A sleek, shiny long line of black limousines was curbside at Miami International Airport at 9 p.m. one night in 1989. I was the manager of consumer affairs for Pan American Airways and was based near my Miami Beach home. Pan Am Vice President Gus Serano was my immediate boss, and he was located in the chairperson’s office at the Pan Am building headquarters in New York City.
Gus had called earlier in the day and asked me to work late. It was my job to greet dignitaries and see to their needs. A group of celebrities on a 747 jumbo jet were arriving, and while I normally did not work nights, I was happy to meet these show biz folks. I remember in the group was Deanna Lund of “Land of the Giants,” Connie Stevens, Cathy Lee Crosby, Rebecca Holden with David Hasselhof from “Night Rider,” Eric Estrada of “CHIPS,” Beverly Sassoon, Burt Reynolds’ wife Loni Anderson and many other stars rounding out a total of 30 celebrities who had come to Miami to travel by limo to a nearby celebrity tennis tournament.
In the middle of the group was a diminutive lady whom I did not recognize and who looked sad and forlorn. I walked over to her and asked if I could be of assistance. She said, “They broke my hat box.” I asked for her name, address and phone number and told her I would be in contact with her. The next day, I directed a payment to be made from Pan Am to replace Carol Connors’ broken hat box. Thus began our friendship, which has stretched for over 35 years.
Lyrics by Carol Connors are part and parcel of our American culture for this musical icon, who prefers to be called “CC.” I later learned that as a pioneering female singer/songwriter she was nominated for two Oscars, five Emmys, one Grammy and two Golden Globes. The walls of her home are lavishly lined with gold and platinum record awards. She is show business royalty by anyone’s standards.
Let me step aside for a bit and share with you what I know about CC.
For starters, Carol Connors is not CC’s birth name. When she was born, she was named Annette Kleinbard by her Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, who had come to America to escape Hitler’s Holocaust. She lost many relatives in the Holocaust. Later, she changed her name to Carol Connors so as not to be confused with Disney Mouseketeer Annette Funicello.
Her new memoir, “Elvis, Rocky & Me,” is an excellent read and tells a complete tale of this entertainer, while space here only permits the highlights of her career. (CC’s memoir is available at Amazon.) Her father had been a jockey and her mother dreamed of being an operatic singer. Julius Kleinbard, her father, was a highly sought after jockey who frequently rode mounts at Belmont Racetrack. CC recalled, “My running joke about my parents was that they could walk upright under a table.” CC is 5 feet and wears four-inch heels on the Hollywood red carpets, which she then exchanges for slippers. She is never photographed by the paparazzi in the same outfit twice.
“When people ask me when did I start writing and singing music, I always say ‘When I was in the incubator they wheeled in a ‘baby’ grand piano. It’s one of my favorite lines,” CC said.
She was 5 years old when her family moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles.
CC attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles where she made the acquaintance of the now notorious Phil Spector. In those early years, he was like a big brother to her. In his innocent high school days, Spector one day told CC that if she gave him $10 that she could be in his singing group. CC begged her parents for the $10, which was quite a large sum in their home, and her father acquiesced. In 1958, she and Phil, along with Marshall Leib, became The Teddy Bears. Phil loved CC’s voice and specially wrote for her “To Know Him Is To Love Him” which cost $75 to record.
This romantic ballad was on the Billboard Hot 100 for 23 weeks. It was an international sensation and sold over 1.5 million copies. At that time, she blazed a trail as a woman leading the charts. She was only 17. The Teddy Bears lip-synced this hit song on the “American Bandstand” television show and later sang it live on “The Perry Como Show” where CC was terrified of not hitting the high note before a live national audience.
While CC had a national audience, there were also some local connections. As it happens, my “OM” publisher, Philip Glassman, had an uncle, Dr. Paul Glassman, O.D., who was a doctor who helped with CC’s medical care. Further, Phil was an owner of the Beverly Hill’s hot spot, Chasen’s, which catered to the Hollywood elite. Phil has many fond memories of CC and other show biz luminaries from his days when he appeared in the movies.
