Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
American composer and singer of cynical songs.
On the island
Eight records
is anything by Gilbert and Sullivan. Unfortunately we're forced to narrow it down to something, and so I have just arbitrarily picked the entry of the peers for myolanthe.
another one of my idols and early influences after Gilbrid and Sullivan was No Coward. And again. I could probably select any one of the several dozen numbers, but I would certainly take an L P of mister Coward's and for our purposes let's play Nina.
Most of my most of my favorite things that I like to listen to are probably Broadway shows, and this is one of the early great ones and probably one of the great musicals of all time, Guys and Dolls. I would certainly pick that. And uh from that, for today's purposes, uh I have picked Luck Be a Lady.
Record number four is from one of probably my two favorite show records. Not necessarily my favorite shows, but The discs that I would definitely take. And the first one is a show called She Loves Me. With songs by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bach. And the particular song I have chosen is called Ice Cream.
The next record is from the other. show, the other show uh L P that I think I would most like to have with me, and that is Candide, the Leonard Bernstein operetta. The particular song that I have chosen for this program is called Bon Voyage.
one of the few that I do and sympathize with is Randy Newman. And he's written many, many marvelous songs, and I think he shares a certain cynical attitude that I have. And uh the song that I have chosen is from the LP that I would choose, and it's the title song Sail Away.
another one of my great idols, current current idols, is Stephen Sundheim, most brilliant lyricist that ever lived, I believe. And uh so again, it's very hard to choose something, and I have chosen A particular song. I guess I would pick the LP side by side by Sunnheim, but for our purposes I'm picking a song from uh A Little Night Music.
Ist ein Traum, kann nicht wirklich sein (Duet)
Christa Ludwig and Teresa Stich-Randall
Last record was intended to give a little class to the proceedings here. It's uh from my favorite opera. I I do like operas too as an example of musical theater. And uh I would choose the Rosen Cavalier. And uh the selection in particular that we have here is the duet at the very end.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:36How do you view this Robinson Crusoe business? Could you stand loneliness?
No, I don't think I could.
Presenter asks
0:43What would you be happiest to have got away from?
No, just noise, and uh that that's the part I think that I would most like, is the silence.
Presenter asks
3:04Did you take to [the piano]?
I took to it. I used to sit there and pick out little tunes, I guess, and then my parents gave me piano lessons and uh classical regular serious music, Chopin and all that stuff, and then uh and I would dutifully do the minimum practicing that I needed for that, and then in my off hours I would go and pick out popular tunes, and they finally realized that uh that was where my interest lay, and so they found me a popular music teacher, which was very rare in those days.
Presenter asks
3:30What did you want to be? What was your ambition?
The keepsakes
The luxury
I would certainly pick uh a piano of some sort, whatever sort of piano one could be managed on a desert island. I'm sure it would go out of tune in in an instant, but on the other hand, uh that's the way I sing.
I don't think I ever thought in terms of ambition, everything always seems to have happened to me, including my present circumstances, that I just enjoyed school and I would have liked to have stayed in school.
Presenter asks
4:34Were you kicking against the sporting establishment [with Fight Fiercely Harvard]?
I never did understand sports, I'm afraid. I don't uh participate and uh I prefer l to lie down whenever possible. But I never understood that fervor for or the w the concept of what's called in America rooting, that is where you have some team and just because you happen to go to the same school that the members of the team go to, therefore you prefer that they win the game. I never understood that.
Presenter asks
22:48Were you tempted to take part yourself [in Tom Foolery]?
I can't tell you what a relief it is to be in the audience. I've sat through many rehearsals and many performances of this show before it opened and an opening night. I did take a bow opening night. I did get on the stage to that extent. But at no point watching these people do the songs did I ever think Gee, I wish I was up there doing that.
“I hate to use the word maturity because that's something I've always tried to slip through unobtrusively and go right from adolescence to senility.”
“mathematics, contrary to a very popular belief, is not just a collection of methods for solving problems, but is a way of looking at things and a way of looking at the world.”
“Mathematicians don't know anything about anything. You see, we don't even deal with things like one, two and three. We deal with X, Y and Z.”