1:09:39 | |
It's so ignorant, because we're all here on this planet and, regretfully, | 1:09:39 | 1:09:45 | |
what I really disliked about it, is the show was flawless. | 1:09:45 | 1:09:50 | |
They could play it right now on television | 1:09:50 | 1:09:53 | |
and it would be a smash. | 1:09:53 | 1:09:56 | |
The show was, first of all, number one in its time slot. | 1:09:56 | 1:10:00 | |
Had the largest viewing audience of any show in that time slot, | 1:10:00 | 1:10:04 | |
in that space, | 1:10:04 | 1:10:06 | |
and despite this display of audience numbers, | 1:10:06 | 1:10:10 | |
of the willingness to support the show and whatnot, | 1:10:10 | 1:10:14 | |
they decided to pull it from the air. | 1:10:14 | 1:10:17 | |
If he wasn't embarrassed, he was hurt | 1:10:17 | 1:10:19 | |
that he couldn't get sponsorship. | 1:10:19 | 1:10:22 | |
He was a tremendously big star. | 1:10:22 | 1:10:24 | |
Nat just finally made up his own mind. | 1:10:24 | 1:10:27 | |
That was the only thing I kept trying to make clear, you know, | 1:10:27 | 1:10:30 | |
they'd say in the paper he lost his show - he didn't lose the show. | 1:10:30 | 1:10:33 | |
He could've gone on if he'd wanted. | 1:10:33 | 1:10:35 | |
Everyone, almost, on it did it for nothing, you know. Everyone. | 1:10:35 | 1:10:38 | |
I mean, all those stars gave... | 1:10:38 | 1:10:40 | |
They were just... | 1:10:40 | 1:10:41 | |
just...so anxious for him to get this going. | 1:10:41 | 1:10:44 | |
But, Nat, himself, finally said, | 1:10:44 | 1:10:47 | |
"I don't want to do it like this any more. | 1:10:47 | 1:10:50 | |
"It's killing us trying to get sponsors..." | 1:10:50 | 1:10:52 | |
He said, as I've told you before, | 1:10:52 | 1:10:54 | |
"Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark." | 1:10:54 | 1:10:56 | |
To me he belongs somewhere | 1:10:56 | 1:10:58 | |
with that line written... | 1:10:58 | 1:11:00 | |
his name with that written beneath it about his show, | 1:11:00 | 1:11:04 | |
because after he said that he did this... | 1:11:04 | 1:11:07 | |
For the nation to have done what they did to him, | 1:11:07 | 1:11:10 | |
in relationship to the show, | 1:11:10 | 1:11:13 | |
was an unforgivable act of cruelty. | 1:11:13 | 1:11:16 | |
And he never quite recovered from that. | 1:11:16 | 1:11:21 | |
Every so often a performer wants to thank | 1:11:21 | 1:11:23 | |
everyone at the end of a motion picture, | 1:11:23 | 1:11:26 | |
a theatrical production | 1:11:26 | 1:11:27 | |
or, in our case, a television show. | 1:11:27 | 1:11:30 | |
And on this show, what has meant the most to me | 1:11:30 | 1:11:33 | |
has been the wonderful spirit of our feeling | 1:11:33 | 1:11:35 | |
that has existed at all times. | 1:11:35 | 1:11:37 | |
This quality is the most difficult to find, and we had it. | 1:11:37 | 1:11:41 | |
Judging by your mail, you must have felt it at home | 1:11:41 | 1:11:44 | |
and that counts the most with us, too. | 1:11:44 | 1:11:47 | |
Naturally, there just isn't enough time to express my gratitude | 1:11:47 | 1:11:51 | |
to every individual here in the studio, or you at home, | 1:11:51 | 1:11:55 | |
so may I simply say to all of you for now, thanks, | 1:11:55 | 1:11:58 | |
a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. | 1:11:58 | 1:12:01 | |
..as Goldie the fighting legionnaire! | 1:12:03 | 1:12:06 | |
I always wanted a kid, Brock. | 1:12:10 | 1:12:11 | |
My wife was told we couldn't have one, we put in papers to adopt one. | 1:12:12 | 1:12:17 | |
I don't think Nat King Cole | 1:12:17 | 1:12:20 | |