CC tried a semester of college at UCLA but quickly determined that she preferred the music industry. She tried to follow up her initial and early success as a singer but was met with disappointment after disappointment. Then one day, on the strength of her reputation, she got an appointment with Carroll Shelby who had created a new sports car called the Cobra.
Once again, CC was a pioneering female who was, as she wrote, “… penetrating the all-boys club of the California Sound.” While she was striking out as a singer, she hit it big time with the song “Hey Little Cobra,” which she wrote and was recorded by The Rip Chords. She had gone to see Shelby in a crop top, tight, hip-hugger pants and with her green eyes and brunette hair, people thought she was beautiful. Shelby promised her a Cobra if she wrote a hit song for him, which she did. Her song was like free advertising for this fledgling car and the song climbed up the Billboard in early 1964 to No. 4. The British invasion of the Beatles in January of that year meant that a new musical style was gaining popularity in America.
Still, CC was not without her fans. One day while she was shopping, a member of Elvis Presley’s Memphis Mafia stopped her and said Elvis loved her voice and would love to meet her. Soon, she was in Elvis’ arms losing her heart to him. Elvis was CC’s first real boyfriend and their affair lasted 8 months. They never went out and about in LA since Elvis, who was enthroned as the king of rock ‘n’ roll, was mobbed whenever he appeared in public. In later years, she wrote the song “You Loved My Night Away” in his honor and as a tribute to her early love and long enduring friendship since she and her friends often saw him live in Vegas.
While she had experienced some early successes, show business and especially the music industry was tough on women. CC tried her hand at acting but decided the core of her heart beat to the drum of being a lyricist. During these years, a photo of CC sitting on star David Janssen’s lap appeared on the cover of “The National Enquirer.”
The American songbook is all the richer for CC sticking to her core belief in herself as a lyricist. In July 1977, the number one song was “Gonna Fly Now,” which was the theme song for the blockbuster movie “Rocky.” “Gonna Fly Now” was CC’s first Oscar-nominated song, which she co-wrote, and was followed shortly thereafter by “Someone’s Waiting For You,” which also was nominated for an Oscar.
CC says her Beverly Hills home is the house that “Rocky” bought. You can be on an elevator in Japan or at a Christmas pageant in New Jersey and hear a rendition of “Gonna Fly Now.” The short and simple lyrics are instantly recognizable:
“Tryin’ hard now, it’s so hard now
Tryin’ hard now
Feelin’ strong now, won’t be long now
Feelin’ strong now
Gonna fly now, flying high now
Gonna fly, fly, fly”
Success followed success and CC was much in demand as a movie songwriter. The lyrics for both “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” starring Diane Keaton, and “Orca,” starring Richard Harris, were just two of her creations. The list goes on and on and CC was prolific. Another mega-hit was entitled “With You I’m Born Again.”
As a tunesmith she did not limit herself to just movies, but also did television shows such as Robin Leech’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” for which she wrote “Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams” sung by Dionne Warwick.
CC has been in the music business since the 1950s and today is busy with a documentary about her life. Her illustrious career is inimitable. She still starts every day at the keyboard of her piano, composing words and music. She has not slowed down, and another Oscar, Emmy or Grammy nomination is certainly in the realm of possibility. She is a celeb who is invited everywhere and who knows everyone. Floridian Pat Reily, owner of Clientele Inc., has an abiding friendship with CC.
Everyone knows CC and she has always been invited everywhere. During one of my stays at her Beverly Hills home, it was “fight night” and Hugh Hefner invited us to his special movie theater in the Playboy mansion. CC writes, “When professional boxing was important to America and a big match (with, perhaps, Mohammed Ali or Mike Tyson) was to be close-circuit available, Hef would show the televised conflict at the mansion, complete with open bar and food. These events would be overrun with just about every celebrity male in Hollywood and hard cash would fly around like snow in winter. On one of these big fight nights, I was on the grounds of the mansion when I looked down to see what appeared to be a dollar bill on the ground. I swooped it up and stuffed it in my pocket. Then I forgot about it until I got home. When I cleaned out my pockets, I realized I had two bills, not one; the first read $50 and the second $100. A lot of betting went on during those big fights.”
