04/12/04

LC040412

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

He's a popular college professor who once ran for president, so
why is his name popping up again in political circles?

Michael Dukakis>> We now have the greatest gap between the rich
and poor of any advanced industrialized nation in the world and
it's doubled in the last twenty-five years.

Val>> And then, he's a singer and pianist, but we'll talk with
Michael Feinstein about his real passion: introducing great
American standards to new generations of Americans.

These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> Michael Dukakis knows how it feels to be a player in
America's biggest political game. Back in 1988, the former
Massachusetts governor was the Democrat's nominee for president.
Since then, he has moved out of politics and into the classroom
as a professor of Public Policy, so why is his name being
dragged back into this year's presidential race? That's just
one of the things we find out as Philip Bruce takes us to the
campus of UCLA where Professor Dukakis tells us what he's
learned.

Michael Dukakis>> "You guys are going to be on television
today, so I want you to look good. Your political future may
begin here. Right, David?"

Philip Bruce>> He's a lot grayer than you remember him and all
those dark suits he used to wear are now mostly left in the
closet, but there's no mistaking the face and the voice.

Michael Dukakis>> "You're trying to take thousands of jobs and
fit them all into one of sixteen classifications, one of twenty-
nine classifications."

Philip Bruce>> If you're Michael Dukakis, some things never
change. He can talk for hours about the most obscure points of
crafting a bill or a budget and even make it interesting. Only
now his audience is a classroom full of UCLA students who were
barely out of diapers back when Dukakis was running for
president.

Michael Dukakis>> My mission in life these days is to try to
inspire young people to go into public service. What I try to
do is to teach my students, first, why that's important and
really how fulfilling and personally satisfying it is, and
secondly, what are the skills you need to get things done in the
public sector. So they keep me hopping and I think it's keeping
my brain reasonably sharp as I age.

Philip Bruce>> Dukakis just turned seventy, but seems at least
ten years younger. And he's clearly found something others like
him haven't, a happy life after politics. No small feat for a
man who once graced just about every news magazine cover in
America and who, for a moment or two back in 1988, was the odds
on favorite to be the next president.

Michael Dukakis>> Look, I was unhappy with the campaign I ran.
I mean, I was very happy with the primary. I thought we ran a
great primary and just blew the final.

Philip Bruce>> What were you thinking back in those days?
Because, I mean, they tied Willie Horton to you and that was
something that became a huge thing, and then the pictures in the
tank and all the stuff you've heard about all these years.

Michael Dukakis>> Look, I'm a positive guy. I really don't
like that kind of campaigning, although I had to deal with
negative campaigns in the past. In one case, I didn't do well
and, in another case, I did quite well. But I had won the
primary nomination with a very positive campaign and I said,
well, that's what people seem to be -- there had been a lot of
polarization during the Reagan administration and I said I think
people are tired of that stuff.

But it's very clear from what happened in 1988, and no
Democratic nominee will ever make that mistake again, that if
the other guy is going to come at you with this stuff, you've
got to be ready for it, you've got to have a carefully thought
out strategy for dealing with it, preferably one that turns it
into a character issue on him.

Philip Bruce>> After all these years, you'd think the man who
lost big to George Bush the original wouldn't still be fodder as
George Bush the son runs for re-election, but you'd be wrong.
Check out the Republican Party's national website and you'll
find that Dukakis's name is all over it and not in a good way.
In today's campaign, he's become an adjective, as in "so-and-so
is a Dukakis liberal" and these days the ones Republicans want
to stick with that label is a man who seems most likely to
follow in Dukakis's footsteps as a Democratic presidential
nominee, John Kerry, his old Lt. Governor from Massachusetts.

Michael Dukakis>> Well, it's not going to work. You know, you
can't keep running old movies.

Philip Bruce>> To some, the only thing worse than a Dukakis
liberal is a Ted Kennedy liberal and, with John Kerry, some
Republicans believe they've hit the trifecta. People in the
Bush camp will count on photos like these to raise doubts about
Kerry as the campaign rolls on. Candidate Dukakis might have
worried about such things, but Professor Dukakis believes
President Bush may be the one who needs to worry about
strategies that could backfire, especially when it comes to
relying on old labels.

