Speaker This is one photograph that my mom had around the house of a few dignitaries that she was privileged to meet in her lifetime and have the opportunity to form wealth or form for. This is President Ford. Queen Elizabeth. And as you can see, she was meeting them at the time. And we’re happy to you. So.

Speaker What did she tell you about this event?

Speaker She was just very, very happy. She was very pleased, it was a great honor for her.

Speaker Change program. OK. I’m going to cut or maybe not. I think that’s, you know, I just was trying to think of an efficient way of doing things. Overtired around. This goes to. OK. Can you get rid of the display in the viewfinder?

Speaker That is how it is again. OK. OK, so maybe we before I was born.

Speaker Thank you. This was for my ride home, cowboy.

Speaker My mom had boxes upon boxes of photographs. I came back to the house and I went back to the room where they were. And I opened one box and there were some photographs there struggling to mildew. Well, this is ridiculous. So I went down to one of the business stores and I bought, I think, three folder cabinets, file file cabinets and started pulling boxes down, putting pictures out.

Speaker Oh, this one I think I got my cousin died. There a bunch of photographs that she had that she let me borrow. I’m sure she’ll get getting back one day.

Speaker Did you ever talk about that movie?

Speaker Not not too much. It was a long time ago. She had done Pete Kelly Blues.

Speaker I remember going with her to the studio when she was working on that and some of the things that she went through for her character. There was a particularly emotional scene that she had to do.

Speaker And Jack Webb was a director. I think and.

Speaker She said he was really, really good because he said, well, I just want you to relax. And I want you to think about something that just means a great deal to you.

Speaker And then she started the scene and she just started to cry just like she was supposed to.

Speaker That’s where she met. We don’t know.

Speaker They were great friends. They were really good friends, really good friends. So even together.

Speaker Well, I spent a lot of time away from home when I turned.

Speaker Twenty one. I was pretty much gone.

Speaker I’d move to the northwest and I had my life there. And we kept in touch. She continued to work, continue to work and.

Speaker Did you never recall palely visiting I with a kid?

Speaker There were so many people that came in and out. I’m sure that she probably did. I remember Count Vaizey coming over and of course, Duke Ellington.

Speaker She Lorne Green came over for dinner one night.

Speaker All sorts of other jazz musicians came, came in and out. And there were various people that we would meet at her concerts.

Speaker She was particularly fond of basing his band Love Bessie, Love Basey. Did she like special room or something?

Speaker She did the house on on Woodier as you walk through the house and came down steps into the backyard. There was a little sort of area, little fari around, and she dedicated that to him.

Speaker So you don’t even know yet. She said she wouldn’t be banned.

Speaker Was it fun?

Speaker I think I heard about this. I heard about it. They were they were great friends.

Speaker And I remember I think they had a house in Chicago, Detroit.

Speaker And I remember going to it. And I was just a little guy at the time. And they took me downstairs in the basement.

Speaker And he had this huge train set. It was just magnificent.

Speaker Of course, as a little kid myself, you know, this was like, you know. Go ahead. Come on down. A book will pick up your own good.

Speaker Let’s go to the next picture.

Speaker Here, the woman on. Virginia, Virginia Williams. My mom. And this was at the house on Sciarra backyard.

Speaker For some magazine. And they were just sort of having a really good time together. Chit chatting. Three very lively women.

Speaker Yeah. She.

Speaker When my mom started out, as you know, she was orphaned purely in life.

Speaker And she had met Georgiy Cousins and Virginia’s Georgie’s mom. And so my mom went to live with them, not live, but lived in LA and she worked out of the home.

Speaker Well.

Speaker Trying not to tell too many stories.

Speaker Oh, no.

Speaker Oh, you.

Speaker There’s a strong line of discipline.

Speaker My mom had it.

Speaker Virginia had it and Georgia had it. I remember my mom telling stories that she and Georgie would go out and Ginny would say, we need to be back at such and such a time.

Speaker And of course, they didn’t get back. It was locked.

Speaker So they had to go find someplace else to stay. But she had a wonderful, wonderful heart. I have a great deal of affection for her. She raised my cousin Richard NIW, he’s he’s in another photograph.

Speaker She kept two young boys, two on the line, she kept was telling a lie.

Speaker There is another cousin of ours when we were a little older, when we had obviously worn her down a little bit and he said something to her.

Speaker And Richard, no, we just both sort of sat back because we knew that was it. It was over for him.

