MR. NOSTALGIA, CLIFF CARTER - RCA RECORDS - THE GENTLEMAN AT THE PIANO

WHEN I GROW TOO OLD TO DREAM

When I grow too old to dream,

I'll have you to remember.

When i grow too old to dream,

Your love will live in my heart.

Osacar Hammerstein ll

 Sigmund Romberg

LOVE LETTERS - I'M NOT ALONE IN THE NIGHT - CLIFF LIVES IN MY HEART

 

 

We sang thousands of love songs to each other.

The words and music echo in my heart night and day.

 

 

LOVE LETTERS STRIGHT FROM YOUR HEART

Love letters straight from your heart,
Keep us so near while apart;
I'm not alone in the night,
When I can read all the love you write.

I memorize every line,
I kiss the name that you sign.
Then, darling, once again, I read
Right from the start,
Love letters straight from your heart.

 

 

 

CLIFF ATTENDED THE 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATIO

 

1913

New York City

 

Cliff Carter was eleven years old

when he attended the celebration of

The 50th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

 

There, Cliff saw

W.E.B. Dubois

and

Booker T. Washington.

 

 

W.E.B. DuBois and members of the New York State Commission on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1913
Creator: Cordes, Paul -- Photographer
Depicted: Date October 22-31, 1913

 

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? - I WAS GRIEVING IN THE EMPTY CHURCH

 

 

My darling Cliff died in March, 1992. I was in the depths of hell, grieving. My best friend, Carolyn, did everything she could to comfort me. One day she told me there was a healing service at St Barnabas Anglican Church in Pierrefonds, (a suburb of Montreal, my hometown). 

 

I am Jewish, but I was desperate. My grief was so intense. So Carolyn and I went to the healing service and I started attending services and bible classes at St. Barnabas.

 

On New Year's Eve, 1992, I moved to Ontario, but I came back to St. Barnabas almost every weekend, even after I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery and while I was receiving chemo treatments. Baldness added to my burden, but not much. It was the least of my trials.

 

Early 1994. I was given a key to the church. I prepared the holy elements for the altar and I spent most of my time in the nave, grieving and praying, hoping for some sign that Cliff was not gone forever. His loss was unbearable. It helped to be there, alone.

 

I remember that day. The orange rays of sunset beamed through the stained glass windows onto the pews where I lay stretched out. I was exhausted. I think, over the months, my tears washed away a patch in the grey paint on the floor in front of my pew where I always sat alone, weeping. I prayed and prayed for a sign.

 

When I got home that day, the phone rang. It was my friend, Linda, calling from Ottawa. She had never telephoned before.

 

Linda told me she had been in a shopping centre in Ottawa that day to enrol her young daughter at a ballet class. While there, she dropped in at a beauty salon owned by a friend. And there, on the wall of the hairdresser's shop, she was surprised to see a framed professional 8X10 black and white photograph of Cliff.

 

How did a photograph of Cliff come to appear on the wall of a hair salon in Ottawa?

 

We finally learned that the owner of the salon had a friend who was a professional photographer in Montreal, Lois Segal, and Lois had taken the picture of Cliff in the early 1980's, at a showbiz event at the Casablanca on St. Denis Street in Montreal, where Cliff was the resident pianist with his brass star in the walk in front of the club. This was shortly after RCA had recorded Cliff's album, Mr. Nostalgia, Cliff Carter, in 1982.

 

A way-out "coincidence"? The sign I had prayed for. I believe in miracles. And I keep on hoping.

 

MR. NOSTALGIA, YOU'LL NEVER KNOW JUST HOW MUCH I MISS YOU

 

 

My darling Cliff had to leave me twenty-two years ago, but I never left him.

You'll never know just how much I miss you,
You'll never know just how much I care,
And if I tried, I still couldn't hide my love for you,
You ought to know, for haven't I told you so
A million or more times?

You went away and my heart went with you,
I speak your name in my every prayer,
If there is some other way to prove that I love you,
I swear I don't know how.
You'll never know if you don't know now.

Always,

Sheba

A SOUND TO REMEMBER

 

 

I just had a flashback to the 1970's.

 

I was with Cliff at a piano lounge

Where he was playing.

 

Another musician sat in,

And he played his violin.

 

I don't remember his name,

But I sang.

 

And my voice blended in,

With the sound of the violin.

 

Blended in so smoothly.

 

 

VETERAN MOVIE FAN, BRUMBOLT, HIS CELEBRITY WALL INCLUDES MR. NOSTALGIA & SHEBA

 

A couple of days ago, Gordon Stevens, a veteran movie fan, came upon my story about my friend, the very talented musician,Wally Aspell. Gordon left a message for me on the blog and we started an email exchange today.

 

As a result, Gordon, aka "Brumbolt", has sent me the rare photo of Wally Aspell now open to the world at  http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com,  and other stars he has known. I, in turn, have sent him blogs about Cliff and me and a copy of our wedding portrait.

 

These days, things happen so quickly. Within a few hours, Gordon sent me these pictures.

 

 

There you are, right beside Wally

 

OUR PATHS MAY SEVER, BUT I'LL REMEMBER FOREVER - DEEP IN MY HEART, DEAR

 

 

Deep in my heart, dear,
I have a dream of you,
Fashioned of starlight,
Perfume of roses and dew.

Our paths may sever,
But I'll remember forever,
Deep in my heart, dear,
I'll always dream of you.

I've waited a lifetime for someone to say,
The things you are saying to me.

And darling, I mean every word that I say,
Just look in my eyes and you'll see.

You smile and my tears have all melted away,
My worries were all false alarms.

With you every day is a beautiful day
As long as I'm here in your arms.

Deep in my heart, dear,
I have a dream of you.
Fashioned of starlight,
Perfume of roses and dew.

Our paths may sever,
But I'll remember forever.
Deep in my heart, dear,
I'll always dream of you.

 

*****

 

Cliff has been gone for 21 years,

 

And still, alone, 

 

I remember,

and

I sing our love songs -

 

For Cliff alone.

 

 

The Sheba

 

 

Deep In My Heart, Dear

The Student Prince

Sigmund Romberg

Dorothy Donnelly

Mario Lanza

ALL THE LOVE SONGS WERE WRITTEN FOR US

 

 

A very precious love,

Is what you are to me,

A stairway to a star,

A night in Shangrila of ecstacy;

 

Lanterns of gold, lanterns of blue,

Twinkle in the shadows

While I dance with you.

 

 

    I didn't dance with Cliff - But, Oh ! How we sang love songs !     http://cliffcartermrnostalgia.blogspot.com/2013/04/i-didnt-dance-with-cliff_27.html

 

 

Music - Sammy Fain

Lyrics -  Paul Francis Webster

1958