Normally after observing the fall holy days, we scurry back home so I can plunge back into the tuning life, but this is my last year at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, and I confess to a more relaxed approach. This year, after our 8 days at Lake George, New York, we moseyed down the scenic Hudson River Valley and took in a couple of things that have had a large impact on my life. The first is the United States Military Academy at West Point. My father graduated from there in 1949, and I can unequivocally say it was one of the major influences on his life, as intended. Naturally, it also had a huge effect on mine. I had seen it as a child, but wanted to get an adult perspective on this part of my dad’s life. They recently opened a beautiful new visitors’ center, where we were able to book a bus tour. Security is pretty stringent – you are entering a military base.
I neglected to take a photo, so I borrowed this from the Van Etten Company, who did the paving.
We walked through well-planned exhibits that gave us a flavor of the 4 years of cadet life, and watched a few videos before boarding our bus. There were 8 people on our tour, and we were the only U.S. citizens. Since both Thea and I were born in Europe, the only native-borns were the bus driver and our guide!
Our first stop was the iconic Chapel. Among other things, it is home to a huge pipe organ, with 4 manuals and 23,236 pipes. It was undergoing maintenance, so played no part in our tour. But it’s a stunning setting, and I know it meant a lot to my dad.
Our intrepid guide, Ed, was a marvel. He said Navy ne’er-do-wells have been known to sneak in and mess up the precision hymnbook array.
So colorful. People from the bible.
I believe the figure is the angel Michael, the general of God’s armies.
Duty, honor, country. It still means something at West Point.
No filter here, it was just a sepia day, and taking a turn for the worse.
Battle Monument, commemorating West Point soldiers in the U.S. Civil War. This I remembered clearly from my childhood, with the carved stone balls. Note the cannons stuck upside-down in the ground.
Battle Monument sits near Trophy Point, with its “million dollar view”, truly one of the most breathtaking vistas in the U.S. Our guide Ed really was great. He has worked on the post most of his life, and has an insider’s view.
Except I’m not sure I believe the spiel about cadets studying for exams and coming outside and twirling General Sedgwick’s spur stars for good luck. Nice spurs, though.
The parade ground where my dad marched. Funny thing, he was in “A Company”, where all the men were 6’2” so they would present a level line on the parade field. So all my dad’s army friends when I was a little kid were 6’2”.
It’s a huge campus. The bus ride wasn’t conducive for photos. The weather was definitely taking a turn for the worse when the bus returned to the visitors’ center. We went in the gift shop and found this quote gratifying – Dad played football for Army.
Next door is the West Point Museum. We ducked in, and found the military history interesting but not as compelling as getting to our hotel before the heavens opened.
The second impetus for our trip was that the small towns on both sides of the river were hosting events all year commemorating the 50th anniversary of the filming of the movie “Hello, Dolly!” in the area. There was even a concert by the West Point Band a month earlier. I have always had something of a healthy obsession with the movie since it came out in 1969 and my parents dropped the 4 older Graham kids off at a movie theater in St. Petersburg to see it while they spent time with my grandparents.
The movie has taken more than its share of flak over the years from critics. I was 17, and had no previous exposure to the admittedly silly story, and no one to compare Barbra Streisand with. All I knew was, I had never seen a film with such lavish sets, such energetic, heart-stirring choreography, and such happily infectious music that even we teenagers hummed long after we left the theater. Everything is over the top, and yet it has a realism in its own way, perhaps from largely being filmed outdoors and on location. At my tender age, I could easily believe the 26-year-old Streisand was old enough for the part, the main criticism. It also didn’t hurt that our Oscar-winning uncle Art Cruickshank worked on the special photographic effects and was in the opening credits.
And what an assembly of talent! It was maybe the last gasp of the great movie-musical tradition. Gene Kelly directed, Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay, Roger Edens and others did music, the orchestrations were sublime, Michael Kidd supplied perhaps the greatest movie choreography ever, and thus shaped much of the action. 20th Century Fox nearly went broke on the sets and constumes; scenic designer John Cuir even transformed their L.A. backlot into 14 acres of a re-creation of 1890 New York City, complete with elevated train and the unbelievably opulent Harmonia Gardens restaurant. Irene Sharaff did the costumes, and re-used many of her creations from “Meet Me In St. Louis” in the process. [If you don’t know these titan’s names, look them up; together they created the Hollywood musical]. I could go on and on; I love the movie. I consider it Barbra Streisand’s most brilliant singing and comedy (yes, she used to be funny!), although to this day she seems embarrassed and indifferent that it ever happened. Meanwhile our family knows every line by heart, and don’t think they don’t crop up daily in our conversations.
On top of that, of course Bette Midler has recreated the role on Broadway in the last year, and the touring company with Betty Buckley has come through Cleveland. Thea and I saw it and thoroughly enjoyed it, but it’s very, very different from the movie, and I think you know which I prefer.
Anyway… the Yonkers part of the story was filmed right across the river from West Point, in various little towns, mostly in Garrison with its train station and period buildings. The company pretty much took over the town for a summer. The Putman County Museum was hosting an exhibit of film memorabilia through the end of October (Barbra’s dress had to go back), but it wasn’t open till the following day, so after we deposited our luggage at the hotel we drove in some of the worst rain I have ever experienced to Garrison. And what should pop up in front of us but the Vandergelder’s Hay & Feed building, and the train station where “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” was filmed!
No way were we getting out of the car, though. So it was back to the hotel to hope for better weather the following day.
And then, the magic of Facebook kicked in. I posted a few gloomy pictures of our West Point day, and got a message from BW alumna and professional cellist Patricia Santos, who not only lives in West Point, but her husband Brian Broelmann, an incredibly versatile and gifted musician as well as nice guy, is a member of the West Point Band. Patricia and I collaborated a bit in her college years, and I was thrilled that the four of us could get together over supper at Schade’s, a few blocks from their home.
Taken in daylight the next morning! I forgot to document the dinner.
Not only did Thea and I thoroughly enjoy their company on that dismal, drippy evening, but we accepted an invitation to meet Patricia the next morning, have her drive us on to the post and get a leisurely tour of whatever we wanted, AND we could watch and hear Brian and the band practice on the field for an upcoming event. It wasn’t in our plans, but it was too good to pass up. Stay tuned for what came to pass the following day.