Speaker But I guess we weren’t around so much.

Speaker She just sort of just talk to him and straighten him out that way.

Speaker He said with strong, strong discipline. Where did that come from?

Speaker Oh, I think it really came from necessity. It came from the pride of knowing that without discipline, you’re not going to get anything accomplished.

Speaker There are a number of people who are very talented.

Speaker There are a number of people who possess. Various skills. But without that discipline, it’s just you just begin to drift.

Speaker And that was not going to be part of my mother’s life.

Speaker And these women, either they were they were Cinergy.

Speaker They were happy with who they were.

Speaker They had gone through what they had to go through, which, of course, was not easy.

Speaker Those days and they’ve managed to survive with a great deal of dignity and still be able to pass something on so that we would have pride in ourselves.

Speaker Again, through my mother and my mom carries so much for family.

Speaker She is took care of a very large extended family, and that’s pretty much how it began.

Speaker Sequence straight. Yeah. You were adopted? Forty seven.

Speaker I hope not. I wasn’t for forty nine.

Speaker When did you learn that you had been.

Speaker My mom trying to tell me.

Speaker I would say it had to be maybe in the 50s.

Speaker And, you know, I didn’t have a really good reaction to it.

Speaker And, you know, there’s.

Speaker There is a feeling that you have sometimes because you sort of feel like you don’t have the roots.

Speaker You don’t don’t have that connection. But then when you realize the love that shown to you.

Speaker It doesn’t matter. Hi. I look at my daughters and my stepson and love that I have them.

Speaker It isn’t measured by whether they’re biological. It’s the love that I have and seeing them for who they are, for hopefully who they can be and try and instill in them an awareness of self and awareness of love and awareness of others, and to not be so self absorbed and to be able to just sort of be able to give something back as they move through life.

Speaker Do you think that your mother.

Speaker You know, it’s it’s interesting because she obviously spent a great deal of time traveling and working and my my environment was that that was the norm.

Speaker I mean, I had other friends who, you know, their parents stayed home, but it didn’t seem to matter all that much because when she was there, there was never any doubt that she loved me.

Speaker And when she wasn’t there, there wasn’t no doubt that she didn’t love me.

Speaker I think about. The sacrifices that she had to make as a single mother, as a single black working mother.

Speaker And even though it was in the arts.

Speaker Still, she felt the need to provide. And she felt the need to accomplish, you know.

Speaker And I talked with a couple of different people and they had talked with me about how she felt and the difficulty that there was in leaving to have to go off and work. But she and my father and my stepmother, they worked very hard to make sure that that I was loved, to make sure that I had some type of focus as a as a human.

Speaker To not take my circumstance in life for granted.

Speaker And to work hard.

Speaker People wanted to find her biological.

Speaker Well, it’s it’s a curious situation. I, I didn’t I really I put it out of my mind just went on with the business of living.

Speaker Different people have have different needs, obviously. After all, my mother had died. There were some articles and some various papers and magazines.

Speaker And so I, I found out it didn’t it didn’t really change. I would imagine probably through the years there were probably curiosities.

Speaker But there are so many of the things that we have to deal with in life. It just depends on how you want to prioritize.

Speaker We changed the picture.

Speaker That’s the race over there. You your.

Speaker That’s right.

Speaker Right. So they go you minimizing.

Speaker Well, we’ve seen you with Northwest, which was moved to Seattle.

Speaker That looks good. When I was back, it was gone. Oh, yeah. I’m trying to just. OK. Zoom in a little bit. Yeah. They just let you go the camera. Not exactly a good fit. We’ll blow it out and post. Tell me about this.

Speaker Oh, this was on the house on Cierra Fear Drive, which is the house that I grew up in. And I think this was, again, another publicity shot.

Speaker And there I am.

Speaker Did you?

Speaker Sometimes I do. We would start. So one summer we would start in Denver. And we’d do one nighters. All the way across the country. And then we’d end up at the Carter Barron in Washington, D.C..

Speaker And generally, my father, who’s working with Oscar Peterson at that time, they would end up there at the same time. So then I would go and since the summer with him and my mom would continue on tour and I come back to go back to school.

Speaker So you get a real taste of.

Speaker Mark, you were oh, definitely, definitely the year I graduated from high school.