was ever as uncomfortable anywhere in the world | 1:12:20 | 1:12:24 | |
as he was in front of a camera | 1:12:24 | 1:12:27 | |
being required to act. | 1:12:27 | 1:12:29 | |
He was always brought on because of his personality | 1:12:29 | 1:12:32 | |
and because he was a great singer, | 1:12:32 | 1:12:34 | |
and that his name on the box office never hurt | 1:12:34 | 1:12:37 | |
audiences coming. | 1:12:37 | 1:12:39 | |
But he was never, ever comfortable as an actor. | 1:12:39 | 1:12:43 | |
I remember once he did a Western, | 1:12:43 | 1:12:46 | |
and the picture just come out and whatnot, | 1:12:46 | 1:12:49 | |
and I told him I was going to go see it and he said, | 1:12:49 | 1:12:53 | |
he said he was not only not going to see it, | 1:12:53 | 1:12:55 | |
but if I should see it, he never wanted to know about it. | 1:12:55 | 1:12:59 | |
And the reason he was saying that was because | 1:12:59 | 1:13:01 | |
he just wasn't comfortable at what he did, and how he came off. | 1:13:01 | 1:13:05 | |
But he kept at it. | 1:13:05 | 1:13:07 | |
He kept at it because it was the right career move to make. | 1:13:07 | 1:13:09 | |
We were sort of just fooling around, | 1:13:11 | 1:13:13 | |
waiting for him to go to appear. | 1:13:13 | 1:13:15 | |
And he acted kind of funny. | 1:13:15 | 1:13:18 | |
He just didn't act... | 1:13:18 | 1:13:20 | |
I don't remember anything hurting him, | 1:13:20 | 1:13:22 | |
he just didn't feel well. | 1:13:22 | 1:13:24 | |
I showed up at the hotel, | 1:13:24 | 1:13:26 | |
Maria was there, Nat. | 1:13:26 | 1:13:28 | |
He answered the door, | 1:13:28 | 1:13:30 | |
and I couldn't believe it. He was... | 1:13:30 | 1:13:33 | |
..like he looked the night before - | 1:13:33 | 1:13:35 | |
pale, absolutely pale. | 1:13:35 | 1:13:37 | |
I said, "Man, you look the worst!" He said, "I feel the worst." | 1:13:37 | 1:13:40 | |
He passed out. I wasn't there. | 1:13:40 | 1:13:43 | |
And Ivan was with him. | 1:13:43 | 1:13:45 | |
-I said, "What's the matter?" -He described what was happening. | 1:13:45 | 1:13:48 | |
I said, "You got to do something about this. | 1:13:48 | 1:13:50 | |
"Let me call my buddy, my doctor." | 1:13:50 | 1:13:54 | |
He said, "All right, go ahead, call him." | 1:13:54 | 1:13:57 | |
Just a little indigestion, Huh, doc? | 1:13:57 | 1:13:59 | |
You know it's quite a bit more than indigestion. | 1:13:59 | 1:14:02 | |
I've warned you before about those ulcers of yours. | 1:14:02 | 1:14:05 | |
But I've got to go out there to do a concert. | 1:14:05 | 1:14:08 | |
I'm late now. | 1:14:08 | 1:14:10 | |
Sorry, Mr Cole. The only place you're going is the hospital. | 1:14:10 | 1:14:13 | |
Hospital? | 1:14:13 | 1:14:14 | |
He came out in the audience and made an apology to the audience, | 1:14:14 | 1:14:18 | |
and he wound up in the hospital. | 1:14:18 | 1:14:19 | |
And he was... | 1:14:19 | 1:14:21 | |
deathly ill. | 1:14:21 | 1:14:23 | |
But it was strange, what the doctor said. | 1:14:23 | 1:14:25 | |
Nat was supposed to go on a tour after that, in the South, | 1:14:25 | 1:14:28 | |
and he said, "I don't want you taking the chance in going down there, | 1:14:28 | 1:14:33 | |
"and they won't admit you in a hospital." | 1:14:33 | 1:14:37 | |
But it was true. If he had gone down there and become ill... | 1:14:38 | 1:14:42 | |
Bleeding ulcers need an immediate operation. | 1:14:44 | 1:14:48 | |
He could have died. | 1:14:48 | 1:14:50 | |
I think the one that was talked about the most | 1:14:59 | 1:15:02 | |
