Frank got to know our family and learned something of our family history by being around us. My grandmother had been in vaudeville and once had boasted she had played the stages of the penultimate and the absolute epitome of vaudeville venues, the absolute queen of theaters, whose floorboards were reserved for only the very famous and topmost acts, the Palace in New York (which my mother maintained was not true.)

My mother did tell me once that after such a discussion, in the early 60s, Frank added to the conversation of the day. "He said he's going to play at Carnegie Hall." Which he eventually did do.

(Just found this after posting this retrieved memory:
http://www.carnegiehall.org/BlogPost.aspx?id=4294982782


(Palace Theatre,
New York Palace Theatre, New York, 1915. Copyprint.
Courtesy of the Theatre Historical Society
of America, Elmhurst, Illinois
My mother insisted my grandmother had not really "played" the Palace, despite a photograph of her and others lined-up and smiling while standing out front. "She and the others were just hired to dance there for a few weeks.")  ¶ 1/11/2012 11:24:00 AM