Speaker She said, okay, I’m working in Denmark this summer. I going to be there at Tivoli Gardens for the entire month. So I want you to come. Thanks. I want to spend the time, my friends here. I don’t want. Oh, so we talked about it for a while and. The soft sided, soft hearted person said, well, I’ll tell you what, you can bring one of your friends. So I. I brought a friend with me. And we went off to Copenhagen.

Speaker But there’s one nighters across the country.

Speaker Tough, tough.

Speaker And my mother is the type of person back in those days, we didn’t have the airport security and we didn’t have to go through the metal detectors. The plane today, she was there at seven.

Speaker No matter what, so choose. Like always on time. Always punctual.

Speaker She’s on the road.

Speaker She would just relax after the show. You know, you have to remember that I was a young teenager and whatever I could do to get out of the hotel and find out what was going on is pretty much what I was doing.

Speaker So like any other young man not really concerned with mom was doing right then little more. What what can I be doing?

Speaker But when you were younger, wouldn’t you want early to see the sights?

Speaker Please don’t think I don’t want to be hanging out with your mom.

Speaker No, I mean your age. Yeah. When I was eight. Oh, good grief. Who can remember back that far. You’re sure about.

Speaker No, she ain’t. That would that would be back when we were in New York and living in New York. And and I can remember a couple of different houses that we lived.

Speaker There was one Long Island. I see Roy Campanella with.

Speaker Down the street a little bit. Couple over a couple of other athletes that live nearby. There was a Housesit and Jinney head. I remember that house with great fondness. It was a three level house with a basement in an attic. And of course, the basement was where all the mischief took place, says my cousin Richard. NIV sort of had this thing going down in the basement seeing who would scare who are.

Speaker The little silliness is like the.

Speaker We have to establish. Married?

Speaker Well, she she was married to Ray and she was married one time before that. But I don’t know to whom.

Speaker But her marriage to raise when you came into the picture, right. And, um, so you have just a regular family. I mean.

Speaker The family, like the.

Speaker I went to school, I studied. I played, I got into fights.

Speaker I did all the things that kids do.

Speaker When we moved one last year, I don’t I don’t have a clear recollection of my father and mother being together.

Speaker But obviously, they were. Again, this was a while ago.

Speaker Begin to understand that there are things.

Speaker It’s me, it’s it’s. Let me think.

Speaker Not until later.

Speaker When I was in high school.

Speaker You know, people would come up and say things well, probably before that, even I just know it’s something that I don’t. I don’t really think about because I wasn’t.

Speaker My parents wanted me to just be who I am. I went to Beverly Hills High School and there were a lot of children there who were children of celebrities. And so it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

Speaker Because you think of your mom and dad as the person who makes you clean your room, you take out the garbage, you know, do this and do that and do that. But you always say, oh, well, you know, this dad, is you don’t necessarily think about, you know, who your mom or your dad is.

Speaker We have new pictures for you, right? And could you. When I raise my hand like this, I want you to put up an.

Speaker The one you just took, you took away, I was just another publicity shot at the house that I think that was one of the maids in my life.

Speaker One of the maids. I had a who’s old enough to have a physique that was long ago disappeared.

Speaker It had to be 60s.

Speaker Three, maybe. Sixty three, maybe sixty.

Speaker And you occasion this picture.

Speaker I know the publicity.

Speaker Did you not take snapshots?

Speaker You know, personally, I got into photography much later.

Speaker Think, uh.

Speaker Towards the end of high school, I discovered photography and fell in love with it, and I just sort of set it aside. Why would you want to take pictures of your parents? You’re gonna take pictures of something. You wanna take pictures of something interesting?

Speaker They were.

Speaker Just call mom and dad. Well, depending on what I’ve done, things like boom.

Speaker Now, is this a publicity, this also.

Speaker All of these are short? Well, I think all at the same time.

Speaker Is this something that would do come out that paying wrap up that pool you swim and play?

Speaker Well, my mom didn’t swim.

Speaker She didn’t enjoy swimming.

Speaker And she would come up by the pool. This house was pretty nice.

Speaker The pool’s pretty large and there was room on on either end of the furniture. And then towards the back, there was a companya and lots of furniture there.

Speaker So she would come out and enjoy the quiet. It was a nice treat. Very nice.

Speaker When she was at home, she wasn’t rehearsing. She would just kind of relax.

Speaker She loved her soaps and listen to music.

Speaker She has a wonderful Brazilian record collection.

