Nobody in San Francisco will believe this, but Tony Bennett really left his heart in Astoria.
He even has a new album coming out in February called "Astoria: A Portrait of an Artist," in which he pays tribute to the Queens, a New York neighborhood where he went to P.S. 7 and Junior High 141.But back in 1959, Bennett got in front of a mike in the Venetian Room of San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel and crooned out the Doug Cross-George Cory tune "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." And ever since, Bennett and those little cable cars that climb half-way to the stars have been forever meshed in the public mind.
It was the "signature song" for Bennett, a fortuitous identification that made him a worldwide star. But it was also a signature song for San Francicco, a city that loved the image Bennett projected.
On Tuesday, Dec. 26, Bennett was back in the Venetian Room for the last time to sing that song one more time. The Venetian Room is closing its doors on New Year's Eve after 43 years as the Fairmont Hotel chain closes its nightclubs. Bennett headlined through Saturday, Dec. 30, with the Four Freshman singing on Sunday, Dec. 31.
The 63-year-old singer, who never seems to rise above a mellow mood, does get upset at what's happening to the Venetian Room.
"It's really regretful," he says by phone from New York. "I played there almost every year since '59. You know, Mel Swig (owner of the hotel) told me that there just aren't enough Tony Bennetts (to play the club). I said thank you but there really are. Ella (Fitzgerald) still sings. And Rosemary Clooney and Jack Jones and Steve (Lawrence) and Eydie (Gorme)."
In answer to a question about why today's singers prefer a larger venue, for example the 3,500-seat Circle Star Center where Sinatra plays his gigs, Bennett responded: "I call it the Hitler syndrome. Everybody's interested in power and power means how many can you draw. I have no envy in that. I grew up in an era that was based on talent and not marketing. I play Radio City. Is that big enough? I play the Royal Albert in London. But I'm not going to play stadiums and have my voice bounce back at me 10 times."
Bennett warmed to the subject. "There are lots of stars who would just love to play this (the Venetian) room. The trouble is that the hotels now are run by accountants. They tell you they don't need that or they don't need this. I don't just mean the Fairmont. The Swigs are terrific people. They treat performers great. But the Hilton, the Waldorf, all have closed their clubs."
Bennett now lives in Manhattan where he is not identified with any particular hometown songs. Sinatra has claim to "New York, New York."
He says he has been singing - and painting - all his life. As an artist, he has had 30 exhibitions of his work in various lands and his lithographs sell for thousands of dollars. Bennett, who signs his work with his real name, Antonio Dominick Benedetto, has produced two series of paintings. The original for the series "South of France" was owned by Cary Grant.
Bennett's watercolor "Peace," one of a 1987 Flag Stamp Series for the United Nations, is on permanent display at the U.N.'s General Assembly building.
Bennett was the son of an Italian immigrant grocer whose first market stood on the corner of 52nd Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Ironically, that's the current address of CBS, for whose record company Bennett has recorded over the years.
The elder Benedetto moved to the country - Astoria - when Manhattan became too crowded and opened another market. The family lived over the store.
Now Astoria is a working-class neighborhood, but it has television and recording studios. "The Cosby Show" is taped there, and Bennett's new album was recorded there.
Bennett/Benedetto was singing under the name Joe Bari in a Greenwich Village club back in 1950 when he was heard by Pearl Bailey, who offered him a job in her own show. Bob Hope came to see Bailey's show and he was amused Bennett was the only white person in it. He also liked the voice.
"He asked me to be in his show at the Paramount (Theater) with Jane Russell. But he didn't like my name - Joe Bari. He asked me what my real name was and when I told him, he said, OK, we'll call you Tony Bennett.
"It's that old American show biz story, but he found me and gave me my break," Bennett says. "He took me on the road with the Les Brown band for five dates. I sang `Fascinatin' Rhythm' and `Boulevard of Broken Dreams.' "
Bennett's father died when Tony was 9. "They tell me he had a beautiful voice." The family had been very poor during the Depression. "I know I was poor," Bennett says, "but I tell you there was so much love. That was an era when the family banded together. My mother was a seamstress. She died 10 years ago.
"The greatest thing in my life was one night when Sinatra was at Madison Square Garden doing a show and it was televised. My mother was ill and I was watching the show with her. And Sinatra said that the greatest singer around was Tony Bennett. She was so thrilled. It was the greatest thing."
Bennett, divorced from his second wife, Sandra Grant, has four children, two sons, Danny, 34, and Daegal, 36; and two daughters, Joanna, 15, and Antonia, 19.
Bennett was married to Patricia Beech from 1952 to 1971 and Grant from 1971 to 1980.
He says "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was brought to him by his music director, Ralph Sharon, before that 1959 performance at the Venetian Room.
"We were in Hot Springs, Ark., at the time. He always finds my hits. He said that the people of San Francisco love their city and they'd love the song. And we did it and it was a terrific hit. Even at rehearsal, the CBS rep ran up to me and said, `Tony, you've got to record this right away.' I did, a week and a half later.
"The song has never stopped selling. If people see it in a record store, they buy it. Everyone wants to hear that song all over the world. The song's been a real blessing to me. It allowed me to work and sing real quality and get away with it. It's allowed me not to compromise."
Bennett has had a bushelful of other hits, songs such as "The Good Life," "Who Can I Turn To?," "Rags to Riches," "Cold, Cold Heart." He says his personal favorite is Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are."
"That's the one that's most respected. It's beautiful. It's from that gold era. That era just went. Like the Impressionists in painting."
Bennett blames the power of television and the marketing approach for running down the song business. "Years ago, everything was based on quality and talent. Now you just have to get it on."
So what will Tony Bennett do when the Venetian Room closes down?
"That's all right," he says. "It's not the end of Tony Bennett because there's no clubs. There's concert halls. Or I can sing in Golden Gate Park.
"I guess people will forget what clubs were like. It'll be something they see on the late late show on TV. William Powell and Myrna Loy are always in clubs in `The Thin Man.' "