Monday, April 3, 2017

CASABLANCA - MIRROR OF OUR LIFE TOGETHER

Humphrey Bogart
The wonderful Dooley Wilson, unforgettable as Sam in Casablanca, was born on this day in 1886. At this year's Humphrey Bogart Film Festival, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the best movie of all time!
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Phyllis Carter
CASABLANCA ALWAYS BRINGS BACK SUCH STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT MY HUSBAND, CLIFF CARTER. 

HUMPHREY BOGART WAS A GREAT ACTOR, BUT HE WAS PLAYING THE ROLES. CLIFF WAS THE REAL THING. 

HUMPHREY BOGART DIDN'T PLAY THE PIANO - DOOLEY DID. CLIFF PLAYED BEAUTIFULLY. AND HIS VOICE WAS MELLOW AND MOVING. 

I COULD STEP INTO "CASABLANCA" AND FEEL AT HOME, BECAUSE THAT WAS LIKE MY REAL LIFE WITH CLIFF.

MR. NOSTALGIA, CLIFF CARTER,
I WAS THE WORDS,
CLIFF WAS THE MUSIC.
WE WERE THE SONG.
http://cliffcartermrnostalgia.blogspot.com.
CLIFFCARTERMRNOSTALGIA.BLOGSPOT.COM

Friday, March 24, 2017

MARCH 25 - THE DARKEST DAY


Phyllis Carter
 
IT MIGHT NOT BE EARTHSHAKING FOR THE WORLD, BUT THIS MARKS THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF MY HUSBAND'S DEATH.

THAT WAS ONE OF THE DARKEST DAYS OF MY LIFE.
MR. NOSTALGIA, CLIFF CARTER.
http://cliffcartermrnostalgia.blogspot.com.
A global blackout will take place this Saturday 25 March for Earth Hour 2017, which will see some of the world's best known landmarks disappear from city…
CLIMATEACTIONPROGRAMME.ORG

Saturday, February 25, 2017

MR. NOSTALGIA, CLIFF CARTER - HIS CLAIM TO FAME



  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCkj9M2Umfj_y91ML054VlJeGuOBtaBSmwHyvSKiEX_KrqAbRlQ3tLZUN7elv05DdOjEuEwH_B3UF1OLeOX6pJV9-26LL2s3I_HptFte0bdOomBSaxSfBaLK78OxKf0-1-Dru-NRQ2WoM/s1600-h/CLIFF+AND+SHEBA+SARI-753341.JPG
 
Cliff Carter, Mr. Nostalgia
and
Phyllis Carter, The Sheba
 
Mr. Nostalgia,
Cliff Carter
 
My husband Cliff Carter was known as Mr. Nostalgia of RCA Records and CTV's Thrill of a Lifetime. 
 
Cliff came to Montreal in 1947 when I was just eleven years old. That was the first time I saw him, and I was enchanted. I sang with Cliff for the first time when I was about sixteen years old. He returned to the United States in 1957 and stayed for approximately 12 years before returning to Montreal. I met him again in 1971 and it was then that our amazing romance began.

He was modest, tender, quiet. He was tough when it was necessary to be tough, a real he-man. Humphrey Bogart played the role in the movies. Cliff was the real thing. He was always sweet to me. He was authentic. He was the same man at home as he was on stage. When he came into a room, heads turned. He shone. He was a very special man.

My beloved husband died in 1992 in Montreal, Canada
 
 
Cliff Carter , " Mr. Nostalgia "
The Gentleman at the Piano
His Claim to Fame
 
Cliff Carter saved the life of W.C. Handy when the famous composer fell onto the subway tracks.
 
Cliff was a young lad when he participated in a pageant celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Declaration: Booker T. Washington was present at that event.
 
Cliff's grandmother and great-grandmother were teachers at Hampton College where Booker T. Washington was a student.
 
As a young boy, Cliff sat to lunch at Mrs. Pickenpack's apartment in Manhattan with Matthew Henson, the man who trained the dogs and led Robert Peary to the North Pole on April 6, 1909.
 
He ran foot races with Jessie Owens in the park.
 
He lived in the home of Fats Waller's sister. He filled in for Billie Holiday one evening when she was indisposed.

He played a special request for Princess, (later Queen) Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in Montreal. "You're My Everything."
 
Cliff's godfather, Charles Luckyth " Lucky" Roberts wrote Moonlight Cocktails.
 
Cliff made pancakes for Bing Crosby when he would come to rehearse at Lucky's home.
 