Speaker She loved Brazilian music, Latin music, as well as jazz. And know she listened to some rock and roll because she enjoyed it. Some of it because there was somebody in the house who listened to it very loudly.

Speaker Michael, thank you so.

Speaker This is my cousin Janice and my cousin Karen and a friend of Janice’s. And I’m thinking this is Florida, but it could be L.A. But I think I think it’s some place that we went to in Florida.

Speaker Now you can see Elway’s was Elway’s as one of the other photographs, Elway’s, Janice and Karen are sisters.

Speaker And they were the daughters of my mother sister.

Speaker What he said on a table like. The pocketbook, the ashtray. Oh, yeah.

Speaker We’ve got to get a tape recorder. Yeah. Really?

Speaker No. Looks like they’re out in the restaurant somewhere.

Speaker Picture. We’re near the end. We have a minute to.

Speaker That these pictures curl a little bit. Yeah.

Speaker Now, what you can do is get a set of a metal heavy metal object for the lower left hand.

Speaker You hold the opera up or right. Upper right. Yeah, yeah. That’ll be good, actually.

Speaker You see that shot right to your left. That. Yes. Put the flag down. And then Dina. That’s exactly right. All right. That’s right. You’re in the light there, too. So just.

Speaker That’s all about the.

Speaker Good.

Speaker We’re going to have to do a lot of this post. Yes.

Speaker OK, this picture of my mom is always so we’re talking about a second ago. Who’s the older sister to Janice and Karen and Carmen Camerata.

Speaker And me.

Speaker Louise and Janice, uh, and, uh, Karen, Karen, uh, did you know their mother?

Speaker How do you know?

Speaker She was in the house in New York. So I guess if my mom would take care of everybody, she would always make sure that everyone had some place to live. Had.

Speaker But they need.

Speaker Another picture. Oh, sure. Oh, right. An image there.

Speaker Yeah, that’s very good. Okay, now. I don’t think that your mother could play the piano.

Speaker And there are those who say that I can’t either. There’s a little piano that we had upstairs. Again, this was for the same series.

Speaker I think I have the same shirt on during the driveway. Here I had I started playing piano. A few years before this piano. I opened it up and I remember putting thumbtacks Stryker’s so I could have a little honky tonk piano.

Speaker OK, just time off for once, I shut out your chairs and read things.

Speaker Could be fun talking about will I?

Speaker I sing and I write songs, and I spend two time entertaining, played, worked in the Northwest, Alaska, Canada into the Far East to a few times.

Speaker So.

Speaker Did your mother ever give you any advice or coaching in that regard?

Speaker My parents had a little bit to say. As far as. Coaching it.

Speaker It was more along the lines of if this is really what’s in my heart to pursue it, and my father, my father in particular, really stress that, you know. If you’re going to do it. Behold, sold in. And generally do it.

Speaker And there are times that I was some times I sort of slacked off. Which is. Growing and stagnating and growing and stagnating.

Speaker Did you study music formally? Yeah.

Speaker When I was in the eighth grade, I had joined the choir actually backing me up before that I was.

Speaker In military school and.

Speaker Started to play the bass drum. But prior to that, when I was traveling with my mother, I would play different instruments so the different players would let me play their instruments.

Speaker So I used to play the trumpet or try to.

Speaker And I used to play the drums and.

Speaker A friend of mine, his father was a jazz saxophone history.

Speaker He’s a piano player and he used to give concerts for my mom. And when he played piano, when I played drums, it sounded OK.

Speaker And when I played piano and he played drums, it was close to a train wreck.

Speaker No, not exactly. So I ended up playing drums and singing.

Speaker Yeah. Yeah. Problem here.

Speaker Blue up above. She’s moving furniture around. Let me cut from set to get the door.

Speaker OK, you said that. Of the musicians who traveled with their mother. Let you play their instruments.

Speaker Yeah, it Johnson used to the living plays, drums.

Speaker Can’t remember his name right now.

Speaker Trumpet player Roy Roy Eldridge used to let me play his flugelhorn and his trumpet, and I and I enjoyed the bull horn.

Speaker And when I was a military school, I wanted to play trumpet and he said, you can’t play the trumpet. He gave me the trombone, which I hated. And so it’s a little.

Speaker As large as you are, we’ll give you the bass drum. So I got to carry the bass drum and play bass drum.

Speaker Come home, put a band together. Or I joined a band when I was in eighth grade and we’re living here in Beverly Hills. So he started playing parties, getting paid not much, but a little bit. And pretty much started.

