Morgan, New Jersey

Regis Philbin, Mrs. Mary Beninato, Cyndi Garvey and Marvin Hamlish at Club Bené. Photo Courtesy of Donna and Tommy Andrejewski.

Sometime after it opened its doors for Broadway-like productions on October 8, 1968 with Carol Bruce in ‘Gypsy’ – after having previously been a bowling alley – the amazingly talented Marvin Hamlish appeared at Club Bené in little ole Morgan, NJ. A child musical prodigy, one of the early jobs of this living legend was as the rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand. Since then Mr. Hamlish has accomplished what only one other person, Richard Rodgers, has achieved, namely being awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony and, finally, a Pulitzer Prize.

As was the unique and very personal custom at Club Bené, Mrs. Beninato, wife of Club Bené and Joe’s Kozy Bar founder Joseph Beninato, made dinner for and had a photo taken with the featured guests.  According to the above photo, one show or series of shows included Marvin Hamlish, Regis Philbin (see posting from 27 January 2010) and Cyndy Garvey (co-host with Regis on A.M. Los Angeles from 1978-81 then The Morning Show from 1983-1984 on New York’s WABC).  I have not yet been able to pinpoint the exact date(s) of this Club Bené event or, with such a unique combination of talent, the content of the show.  If any of you know, please post a comment below.

My wife and I had a phenomenal experience last evening (22 October 2011) at LA’s famous and fabulous Greek Theater.  We got to see Marvin Hamlish!  Good thing since I missed him when he was in Morgan long ago!  For the first part of the show, Mr. Hamlish conducted the Pasadena Symphony in a musical medley of songs from his Tony award winning Broadway musical, A Chorus Line.  He next played variations of a theme of Happy Birthday using the iconic styles of Bach, Mozart then Beethoven on piano.  He makes playing the piano seem truly effortless and fun.  Finally, in tribute to the featured performer who was to appear after the intermission, Mr. Hamlish conducted the Pasadena Symphony in another medley, this time from My Fair Lady.

Marvin Hamlish and Idina Menzel perform at the Greek Theater on October 29, 2011

After the intermission, the phenomenal Idina Menzel took the stage with Marvin moving fully into the conductor role.  Ms. Menzel is best known – so far – for her role as Maureen Johnson in the ground breaking off-Broadway play Rent, and especially for her unforgettable role as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in Wicked.  The rest of the evening was a magical combination of her singing and humor with Marvin’s conducting of tunes arranged by the very talented Rob Mounsey (Idina’s Musical Director who also accompanied on the piano). The pallet of arrangements included some tunes from Rent and Wicked as well as the encore finale of Marvin’s The Way We Were.  It was an unbelievable combination of stars under the stars on a crystal clear and very temperate evening in one of LA’s truly great outdoor theaters.

Morgan Family at the Morgan Family Cemetery in Morgan, NJ. Left to Right: EJ Campbell, Pam Campbell, Ed Campbell, Diane Brown, Richard Brown, Polly Petersen, Richard Petersen, and Tom Purcell.

One of the many highlights for me from my trip back to  Morgan this past August was actually getting to meet members of the Morgan family!

Eight members of the family joined us on the tour of Morgan and were kind enough to not only let me take their photo but also allowed for me to put the photo on this web site.  The group includes the direct descendants of Carel “Charles” Morgan, the patriarch of the family who purportedly came to Gravesend, New Amsterdam in “The New World” (present day Brooklyn, NY) from Wales in 1641 (see postings from February 13 and May 20, 2011) and some of their spouses.

Though I have been in correspondence a few of them since I started this web site in 2009, this was the very first time that I actually met any of them!  I went through my entire childhood and most of my adult life without ever having met anyone affiliated with the cemetery right near my childhood home!

Ironically no one in this photo or currently associated with the ancient and historic family cemetery in Morgan, NJ retains the last name of “Morgan”.  Perhaps there are others still with the “Morgan” surname from other branches of the family who descended from the first Charles Morgan.  In either case, we would love to hear from anyone who is part of the extended family with or without the “Morgan” surname.  It would be an excellent way to get in touch with their very distant cousins.

I would like to again give a big THANK YOU to everyone in the photo and express my appreciation for everyone’s help with this web site and especially their support and presence on August 27.  It was awesome that they came that day and opened up the family cemetery for us – especially since Hurricane Irene was about to hit the area and some had to drive a long way to be with us.