At Lucky's house, Cliff met Sigmund Romberg, George Gershwin and other great artists. George Gershwin came to Lucky to ask his help with some of the difficult fingering for Rhapsody in Blue.
 
Godfather, Lucky, and Godmother, Lena, were stars in Sissel and Blake shows.
 
Cliff retrieved Lucky's diamond ring, repeatedly lost in gambling to Bojangles Robinson.
 
He met Enrico Caruso and knew his daughter, Gloria.
 
He won trophies for his ballroom dancing.
 
He set an unofficial foot-racing record for the Newark, New Jersey, Athletic Club.
 
Cliff invented a sepia solution which he sold to Eastman (before Kodak), for $100.00.
 
He was a chef on the old Penn Railroad when everything was cooked from scratch.
 
He sang with Art Tatem at the piano.
 
As a boy, Cliff was probably the first Black person to appear on stage at the Hippodrome Theatre.
 
He taught himself to play the piano at the age of thirty-seven - just by watching.
His repertoire consisted of an estimated 3000 songs, but he did not read music.
 
Cliff could play ANY piece of music immediately upon hearing it for the first time.
 
He composed several songs, some of which appear on his only commercial album,
 
"Cliff Carter, Mr. Nostalgia" . RCA Records. 1982.
 
Cliff recorded this album for Thrill of a Lifetime-CTV, just weeks before his 80th birthday.
 
He learned to drive a car when he was in his mid-fifties.
 
He worked on a cattle boat to South Africa with his friend, son of a Zulu Chieftain.
 
He polished torpedoes in WW I.
 
He saw Houdini perform his straight-jacket escape while hanging high above the pavement in New York City by a single rope.
 
He was acclaimed for his elegant penmanship and was chosen to inscribe graduation certificates for a famous American naval academy.
 
Cliff had his own radio shows in Montreal in the 1950's.
 
He made numerous radio and television appearances in Montreal and in New York City.
 
Cliff Carter played piano and sang from Java to Broadway, where he had his own band.
 
Cliff's personal friends of long-standing included Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Cozy Coles, Art Tatem, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong Percy Rodrigues, and Billy Daniels.
 
He was also associated with Sarah Vaughan , Dorothy Lamour - who he always called "Dottie", Lena Horne, Liberace, W.E.B. Dubois, Mae West, Nat King Cole, The Mills Brothers and so many others.

Cliff visited Germany at the time of Von Hindenberg.
 
He was a professionally qualified portrait photographer and earned his living doing fine embroidery and bead-work.
 
Cliff saw Halley's Comet in 1911, but we both missed it in 1986 due to overcast skies.
 
Cliff and I first met when I was about eleven years old. It was my dream to sing love songs with Cliff Carter, but I never seriously believed that some 25 years later, we would be married. We lived and loved and sang together for almost 20 years. His smile was like sunshine, his voice like honey. Cliff was adored by everyone he met. He was a gracious, easy-going gentleman in the best of times and in the worst of times.
 
Recognition by Thrill of a Lifetime and RCA records was a major highlight in both our lives. Another came in the Autumn of 1986 when Cliff Carter and The Sheba performed in the Parliament of Canada at the Black Orpheus Gala for the Harambi Foundation.
 
Cliff Carter left us on March 25, 1992, eleven days before his 90th birthday. The world has never been as lovely since then.
 
The Sheba
 Phyllis Carter

Sunday, February 19, 2017

SHOULD I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?


When I fell madly in love with Cliff, he was approaching his seventieth birthday. I had been enchanted with him since I was eleven, but it took decades for this miracle to fall into place.

I was afraid. I begged God to give him to me for five years.

We had precious twenty years together.

Should I believe in miracles?

I miss him all the time.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

THE MAGIC OF TWO - TWO MINUS ONE ALWAYS FEELS WRONG


MR. NOSTALGIA & THE SHEBA

ANNIVERSARY BLUE 


Can you say, "Happy Anniversary !"
When your sweetheart is gone ?
Cliff and I were married on
January 22, 1983
At 2:00 P.M.
In Room 222
At The Montreal Court House
We were together for almost 20 years.
Cliff died on March, 25, 1992,
Just a few days short of his 90th Birthday.
Two are The Song,
Two minus One always feels wrong.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

CLIFF - YOUR SWEET LOVE ALWAYS REMEMBERED


When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like her, like her with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

William Shakespeare - Sonnet 29

THY SWEET LOVE REMEMBERED


When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like her, like her with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

William Shakespeare - Sonnet 29