I saw Liza at the Concord Hotel, in the Catskills, in 1970, one year after her mother died and one year before she made Cabaret. I was 14.
She sang "Mister Bojangles" and "Maybe This Time," "God Bless the Child" and an amazing version of "Shine on, Harvest Moon." A drunken man yelled out that she should sing "Over the Rainbow" and she said, "There was only one woman who could sing that sing, and she's no longer with us." The audience applauded and the drunken man's wife escorted him out.
I went backstage and she let me hold her dog's leash. The dog pooped in the corridor outside the dressing room. Someone cleaned it up and said, "Don't tell Liza." Liza kissed me on the cheek and thanked me for walking her dog.
Thirty years later--I was now 44--I was seated at a dinner table with her and I told her that story. She pointed a finger at me and said, "I was just going to say...you LOOK very familiar!"
Updated On: 4/14/08 at 09:56 PM