Donald
Chapter One:
“Reunion- Revisited”
“Reunion- Revisited”
October 18th 1969
The din of a dozen conversations
resonated throughout the backstage area of the Majestic Theater in mid-town Manhattan. It neared
midnight. Moments earlier the venue played host to “An Evening of Solid Gold,” a
sold-out Rock and Roll reunion concert. The show featured an array of performers
who recorded for Chanticleer Records, one of the most successful independent
record labels of the fifties and early sixties.
It was a re-birth of sorts for Joseph Rabinowitz, the thirty-four year old entrepreneur and co-founder of the label. His life had been in shambles for the past five years. An idyllic marriage ended in divorce. The music empire he created with his business partner Leo Klein came crashing down around his ears. The onslaught of the British musical invasion very nearly destroyed the American music industry.
The success of this show gave Joseph a
sense of vindication. It provided a rare, happy moment in his professional life
that now spilled backstage. Still, more personal disappointments tempered his
enthusiasm.
Then, in what seemed like the very next
instant.
“Hey, look who I found wandering
around!” Somehow, the voice of Curtis Tinnsley, the show’s musical director
managed to gain the attention of some of those gathered, Joseph among them.
He was stunned when he saw that Curtis
had his ex-wife Janet in tow. Excusing himself from a conversation with a
reporter, Joseph made his way across the crowded area. Janet smiled and lowered
her head as he drew near.
“You know this woman, Joe?” Curtis
asked.
“She looks vaguely familiar.” He joked taking both of Janet’s hands in his.
He resisted the temptation to kiss her. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” It was nice seeing you again,
Janet.”
“Same here, Curtis.”
Weeks before, she surprised Joseph by showing
up at his apartment with her five year old daughter. It was the first time the
couple had seen one another since Janet moved to London shortly after their
divorce. Janet’s love affair with a British rock star named Ian Markham
produced her daughter Danielle. Although Joseph invited Janet to the concert at
that time, she told him that she wouldn’t be able to attend. Now, he felt more
than happy to see her backstage.
“Why didn’t you call me? I would have
sent tickets.”
“It was a last minute thing. There was
a change in plans so, here I am.”
“You’re alone?”
“Yes, I am.”
“My, my,” a voice said from behind them.
They turned to see Leo Klein approaching. His was another familiar face from
her younger days. “Joseph told me you’d been in town, but he didn’t expect you
to show up.”
“It was a last minute thing,” she
repeated. Janet tilted her head to accept his gracious kiss to her cheek.
Leo turned to Joseph. “We should wrap
things up here.”
“Yes,” he responded, and turned to
Janet. “We’re having a party at Monahan’s on Sixth. You’ll join us?”
“Oh, I think not. I just wanted to
come back and congratulate everyone.”
“Nonsense,” Leo said.
“Leo’s right, you’re coming with us.”
He thought for a moment before adding. “Unless…where’s Danielle?”
“With her nanny, she’s fine.”
“Then it’s settled. You can ride with
us. I’ll get this crowd started. Leo will you take Janet and get us a cab?”
“Certainly,” Leo happily agreed.
♫♫♫♫♫
Monahan’s Irish Pub was a chain of
taverns throughout New York City. Their location on East 59th Street featured a
large downstairs banquet room which seated close to a hundred people. It had a
low, wood beamed ceiling, rich oak paneling and soft, muted lighting. More than
a dozen long tables set up side by side lined both walls. The room reached near
capacity by the time everyone from the show arrived. Many who knew Janet from
the old days monopolized her time swapping stories and catching up. People like
Johnny Seracino and Bobby Vitale from the labels most successful male group,
the Du-Kanes or the two remaining members of the Pixies, Althea Rhodes and
Roberta Johnson. In her songwriting days with Joseph they’d written many hit
songs for them and others.
She enjoyed a long conversation with
Mickey Christie, an old friend and Joseph’s sound engineer. Mickey’s wife Linda
had been her closet friend and confidant. Now they lived on the west coast with
two children of their own. They had fun looking at snapshots of their kids.
Joseph too found himself otherwise
occupied with matters, business matters.
