A prediction comes true as Adler gives his final recital . . .
Jewish Telegraph, August 2001
THE time of my telephone interview with Larry Adler had nothing to do with me. His publicity company, eager to promote the CD The Glory of Gershwin, had dictated what time I had to ring the harmonica maestro. Yet, it didn’t stop the then 80-year-old from giving me a tongue-lashing for interrupting his viewing of the Wimbledon ladies singles semi-finals.
In the interview, he spoke of his admiration for legendary comedian/actor George Burns, saying: ‘‘I will never retire, I’ll die.’’
Sadly, Adler’s prediction came true on Tuesday morning as he passed away at London’s St Thomas’s Hospital, aged 87. Adler, who had been in showbusiness for an astonishing 73 years, was being treated for pneumonia.
Collaborations
His last recording was a duet of Young at Heart with Cerys Matthews from the Welsh band Catatonia. He was known for his original collaborations with musicians such as George Gershwin, Kate Bush, Sting and composer Vaughan William.
His former manager Jonathan Shalit said: ‘‘He was without doubt one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century and the world is a poorer place without him.’’
A highlight of his career was performing George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the Nuremberg Stadium on July 4, 1945.
‘‘It was incredible,’’ he told me in 1994, ‘‘a Jewish musician playing a work by a Jewish composer in a stadium Hitler had used to rally his troops.’’
Born Lawrence Cecil Adler in Baltimore on February 10, 1914, Adler told me that he was aware of his Judaism but had ‘‘no religion’’.
He said: ‘‘I haven’t even the faintest sense of it. I haven’t been near a synagogue for years. I told my son, ‘As your father is Jewish that makes you sort of Jewish. So if you want you can have a barmitzvah’. But he declined, saying that if he had one it would just be for the presents.’’
Adler taught himself the harmonica and began to play professionally at the age of 14. When he was 10 he became the youngest Cantor in Baltimore.
He was thrown out of the Peabody Conservatory of Music for performing Yes, We Have No Bananas in an exam instead of Grieg.
He then moved to New York and got his big break when Rudy Vallee agreed to put him on at his club.
One of Adler’s favourite stories was about a party in Chicago, where a guest interrogated the young performer about whether he attended synagogue faithfully, and wrote to his parents.
Adler replied that he wrote every couple of weeks. The man said: ‘‘What kind of kid are you? Look, kid, get your coat, go back to your hotel, sit down and write your mother and father a letter. And this Saturday, I don’t give a damn how many shows you got to do, you’re going to go to shool like a good Jewish boy.’’
Adler recalled: ‘‘And I went over to the comedian in my show, and I said, ‘Who’s that busybody I was talking to?’ He said ‘Al Capone’!’’
Prolific
Larry moved to the UK in 1949 having been forced to leave America after accusations of pro-communist sympathies during the McCarthy era. The slurs ruined his career in the US, though he was widely respected for his refusal to accuse other musicians or acquaintances.
Besides his musical fame, Adler also appeared in a number of films — playing himself.
He was also known as a prolific letter writer, his correspondence to the satirical magazine Private Eye becoming legendary.
He also wrote an autobiography — It Ain’t Necessarily So — in 1985, and worked as a food critic for Harper’s Queen.
The 1953 movie Genevieve brought him an Oscar nomination for his work on the soundtrack, although his name was originally kept off the credits because of the McCarthy blacklisting.
French composer Ravel left provision in his will for Larry to be allowed to perform Bolero without having to pay royalties.
Adler is survived by four children, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