Michael Dukakis>> We now have the greatest gap between rich and
poor of any advanced industrialized nation in the world and it's
doubled in the last twenty-five years. We've got forty-four
million people, eighty-five percent of whom are working people
or members of working families, without a dime of health
insurance. And we've got this half-baked system where, if they
get so sick they can't stand up, they end up in the emergency
room and we're all paying for that at a thousand dollars a
visit. We've got a lot of talk about leaving no child behind,
but the money is going to Iraq. It's not going into the public
schools of this country.

Philip Bruce>> Old political war horses never really lose their
love of the fight and that's true for Dukakis even after he's
traded his pinstripes for plaid and khaki.

Michael Dukakis>> I obviously have very strong feelings, but
trying to put that to one side. Obviously in the classroom, I
don't teach partisan politics. I try the best I can to be even-
handed. I think I'm as critical of one side as I am of the
other. But I think Democratic prospects this year are really
quite good and a lot better than the national media, up until
about three weeks ago, thought they were.

Philip Bruce>> But he's learned to appreciate the advantages of
watching a campaign versus being in one. Talk to him and you
don't get the sense that Dukakis is a tortured soul who dreams
of just one more chance at glory. His biggest passion these
days is trains. When he's not in the classroom, Dukakis is
touring the country preaching the virtues of mass transit.
Besides promoting light rail systems like this, he's a strong
backer of things much grander, such as a high-speed bullet train
that's on the drawing board for California. In fact, the only
political battles he really fights these days are about trains.
Dukakis has been acting Chair of the National Amtrak Board.

Michael Dukakis>> We have traffic and congestion problems in
this country that are driving people nuts and not just in
Southern California, and that means that the federal government
has got to invest heavily with the states in first-class
metropolitan transit, a first-class national rail passenger
system, and we can put some people to work and stimulate the
economy doing this at the same time. I mean, these are national
issues.

Philip Bruce>> And what about Kitty? Dukakis says everybody
asks about his wife, a natural question considering her well-
publicized bouts with depression, prescription drugs and
alcohol. Well, as it turns out, she's found a life after
politics too and Dukakis says she's doing just fine.

Michael Dukakis>> We've been coming out for nine years. It's
hard to believe. The kids are all in the west. We have a
daughter in Denver who reports for NPR from Denver. We have a
social worker in San Francisco and my son works in the
entertainment business here and four grandkids, soon to be five,
among the three of them. So it's really been terrific. UCLA is
a great place to teach and these winters are very hard to beat
(laughter).

Philip Bruce>> It's not the happy ending Michael Dukakis
dreamed of back in 1988 when he was running for president, but
like all of us, he's found that life has a way of taking you
where it wants to. His destination has been a good one, but
that's not to say he doesn't have moments of wondering what
might have been.

Michael Dukakis>> Let me count the ways (laughter). A
president, even in eight years that he may have to get himself
re-elected, can only do so much. In many ways, I don't know
that a Dukakis presidency would have been that much different
from a Clinton presidency in terms of what we were trying to do.
I mean, Clinton and I and others like us were pretty much on the
same page in terms of our views on the economy, healthcare and
so on.

Philip Bruce>> Was your timing bad, running in 1988 instead of
1992?

Michael Dukakis>> Look, the chance of a Democrat winning in
1992 were certainly better than 1988, but I think that race in
1988 was wonderful. I just kind of blew it.

Philip Bruce>> Would he be interested in getting back into the
game? If his old pal, John Kerry, gets elected, might there be
some nice political appointment in store? Who knows? Dukakis
claims not to give it too much thought mainly because he and
Kitty have learned that the best way to view Washington is from
Los Angeles.

Michael Dukakis>> Well, I have a wife who loves Southern
California in the wintertime (laughter) and I think it's going
to be very difficult to persuade Kitty to give this up. But,
you know, if on a part-time basis or -- you know, I've
thoroughly enjoyed my services on the Amtrak Board, even though
it's not fun working with this administration, I must say.

But if I could do something like that where I could really make
a contribution on a part-time basis where we could continue to
spend our time out here and I could continue to do what I'm
doing with young people, which I really, thoroughly enjoy doing.
I mean, the chance to inspire these kids to go into public
service is a very special one. You know, I'll do whatever I can
to help, but I think it would be very tough persuading Mrs.
Dukakis that Washington, D.C. is a better place to spend the
winters than Southern California (laughter).