“People are going to be talking about tonight’s show for a long
time.” Jacob Miliewski offered in a soft voice. The well-known New York disc
jockey was the evening’s Master of Ceremonies. He sat with Joseph and Leo at a
smaller table off to one side of the room.
“Jacob’s
right,” Leo said. “This was beyond our wildest dreams.”
“Listen,
kid,” Miliewski told Joseph. “You gotta strike while the iron is hot. First
thing tomorrow morning, you start making plans for the next one.”
“Next
one?” Joseph asked with surprise. “Jacob this was a one shot deal.”
“Sure,
sure, when we thought it was a risk that’s the only way you could look at it. But you beat the
odds…proved it could work. If you
don’t follow up on it you can bet your ass somebody else will.”
Leo’s
eyes widened at the thought of another money making project “Joseph, we should
at least discuss it.”
“Okay,”
Joseph relented, “but not tonight. Let’s sleep on it.”
“That’s
the ticket,” Jacob beamed.
As
the festivities wound down, many partygoers headed home. Joseph and Janet
finally had time to sit together and have a quiet conversation.
She told him of her relationship problems
with Markham, especially drug related incidents which had become public. “I’m
not returning to England,” she told Joseph, taking him by surprise. “I will not
expose Dani to all that.”
“How
do you think Ian will react?”
“He’ll
be angry…hurt. He does love his daughter very much. He just doesn’t have a place
in his life for us anymore.” Joseph looked away. “Sorry,” Janet added, after
realizing she once said the exact same thing about him. “I don’t think I’ll have an easy time of it.”
“Janet,
I want you to understand that you won’t have to go through this alone.”
She
managed a smile and a single thought entered her mind, ice cream.
♫♫♫♫♫
The first thing Janet saw when she opened her eyes the next
morning were two empty one-pint ice cream cartons on the night stand. Sometime
while living abroad she acquired a taste for strawberry ice cream over butter
pecan. Rather than quibble about it, they bought a pint of each. The first
thing she heard was the deep
breathing of Joseph asleep next to her. He looked so peaceful, a combination of
relief from the nervous tension of the concert the night before, and
satisfaction from their session of torrid lovemaking.
The decision to go back to the
apartment with him was impulsive to be sure.
Caught up in the exhilaration of the events she couldn’t refuse his
invitation. In this afterglow moment, she felt no regrets. Joseph still loved
her. She knew this from the first time she visited him with Danielle weeks
before. As to her own feelings, she wasn’t sure.
Joseph woke and turned to face her. She responded
by lying flat on her back. He reached his arm across her belly.
“Should I make us breakfast?” he
asked.
“Goodness, Joseph it must be lunch time by now.”
“Alright then, lunch.”
“I really should be getting back. I
don’t leave Dani with her nanny overnight often.”
“Can I call you later…dinner?”
“Not tonight.” Then, before he could
protest, “tomorrow perhaps…we’ll have time for all this, Joseph, I promise.”
“I need a shower and coffee.”
“Go ahead. I’ll make the coffee.”
He kissed her on the cheek before
getting out of bed.
She lay there listening to the shower running,
and thought about what she told him. Was she
ready or even willing to renew a relationship she fled just a few years before?
She left the bed and walked to the closet. There
she found several neatly pressed white dress shirts hanging in a row. She put
one on, buttoned a single button across her breasts and headed toward the
kitchen.
Once the coffee was brewing, she took
the time to look around the apartment. Last time she noticed a new addition to
the furnishings, a bookcase standing some eight feet high in the middle of one
wall of the living room. As she approached to inspect its contents, she wondered
how he ever found the time to read. She scanned a row of titles and found them,
standing side by side, the four photo books she published abroad. The first two
contained pictures from the English and Scottish Countryside. The third
featured photos from Germany and the fourth from the Netherlands, both done
while she toured with Ian’s band, The Have Knots. Seeing her work on his
bookshelf gave her a warm feeling.
Joseph was fully dressed as he entered
the living room. “Coffee smells good.”
“Should be just about done.”
“Better hurry if you wanna shower before
all the hot water is gone.”
“Interesting collection you have here.”
“For show mostly. I never seem to have
any time to read these days.”
Janet smiled.
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