I Can Hear The Music: The Life of Gene DiNovi

Chapter Thirty-Three

One day, I was at the Desilu offices shooting the breeze with Lou Edelman

when Joey Bishop came rushing up.

"Hey Lou," Joey said, "I need a piano player right away."

" Well, you're in luck, Joey, because here's your guy standing beside me," Lou said, indicating me. "Joey, meet Gene DiNovi."

I had to laugh. It was just like the incident a few years earlier back in New York City outside Charlie's Tavern when I happened to be in the right place at the right time to get offered a job with Artie Shaw. Joey Bishop was no Artie Shaw, but he paid good money.

Joey had his own situation comedy at this time, the early 1960s. It was called The Joey Bishop Show, appearing on CBS for three years beginning in 1961, then one more year on NBC. The show struggled in the ratings and went through many changes in the supporting cast. But it lasted for the four years in total, and to cash in on his TV popularity, Joey put together an act to take on the road in one-nighters around Southern California. The act consisted mostly of Joey telling jokes, but it also included humourous songs, which needed piano accompaniment. That was where I came in.

Joey was a very intense guy, very single-minded about the gigs we did. One time we were booked into the big naval base in San Diego. When we arrived on the base, a very impressive looking man welcomed us. He wore a cap trimmed with braid. There was more braid on his jacket, and he had a couple of rows of ribbons and medals across his chest. It was pretty obvious to me that the man was a senior person at the base, no doubt an admiral. But it wasn't obvious to single-minded Joey.

"Here," Joey said, handing his suitcase to the man with all the braid. "Leave this at the desk, will ya. Tell them, I'll pick it up later."

Joey thought the admiral was the hotel doorman. The admiral smiled. He seemed to think Joey's mistake was pretty funny.

Joey was a Jewish guy from from the Bronx, born Gottlieb, and about ten years older than me. He was a very dour person, and not a bundle of fun for a guy in my position who had to spent days on the road with him. Still, no matter how gloomy he may have looked, Joey was very quick with a spontaneously funny line.

Once, taping his show, somebody accidentally broke a glass on the set behind Joey.

"Who got married?" he said right away. (If anybody needs an explanation, it's this: as part of the traditional Jewish marriage ceremony, the groom crushes a glass with his foot.)

In his own way, Joey was a student of comedy. He'd do anything to discover the secrets of making people laugh. For a fairly long period, he invited Lenny Bruce's mother to hang around the show's set. Joey thought he could examine Lenny's mind through the mother, and maybe find out where the laughs came from. Joey envied people like Lenny, Jack Benny, Oscar Levant and a few other comedians he considered to be the most clever with lines and routines and timing.

Levant came on Joey's sitcom to play himself in one episode. For a particular scene, Oscar was supposed to be practising at the piano. But Oscar was too weak at the time from illness. He could deliver spoken lines, but he couldn't play the piano. So they arranged for him to pretend to be playing in the practising scene while another pianist actually provided the music on the sound track. The other pianist was me.

After I did my bit, Oscar said to Joey, "Wow, that guy can play."

Joey came over to me and said, "Oscar says you can really play." As he spoke, Joey looked like he was delivering news that completely surprised him. He and I had been working together dozens of times by then, but he didn't know that I was a good pianist until somebody he respected told him so.