Singer Does an Encore for His First Fans

The cabaret singer called them “my favorite fans.”

They called him “our Michael.” And when he finished his show Sunday afternoon, they gave him a five-minute standing ovation--some bracing themselves with walkers, others rising gingerly in wheelchairs.

Michael Feinstein, veteran of Carnegie Hall, Broadway and performances before royalty and U. S. Presidents, was back at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, entertaining an audience that knew him “before he was famous.”

“We were his fans before anyone else,” Walter Schnell, 89, reminded 300 other white-haired residents who gathered in a dining room transformed into a concert hall.

It was there that Feinstein started playing in 1977, when he was only 20.

Having grown up playing for his grandmother in Columbus, Ohio, he had found something missing in his life when his family--without the grandmother--moved to Canoga Park in 1976. So he volunteered to play, for free, at the Jewish Home for the Aging.

Sometimes he’d show up once a week, sometimes twice, all the while honing the skills that would make him famous for his interpretation of American cabaret songs of the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s.

For several years in the 1980s, when his career was taking off, he couldn’t find time to return. But residents never stopped calling and writing. The concerts resumed in 1989 and he has performed there at least once each year since, always for free.

Residents began gathering hours in advance of the 2:30 p.m. show Sunday, hoping for a seat close to the grand piano.

Many dressed up for the occasion, the women in elegant dresses and lipstick, the men in jackets and ties.

“I’m a very old woman and this made me feel young and beautiful,” said crisply attired Hannah Allen, 80.

That was just the idea, Feinstein later said--using music to trigger memories.

“I picked a program that will access their memory banks,” he said.

There were songs of Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, and songs that some in the crowd had heard Al Jolson sing.

Unlike shows for younger audiences, “I can’t afford to make a mistake,” Feinstein quipped. “They know every word.”

“You do it better than they used to when I was a kid!” Abraham Meyerowitz, 91, shouted after hearing Feinstein sing and play Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

Meyerowitz sang along to every song. Others clapped, swayed and hummed.

“I feel like a teen-ager all over again, even if it’s only for a few hours,” said Faye Rudoff, 70. “It’s like being alive all over again.”

Henrietta Kash, 84, blushed when Feinstein sang Porter’s “Anything Goes.”

Kash had not known of the concert when she showed up Sunday to visit a friend, Bella Levine, 80.

“I can’t believe I just walked into this,” she said afterward. “I’ve spent many nights dancing to these songs.”

There were romantic ballads, such as Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” and playful numbers such as “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” made famous by Groucho Marx.

When Feinstein sang “Sunrise, Sunset,” the plaintive ballad about aging from “Fiddler on the Roof,” dozens of listeners wept.

At the end of Berlin’s “Always,” one frail woman grabbed her walker, stood and cried out, “This is truly magical! Thank you!”

The final ovation began with the last notes of Berlin’s “I Love a Piano.” Then they hobbled toward him, offering kisses and hugs to their favorite performer, who at 35 is still a kid to them.

“I played that song at Carnegie Hall for Irving Berlin’s 100th birthday,” Feinstein said, “but this is a better audience.”