Val>> Michael and Kitty Dukakis still have a home in
Massachusetts. He splits his time teaching at UCLA during the
winter months and back at Northeastern University in New England
for the summer months.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts
and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most
interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life
and Times".

Val>> You can hardly drive a mile through Pasadena without
seeing a new office, retail or loft space under construction.
But sometimes a wave of development can roll right over an
historic building. Some people say that's what's happening to
the Raymond Theatre whose history stretches back to vaudeville,
but whose future is uncertain. As I found out, it's a classic
case of economics versus preservation.

Old town Pasadena, the ideal example of urban renewal where
stores, restaurants and pedestrians make for a vibrant urban
atmosphere, and just down the street the new Paseo Colorado
epitomizing the Southern California version of the European city
with retail and restaurants below and apartments above, and
across from the Paseo, more luxury apartments in the middle of
town. It is one of about a half dozen construction projects
making for a building boom in Pasadena. But a few blocks north
of the trendy Colorado Boulevard is an historic building that
has obviously been neglected, the Raymond Theatre.

Gina Zamparelli>> A lot of people have heard those stories.
They have childhood memories of movie palaces. I do too, I
guess.

Val>> Gina Zamparelli is Director of the Friends of the Raymond
Theatre. She's been working intensely to see it preserved as a
concert venue.

Gina Zamparelli>> I operated it and produced shows here for ten
years, so when the owner came to me and said, you know, it's
time is up, I could not in good faith lock the doors and walk
away and know that we had a viable theatre here, close the doors
and say that's it, it's over, and walk away.

Val>> So she organized a group to save the theatre, but the
owner, a developer, had other plans. He won approval from the
city to convert the Raymond into commercial, parking and
residential units. What's it like inside?

Gina Zamparelli>> It's gorgeous. It was built in 1921 and very
opulent interior. It has interior fountains and spiral
staircases going up and cherubs all over the walls. It's
gorgeous. A forty by forty stage, dressing rooms, it's a
beautiful theatre inside, a rare beaux arts Georgian style
theatre and one of the last three remaining in the United States
today.

Val>> The Raymond was built in 1921 for $250,000. Through the
1920's and 1930's, it thrived as a venue for vaudeville acts,
musicals and dance. When movies came along, it was converted to
a glamorous cinema showcasing silent films and then talkies.
Known as the Crown Theatre and Perkins Palace, it later became a
venue for live performances and bands.

Gina Zamparelli>> It's had legendary performers as far as
Perkins Palace performed here like Bruce Springsteen and Bryan
Adams and Fleetwood Mac. It was a rehearsal venue for all the
world tours for Van Halen, so it has quite a history with major
artists.

Val>> But its past is more glamorous than its present. Its
seats have been removed and, for most of the past decade, it has
stood empty while its fate was caught up in debates and
lawsuits. Then about two years ago, the Pasadena City Council
approved the owner's plan. The Raymond would be converted to
twelve thousand square feet of commercial space and ninety-nine
residential units.

Gina Zamparelli>> When it got to the City Council level, we
truly believed that it was a political, you know, decision they
had to make.

Val>> But Pasadena City Councilman, Paul Little, says not so.
He says the decision was primarily economic.

Paul Little>> There were a lot of efforts made and,
unfortunately, it just doesn't work financially. You know, I
think the folks that are fighting are tenacious and believe
they're right. You know, it would be helpful if some of their
energy would generate somebody to actually buy the property and
put the money into rehabbing it. That hasn't happened.

Gina Zamparelli>> We've had three million or four million
dollar offers in the last two years that could have today come
to fruition and we would have seen an operating theatre, but two
were stopped in the due diligence period and another one was
just refused outright.

Val>> But Paul Little argues that the seats and curtains do not
meet fire code and a buyer would have to spend an additional
hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Paul Little>> None of that stuff meets fire code, so if you
don't meet fire code, you know, it's not a place where you want
fifteen hundred people packed in and, if you're going to make it
meet fire code, you're adding a considerable expense. I'm not
sure where the building stands seismically with retrofit
requirements or any of that stuff.

Val>> And he points out that the current owners, Gene and
Marilyn Buchanan, are known for being sensitive to Pasadena's
history.

