Mel Tormé (1925-99) would have been 100 on September 13. Derek Parker recalls the joy of meeting him
One Sunday morning in 1972, as my wife and I were breakfasting on the QE2 – the voyage to and from New York having been paid for by a generous publisher’s publicity office – a hatchet-faced American couple sat down opposite us, without so much as a by-your-leave.
Lifting her spoonful of hominy grits, the wom an suddenly said, ‘We didn’t see you at divine service this morning.’
‘No,’ said my wife, braver than I. ‘You wouldn’t have.’
There was a pause. Then, after more hominy grits, she suddenly said, ‘The camel is a signal mark of heavenly grace. He can go for six or seven months without water. Is that not a miracle?’
I failed to think of a response, and suddenly had a fit of coughing – noting that a gentleman sitting at a neighbouring table, behind the Americans, was barely concealing his hysteria.
That evening, he came up to us as we were having a drink in our favourite bar.
‘The Tormé can go for as long as five hours without a cocktail,’ he said, buying us two more gimlets.
Indeed, it was Mel Tormé (1925-99), the American singer and composer, aka the Velvet Fog. At that time, he was at the height of his splendid career, and on his way to the London Palladium. He gave two fine concerts on board (with a first-class stateroom thrown in for him). Between them, we shared another gimlet or two with him. A splendid gossip, he told a number of extremely good stories about his career.
My favourite was about the time when, as a youngster of 18, he was touring America with Chico Marx’s band – and, his popularity having gone to his head, he kept badgering Chico for more notable billing.
One day, the band was approaching Las Vegas for a stint at El Rancho. As they bussed into the city, the bandleader told Mel to ‘watch the lights’. Gradually the huge advertisements above Fremont Street grew more and more legible until, with less than full satisfaction, the singer was able to make out those over El Rancho.
In startlingly large and vivid letters, they read ‘MEL TROME’.
