Tony Hendra Brings The House Down At Writing Center
By Dr. Pola Rosen
“Well he didn’t exactly bring the house down in the concluding presentation of the Clementina Santi Flaherty Irish Voices Series at Marymount,” said Lewis Burke Frumkes, the Center’s eminent Director. “Just as Tony was gratefully acknowledging an ovation from the crowd and inscribing books for worshipful fans a piercing sound rang out throughout the school and I had to ask everyone to quickly leave because firemen were coming up the stairs.” “What was more extraordinary,” said Frumkes, “was that some people insisted on having their books signed before they would leave.” It was only a false alarm fortunately, but nobody will forget the evening. Hendra, who appeared as the British manager Ian Faith in the film “This Is Spinal Tap,” and was editor of “Spy” magazine, and “The National Lampoon,” and the parodies “Not the New York Times,” and “My Wall Street Journal,” clearly had the audience in the palm of his hand. He read passages from his best-selling book “Father Joe,” that brought tears to the eyes of some fans, followed by shrieks of hilarity when he dead-panned some devastatingly irreverent lines. Frumkes thanked everyone for coming before the alarm sounded and invited them back in the Spring to hear some of the Best-Selling Authors he has lined up at Marymount January through May, such as Colin Harrison, Kerry Kennedy, Charles Van Doren, Sandra Brown, the screenwriter Heywood Gould, and the psychologist Steven Pinker. There will also be Master classes taught by John Simon, Debbie Applegate, and Sana Krasikov, and a publishing panel with Daphne Merkin, Chip McGrath, and other important editors and literary lights. Programs at the Writing Center are always memorable and in some cases such as this one unforgettable.#
