April 9, 2021
“Once in Love with Amy” was the show stopper from a Broadway musical, “Where’s Charley?” which is based on an 1892 play, “Charley’s Aunt.” It told the story of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter’s aunt. The complications of the plot include the arrival of the real aunt and the attempts of an elderly fortune hunter to woo the bogus aunt.
When the musical of “Where’s Charley?” opened on Broadway, its star was an actor adored for playing the ‘Scarecrow’ in “The Wizard of Oz,” Ray Bolger. The musical did quite well on Broadway, running almost two years for 792 performances, which made it a solid, respectable hit for its day.
The original performance is one of the great “lost song” stories in Broadway history. When the show closed, Warner Bros. made a movie of the musical in 1952, using most the main stars from the original cast, but for reasons no one quite knows for absolute certain, the movie never got released. And there was never an original Broadway cast album made because there was recording industry strike in New York. The clip below is from a VHS recording the last time Turner Classic Movies showed it on TV in the late 70s. As of right now, there is no DVD, but there is one of “Charley’s Aunt,” starring Jack Benny.
“Once in Love with Amy” has been covered by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, among many. Sinatra’s version is more romantic, but the original with Ray Bolger is hard to beat.
👉 Some amusing panels, including two from way up north:
👉 Jack William Nicklaus won 117 professional tournaments in his career. Over a quarter-century, he won a record 18 major championships, three more than any other golfer (and when he started his career he won 2 national amateur championships which were, at the time, considered majors – so his total could be 20). Nicklaus turned professional in 1961 at age 21. He earned his first professional victory at the 1962 U.S. Open, defeating Arnold Palmer by three shots in an 18-hole playoff.
In 1963, Jack won his first Masters Tournament. In 1966, he became the first player to win the Masters two years running. He also won The Open Championship, becoming at age 26 the youngest player to win all four golf majors. Despite winning no majors in 1964 (he had three runner-up finishes), Nicklaus led the PGA Tour money list for the first time in his career by a slim margin of $81.13 over Arnold Palmer. When Nicklaus won the 1978 Open Championship at St. Andrews, he became the only player to win each major championship three times.
Shortly after turning professional, Nicklaus’s future agent, Mark McCormack, was interviewed by the Melbourne Age, who inquired about the American golf scene. When McCormack described Nicklaus, Lawrence referred to the “large, strong, and blond” player as “the Golden Bear,” a nickname that would become synonymous with Nicklaus throughout his professional life.
In 1986, Nicklaus capped his victories in major championships by winning his sixth Masters title. At the 17th hole on the final day, Nicklaus hit his second shot to within 18 feet and rolled it in for birdie. He raised his putter in celebration and completed an eagle-birdie-birdie run. At age 46, Nicklaus became the oldest Masters winner in history, a record that still stands. Of the feat, sports columnist Thomas Boswell remarked, “Some things cannot possibly happen, because they are both too improbable and too perfect. The U.S. hockey team cannot beat the Russians in the 1980 Olympics. Jack Nicklaus cannot shoot 65 to win The Masters at age 46. Nothing else comes immediately to mind.”
👉 Today is National Cherish an Antique Day. The day provides us an opportunity to learn the story and the history behind our treasured antiques. It’s an excellent time to record the provenance and preserve it for safekeeping. You are encouraged to look at something old and find out its story. If you’ve heard the story before, just raise your hand.
👉 $10,000,000 and 17 Cents.
There are many entertaining tall tales. In Arkansas there is the story about the pine tree which grew so fast it pulled itself up by the roots. Tucson, Arizona, boasts a climate so healthy that it was necessary to shoot a man in order to start a cemetery. A Missouri scarecrow is said to be so frightening that crows bring back corn that was stolen two years before. In Pennsylvania they tell of a grandfather clock so old that the shadow of the pendulum has worn a hole in the back of the case.
One day Jesus told a parable that to his listeners must have seemed like the tallest tall tale they had ever heard.
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle accounts, they brought to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as payment. But the servant fell down, kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the loan (Matthew 18:23-30 CEB).
The Common English Bible gives perspective to the 10,000 bags of gold. It was equivalent to 60 million days salary for an ordinary working man, equal to 165,000 years. Borrowing from a title by Wes Reagan, I call it “$10,000,000 and 17 cents.” The 17 cents was a slave’s earnings for one day. For a slave to owe ten million dollars was the wildest kind of exaggeration.
Ten million dollars is a lot of money. If today you went to the bank and borrowed ten million dollars at current rates, your interest would be almost $100,000 a month. You could pay that $100,000 a month for a thousand years and you would still owe $10,000,000.
Jesus’ big joke number one – how could a man who made pennies a day run up a multi-million dollar debt? Jesus’ big joke number two – the man asks for more time so he can pay it off. The man’s debt bears no relationship to his resources. And more time won’t help, because the interest will just keep compounding, and every day he will be deeper in debt.
And here is the point of the parable. My sins, and yours, have run up a debt with the Lord God Almighty that is so large we will never be able to pay it. Our only chance is not to beg for more time to settle the debt, but to beg for God’s mercy to forgive the debt. The good news is, our debt is paid in full by the death of Jesus on Calvary. All we have to do is ask for forgiveness.
He paid a debt he did not owe. I owed a debt I could not pay. A debt of $10,000,000 – and more, far more – paid in full!
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