On Monday May 23, 1994, at 8:00 PM I was sitting in the Family Circle in the Academy of Music waiting for the Light Up the Night Against AIDS benefit to begin.

There are seven names listed in the program, but I can really only remember three of them clearly, after all these years.

In the first half of the evening there was Celeste Holm, who provided a tribute to Oscar Hammerstein. It had been 51 years since Miss Holm had created the role of Ado Annie in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma!, and it seemed as though she remembered like it had been yesterday. She gave a brief biography of Oscar’s life, including the fact that he had studied to become a lawyer, and then she recounted her experiences playing Ado Annie.

Cuing her accompanist, she launched into Ado Annie’s signature song, “I Cain’t Say No”. Barely more than a couple lines into the song, she mixed up the words and had to stop. She collected herself and cued the pianist again, and this time she sang it through without missing a beat. And had the audience in stitches at all the punch lines that Hammerstein had sprinkled throughout the lyrics.

That, she said, was how she performed it on opening night in New Haven. But Oscar was so delighted by the audience reaction, that he wrote lyrics for two more stanzas, and after the show was over he came to her dressing room and handed them to her. She added them to the show the following evening. And then she sang them for us.

In the second half Bea Arthur was saved for the end of the formal program, and when she came out on the stage she was greeted with thunderous applause.

She began: “Thank you for that wonderful greeting. I feel so at home here in Philadelphia, because as you know I’m basically hostile.” 

That was greeted by thunderous laughter. She had the audience in the palm of her hand after that.

Finally, as something of a cherry on the dessert, Jack Klugman stepped out and was greeted warmly.

His voice was raspy, as he had lost a vocal cord to throat cancer a few years previously, but he spoke briefly and eloquently about the friends he had lost to AIDS.

All in all it was quite a night, and all the performers had donated their services, so presumably the AIDS charities received a generous donation.