Second:
Cy Coleman was here at Hofstra for a conference on musical theatre a year and a half ago. I had a horrible toothache that week and missed a lot. I did, however, see Cy on two occasions.
He gave a "lecture", which was basically a bunch of wonderful remeniscences--stories about David Merrick and Carolyn Leigh, and everybody else. He said that he eventually got fed up with working with Carolyn and was looking for a lyricist. He met Dorothy Fields, the Great Dorothy Fields at a party, and with some trepidation approached the famous lady: could she find time in her, presumably, busy schedule to work with him? "Of course," she replied. "You know, nobody ever asks any more." Voilà Charity!
The next day I actually got Joe to shlep to campus with me to see "Cy Coleman and Friends" in the campus theatre. Michelle Lee, Carollee Carmello, and others sang various Coleman songs, Cy did "I Never Met a Man I Didn't Like", and the Cy Coleman Trio did some jazz pieces. The most amazing was "Three" from I Love My Wife as a jazz instrumental. I never realized how terrific the music was to that song, always listening to the lyrics.
By the end of the evening I was thinking, "I really want to work with this man." Now I'll never have the chance. Somewhere I have a vinyl recording of him singing his own material. But we don't have a turntable set up.