and was very public was the attack in Alabama. | 1:15:02 | 1:15:05 | |
Nat signs up to do a tour down south. | 1:15:05 | 1:15:08 | |
It was financially very good, but... | 1:15:08 | 1:15:12 | |
..emotionally it was terrible. | 1:15:13 | 1:15:16 | |
After I got to about the third song, the next thing I knew... | 1:15:16 | 1:15:18 | |
the spotlight had me blinded. | 1:15:18 | 1:15:20 | |
Off the stage, the auditorium is completely dark, | 1:15:20 | 1:15:22 | |
as you know, when you're working. | 1:15:22 | 1:15:24 | |
Next thing I know I was hit around the ankles, | 1:15:24 | 1:15:27 | |
I was sort of tripped, and I was sort of reaching over the footlight. | 1:15:27 | 1:15:31 | |
For the people who saw that happen, | 1:15:31 | 1:15:34 | |
it heightened a sensibility and a sensitivity | 1:15:34 | 1:15:38 | |
to what the rest of us experienced, but didn't have Nat's platform. | 1:15:38 | 1:15:42 | |
There was a lot of criticism, | 1:15:42 | 1:15:44 | |
by some of his own people, | 1:15:44 | 1:15:46 | |
because I don't know what they expected him to do - | 1:15:46 | 1:15:48 | |
I've said this before, | 1:15:48 | 1:15:50 | |
but I think they felt that he rationalised too much about it. | 1:15:50 | 1:15:54 | |
Do you expect any more trouble? | 1:15:54 | 1:15:56 | |
Oh, no, I don't think so. | 1:15:56 | 1:15:58 | |
I think this is one out of a million. | 1:15:58 | 1:15:59 | |
I don't think it'll turn out to be a continuous thing. | 1:15:59 | 1:16:03 | |
The only thing, we couldn't take a chance on continuing there last night, | 1:16:03 | 1:16:07 | |
because, you never can tell, innocent people might've got hurt from this thing. | 1:16:07 | 1:16:10 | |
-Will you request police protection? -No, no, not exactly. | 1:16:10 | 1:16:13 | |
I don't think it was a personal affront to me, personally. | 1:16:13 | 1:16:17 | |
It was shocking to think that anybody as sweet and nice as Nat | 1:16:17 | 1:16:20 | |
could have this happen to him. | 1:16:20 | 1:16:23 | |
I didn't know what I could do about it. | 1:16:23 | 1:16:26 | |
And when I tried to do things about it... | 1:16:26 | 1:16:28 | |
Like when we played one place, | 1:16:28 | 1:16:30 | |
I went up into the balconies in the break, | 1:16:30 | 1:16:33 | |
and sat up there and talked to the blacks up there. | 1:16:33 | 1:16:36 | |
And a policeman came and told me, he says, "You can't be up here. | 1:16:36 | 1:16:40 | |
"We don't do that down here." | 1:16:40 | 1:16:41 | |
And then, Nat took me aside and says, | 1:16:41 | 1:16:43 | |
"Look, you can't carry our cross, Jack, OK?" | 1:16:43 | 1:16:47 | |
He says, "Don't do that any more." | 1:16:47 | 1:16:49 | |
-Dad quietly made his mark. He was not... -He did. | 1:16:49 | 1:16:52 | |
And often criticised for that. | 1:16:52 | 1:16:54 | |
-Right. -For not being the political... | 1:16:54 | 1:16:59 | |
..bigmouth activist that a lot of his counterparts were, | 1:16:59 | 1:17:02 | |
who were going through the same thing. | 1:17:02 | 1:17:05 | |
Erm... It was not his style. | 1:17:05 | 1:17:08 | |
It was not who he was. | 1:17:08 | 1:17:10 | |
He showed up at the recordings, | 1:17:16 | 1:17:19 | |
not in his usual casual manner. | 1:17:19 | 1:17:23 | |
He dressed in a suit... | 1:17:24 | 1:17:28 | |
..and we commented about that. | 1:17:29 | 1:17:32 | |
Why would he dress up to come to a recording? | 1:17:32 | 1:17:37 | |
He must have been valuing every day. | 1:17:37 | 1:17:41 | |
Maybe he knew his time was short. | 1:17:41 | 1:17:44 | |
I never saw Nat without a cigarette. Never. | 1:17:44 | 1:17:47 | |