Paul Little>> The developers are good people. They've worked
very hard. They've owned this property for a very long time.
It's been a financial burden for them. They have had a hand in
rehabilitating a considerable number of other properties in the
neighborhood here.

Val>> Some have suggested that the City of Pasadena itself
should buy the Raymond Theatre and preserve it as a concert
venue, but the city already owns the Pasadena Civic Auditorium
and holds partial stake in the Pasadena Playhouse. Paul Little
says that it's not interested in another theatre.

Paul Little>> The longer the process drags on, the further the
building deteriorates, the worse condition it gets into, the
more it costs to fix, the more there is the possibility that
something catastrophic could happen. You know, I don't know
what shape the roof is in or any of that stuff, but it becomes
more expensive the older it gets without being tended, sort of
like me (laughter).

Val>> The Friends of the Raymond Theatre have filed a final
challenge in court, but past lawsuits have failed. It seems the
commercial and residential plan will move forward, but Gina
Zamparelli is determined to fight on.

Gina Zamparelli>> The day I locked the doors, I made one
promise to this theatre, that I would not -- getting all choked
up (laughter) -- I would not give up until we got to the end of
this battle and gave her the best fight that we possibly could,
so here we are fifteen years later, three developments later,
and still holding the faith that we'll be able to preserve her
for generations to come.

Val>> But with the blend of residential and retail development
proving to be so successful in Pasadena, the Raymond Theatre
will most likely follow suit. The theatre's façade will be
restored and retained, but it seems its show business days are
over.

[Film Clip]

Val>> The Friends of Raymond Theatre say they'll go to the
courts to stop construction if necessary and they claim they
have thousands of supporters who are willing to rally in front
of the theatre should the bulldozers ever show up.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val>> I'm here at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel where singer
and pianist, Michael Feinstein, has his own club, The Cinegrill.
Feinstein started as an assistant to the music legend, Ira
Gershwin. He then went on to make a name for himself as a
singer who brought a new sound to those great old standards.
Besides performing, Feinstein has an impressive archive of music
and memorabilia that he personally collects. Patt Morrison
takes us to Feinstein's home where we visit with the music
industry's true romantic.

[Film Clip]

Michael Feinstein>> When I was a kid, my parents listened to
classic American popular music, so my parents really instilled
the love in me for this particular kind of music.

Patt Morrison>> You've made something of an art and a science
of bringing these songs back to new generations of audiences and
listeners.

Michael Feinstein>> It's really wonderful to create this kind
of music because there's something that happens to people when
they experience it. It not only has glamour and romance, but
there's something about the beauty of the music, the harmonies,
the connection of the melodies, that moves people in a very deep
way. I think that people are yearning for a connection with the
beauty in the world that seems to be lacking on the exterior.
Music is definitely a way for people to get in touch with their
hearts, so I get the best of people when I get to make music for
them.

[Film Clip]

Patt Morrison>> You have evolved through the decades of
American music and now you have reached Jimmy Webb.

Michael Feinstein>> For me, Jimmy Webb is the natural
continuation of Gershwin, Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter,
because he has a certain eloquence and style and a great command
of the language. That is something that a lot of writers today
do not have.

[Film Clip]

Michael Feinstein>> Jimmy Webb is an example of a writer who
very consciously wants to help keep this music alive and he is
extraordinarily generous in sharing his knowledge and passing it
on, so he is one person who has a real sense of preservation.
Irving Berlin said that history makes music and music makes
history. It is absolutely true that there is a whole lineage,
that one thing came after another. I think the more talented
pop artists are able to see that and are influenced by what came
before.

[Film Clip]

Patt Morrison>> What makes a song last?

Michael Feinstein>> I think the thing that makes a song last is
that it has pertinence for contemporary times. The songs of the
Gershwins and Cole Porter and Kurt Weill and Arthur Schwartz,
whoever you name, the ones that last actually last because
people can still resonate with them. They still have values
that people relate to or there's a certain kind of wit or
eloquence in the lyrics that people are attracted to.

[Film Clip]

Michael Feinstein>> I think the other thing that makes what I
call classic American pop live is that the music is malleable.
It can be interpreted in so many different ways. There are many
songs that have been reinvented for the decade. For example,
All Jolson sang "You Made Me Love You" on Broadway in 1913.
Then Judy Garland did it in the 1930's as a love letter to Clark
Gable. "Blue Moon" is a song that was a hit in 1934, then it
had its do-op version in the 1950's. "Are You Lonesome
Tonight", which was sung by Al Jolson in the 1920's, people
think of that as an Elvis song. It's from the 1920's, but
people don't know it.