I did not bet the night I was at one of Hef’s big fight nights. As a host, Hef was friendly and courteous to me as CC’s guest. I’ll never forget the night, not only because of being CC’s guest amid such celebs but also because actor Tony Curtis and I had a stimulating conversation.
In Florida, we have hurricane warnings. But the thing about most hurricanes is that you know about them in advance and can choose to stay or leave the hurricane’s path. The same cannot be said for California earthquakes. One visit to CCs was so frightening because the walls started moving and there were waves in the swimming pool. CC occupies the entire second floor, where she works as well as lives and she came running down the stairs with her two Abyssinian cats racing for their very lives ahead of her to get outside. The cats knew. While there was no damage, a California earthquake must be experienced to be believed.
There has been one constant in CC’s life – her love of Abyssinian cats. She recalled, “I was on a boat docked on a bay in San Diego and I heard a sound behind me. I turned around and I didn’t know what it was, although I thought it might be a baby fox. I had never seen anything like this little animal. I didn’t know whether to run away in fright or hold my ground. Every day, I went back to the same spot where it was and started feeding it. One day I followed it back to a yacht and its owner said it was a very special breed of cat called Abyssinian who, as Egyptian cats, had guarded the ancient queens of Egypt.”
It is true that Abyssinians are one of the oldest known cat breeds. In America, they are one of the top five cat breeds. They are like fashion models and love to be up high. Abyssinians are lean and muscular with large ears. Their almond-shaped eyes are filled with fun while they play being known as the “clowns of the cat kingdom.”
In ancient times, cats were worshiped as gods and the aristocratic Abyssinian has never forgotten this. Legend has it that one army facing Egypt’s army put cats in the front line, and so strong was Egypt’s worship of cats that they could not attack their enemy’s front lines because of the cats. The mummified cats that archeologists have found in Egyptian tombs look like they are Abyssinians.
CC’s cats have nine litter boxes in her garage and the windows of her two-tone Rolls Royce are left down since her two cats like to sleep in her Rolls. CC wrote the lyrics of “Unconditional Love, Unconditionally” as a tribute to her favorite Abyssinian, “M the Wonder Cat.”
In her memoir, CC writes, “OK, here’s my final cat story. When my hair started to turn gray, I realized I would have to be hair-coloring all the time. So, then the question was, what color would I go to? I looked at my Abyssinians, which were blondish and ruddy-red. I said to myself, I want my hair to be the color of my cats. I went to Jose Eber, a famous Hollywood hairdresser, with one of my felines and I said please make my hair the color of this cat. That was my hair color for a long, long time.”
Over the years, as a photojournalist, I have photographed CC. The color picture of her on the back of her memoir is a photograph by me. Her hair is now white, but her face remains beautiful and youthful. It was in our youth that we spent so much time together. I never married or had children or grandchildren. During one of CC’s visits to my home in Miami Beach, we went to a dinner party where the subject of cats came up and it was discussed about Abyssinians.
Turns out there were Abyssinian cats nearby for sale. It was midnight, but CC and I, at her insistence, went to the breeder and bought an Abyssinian kitten for me. CC was staying in my home’s guest bedroom and perceived that I was lonely since I lived alone. She felt an Abyssinian cat would end my loneliness. During that first night, she peeked in on me in my bedroom to make sure that the cat and I were bonding.
My first Abyssinian was named King Midas, and he came with a championship pedigree. I was making a lot of money then, hence the name King Midas. I was a realtor-associate and the first house to sell for a million dollars in Miami was sold by me. I soon followed this first kitten with a second Abyssinian that I named Mozart. Like King Midas, Mozart had a championship heritage and even as a kitten was especially aristocratic. Mozart came from Canada, and I remember meeting his carrier at the Miami airport. Mozart wasn’t a bit scared by the long trip and stepped out of the cat carrier like a true monarch.
During these years, my parents moved to Ocala into a house that I designed for them. I promised my father to never take my mother back to the hustle-and-bustle of Miami. That left me with a decision to make about where to live in Ocala. I purchased an 18-unit apartment building, Fort King Manor, in the heart of Ocala’s prestigious historic district. King Midas lived with me and Mozart for three years in Ocala.