And when he had that holder, | 1:17:47 | 1:17:49 | |
everybody went out and bought holders | 1:17:49 | 1:17:51 | |
because Nat King Cole did it. | 1:17:51 | 1:17:52 | |
I used to argue with him a lot about one main thing - | 1:17:52 | 1:17:55 | |
his smoking. | 1:17:55 | 1:17:57 | |
A lot of us pleaded with him to stop smoking so much, | 1:17:58 | 1:18:01 | |
not because we understood | 1:18:01 | 1:18:04 | |
that cancer was inevitable, | 1:18:04 | 1:18:06 | |
we knew that illness was inevitable, | 1:18:06 | 1:18:09 | |
but we didn't know that death was inevitable. | 1:18:09 | 1:18:11 | |
# Couldn't possibly heal | 1:18:11 | 1:18:15 | |
# All this pain | 1:18:15 | 1:18:17 | |
# Here in my soul | 1:18:17 | 1:18:20 | |
# Won't you tell me what love is? | 1:18:21 | 1:18:24 | |
# But a prelude | 1:18:24 | 1:18:26 | |
# A prelude to sorrow | 1:18:26 | 1:18:29 | |
I think I'd been married for about seven years. | 1:18:29 | 1:18:32 | |
And there were things that were just getting to me. | 1:18:32 | 1:18:35 | |
And I just decided I'd go back to work. | 1:18:35 | 1:18:38 | |
And I worked for - not very long - | 1:18:38 | 1:18:41 | |
then I decided I didn't like it, | 1:18:41 | 1:18:43 | |
I didn't want to work that hard, and I quit. | 1:18:43 | 1:18:46 | |
And things were fine. | 1:18:46 | 1:18:48 | |
And then, just about, oh... | 1:18:48 | 1:18:51 | |
a couple of years before he died, | 1:18:51 | 1:18:53 | |
he did have a major... | 1:18:53 | 1:18:55 | |
That's the only time, really, | 1:18:55 | 1:18:57 | |
I can say he had an affair. | 1:18:57 | 1:18:58 | |
But you'll only hear about so much of it from me. | 1:18:58 | 1:19:01 | |
# Goodbye. # | 1:19:01 | 1:19:03 | |
I went to Europe to get away, that's all. | 1:19:03 | 1:19:06 | |
That's what the trip to Europe was. | 1:19:06 | 1:19:07 | |
When I came back I came back into New York to our apartment | 1:19:07 | 1:19:10 | |
and I called his doctor. | 1:19:10 | 1:19:12 | |
We had recorded L.O.V.E as a single | 1:19:16 | 1:19:20 | |
down here at Capitol | 1:19:20 | 1:19:23 | |
and it became a hit. | 1:19:23 | 1:19:25 | |
So we took the band | 1:19:25 | 1:19:26 | |
and Nat was playing at a club | 1:19:26 | 1:19:29 | |
that he used to play up in the Bay area. | 1:19:29 | 1:19:33 | |
During one of those performances | 1:19:33 | 1:19:37 | |
he fell gravely ill | 1:19:37 | 1:19:41 | |
and they brought him back immediately | 1:19:41 | 1:19:44 | |
to the hospital in southern California. | 1:19:44 | 1:19:48 | |
I called the doctor. | 1:19:48 | 1:19:50 | |
I spoke to him, | 1:19:50 | 1:19:51 | |
and I said to him, "What, he's not well?" | 1:19:51 | 1:19:55 | |
And he said... I said, "Well, maybe, do you think I should come on home?" | 1:19:55 | 1:19:58 | |
And he said, "I think you should." | 1:19:58 | 1:20:00 | |
That's all he said to me. | 1:20:00 | 1:20:02 | |
But I'm not a fool. I knew then it was something serious. | 1:20:02 | 1:20:05 | |
That's all the doctor said to me. | 1:20:05 | 1:20:07 | |
And I came home. | 1:20:07 | 1:20:08 | |
He was already in the hospital. | 1:20:08 | 1:20:11 | |
I remember when Nat went into St John's in Santa Monica... | 1:20:12 | 1:20:16 | |
My sister came one day... They were very close. | 1:20:22 | 1:20:25 | |
..and he had a room, a beautiful room looking over the mountains. | 1:20:25 | 1:20:29 | |
Right at the end of the hallway. | 1:20:29 | 1:20:30 | |
And she wheeled him out to the windows, | 1:20:30 | 1:20:33 | |
and he was sitting there - | 1:20:33 | 1:20:35 | |
