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started banging out Rhapsody in Blue and a couple of songs. The hour, remember now, was about 7:15 in the morning. The manager came running out, pop-eyed with anger. People were calling up from all over the hotel to complain. He said, “You can't play that piano at this hour of the morning.” I can still remember George saying, “I'm George Gershwin.” The manager, who obviously had never heard of George Gershwin-- he was an Englishman--said, “I don't give a damn who you are. You close that piano and you get out.” That was one story about George!

Another is an incident that highlighted the year we were in Havana. George's conceit was so great that things that any other man would be ashamed to tell, he would blurt out. For instance, we were all on the beach at the yacht club one day in Havana, when George arrived, complaining to everybody within range, “You won't believe it. I had a date with a beautiful Cuban girl and she stood me up!" Of course kidding George was part of our daily routine because he was so easy to kid--and we let him have it! About a half hour later the girl appeared on the beach. We all said, “There's the girl that stood you up.” She came walking over to us and George got up. With all of us listening, he said, “Do you know that you broke a lunch date with me today?" In her accent, a charming accent, she said, “I know. I couldn't keep it and I wanted to call you to tell you that I couldn't keep the date but I couldn't remember your name.” While we collapsed with laughter, George said, “You couldn't remember