The Sheila Variations

"Come back, Shane..."

This post which generated a wealth of fantastic comments made me remember a very funny story. It has to do with the movie Shane.

But first some background. Billy Crystal told this story when he came and did a seminar at my school. He had kind of an extraordinary childhood. His father managed a very famous, at the time, music store on 42nd Street, and his uncle was Milt Gabler, founder of the jazz label Commodore Records (I mean, I think it was the #1 jazz label - a huge deal.) So Billy Crystal's childhood was filled with memories of all of the jazz greats basically hanging out at his house. Billie Holiday was his baby-sitter. The image of Billie Holiday babysitting Billy Crystal is just too bizarre and funny to even imagine.

Anyway, here is one of the stories Crystal told the night he came to my school. And of course he's a wonderful mimic, so he could do all the voices ... you'll just have to fill that part in.

He was 4 or 5 years old, and Billie Holiday, his babysitter (uhm - WHAT??) took him to see Shane. It was a life-changing experience for Crystal. The movie went through him like a bullet. He watched the entire movie, sitting on Billie Holiday's lap, the two of them absolutely silent, enraptured, riveted. He didn't move. She didn't move. They didn't eat popcorn or candy, nothing. They just watched.

Silence.

Then comes that famous last scene.

The small child's voice echoing: "Come back, Shane..." (Crystal did the echo when he told the story) "come ba-ack sha-ane...shane... shane..."

Crystal, a small boy, perched on Holiday's lap, couldn't move, couldn't speak. He held out hope. He held out hope that Shane would, indeed, "come back". Then he heard Holiday say, from behind him, in a tone of blunt bitter to-herself resignation, "He ain't never comin' back."

Posted by sheila