Corky Hale,Charlotte Rae, & Carl Reiner Perform at Benefit
By: BWW News Desk May. 19, 2008
Award-winning showbiz entertainers, Corky Hale and Charlotte Rae, will perform in a show emceed by Carl Reiner, with Jeff Lass serving as Music Director. The show, "A Festive Evening For Westside Center for Independent Living," is a benefit for (WCIL), a non-residential center dedicated to empowering all people with disabilities so that they achieve and maintain self-sufficient and productive lives. The event will be held on Friday, June 20, 2008 at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club; 340 North Maple Avenue (between West 3rd Street and Alden Drive); Beverly Hills, CA 90210. The event will begin at 5:00 p.m. with Cocktails, followed by Dinner, Entertainment and Dancing.
Carl Reiner will serve as Emcee of the event. Renowned jazz pianist, harpist and singer, Corky Hale, and comedic actress and singer, Charlotte Rae, will perform. Jeff Lass serves as Music Director. Ruth Kraft serves as Event Chair. Tickets are $250 each and free parking is available behind the club and at the Maple Parking Lot across the street from the center. This event is open to the general public. Attire is California Casual. For tickets and further information, please call Robin Hargrove at 310-568-0107, ext. 24. For further information on the Westside Center for Independent Living, please visit the website www.wcil.org <http://www.wcil.org>.
Aliza Barzilay, Executive Director of the Westside Center for Independent Living, said: "The Independent Living Movement philosophy is as relevant today as it was when it began in the 70's. I eagerly look forward to this wonderful event which will support what we do here at the center on a daily basis."
Founded 31 years ago in West Los Angeles, the Westside Center for Independent Living is a non-residential center dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people with all kinds of disabilities. The goal of the peer-led programs and services is the elimination of economic, social, attitudinal and environmental barriers. WCIL has three Westside sites, Mar Vista, Santa Monica and Redondo Beach, providing programs and services. The geographic service area runs from Malibu to San Pedro, to West Hollywood, and includes the Westside of Los Angeles and Carson.
With a $2 million budget, WCIL serves more than 1,400 people with disabilities annually. Considered an outstanding non-profit organization by members of the community, WCIL has introduced award-winning programs, including: The Peer Support and Employment Project in both English and Spanish, Living Independently in Los Angeles (LILA) in partnership with UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, and DIAL which assists people with disabilities to transition from hospital or skilled nursing facilities to living in the community on their own.
Hale has played harp for Liberace, piano for Billie Holiday and Mel Tormé, and has sung with the bands of Harry James, Ray Anthony, and Jerry Gray. She also owned one of the most successful clothing stores in Hollywood for 17 years.
Hale was also the proprietor of "Corky's," a popular restaurant on New York's East Side. She has lived in Rome, and for three years, while living there, appeared on the popular television show, "Tempo di Jazz." She has performed at The White House with Tony Bennett, soloed with Barbra Streisand in Central Park and at the Hollywood Bowl and performed with Björk on her MTV Special in London. Hale has also appeared with George Michael at London's Royal Albert Hall and RFK Stadium.
Her sold-out performances at the Oak Room at the Algonquin in New York, Davenport's in Chicago, the Cinegrill in Los Angeles, the Plush Room in San Francisco, and Pizza On The Park in London have led Los Angeles Times' jazz reviewer Don Heckman to observe that Hale is "more than a triple threat," and Philip Ellwood of the San Francisco Examiner noted her performance is "one of cyclonic proportions." On November 22, 2007, Corky Hale made her debut at Carnegie Hall as a Soloist with the New York Pops Orchestra, under the baton of Guest Conductor, Barry Levitt.
Hale's harp, piano and vocals can be heard on her current CD, "CORKY" on the GNP Crescendo label. Since 2000 Hale has produced and performed her star-studded show "Corky Hale and Friends: From Tin Pan Alley to Beverly Hills," at the Beverly Hills Civic Center. In March 2003 her "Salute To Hollywood Songwriters" opened the newly restored Ferry Building at a Gala for San Francisco's "Raising Hope" charity, and in 2002 her show opened the 25th Anniversary Season of the 1,000-seat La Mirada Theatre.
