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 My Friend Schulenberg
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| October 12, 1961. |
October 13, 1961. |
My friend Schulenberg. He was a new boy in town. This sketchbook’s pages begin on September 3, 1961, one week after his 29th birthday. He came to New York like so many of us had come to New York to “seek his fortune,” but mainly to have a career as an artist.
The first nights he stayed with his friend from UCLA, Barré Dennen, who had an apartment on West 9th between 6th and 7th. The first night he met Barre’s girlfriend, a kid from Brooklyn who spelled her name in a weird way -- Barbra -- who worked as a hatcheck in a gay bar across the street called “The Lion Inn” where she’d won the talent night contest and a two-week gig performing at the club.
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| The opening page of Bob Schulenberg's sketchbook, September 3, 1961 through January 1962. |
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Through another friend from UCLA, Paul Bartel, whose father had a major ad agency (West, Weir and Bartel) he got a job. Through another friend he found an apartment – furnished, including a grand piano (he played) at 31 Gramercy Park. It wasn’t cheap but it wasn’t expensive ($160) a month.
The standard form for his sketchbook which could run for 4 months or 6 weeks, was an opening page that was often a notebook of phone numbers and passing details and thoughts. Although he’d been keeping sketchbooks for a while at this point in his life, entry into New York turned the process into a habit, a right arm, a best friend. He had one with him almost everywhere he went (except maybe picking up laundry).
He had several talents including the talent to be a friend. I’d estimate he made thousands of friends, literally, in his travels, over the years. Partly because he’s very smart, good company, and curious. It’s probably the curiosity that’s driven him all his life; that’s my guess. The sketchbooks are an actualization and a record of that curiosity, telling you much about the artist and much about his subjects.
Looking through his page of addresses and notes, you will see the phone numbers all have letters before them. PL 3 – 5 (that’s PLaza 5), El 5- 8670 (ELdorado 5). “The Blue Angel” reference after the PL 5 number is to the night club on East 52nd Street that belonged to Broadway producer Max Gordon, who also owned a very important club in the Village called the Village Vanguard. Major artists played those clubs. The parenthetical reference to “Ben Bagley” was the man who produced a series of very successful off-Broadway musical reviews featuring the works of individual composers as performed by a group of actor/singers. His first hit “Shoestring Revue” starred, among others, Bea Arthur and Chita Rivera – newcomers. His 1965 off-Broadway revue “The Decline and Fall of the World As Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter” ran for 15 months.
The reference to “Jay Thorpe” – Jay Thorpe was a major upscale Fifth Avenue department store.
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Perusing the page: there are several standard song titles, probably written down to remind his friend Barre’s girlfriend who was always looking for new and clever material. On the lower right hand corner in someone else’s handwriting are several tunes that she made or was thinking of making part of her repertoire. (“You’re the Cure For What Ails Me,” “I Love to Sing,” “Just Because We’re Kids,” “You’re A Builder-Upper,” “Can’t You Do A Friend A Favor,” “I’ve Got to Get Hot.” )
Barbra was a quick sensation. So quick there must have been those pros who thought it wouldn’t last. Like a gimmick. Indeed, there was the element of gimmick in her choices. But the artist could be a comedienne, tragedienne, funny, sad, nutty. Her presence on the scene in New York marked a New Era. Rock and Roll was already here (and to stay) but Barbra, this Jewish kid from Erasmus High, was wit. And cool. In her tranjectory to superstardom in the movies, she seemed to have lost most of that along the way, so that we’re left mainly with the ego that produced it.
If you look on the right sight of the page you’ll see the phone number for the singer then: JU 6-8332. JU for Judson 6. Which meant she lived on the West Side midtown. The Broadway office numbers were often JU 6.
This next series is sequential of his first days as a kid from California in New York for a new life, the New York life. |
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| Long Island train, 9 - 4 - 61. |
Renee's -- Sands Pt., L.I. 9 - 4 - 61. |
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At the Plaza, 10 - 1 - 61. |
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| Subway, 10 - 3 - 61. |
Manny Wolf's, 10 - 3. |
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| Ellington (advertising), 10 - 2 - 61. |
Margo -- 11 - 3 - 61 -- Jack Ellis. |
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| Beverly Ross -- Brasserie 10 - 4 - 61. |
Brasserie, 10 - 4 - 61. |
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| Howard Johnson's, 9 - 3 - 61. |
Brasserie 11 - 4. |
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