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So at this time I arranged for Cherkasky to come. We had a photographer from the 1199 News. I remember sitting on the porch with Davis, Cherkasky, and Dennis, who was new, who is now the head of the union.

You said Union Voice. Do you mean 1199 News?

From the union, from 1199 News. And Davis' eyes lit up. He was very happy. It was a gemutlichkeit. It was just a wonderful event. He was so pleased.

What did they talk about?

They talked about the past, the future. They just talked. And it was clear to anybody sitting there that this was the last time they would ever talk again. And sure enough, a few days later Davis deteriorated to the point that he had to be taken to LIJ [Long Island Jewish Medical Center]. He was there for a week or two and died. That's a short time.

I decided that there should be a big memorial meeting. Everybody wanted to do something, but I thought that we should arrange to get Avery Fisher Hall during the day, and we had little time for the date and the planning of it, and we couldn't get a date when it was free and that they would give it to us. I approached a friend of mine, George Weissman, who was at that time the president of the board of Lincoln Center, and he intervened and called me and said, “You can have Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall, on the day you want and the time you want. Go ahead.”

In every situation there seems to be a friend of yours.

There's somebody I know somehow.

How did you know this man?

Well, I knew him from college. He became the president of Phillip Morris, and we saw each other. Obviously we still see each other.

But at any rate, we had maybe two weeks to arrange it, and I then invited people who would speak. I invited Coretta King, Mayor Dinkins, Jerry Brown, his daughter, Davis' daughter, Leianne.

Jerry Brown --

Jerry Brown from New England.