Speaker Now with the of firm position. Passing through the House on occasion. Did they give you advice?

Speaker I’m trying to remember.

Speaker I think they just probably encouraged me to keep on it.

Speaker The everyone has always expressed how difficult the music industry is and there’s a great deal of. Forty two that you have to have to to continue, because there are so many talented people, there really are.

Speaker It’s finding your niche and growing to where, as an artist, you’re you’re comfortable that you enjoy what you do and you feel technically proficient. And you feel like you’re communicating something.

Speaker When the bands play, they may have, like I said, there was a period of time when I left. So I was gone.

Speaker Oh. 1968. I was I pretty much worked on. You never saw that. I heard stories.

Speaker What I’m not telling.

Speaker No, my mom was always very generous and was.

Speaker She opened her home and especially to people that she loved. There was. There are no more limits. She would just come. Make yourself at home.

Speaker OK, thank you. She stopped at. That’s good. Yeah.

Speaker Girls. All right. Tell me about this picture. Who is?

Speaker Oh, so. Virginia, Georgia, my mom. My cousin Richard and myself still have on that same shirt.

Speaker It’s so sad picture. Because I. The only one left out of this photograph.

Speaker Yes. And that you have other. There’s no to be really, really generous with her family. How do you know how many people she actually looked after?

Speaker You know, that that was what was in your heart and that it was between her. And the family members at. She dealt with, worked with. So I, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t speculate. It’s not that important.

Speaker Now, when?

Speaker When her sister died. Phoebe Jacobs told us a story that. Take care of them now. Did they actually come to live with you? Yes.

Speaker When he was there was three girls and then Elway’s had a daughter. Valerie.

Speaker So the house we had on Sierra, one, two, three, four bedrooms, and then there was a.

Speaker Upstairs where I was, there’s a living room, there is a wall.

Speaker And so my mom took the wall out and added two more bedrooms. And two bathrooms and girls were there, one, the older brother always had her room. Valerie and Jonas shared another.

Speaker I love my mother. She was not the world’s greatest cook. But she would cook sometimes. You know, that’s a good question.

Speaker She didn’t cook that often. I can remember maybe two or three times once with the house on Hepburn.

Speaker And she she said that whatever was and she made it to my friends and I, we really enjoyed it because we kind of hounded her and ate all of it.

Speaker That was nineteen sixty. So it’s a little bit a little tough remembering.

Speaker She is more of a cookbook person. And we had this article where she collected 400 cookbook Blancher cookbooks. We went to the beach.

Speaker You know, I heard someone say that. Martha Raye thought. Your mother imitated her.

Speaker Oh, I never heard that, and I couldn’t imagine that thinking about Martha Raye.

Speaker Whether they kept trading back and forth that Ellingwood sound like they’re selling, it doesn’t make any sense.

Speaker I guess people have to talk. The only thing I can the only thing I remember was I was teasing her one afternoon.

Speaker We were playing one of the original deuced so typical of Tasket. And I said, well, you know, you sound an awful lot like Wayne Newton.

Speaker Wow.

Speaker Who is the disciplinarian?

Speaker Well, it depended on how I behaved. My mother was a real strong little, real strong, and they are. We were certain things that you expected from me and she got. And, uh, when my father moved to California, there were a couple of times that she had to call him to come down and. How sort of a father son exchange. But for the most part, seem to care of business. I remember the last time.

Speaker We sort of got into the situation and she was starting to talk to me and I started to laugh. And she did not make her happy. We just sort of kept going, keep going.

Speaker At that point, she realized that she had to change her tactic, so she just sort of let me laugh and then she just kind of laughed it off and then after that.

Speaker Whenever I wasn’t quite.

Speaker What I was supposed to be doing instead of calling me Junior, which no one calls me anymore, is you’d say, Well, Raymond, it’s your life.

Speaker It’s your choice. It’s like.

Speaker Do you do the required calling?

Speaker Your father.

Speaker You really think I’m going to tell you that it wasn’t long time ago or you know.

Speaker I have children and, you know, they don’t forget easily.

Speaker And they always. Well, you did it.

Speaker Well, you know, I got in trouble for it. Yeah, but yeah. So we’ll just try and pass this.

Speaker Well, we do know some stories.

Speaker See, it wasn’t chance, it was it was he was rock and roll.