and it was the only intimation that we ever had - | 1:20:35 | 1:20:38 | |
he said, "Turn me away." | 1:20:38 | 1:20:41 | |
# And now the purple dusk of twilight time... # | 1:20:43 | 1:20:48 | |
The nurse who I loved - the last one we had - | 1:20:48 | 1:20:51 | |
we took him down and took him out for a ride, | 1:20:51 | 1:20:54 | |
and they put him in a wheelchair. | 1:20:54 | 1:20:58 | |
"Honey, I want you to see the beach house that I was looking at." | 1:20:58 | 1:21:02 | |
And, oh, he loved that. | 1:21:02 | 1:21:04 | |
So it made him think he was going to... | 1:21:04 | 1:21:06 | |
I guess, I don't know... I did want to see it. | 1:21:06 | 1:21:08 | |
So we took him on this ride to Santa Monica, | 1:21:08 | 1:21:11 | |
and we took him to this house. | 1:21:11 | 1:21:14 | |
It was huge. | 1:21:14 | 1:21:15 | |
And we rolled him into the living room. | 1:21:15 | 1:21:19 | |
It was situated so you could see the ocean. | 1:21:19 | 1:21:23 | |
And he looked out the window, and he said to me, | 1:21:23 | 1:21:26 | |
"Go ahead and buy it, Skeez." | 1:21:26 | 1:21:30 | |
# The music of the years gone by | 1:21:32 | 1:21:41 | |
# Sometimes I wonder | 1:21:42 | 1:21:48 | |
# Why I spend... | 1:21:48 | 1:21:51 | |
# ..the lonely night | 1:21:51 | 1:21:54 | |
# Dreaming of a song | 1:21:56 | 1:21:58 | |
# For melody | 1:21:59 | 1:22:02 | |
# Haunts my reverie | 1:22:02 | 1:22:04 | |
# And I am once again with you... # | 1:22:06 | 1:22:08 | |
We were coming out of the treatment place | 1:22:10 | 1:22:13 | |
at the Santa Monica hospital, | 1:22:13 | 1:22:16 | |
and the press was out there. | 1:22:16 | 1:22:18 | |
There's a picture of me with him. It was in the paper, | 1:22:20 | 1:22:24 | |
him holding on to me. | 1:22:24 | 1:22:26 | |
And I looked at them and I saw... | 1:22:26 | 1:22:28 | |
And he said, "No, Skeez, let them take the pictures." | 1:22:28 | 1:22:33 | |
And I did. And they cried. | 1:22:33 | 1:22:36 | |
# A paradise where roses grew | 1:22:43 | 1:22:47 | |
# Though I dream in vain | 1:22:47 | 1:22:50 | |
# In my heart, it will remain | 1:22:54 | 1:23:00 | |
# My stardust melody | 1:23:00 | 1:23:04 | |
# The memory | 1:23:04 | 1:23:09 | |
# Of love's refrain. # | 1:23:09 | 1:23:14 | |
I remember always saying to myself - | 1:23:16 | 1:23:18 | |
I know if my husband gets well, | 1:23:18 | 1:23:21 | |
I am not too sure I'm going to stay here. | 1:23:21 | 1:23:24 | |
But if my husband doesn't get well, | 1:23:24 | 1:23:26 | |
I'm never going to leave him. | 1:23:26 | 1:23:28 | |
Never mentioned the word cancer the whole time. | 1:23:29 | 1:23:32 | |
He was there two months. | 1:23:32 | 1:23:33 | |
He went in on December 6, he died February 15. | 1:23:33 | 1:23:36 | |
It was a tragedy, and I think we all felt that. | 1:23:38 | 1:23:41 | |
A huge loss. | 1:23:41 | 1:23:43 | |
He had a ton of people came through | 1:23:43 | 1:23:45 | |
to see him, to pay their respects. | 1:23:45 | 1:23:47 | |
And, yeah, I think the world was very sad when Nat passed away. | 1:23:47 | 1:23:52 | |
We're talkin' 46 years ago, and I still feel it. | 1:23:52 | 1:23:55 | |
We, of course, had a sealed casket. | 1:23:57 | 1:23:59 | |
Kelly was right there with me. | 1:23:59 | 1:24:01 | |
When we got ready to leave he said, | 1:24:01 | 1:24:03 | |
"Let me just t... | 1:24:03 | 1:24:05 | |
"Let me just touch the casket." | 1:24:05 | 1:24:08 | |
INDISTINCT | 1:24:12 | 1:24:14 | |
# I love you | 1:24:14 | 1:24:19 | |
# For sentimental reasons... # | 1:24:20 | 1:24:26 | |
You know, when you're at the funeral of a parent | 1:24:27 | 1:24:30 | |
