The Missing Al Grey

It was a COLD winter afternoon and we had scheduled a 4:00pm interview on WBLS with Al Grey, one of our Three Kings.  I met Al and his lady friend, Rosalie Solidar at the station.  They had driven in from their home in Great Neck.  When the interview was over Al said he would go get the car out of the lot and ran ahead of us.  The last I saw was Al skipping down 3rd Avenue.  Rosalie and I chatted and made our way down to the lot expecting to see Al in the car waiting for us.  When we got there, there was no car … no Al.  We waited … and waited … and looked … and looked … no car … no Al.  It was as if he had disappeared off the face of the earth!

It got to be 6 o’clock and I finally told Rosalie that I would have to go over to St. Bart’s where we were doing the show.  I hated to leave her standing in the bitter cold but there was no choice.  At 7:00 Rosalie showed up at St Bart’s.  Al had simply disappeared!  This was all before cell phones.  Of course she was distraught and so was I but I was also beginning to be panicked about what we were going to do about a third King!  We had an eight o’clock hit and a full house!  

The cast was all gathered in the downstairs choir room.  It was 7:45.  I was figuring out who of our special guests we could use as a substitute king when the door burst open and in came Al!  Grinning from ear to ear, as only Al Grey could, he flung his leather trombone case on top the grand piano.  “Wait ‘til you see this!” he said … He unzipped the case and pulled out his trombone.  The bell was as flat as a pancake!

What had happened was:  Al had gotten to the parking lot, got in his car and reached over his shoulder to pat his horn to be sure it was there.  IT WASN”T!!!  He realized what had happened.  He had come out of the house carrying his horn in one hand and a bag of garbage in the other.  He put the horn down to take the top off the garbage can, put the garbage in, put the lid back, on and got in the car.  He realized that his horn must be back in the driveway!  There was no time to explain.  Five o’clock!  The very worst time to leave New York to drive to Long Island!  

He sped out of the parking lot and headed for Great Neck.  He got to his home and sure enough, there in the drive way was his horn.  He picked it up, unzipped the case and froze.  He had backed up right over it!  He ran in the house, picked up a horn an instrument company had just given him to endorse, leaped back into the car and headed for Manhattan arriving at St. Bart’s just in time to be our Third King!

The flattened trombone was mounted on a wall in their home:

Harold Nicholas

It was our third year at St. Barts.  Our second King, the tap dancing king had been Honi Coles, Cookie Cook and this year, it was to be the great Harold Nicholas!  Our stage was set … a slightly raked platform on which Mary sits.  We began the rehearsal … one run through before the 5 o’clock show.  At two o’clock the three kings arrived … Clark Terry, Tito Puente and Harold Nicholas.  All was going wonderfully until Harold walked up to the stage and said “Sorry, I don’t dance on a rake”, AND WENT HOME!!!

Harold Nicholas!  Harold Nicholas who dances up and down stairs, who  flies through the air doing splits doesn’t dance on a rake!! I turned to a young man who was in the choir who had been in Tap Dance Kid and said “Get ready, Jeff, we might have to powder your hair!”

Then I began to think.  They have big concerts at St. Bart’s, concerts with full orchestras … they must have some way to extend the stage … down stairs!  Down we went into the catacombs beneath St. Bart’s … and sure enough, off in a deep dark corner were the “stage extenders.”  Big, heavy, dark brown wooden stage extenders.  Of course they had to be brought up on the freight elevator … a very old freight elevator that could only be run manually.  On Sunday there is no elevator operator.

A couple of the singers were sure they could figure it out and soon enough we were hauling them up into the church and putting them together.