Speaker Janice reminded me of this a while ago.

Speaker Apparently, my mom was away.

Speaker And this is the house on Cierra with a big pool, a big yard, and invited some friends over.

Speaker And I guess I was charging people at the door to listen to the band. You know, young entrepreneurial spirit.

Speaker But you are actually free to find out about it. Yeah, she came home, and I guess it’s one of the things that I’ve just blocked out of my mind.

Speaker What knowledge is rock and roll concert? Another picture, please.

Speaker Did your brother talk about this period normally?

Speaker You know, I when I came home. When she was, you know, not not well. I talked with her, I said, you know, you need to write a book.

Speaker You know, you’ve got all these things that you’ve experienced. You know, you’ve got so much to say. Yes, I will. I will. Oh, I’ll get around to it. You know, I see the same thing with my father, you know.

Speaker You know, there are so. So much that’s. Lost. We’re just gonna get.

Speaker He would talk about different little things and different little ways at different times. And so it wasn’t well, let’s sit down and let’s talk about this. It wasn’t it wasn’t the kind of thing just every now and then. Oh, yeah.

Speaker That’s about it. Did she, for instance, talk about where?

Speaker She talked about Chick Webb over the years. Number of times, a lot of affection.

Speaker She was always very supportive.

Speaker Of other artists, especially new ones that were trying to get started.

Speaker And she always remembered the break that she was given. And she took that took that to heart. It was really, really important to her.

Speaker And even if she couldn’t necessarily pick up the phone and say, you know, I like what you’re doing, there was always, you know, come here. Yes. Well, you know, they’re doing it. They’re they’re trying.

Speaker And this is me. Did she ever tell you about her? Oh.

Speaker Yeah, yeah. She told me that. She was just so nervous, you know? And I couldn’t imagine her being that nervous that that you couldn’t dance.

Speaker And so since I can’t dance, I’ll sing, you know, just.

Speaker Chronologic is, you know, I can’t sing, let me dance, you know. OK. And get this go.

Speaker But you know. Oh, a wonderful, wonderful gift. Wonderful gift.

Speaker I remember there were those times I would be backstage, and I just love to listen to her ballads.

Speaker I mean, even even as a teenage boy, it just it meant it was just so moving for me to hear her heart and soul just.

Speaker Did she dance around the house? Herself. There was there was me.

Speaker Yes, I was about it. I guess I was about it. We we used to dance together. There was always, you know, always music in the house.

Speaker She touched advancer. Oh, no, I heard. My teacher, I’m remembering this, I’m remembering this.

Speaker Yes, I. I was a drummer. And so I didn’t get the dance. So I spent my time practicing. Which is what I’ve been able to tell people for years, until now. To explain why couldn’t dance. Thank you.

Speaker Do you remember that one? Yeah, yeah, actually, I do.

Speaker I remember we had I think it was its boss.

Speaker The number of shows that used to come on after school only played different. Different bands and kids would be out there dancing. You know, every day in the.

Speaker There was a Soul Train on the weekend and tried to murder some of the other dance shows and and keep watching and see what they’re doing. And I remember her dancing on stage.

Speaker This is bringing back a lot of memories. I had forgotten all of this.

Speaker But he just used to choose to do a little something on stage. But it was never it was never rehearsed.

Speaker It was always spontaneous.

Speaker We have a couple of. Videos of her dancing on the stage. We have one of her dancing television program, she’s terrific. Dancing to a petite.

Speaker You know, Sifuentes, actually, I don’t know. Did you ever watch I with Dizzy Gillespie? No, that wasn’t me.

Speaker Oh, I Barasat. Nat King Cole, wasn’t it. Yeah. Yes. But it was on this show.

Speaker Did you see You know, I got to. I’ve got some some footage of some different things, but I don’t I don’t remember that one, so I must not have seen it.

Speaker Do you remember me being on television? Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. She watched the show. She would if she was home, she’d watch it.

Speaker Famous mom, can we have another picture, please?

Speaker You know what? There’s not a clue, not a clue.

Speaker Two of her favorite people. Yeah. What did she do?

Speaker You know, she loved Duke, loved his songwriting. Just appreciated him. You know, the artist and the man that he was, she loved. Love, Louis.

Speaker She made quite a few records. Most of them.