I don't think you remember too much. | 1:24:30 | 1:24:31 | |
You know. | 1:24:31 | 1:24:33 | |
I just kept looking at my mom. | 1:24:33 | 1:24:35 | |
I mean, she was just... | 1:24:35 | 1:24:37 | |
..broken. | 1:24:39 | 1:24:40 | |
He said he's been carrying us all of our lives, | 1:24:42 | 1:24:45 | |
now it's our turn to carry him. | 1:24:45 | 1:24:47 | |
I thought that was SO profound. | 1:24:47 | 1:24:50 | |
I cried like a baby. | 1:24:50 | 1:24:51 | |
It was a very, very tough time, | 1:24:51 | 1:24:54 | |
and everybody, it seemed, was there, | 1:24:54 | 1:24:57 | |
everyone that ever knew my dad, | 1:24:57 | 1:25:00 | |
everyone that ever loved him, | 1:25:00 | 1:25:02 | |
including quite a lot of celebrities. | 1:25:02 | 1:25:05 | |
Yeah, it was pretty massive. | 1:25:05 | 1:25:06 | |
Lots and lots of people. | 1:25:06 | 1:25:08 | |
# I think of you every morning | 1:25:08 | 1:25:14 | |
# Dream of you every night | 1:25:16 | 1:25:22 | |
# Darling, I'm never lonely... # | 1:25:24 | 1:25:28 | |
It was a universal reaction - everyone was sad. | 1:25:29 | 1:25:33 | |
And, although Nat was in the hospital, | 1:25:33 | 1:25:36 | |
and had lost a lot of weight, | 1:25:36 | 1:25:38 | |
er, they weren't really publicising the fact that he was that sick | 1:25:38 | 1:25:43 | |
so it was kind of a surprise to a lot of people. | 1:25:43 | 1:25:45 | |
To me, it was one of the worst days, | 1:25:45 | 1:25:48 | |
because we truly lost a great human being, | 1:25:48 | 1:25:52 | |
as well as a great performer. | 1:25:52 | 1:25:55 | |
He had prayers from the Frank Sinatras | 1:25:55 | 1:25:58 | |
and the Tony Bennetts and... | 1:25:58 | 1:26:00 | |
everybody, you know, | 1:26:00 | 1:26:02 | |
because they could feel his soul, | 1:26:02 | 1:26:04 | |
they could feel his...truism. | 1:26:04 | 1:26:07 | |
The thing I learned about Nat, | 1:26:07 | 1:26:11 | |
and it's strange to say that about | 1:26:11 | 1:26:14 | |
such a big masculine figure like Nat King Cole is, | 1:26:14 | 1:26:20 | |
I learned gentleness. | 1:26:20 | 1:26:23 | |
Quality artists that produce 'em live in our memories. | 1:26:23 | 1:26:27 | |
A LONG time. | 1:26:27 | 1:26:29 | |
His music will live for ever. | 1:26:29 | 1:26:32 | |
It will never sound dated. | 1:26:32 | 1:26:35 | |
It will never become old-fashioned. | 1:26:35 | 1:26:37 | |
I listen to him and... | 1:26:37 | 1:26:39 | |
..I just can't get the sense that he's gone. | 1:26:41 | 1:26:44 | |
No matter how many years we all live, | 1:26:44 | 1:26:47 | |
there's only one Nat King Cole. | 1:26:47 | 1:26:50 | |
The blazing of the trail, the making things happen, was Nat Cole. | 1:26:50 | 1:26:54 | |
He was the first to do many wonderful things. | 1:26:54 | 1:26:57 | |
It's about love. And he sang that song, L.O.V.E. | 1:26:58 | 1:27:02 | |
So, that is to me what he represented. | 1:27:02 | 1:27:07 | |
I happen to know that he was... | 1:27:07 | 1:27:11 | |
..especially toward the end, he was a... | 1:27:13 | 1:27:17 | |
a great believer. | 1:27:17 | 1:27:19 | |
Thank you, Nat. | 1:27:19 | 1:27:21 | |
# Grown-ups don't know where to find that magic window | 1:27:21 | 1:27:26 | |
# But it's any window little boys look through | 1:27:26 | 1:27:32 | |
# There's so much for you to see | 1:27:32 | 1:27:35 | |
# So don't ever say to me | 1:27:35 | 1:27:39 | |
# That you've got a lot of growing up to do | 1:27:39 | 1:27:43 | |
# Cos I wish that I were growing down to you. # | 1:27:45 | 1:27:50 |