As Good As It Gets

with Prof. Robert White @ Hunter College, December 2010

My favorite teacher of all-time, Professor Robert White from Hunter College showed up unannounced at my Barnes & Noble event on Oct 17th.  I let out a high pitch yelp when I saw him from the podium. It was the second time I had seen Prof. White in 37 years (we briefly met at Hunter in 2010).

As lucky as I am to have Robert Lipsyte, Kevin Baker, Dave Hill, Barbara Turner & Thomas Beller say nice things about the book, and to have 35 five star reviews on Amazon, nothing makes me grin like the email I received from Professor White today.


Dr. Robert White to tp:


Dear Tom,

I will start this e-mail by telling you how much I enjoyed your Barnes & Noble reading. You were terrific. But as wonderful as that evening was, it paled before the pure joy I received from actually reading your book. It was wonderful to recall Rheingold beer (I still remember casting countless ballots for Miss Rheingold, in the grocery store rather than in a bar, as well as all the winners from the mid-forties to the mid-fifties), the Miss Subways, Horn and Hardart mac and cheese (which my family consumed every meatless Friday night), Spaldeens, and Brylcreem (a tube of which I kept next to my tube of Colgate until one evening in 1959 when I had a date and, in my haste to get ready, I grabbed the wrong one--Brylcreem on your teeth is disgusting beyond belief). Since I went to Regis High School from 1953 to 1957, I remember with fondness that strange orange drink they served at the Nedicks near the 86th Street Lexington Avenue No. 6 subway line, the Loew's Orpheum, and the RKO. My father, who boxed in the Golden Gloves, never missed Friday Night at the Fights unless he was playing pinochle with his buddies. I haven't thought about that for years.

I, too, had a Jerry Mahoney ventriloquist dummy. It was amazing how many of them were in American households from the early 50s on. But enough about me. Let me tell you my favorite chapters. I found "The Third Beer" and the account of your meeting with Luis Arroyo extremely moving, as I did the Sparky Lyle "Back in the Bullpen" chapter. It was fun to read "The Headlock That Won for the Giants" after hearing your reading of it at Barnes & Noble. "Beans in My Pocket" was a blast. My other favorite chapters (and, as you can tell, there were many of them) were "Trading Cards," especially your encounter with Carl Yastrzemski, since it justified the inordinate pleasure I derived from Derek Jeter's passing him in the 3000-hit club, "The Holy Cart" and "My First Area Rug," from which I gained an insight into your entrepreneurial side, "A Valentine for Nan" (remind me to tell you of the fight I had with Jackie Whittle which landed me in the hospital with a severed tendon when I was 13 years old), "His Master's Voice," and my two absolute favorites--"The Playtex Chapel" and "Mamma Mia."

"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys" has everything--humor, nostalgia, love. Thank you for writing this excellent book.

Fondly, Bob White

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Thank you, to everyone who's left a comment at Amazon on the book, I deeply appreciate your time and thoughts. If you have read the book or will read the book and have not left a comment it would mean much to me if you do, just a few honest words. hugs, tommy



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"Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts" is coming home to the old neighborhood on Thursday, December 4th for a terrific Holiday Show @ Ryans Daughter 350 East 85th Street @ 7 to 10pm. Our artists: Eric Vetter & his unplugged band, Michele Carlo, Lincoln C. Chinnery, Abbi Crutchfield, Walter Michael DeForest & Colin Dempsey.  FREE show, come on down!

If you can't make Yorkville on December 4th, Monday, December 1st I'm be telling a story in the East Village at We Three Productions Reading at 2A, 25 Ave A @ 2nd St. - Upstairs ~ FREE 

 
Tuesday, December 9th we have our next monthly "Stoops to Nuts" storytelling show at Cornelia Street Cafe with with these fine artists: Muneesh Jain; Margarita Pracatan; Elizabeth Rowe; Jeff Rose


Reviews on the book:

“Thomas R. Pryor has written a sweet, funny, loving memoir of growing up old-school in a colorful New York neighborhood. A story of sports, family, and boyhood, you’ll be able to all but taste, smell, and feel this vanished world.” 

 —Kevin Baker, author of the novels Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Strivers Row

“Tommy Pryor’s New York boyhood…was the mid-century coming of age of all of us. A rousing read.” 

—Robert Lipsyte, author and former city and sports columnist, The New York Times

“Pryor could take a felt hat and make it funny.” 

—Barbara Turner-Vesselago, author of Writing Without A Parachute: The Art of Freefall

“Pryor burrows into the terrain of his childhood with a longing and obsessiveness so powerful it feels like you are reading a memoir about his first great love.” 

—Thomas Beller, author of J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist

“I wasn’t alive for the New York Thomas Pryor writes about, but thanks to his brilliant, honest, and hilarious book, I feel like I was there.” 

—Dave Hill, comedian and author of Tasteful Nudes

Hunter College's Best Teacher Ever ~ Robert J. White

Nothing is more disappointing then revisiting a memory and finding out it's less then you remember.

Nothing is better than revisiting a memory that enhances that memory, builds on it and tells you everything you've told friends and family about a person and what they've meant in your life is more than true. I forgot half of the treasure I took away from my time as a student with Professor Robert J. White at Hunter College in the 1970s.

He taught me the classics and literature. Professor White is the coolest, smartest, funniest and warmest teacher I ever had and that goes all the way back to Mrs. Brown in P.S. 77's kindergarten in 1960.

There were 16,000 matriculating students at Hunter, we moved from class to class like cattle. Hard to make friends, most of us worked after school. But, if you were in a Professor White class something happened. Everybody felt it, we bonded, we talked to each other, he'd lead you through a subject with an intense quirky passion and you were compelled to go along, and you learned! Your interest grew, you wanted to please him, he cared too much for you to let him down.

My storytelling would be no where near as funny, clear or interesting without me knowing him. His detail was exquisite. He may be the funniest person I've ever met. My home life was chaotic during my time at Hunter. I had plenty of opportunity to self destruct. Professor White was the strongest and brightest light on my road. He triggered my passion, curiosity and love for dialogue in and about the classics, literature and film: Fellini, Pasolini, Truffaut, and on. I never read The New York Times until we were introduced. It was the only way to keep up with the references in his anecdotes.

I met Professor White at Hunter College this week for the first time in 33 years. We talked movies for two hours. How cool is that? I'm so glad he knows what he meant to me, and that his influence still runs through me.

Teach your children well. Well done, Professor White.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az9Az6S1nus

Thank you, Diana Conchado for arranging our meeting. hugs, Tommy