Speaker I can remember some of going to some of those sessions. And I remember mostly just sort of sitting in the control room and seeing, you know, different things in the studio, being a little more interested in the knobs, a little bit in the music. But, you know, mostly the knobs and the buttons and the lights, everything was going Hinkley’s and going like that. You read so much at all these people, I guess I saw them often enough that, uh, you know, these were just. Yeah. Here they are. I hate to see you. Yeah.

Speaker Another picture, please.

Speaker So now he’s starting to. It was a. Received a lot of awards and honors in.

Speaker And I understand she had a number of awards and keys to various cities.

Speaker She had a lot of honors.

Speaker And the thing that I found really amazing was that she was proud of them all.

Speaker You know, it’s amazing you would think that. You know, well, this one was like the most important one. This was like the tip top. But she really appreciated everything positive that happened in her life.

Speaker It’s just, you know, part of the fabric of who she was.

Speaker You know, it’s so warm in here, I think have take a break and revisit the place down. Where is it so long?

Speaker Shudders No. Check it out. What kind of food do you like?

Speaker I like seafood. Seafood.

Speaker Well, you know, L.A. doesn’t have quite the restaurant in New York as far as quality is concerned.

Speaker Kind of few places.

Speaker So you’re really out. Uh.

Speaker It shows that’s part of the hotel shows and. Yeah. Yeah, because I’ve stayed at the hotel for a long time ago. Clinton knows Clinton.

Speaker He stays at. We were thinking. Shooting. I’m and Boardwalk through.

Speaker OK. Speaking of speed, tell me about this.

Speaker This is another one of the photographs with her with one of the presidents, Lyndon Johnson, and.

Speaker Eye contact. So she was very, very pleased. Very proud mother, very happy moment for her.

Speaker Did she express any preference for. One president over another. President.

Speaker Her desire was to hope that whoever was there would try and take everybody into consideration and do the best they can to try and help as many people as they could.

Speaker And my mother wasn’t the type of person to. Believe in handouts.

Speaker She really felt that people should have had their dignity. No matter what they could do, everybody could do something. So she wasn’t, you know, an activist.

Speaker But she she was aware of what what what people had to had to go through.

Speaker We were at the the show childcare center this morning. Things there, darling. Not a picture, please.

Speaker Now, all these the presidents and Andrew Rich, you just said what she wanted to do, too. Who did she think accomplished?

Speaker I I couldn’t say because I didn’t necessarily talk to her about politics.

Speaker Couldn’t really answer the.

Speaker What is this? This is President and Mrs. Reagan. Excuse me as I see your face on your shirt.

Speaker This is.

Speaker This is president and Mrs. Reagan and Peter Betz.

Speaker Now, he’s a long time presence. Right, Peter? Peter. Yeah. And, you know, you don’t know pretty well.

Speaker Yes. You know, hey, I’ve got some pictures. Think.

Speaker Goes back to jazz and philharmonic or not.

Speaker But what time did she express feelings about her trios?

Speaker Oh, she recognized that there always has to be a solid foundation.

Speaker And she appreciated that.

Speaker And she she’s had some wonderful players, some wonderful players and. That’s that’s that’s real important.

Speaker No, you have to you have to have that freedom, and I trust that the foundation is going to let you be able to do what you want to do.

Speaker She ever come home and say, oh.

Speaker You know, she had.

Speaker Some nights that I imagine that she wasn’t as happy with it as well as other nights. I mean, that’s that’s going to happen no matter who you are.

Speaker No matter how great you are or no matter how not great you are, you’re going to have nights that we’re all human, you know.

Speaker And there are a variety of things that go on in our lives that affect our performance.

Speaker OK. What do you say? Let’s just briefly, sir, just look at the show at.

Speaker So very subtle. Yeah, for some reason, I’m not getting it. Going to keep it on.

Speaker Go ahead. All right. OK. I want to ask you you. Left at a certain point. When was that?

Speaker Oh, why? Because I was a young man and it was time to leave home.

Speaker Yes, 68, 69.

Speaker Right around my chair. Sure.

Speaker Just close to mission control. What’s that mean? Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Speaker So you.

Speaker You decided it was time for you to be on your own. Sure. And what was your mother’s reaction to that?

Speaker Well, she didn’t want me to go. I don’t know why she would want me to be hanging around the house all the time.

Speaker You know, I I suppose growing up in Los Angeles, you know, being my late teens, early 20s, maybe at that point you realize that you either have to find out who you are or you’re just going to be sort of aimlessly going through life.

