During World War II Jimmy Durante was doing a tour of veterans’ hospitals under the supervision of Ed Sullivan. At one rehabilitation center on Long Island, Sullivan warned his friend, “Look, Jimmy, no encores – we have a tight schedule. Our plane leaves at eleven-fifteen sharp.”
Well, when the time came, there was the great Schnozzola doing an encore. From behind the curtain Sullivan motioned to Durante. Durante went over to Ed and said, “Look, Ed, plane or no plane, I can’t leave – look at the pair of soldiers clapping in the second row.”
They were one-armed veterans clapping together with their good arms.
Source:
Humes, James C. Speaker's Treasury of Anecdotes About the Famous. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. 202. Print.
Further Reading:
No comments, yet...