In 2003, Corky Hale added theatrical production to her activities, when her show, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" broke box office records at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida. In 2000 she was the associate producer of the hit show, "Fully Committed," which played at the Coronet Theatre in Hollywood. She also produced three other hits – 1998's "Lullaby Of Broadway" at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood, voted one of the "10 Best Shows" of the year by the Los Angeles Times and produced a concert version of the show starring Sally Kellerman. Hale also produced "Give 'em Hell Harry," starring Jason Alexander at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles in 1992.
In addition to her musical accomplishments, Hale jokingly considers herself the ultimate cook-housewife. She has been happily married for 35 years to songwriter Mike Stoller of the team Leiber & Stoller, whose show Smokey Joe's Café broke the record as the longest running musical revue in Broadway history.
Hale is very involved in numerous charities and political groups, one of them being Angel Harvest, which she introduced to Los Angeles from New York's City Harvest. Angel Harvest picks up overages of food at top restaurants and major events such as the Academy AwardsÒ and movie premieres, which otherwise would have been discarded, and delivers them to various shelters for battered women and children, indigent seniors, veterans in rehabilitation and the working poor.
She has always been interested in politics and was one of the first white students to join the NAACP while a freshman at the University of Wisconsin. She speaks Italian, French and Spanish, and has an apartment in Italy. Hale serves on the national advisory board of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), the national advisory board of Planned Parenthood and the California board of the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP). She and her husband are strong advocates of the Southern Poverty Law Center and serve on the board of The National Coalition to Ban Gun Violence.
Charlotte Rae (Actress and Singer) is a multiple Emmy Award-nominated actress ("Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" and "The Facts of Life") and singer who is best known for her portrayals of Edna Garrett in the television sitcoms "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life." She also appeared in the "The Facts of Life" television movies, one in 1982 and another in 2001.
A stage actress since the 1950s, Rae appeared in the Broadway productions of "Three Wishes for Jamie," "The Threepenny Opera" (appearing as Mrs. Peachum opposite Lotte Lenya as Jenny and Bea Arthur as Lucy Brown), "Li'l Abner" (creating the role of Mammy Yokum), "Pickwick" (Tony Awardâ-nomination for Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Musical) and "Morning, Noon and Night" (Tony Awardâ-nomination for Best Actress – Dramatic). She also starred as Berthe in the musical "Pippin" at the New Jersey Paper Mill Playhouse in 2000. In 2007 she appeared at The Plush Room in San Francisco for several performances.
In 1955 she released her first, and only album, "Songs I Taught My Mother," which featured satirical, risqué and naughty songs by composers, including
Sheldon Harnick, Cole Porter, Ogden Nash, Rodgers & Hart and Marc Blitzstein, who wrote the song, "Modest Maid," especially for Rae. The album was recently re-released and is available at www.barnesandnoble.com <http://www.barnesandnoble.com>. Also in the 1950s, Rae made numerous appearances on the "Ed Sullivan Show."
Rae appeared in early seasons of "Sesame Street" as Molly the Mail Lady. Other television appearances have included: "Sisters," "101 Dalmatians: The Series" and "The King of Queens." Her first significant success was on the sitcom, "Car 54, Where Art You?," playing the role of Sylvia Schnauser. She recently finished a film with Peter O'Toole and Marsha Gay Harden, "Christmas Cottage," which will be released in November 2008. She has a cameo role in the current Adam Sandler film, "You Don't Mess With The Zohan."
Rae was born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee, WI, the daughter of immigrants Esther (née Ottenstein) and Meyer Lubotsky, a retail tire business owner. She was married to composer John Strauss, with whom she had two sons, and was divorced in 1976. She has three grandchildren. Her classmates at Northwestern University included Cloris Leachman, Paul Lynde, Charlton Heston and Patricia Neal.CARL REINER (Actor, Film Director, Producer, Writer and Comedian) Depending on who you talk to, Carl Reiner is best known as a co-star on the legendary television program, "Your Show of Shows"…or as the creator and co-star of "The Dick Van Dyke Show"…or as The Interviewer of "The 2000 Year Old Man"…or a director of feature films, including "The Jerk," "All of Me," "Oh, God!" and "Where's Poppa?"…or as father of actor-writer-director-producer Rob Reiner and husband of jazz vocalist Estelle Reiner…or as the recipient of 12 Emmy Awards….
Born in the Bronx, NY, Reiner is the son of a watchmaker. At Evander Childs High School, his interest was baseball, but at age 16 he took a job as a machinist's helper in the millinery trade. He simultaneously enrolled in drama school for eight months and landed a part as a second tenor in an updated version of "The Merry Widow."