Anyone that has a pet will agree with me that they are like a child. And as CC’s lyrics say, one loves them unconditionally. Charlie was my favorite cat. He let me carry him around like a baby and loved curling up in my arms like an infant while I was seated. Charlie had a trick. He would stand on his hind legs on the kitchen counter where I fed him and would beg for treats with his front paws.
Later, I found Figaro at a nearby cattery. Figaro, like Charlie, was an especially loving cat and followed me around like a dog. Currently living with me is a relatively new cat whom I named Starr, reminiscent of CC’s Abyssinian named Starr. Starr has a different personality than my other Abyssinians but he’s my cat and I love him.
Recently, I began my national search for a ruddy male, championship lineage Abyssinian kitten. The search took weeks of determination to find just the right kitten. Finally, at breeder Sheryl Landstrom’s cattery, Northwoods Aby, near Seattle, Washington, I found the kitten that I could welcome into my home.
When I told CC I had found a kitten in Seattle, Washington, she invited me to be her houseguest in Beverly Hills and from there I could make the trek to Seattle to pick up the kitten. I was so happy to be invited and made my travel plans for Beverly Hills that same day. I decided to rent a Mercedes Benz car and stopped on the way to CC’s home to pick up an orchid for her. She carefully planned our itinerary.
I was staying in her father’s bedroom on the ground floor of her Beverly Hills home. That first night we went out to dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant. The next day, while CC worked on her documentary, I went to Rodeo Drive. Everyone looked stylish and was wearing the latest fashions from pricey boutiques. That second night we were invited to a private showing of “Expats” as part of Chinatown’s annual summer nights.
I guess by now you have figured out that I am one of CC’s biggest fans, since not only is she my friend but also a musical genius. There has been a price to pay for this genius. CC suffers from hyperacusis, which means she can’t deal with everyday background noises, so sensitive is her hearing. She jokes that she can hear a snail crossing the street. Her hyperacusis was bothering her in the Mercedes I had rented and was driving with MapQuest on. I turned it off and CC was my MapQuest.
I easily could grow accustomed to being a Hollywood insider. Everyone, the world over, is familiar with the Oscar statuette. It was designed in 1928 by American and award-winning film art director Cedric Gibbons. Standing 13 ½ inches tall and weighing 8 ½ pounds, it is the most famous trophy in the world. The competition for the 2025 Oscars is heating up. My final night found us at a by-invitation-only premiere of a movie, “Tuesday.” It was an interesting but strange movie.
Later, we dined at the Ivy, which is a California eatery known for celebrity sightings. Certainly, CC, as an Oscar nominee, is one such celebrity. The food was delicious and overly plentiful. But, too soon, my time with CC ended. She said I was the best houseguest she had ever had. There were tears in my eyes when I said goodbye to CC since it is seldom that I travel to LA.
The next morning, I flew to Seattle. I named my new Abyssinian kitten King Leo. I was glad to welcome him to the family.
Leaving Seattle, King Leo was tucked in his cat carrier under the first-class seat on the plane in front of me. I was so happy and excited to have such a beautiful little kitten and, during the overnight flight, I kept putting my hand in the cat carrier to pet King Leo. I know parents think their babies are cute, and that goes double for cat parents. I was so elated to have such a wonderful new kitten. King Leo was the cutest kitten I had ever seen. Soon enough, I looked out the airplane’s window, where, in shimmering waves, the Orlando summer heat radiated off the sun-kissed airport runway.
As I drove home to Ocala, with a sleeping King Leo next to me on the front seat, I had plenty of time to reflect on my trip to Beverly Hills and then rainy Seattle. I asked myself as I sped down the Florida turnpike, what makes CC’s music and talent so uniquely American?
For starters, there is CC’s personal and professional story. The child of immigrants, she has lived the American dream as she started with nothing and became spectacularly successful. This isn’t to say her trail-blazing path has been an easy one. Just the opposite is true. But to use one of my favorite words, CC persevered.
CC looks forward to the future. She says her goal is, “Hopefully to go on living and be healthy and working. My music is my life and my life is my music.”
