Summer 2010 Jo Lee - JO LEE Magazine

THE PROVOCATIVE & CHALLENGING WORLD OF ARCERI
JO LEE Magazine – CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF LUXURY – DECEMBER 2010
Sing, San Francisco Part Two
By Gene Arceri
New York – San Francisco – London
In my last article I wrote about the
famous Jeanette MacDonald song,
“San Francisco”, from her movie of
the same name. Now! Sing… “I
Left My Heart in San Francisco”.
This simple, sentimental song
became the second of that city’s two
favorite themes. (The other “San
Francisco”.) But, “I Left My Heart
In San Francisco” became significant
to servicemen, especially during the
Vietnam War, who sailed away under
the Golden Gate Bridge, looking
back at the shining hills of San
Francisco, possibly for the last time.
As a young songwriting team
struggling in New York, in 1946,
George Cory {who wrote the music}
and Douglass Cross {the lyrics}, were
seeking their fortunes in the Tin
Pan Alley big time. Both had been
born in the Bay Area, homesick for
San Francisco in 1953 and poured
their sentiments into one song. They
had written over 200 songs but only
thirty were ever published. {One,
“Carry Me Back To Old Manhattan”
sounds interesting.}
The San Francisco song went
nowhere, but in 1961, singer Tony
Bennett (Sinatra turned it down)
was looking for new material for
his act in the Venetian Room at the
Fairmont Hotel. The songwriters
dug into their trunk, pulled out the
8-year-old song and shortly thereafter
it became a huge and enduring
international hit. It also became
Tony Bennett’s signature song, and
later became the city’s official anthem
in 1969.
However, all did not bode well
personally for the composers, who,
rich and famous, had moved back
to the San Francisco Bay Area.
George Cory was found dead, at age
55, in his luxurious, San Francisco
penthouse at 18 Pleasant Street on
Nob Hill. Douglass Cross had died 3
years earlier in Petaluma, California.
At that time, George wrote about
his partner’s death: “I’m up in the
country place taking care of urgent
business contingent upon my
partner’s death, his burial, his will, as
well as a traumatic visit to the home
we once shared and jointly owned
there.” In 1975, I met George, who
was actually a neighbor of mine when
I lived on San Francisco’s Taylor
Street. Later, when I was asked to
replace a singer, who couldn’t make it
for a convention in the Gold Room
of the Fairmont, I was hired to sing
with Ernie Heckster’s orchestra. The
two songs people wanted to hear
most were San Francisco and I Left
My Heart in San Francisco. While
dancing - the out-of-towner crowd
sang along. They could hardly know
that one of the composers had once
lived just a few blocks away.
San Francisco endured another quake
in 1989 and San Francisco lifted its
voice to sing again. Blessed with
mostly good weather, a spectacular
location and thrilling views - San
Francisco remains a very unique
place. As for myself, I left my heart
in London.
JL
Jo Lee Summer 2010 95