Patt Morrison>> How did you come to know Ira Gershwin?

Michael Feinstein>> I met Ira through Mrs. Oscar Levant, June
Levant, who created an introduction and made it possible for me
to meet one of my idols. I ended up spending six years with Ira
in taking care of his archive of Gershwin memorabilia.

Patt Morrison>> And this is the sanctuary?

Michael Feinstein>> This is the Gershwin gallery that relates
to George and/or Ira and it's all memorabilia that I've
collected, some given to me by Ira Gershwin. Many of these
things are things that I have found or people have given to me
because they know that I collect it.

Patt Morrison>> This is only part of your archive?

Michael Feinstein>> This is really a fraction of it and all
this stuff on the table here is stuff that I'm just in the
process of organizing and putting away. It used to be that
everyone collected sheet music and they would play the piano.
The success of a song was always measured in sales of sheet
music, not records. It's a wonderful history of our time. I
collect autographed sheet music when I can find it.

This is an obscure Ira Gershwin-Kurt Weill song from a movie
called "Where Do We Go From Here?" It starred Fred MacMurray,
Joan Leslie and June Haver. Joan Leslie is my neighbor who
lives a block and a half away. But this is the first published
Gershwin song in 1916. It's very hard to find it in that kind
of condition, you know. Of course, the graphics are so much
fun. They are always very illustrative of the subject of the
song and that's what makes it fascinating.

This is the first edition of "Suwannee". I mean, "Suwannee" is
a very famous song as sung by Al Jolson, but the first edition
is extremely rare because, before Jolson sang it, there were
only a few copies printed. It was performed at the Capitol
Theatre. So this was a hard one to find and it's rather
tattered. But after Jolson sang it, they reprinted it with his
picture on the cover and it sold about two million copies. The
copies with Jolson are ubiquitous, you know, they're everywhere.

There is a lot of music that will disappear unless individuals
preserve it because there is much that is not available. There
are many private recordings and non-commercial versions of
different songs that may only exist in one or two copies. I
have a lot of unique items, so I spend a lot of time
transferring and preserving that material. I also have a lot of
musical scores and orchestrations and manuscripts which are
unique. There are things that I have actually rescued from
dumpsters and things that have been given to me at the last
minute before they're in danger of being thrown away. Welcome
to Feinstein's at The Cinegrill.

Patt Morrison>> Your home away from home away from home?

Michael Feinstein>> Yeah.

Patt Morrison>> Now you have a club in New York as well?

Michael Feinstein>> Feinstein's at The Regency.

Patt Morrison>> This is sort of a laboratory for the kind of
music that you love that may not have many venues to get played
these days.

Michael Feinstein>> It's a place where there is a sense of
connection with the audience that is unique to this size room.
People love it because it has a feel that you can't get in any
other situation, I mean, any other live situation.

[Film Clip]

Michael Feinstein>> There is definitely an audience for this
music here in Los Angeles and especially in Hollywood. There's
always somebody in my audience who's not heard some of these
songs before and I'm aware of that and that's the fun of it.
When they discover it, it's like opening a new world of magic to
them. I love bringing these songs to people. The reason I
started performing is because all of this sheet music means
nothing unless somebody sings it, unless someone brings it back.
It's my passion.

Val>> Michael Feinstein also has his own record label called
"Feinery" and he does perform now and then in person at The
Cinegrill. You can go to his website for more information. And
that's our program. Our thanks to the folks at the Hotel
Roosevelt for their help. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life
and Times, thanks for watching.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Philip Bruce>> Next time on Life and Times, the secret to
beating Alzheimer's and it may not take a miracle drug.

>> And studies of successful aging show that it isn't all
genetics, that only about a third of it is genetic, but two-
thirds has to do with the way we live our lives. Are we
remaining engaged in an active lifestyle? Are we working with
other people? Are we remaining social? Are we remaining active
both physically and mentally? Those kinds of approaches are
going to help us live longer better.

Philip Bruce>> That's next time on Life and Times.