I normally would not write a second blog in one day, but there were some important omissions from this morning's blog entry. Today (June 14th) would have been the late Cy Coleman's 77th birthday. Cy of course was the author of some pretty incredible musicals of the Broadway stage including "Sweet Charity", "I Love My Wife", "The Will Rogers Follies" "City of Angels" and of course "Barnum" (my favorite of his musicals) Cy was a master. I got to meet him one time at an ASCAP membership meeting and he was very gracious. He died very suddenly two years ago as he was preparing for the " Sweet Charity" revival that starred Christina Applegate. Fifty years ago this day, Maggie Smith made her debut on stage in "New Faces of 1956" The sketches were written by Neil and Danny Simon, Paul Lynde and Louis Blotto. I had the extreme honor of studying comedy with Danny Simon (God rest him!) fot four wonderful years! Bar none, Danny Simon was one of the funniest men in all the world. I learned so much about comedy writing with him. He used to teach that "great comedy was really nothing more than great honesty". One of his famous quotes was "Deal With It!" Perhaps most people are not aware, but Danny has been the subject of or been a major character in lots of brother Neil's famous plays including "Come Blow Your Horn", "The Odd Couple", "Chapter Two", and many more. He was the one who started to write "The Odd Couple" long before Neii took it over.(More of that story another time!) He did manage to write one full length play called "The Convertible Girl" which is so damn funny! Danny really was "Felix Unger". He was the neatest neat nick you could ever meet in your life. Nobody but nobody could be more immaculate than he. Once we students were invited up to his condominium in Sherman Oaks. The place looked like a museum of zealous housecleaners! -- there wasn't a magazine out of place. Of course we students always tried to make Danny laugh-- to get a laugh from the guy who taught comedy to the great Woody Allen was a great compliment. Well, I actually made him laugh twice in one evening. As we wandered around on the fifty cent tour he gave, we were all amazed at just how neat he really could be. So I piped up the first time with "Danny, you're the only guy in California whose dollies are breaking in new doilies" He laughed. As we were looking around he was suddenly upset that none of us had taken off our shoes. Off went our shoes. He was really complaining and muttering "Gee, what if you guys brought dirt in here. I may never get rid of it!" Maybe he didn't trust vacuum cleaners! Maybe he thought we were lower Slobovian mud wrestlers on the fifty cent tour of his condo! He was almost whining about it! No, i take that back-- he WAS whining about it-- terribly! Now I thought it was so silly that he wanted us to remove our shoes this late in our visit. So I piped up with "Danny, for God's sake, you're the only man I know who's toaster is cleaner than his toilet" Now he really laughed. Somehow that broke the tension and he proclaimed "Oh, the hell with it!" Today also is another milestone date. Twenty years ago today, we lost Alan Jay Lerner. The brilliant lyricist of "My Fair Lady", Camelot", "Paint Your Wagon" and "Gigi". He was of course partnered with the great Frederick Lowe with whom he wrote all of the above shows. I understand that these two guys used to fight as fiercely as Gilbert and Sullivan did back in the late 1800's. Amazingly, as the story goes, Lerner had put in his will that $2500.00 be spent on a wake in his honor! Unfortunately, with his many debts from failed shows after Lowe's death and taxes owed, there was not enough money to spend one tenth of that amount! Alan Jay Lerner had a really spectacular failure with none other than Leonard Bernstein in a Broadway failure called "1600 Pensylvania Avenue" But you should all listen to it including the song "Bless This House" It will bring tears to your eyes. Other birthdays of note: folksinger Burl Ives was born on this date in 1909 and Dorothy Mcguire in 1918. To all of these wonderful people: we remember you, we salute you. As for Danny Simon, he will always have a very special place in my heart! God rest you, kind sir! Make God laugh: Lord knows he needs it!