by William Livingstone
With cartoonist Charles Rodrigues (left)
Name Dropping
OBVIOUSLY, my job with this magazine has made it possible for me to meet some very important people in the audio industry. They include Roy Allison, Amar Bose, Robert Carver, Avery Fisher, John Koss, Paul Klipsch, Saul Marantz, and Walter Stanton, founders of companies that still bear their names.
In the music world I have been privileged to spend time with many of the artists who have thrilled me with their performances and recordings. James Taylor came to our office once, and I've met Carly Simon several times at parties. The late Mabel Mercer was a friend of mine, and I once sat next to Tony Bennett at dinner. In Las Vegas I interviewed Vikki Carr, and at Regine's in New York I had a drink with Bette Midler. I've been photo graphed with Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and Wynton Marsalis.
Billions of notes had been played by Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz by the time I got to shake hands with them. I've been able to chat more freely with such younger pianists as Ruth Laredo, Alicia de Larrocha, Alfred Brendel, John Browning, and Jorge Bolet.
Conductors I've talked with formally or informally include Erich Leinsdorf, Neville Marriner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Zubin Mehta, and Carlo Maria Giulini. They include big maestros from Antonio de Almeida to David Zinman.
I once ate two slices of a lemon pie baked by the Brazilian soprano Biclit SayAo, and a couple of times I've been treated to pasta cooked by Renata Scotto. I've visited the home of baritone Sherrill Milnes to inspect his very impressive hi-fi installation. Roberta Peters and Regine Crespin have been among my colleagues on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz, and the great tenors I've talked to include both Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.
Who do you suppose my friends and acquaintances ask me about the most? None of the above. Our cartoonist Charles Rodrigues is the one most people are curious about.
They want to know how he works and how he got such insight into the world of hi-fi.
So what can I tell you? Of Portuguese-American descent, Rodrigues is a middle-aged World War II veteran who lives on Cape Cod with his wife, two daughters, and five cats. In private life many humorists are melancholy souls, but Charles manages to smile a lot as he views the decline and fall of practically everything. He has never worked in an audio salon. He sleeps during the day and draws at night, usually listening to classical music on FM.
Charles was represented in Volume 1, Number 1, of this magazine in February 1958, and he has continued to supply us with cartoons.
Since February 1965 I've been the magazine's contact with him, and in twenty years I have not been able to discover how he thinks up the situations he draws or the gags he uses.
But I do know that he does not work with other people's ideas.
When readers submit suggestions for Charles, we pass them on to him, but they do not result in cartoons. For those of you who would like to collaborate on a Rodrigues cartoon, however, we are prepared to work it the other way around. We have asked Charles to make a drawing which we are printing without a caption, and we will have a contest to see which reader can supply the funniest gag line to go with the drawing. To see the cartoon and read the rules of the contest turn to page 27. If you submit the winning entry, celebrity awaits you. We'll be dropping your name into the pages of STEREO REVIEW.
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Source: Stereo Review (USA magazine)