GREETINGS TO MY FAMILY OF FRIENDS.
A Personal Remembrance of Two Legends of Stage and Screen.
Alice Faye, Phil Harris and I became good friends, and even remained in touch by mail afterwards, during their one week charter aboard the yacht ELEGANTE then purchased by Lorimar Productions (DALLAS / THE WALTONS) and now named: La Costa Brava ll. I was frequently the Chef aboard this classic twenties Dutch built vessel, Sister Ship to the Kennedy Presidential Yacht SEQUOIA, and Phil and Alice and I drew a friendship from our mutual love of the arts and their reading and enjoying all of my writings and recordings that I had with me while living on board, from my poetry performance art to my short stories and a lot of incomplete manuscripts, during their stay. Even my earliest recordings were put on the yacht stereo system by Phil. I think it was a departure from the pedestals of fame they had been tolerating to discover a new artist they took a keen interest in and may have been reminded of their younger selves by. They felt I had reached a very high standard as a writer and performer in so young a day and collectively scolded me for not being published rather like two parents giving their son a good talking to. This was back in 1977 in the Virgin Islands where I had achieved considerable fame as “The African Poet and Master Storyteller” (German born in Germany but raised in South Africa) on Calypso Radio and Stages with in-house Steel Drum Bands accompanying my performances. Before the charter was over I did get permission from Captain Don Punkka, at Phil and Alice’s request, to be their personal guest for their last day and night on board despite being a member of the crew. This was their cruise after all and Lorimar Productions was footing the bill. During the course of this arrangement I got considerably inebriated with Phil Harris and, later that evening, had occasion to dance to the recorded music of Louis Armstrong with the charming and inimitable legend of stage and screen~Alice Faye herself~on the aft deck. All this while Phil was watching us and nursing a cocktail and singing along with the great Satchmo in his own deep burly Phil Harris voice. All hiccups and drifting off into personal interpretations of the lyrics were chalked up to the cocktails of the hour. It must be included that the song we were dancing to was “Mack The Knife” out under the stars on the open sea. So there will be a performance piece that I have yet to write called: THE NIGHT I GOT DRUNK WITH PHIL HARRIS AND DANCED WITH ALICE FAYE. It will include the nickname I inherited from Phil, my new drinking buddy, which was “Pina Colada” instead of Claudio. And it will be a comedy like something Jimmy Buffet might write because we had a blast and, eventually, invited the rest of the crew to toss all caution to the wind and join in the fun. This included the Captain who was also my best friend. This is a true story with no exaggerations and one of my all time favourite memories at sea. There were certainly no other charters like this one with Phil Harris and Alice Faye as the life of the party.
Cheers!
Claudio Oswald Niedworok