Speaker I needed. And I still need that security of who I am and what I know about, because it would be very easy to live in the shadow of my parents shadow.

Speaker But I.

Speaker I wouldn’t be happy. And I know that they wouldn’t be happy because that’s not what they would want me to be. They have their own identities. They have their own personalities. And I certainly have my.

Speaker No. You said. What year did you go? Sixteen. Sixteen. Sixteen.

Speaker Your mother’s family problems. Did you see her during those?

Speaker No. During that time. I was in the northwest. I was in Seattle. I was working. I was traveling. And I came home every once every three years or so. Yeah. See everybody. See the family. See, I see my friends who we’re still here. Gulping some chili dog and being able to know it all was well in the world and then go back.

Speaker Now you tell the story of a wedding.

Speaker She was kind of surprised. Let’s put it that way.

Speaker Good. It’s good to keep the parents are you surprised?

Speaker I know I can’t. I can. And that’s that’s a good thing.

Speaker That’s a good thing with.

Speaker She these illnesses are really eventually taking quite a toll on her. Did you hear her references? Things that were made during that time?

Speaker No. Finally, I was working on.

Speaker In Oregon. And Janice called me and said, listen, you know, something’s not right. You know, you need to come down here and see what’s going on. And so I came down and.

Speaker We know there were things that were obviously real wrong.

Speaker And so I spent the next two or three weeks going back and forth, I’d go go back to working on my days off.

Speaker I’d fly back down to L.A. and finally the decision had to be made. Well, what what to do?

Speaker And so I moved back and I told her a couple weeks from forceable and I going to move back. And she said, well, I don’t believe it until I see it. She knows how I feel about Los Angeles. It’s. It’s a nice town, but there are other places that I enjoy living a little more. So when I came back, it was it was real good for her.

Speaker It was real good for me, too.

Speaker We. We had spent a lot of time part.

Speaker And, you know, when you’re when you’re growing up, you’ll see your parents on one level.

Speaker And then we finally.

Speaker Now that we are on the same level, but I got to see her in a different way.

Speaker I had never paid enough attention to see how much she genuinely loved people. I mean, all people I appreciated.

Speaker Like I said before, that she got the things that she expected from me and.

Speaker There are certain elevations that she inspired me to move towards telling some friends.

Speaker One of her nurses was singing around her one day, sort of, you know, nails on chalkboard.

Speaker That’s sweet, honey.

Speaker Which was, you know, very kind. And I’d been at the studio.

Speaker I brought something in. I played it for. And, you know, I thought it was OK.

Speaker She is she listened to it.

Speaker So, you know, it said work a little harder, do a little more, you know, every morning, you know, some say good morning to everybody.

Speaker She was always concerned how everyone else was feeling. And if it was a particularly bad day, we could tell because she would just be very, very quiet.

Speaker She wouldn’t she wouldn’t say too much. She just kind of go through the day.

Speaker And then when she felt a little better, she’d she’d open back up again.

Speaker Did she talk about. Missing her career.

Speaker She missed working without a question of the day. It was more than a career.

Speaker It was a byproduct of depression, a byproduct of growing up and not having enough byproduct of realizing that you have to you have to work hard and you have to continue to work hard.

Speaker And you may have reached some level of success. But, you know, there’s still there’s still more to do.

Speaker Just keep people out. She was truly a humble woman, you know, because never, ever.

Speaker Well, she puffed up her big hearted about anything.

Speaker And, you know, there were a lot of accomplishments. You’re doing research. You know, you’ve seen it. And, you know, you would think that she would just be people who come to a house and they would meet her.

Speaker So she’s so down to earth.

Speaker That’s the woman that she was.

Speaker Everybody says that. No, they can’t. It’s actually sort of didn’t even really know how great she was.

Speaker So during a.

Speaker She eventually was confined entirely to bed.

Speaker Not until very, very.

Speaker Extremely painful.

Speaker Moments to deal with the diabetes and everything that that entails.

Speaker She kept on. She kept on going. She kept a positive attitude. It was it was hard for me. It was hard for me.

Speaker I remember we were on our way out one day somewhere, and she had this Mercedes that she had bought. So 1959 and I was sitting in the back seat.

Speaker And here she was sitting in the front seat. And, of course, she came to my mind was the time when she would sit in that seat and just kind of fill it out.

Speaker And here she was, you know, a little more frail, not filling it out. But, you know, she still still had the heart still in love.