I thought about this story last night because of Affair to Remember (you know. That I watched last night when it was ON TELEVISION. Anyway.) Quincy Jones and Cary Grant became very very good friends in the last 20 years of Cary Grant’s life. Jones said about their friendship:
The upper-class English viewed the lower-class like black people. Cary and I both had an identification with the underdog. My perception is that we could be really open with each other because there was a serious parallel in our experience.
I would add to that – they shared a determination (and obstinacy, almost) to not let their outward circumstances define who they were and what they could do. I love the couple of different stories I’ve heard about their friendship. They met in 1961, but their friendship didn’t really begin until 1965: Here’s Quincy Jones telling the story:
I was conducting for Peggy Lee, who introduced me to Grant at Basin Street East. I saw him one other time, at a great party at Peggy’s. Tony Bennett sang, then Peggy sang, and then Judy Garland. There were musicians everywhere. It was the kind of house party jam session Peggy was known for.
And then in 1965, Cary said, “Mr. Jones, you probably don’t remember that we met, but I’d like you to do my last film.” Everybody was retiring. Frank Sinatra, for whom I was also conducting, was in his second retirement. So I didn’t believe him.
Cary asked me to meet him at Columbia at two o’clock. It was the most important day of my life. My wife had the car but would return in time to drive me because I don’t drive. At a quarter to two I knew she couldn’t make it. I jumped in a laundry truck and asked the guy to let me out at the newsstand at the corner before Columbia. He insisted on taking me right there. I kept telling him to let me out. I wore my Italian suit and carried an attache case. Since there was no place to sit down, I stood up. When the guy did a U-turn, he drew the attention of Cary and Sol Siegel, the film’s producer. It was so embarrassing to have them see me get out of that truck.
For me, the movie stars at that time were Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Katherine Hepburn. I’d learned that behind the reputation is a human being. People have a frequency range of common interests and chemistry. They like each other, tolerate each other, or can’t stand each other — immediately. The connection wtih Cary was instantaneous, starting with the laundry truck.
Ha. I love that story.
Jones and Grant both loved word-games and puns and cleverness with language. Here is Quincy’s story of how he introduced Cary Grant to the concept of “horizontal money”:
Sometimes I would get into a lot of mixed metaphors. The way I expressed things cracked Cary up because it was so un-British. For instance, I would say, ‘I’m getting to the age where I’ve got to start making some more horizontal money.’ He asked me what that meant. I explained, ‘Well, when I’m up in the studio conducting, that’s vertical money. But when you’re at home watching TV and An Affair to Remember comes on, that’s horizontal money.’ Cary talked about that for years. He told all his friends.
