![]() Evenings heralded a continuous parade of Scotch-and-sodas. Lunches were lubricated with a 50-50 concoction of Dubonnet and gin. Dick (as he was known, and will be known here to keep the various Rodgerses straight) hid vodka bottles in toilet tanks - a clever ploy for an aging man whose bladder wasn’t likely as robust as it once had been. As for the other two elements, the womanizing was unstoppable, racing through chorus girls, Eva Gabor, apparently Diahann Carroll and definitely the original Tuptim in “The King and I” - according to Mary, “the whitest Burmese slave princess ever.” The drinking was equally prodigious. This one grasps Richard Rodgers in four words: “composer, womanizer, alcoholic, genius.” The composer part we all know, and if your tastes run in the direction of “Oklahoma! ,” “South Pacific ,” “Carousel,” et many al., the genius as well. “Daddy” is the first word in the book, and it provokes the first of Green’s many illuminating footnotes, which enrich the pages of “Shy” like butter on a steak. And also the mother of six, the wife of two, an occasional adulterer, a credulous participant in an earnest trial marriage to Stephen Sondheim (!) - and the daughter of two of the most vividly (if scarily) rendered parents I’ve ever encountered. Written in collaboration with the New York Times theater critic Jesse Green, who completed it after Rodgers’s death at 83 in 2014, “Shy” relates the life story of a successful songwriter-scriptwriter-television producer-children’s book writer. The book is pure pleasure - except when it’s jaw-droppingly shocking. I’m also a sucker for books about Broadway, books as different from one another as Moss Hart’s “Act One,” William Goldman’s “The Season” and Jack Viertel’s “The Secret Life of the American Musical.” But I’ve never read one more entertaining (and more revealing) than Mary Rodgers’s “Shy.” Her voice careens between intimate, sardonic, confessional, comic. Let’s start with a full disclosure: I’m a sucker for Broadway - one of those theater fans who will see five different productions of the same show, who genuflect before cast albums from the ’50s, who inhale theater gossip as if it really mattered. Prime Minister David Cameron has spoken of his concerns.SHY: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers, by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green The BBC has promised to dig into his past - and their own apparent failure over years to stop him. It was awful, and it should have been stopped before you could hurt so many unsuspecting, trustful youngsters. He penned his own epitaph, written in gold leaf on the polished granite stone: “It was good while it lasted.” ![]() His gravestone - actually three of them side-by-side - was, like Savile, flamboyant and larger than life. Floral tributes and a piece of turf mark the spot where the headstone was removed from Jimmy Savile's grave. A showman to the end, he was buried in a gold coffin and laid to rest at an angle of 45 degrees so he could have a view out to sea. There are calls to strip him of his knighthood. Now, he’s said even to have abused children as they lay in their hospital beds.Īcross Britain, 11 police forces are now investigating up to 40 allegations of abuse by victims who were as young as 13. Savile’s supposed good works included working as a porter and fundraiser in major medical facilities. ITV News: TV star says 'Savile's hands were everywhere, just lingering' It’s alleged that for years Savile took underage girls into his dressing room at the BBC - and that “everyone” knew what was going on. The revelations burst into the public consciousness last week, and every day since the headlines have revealed claims of more and more lurid behavior - much of it taking place under the noses of the authorities, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the country's highly respected public broadcaster. ![]() To get the enormity of this, imagine Captain Kangaroo standing accused today of being a sexual predator. Samir Hussein / WireImage via Getty Images, file Sir Jimmy Savile attends the ceremony to name Cunard's new cruise-liner Queen Elizabeth II in Southampton Docks Oct. For it turns out that Uncle Jim was very likely a sexual pervert - a man who systematically sought out young girls and abused them over decades, all while hiding under the guise of being one of the biggest and nicest celebrities in the country.
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