Reiner subsequently served in World War II, first training as a radio operator in the Air Force, followed by an assignment to Georgetown University to study French in order to become an interpreter, then as a tele-type operator in the Signal Corps and later as a comedian and actor with Maurice Evans' Special Services Entertainment Unit. He toured the Pacific for 18 months in G.I. Revues.
Upon his honorable discharge in 1946, he won the leading role in the National Company of "Call Me Mister," and after three more years in various Broadway musicals, joined Sid Caeser and Imogene Coca on "Your Show of Shows."
In 1958, his first novel, Enter Laughing, was published. An autobiographical work, the book chronicled Reiner's frustrations as a young machinist helper in the millinery trade and his eventual entry into show business. The book subsequently became the basis for a Broadway play (adapted by Joe Stein, and a feature film, directed and co-produced by Reiner) of the same name.
In 1961, Reiner conceived "The Dick Van Dyke Show," which would become one of the most famous and best loved sitcoms in television history. Of course, audiences have never forgotten his co-starring role on the show as the toupee-wearing producer, Alan Brady. That same year, he wrote his first feature film, "The Thrill of It All," for Doris Day and James Garner.Reiner's other feature film credits as a director include: "The Comic," co-written by Reiner and Aaron Ruben; "Where's Poppa?," starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon; "Oh, God!," starring George Burns; films with actor Steve Martin: "The Jerk," "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," "The Man With Two Brains" and "All of Me;" "Summer Rental," with John Candy; "The One And Only," with Henry Winkler; "Summer School," with Mark Harmon; "Bert Rigby, You're A Fool," which Reiner also wrote; "Sibling Rivalry," with Kirstie Alley; "Fatal Instinct," with Armand Assante and Kate Nelligan, and "That Old Feeling," with Bette Midler and Dennis Farina. Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks released a CD and book with new material in October 1997, "The 2000 Year Old Man In The Year 2000." (HarperCollins Publisher and Rhino Records Distributor).
His motion picture acting credits include a starring role in "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming," and featured or cameo roles in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," "The Gazebo"' "Generation," "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," "The End" and "The Slums of Beverly Hills." His most recent acting role was of Saul Bloom in the remake of "Ocean's Eleven" in 2002. He then reprised his role of Saul Bloom in the films "Ocean's Twelve" (December 2004) and "Ocean's Thirteen" (June 2007). He is the voice of one of the characters in "Good Boy," which opened in October 2003.
His television acting credits include featured roles in "Beggars and Choosers," "Family Law," "The Bernie Mack Show," "Crossing Jordan," "The Bonnie Hunt Show" and, most recently, "Boston Legal." He was also the voice of the character of the lion, Sarmoti, in the DreamWorks animated television series, "Father of the Pride." T.V. Land produced and broadcast an animated half hour pilot of Reiner's famous character, Alan Brady. CBS Television produced, along with T.V. Land, "The Dick Van Dyke Reunion Special Show," which aired on Tuesday, May 11, 2004.
His second novel, All Kinds of Love, was published in 1993. His third novel, Continue Laughing, was published in 1995. How Paul Robeson Saved My Life, a book of short stories, was published in 1999. His book, My Anecdotal Life, was published in April 2003, and his children's book, Tell Me a Scary Story, was published in Fall 2003. The Two Thousand Year Old Man Goes To School was published in Spring 2005. NNNNN, a new novel, was published in February 2006.
Reiner and his wife of 64 years (December 24, 1943), Estelle (née Lebost), are also parents of two other children: Annie Reiner, a poet-painer-playwright-psychoanalyst; and Lucas Reiner, a painter-screenwriter-director. They are the proud grandparents of five grandchildren. Reiner calls all three of his children "terribly civilized, wonderful human beings."
Regarding his thoughts on comedy Reiner quips, "Inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself is a good thing to do. You may be the fool but you're the fool in charge. I'm a charming coward; I fight with words."
JEFF LASS (Composer, Music Director, Pianist, Arranger) has worked as a Musical Director for Corky Hale, Sally Kellerman, Paul Williams, Lamont Dozier, Smokey Robinson, Laverne Baker, Taylor Dane, Patti Austin, John Raitt, Freda Payne and Mike Stoller. As a composer he has written songs for 16 feature films, including, "Dick Tracy" and "Rage In Harlem," as well as for Madonna's "Breathless" album.
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