Born On This Day- July 27th... Carol Leifer

After graduating from Binghampton University with a degree in Theatre, Carol Leiferstarted in stand-up after accompanying her then boyfriend Paul Reiser to his gig at Catch A Raising Star. She enjoyed a successful career doing stand-up & appeared on Late Night with David Letterman more more that 25 times. She moved to writing & has won Emmys for her work on The Larry Sanders Show, SNL, Rules of Engagement (also executive producer), & most famously- Seinfeld(she has been dubbed- the real Elaine). She once opened for Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas.

In September 2007, Leifer won an auction for the handwritten notes used by Michael Vick during his apology for his role in dogfighting.

On her 40th birthday, Leifer had a revelation: "I suddenly had this really mad desire to have an affair with a woman, I was divorced. I was childless. I figured there's got to be one more way to really tick off my mom. I told Lori that I kind of had this crush on her, & she was, like: 'No way. I'm not going to be a science experiment for some straight girl!'"

"I used my patented line that I've used easily for the last 20 years—'Well, what would it hurt if we just made out?' Heard the song lyric- 'I kissed a girl & I liked it'? Well, I kissed a girl & my head spun around."

“When I first started talking about being gay onstage I felt it wasn't working. The audience was like, You seem straight & now you're talking about being gay, what? I just kind of gave it up. But now I think I wasn't completely owning it, because it works completely now. I talk about having been married, and then I met this woman & my life spun around & we've been together for almost 14 years. & the audience always still applauds when I say how long we've been together, which is pretty amazing for a comedy club. I own it so much now. It wasn't the audience. It was me.”

Leifer currently is a staff writer on Modern Family & is nominated for an Emmy this year. She lives in Santa Monica with her longtime partner- real estate developer Lori Wolf, Chihuahuas- Cagney & Mini Mo & their son. Love her.

Born On This Day- May 11th... Great American Songwriter, Irving Berlin

He was not gay, & he was a Jew who wrote the best selling Christmas song of all time. His life spanned more than 100 years & he composed over 1000 songs. Irving Berlin was born Israel Beilin in 1988, his exact place of birth is unknown, although his family had been living in Tolochin, Russia, when they immigrated to New York in 1893. When his father died, Berlin, just turned 13, worked the streets in various odd jobs, singing for pennies, then as a singing waiter in a Chinatown Cafe. In 1907 he published his first song, Marie from Sunny Italy, & in 1911 he had his first major international hit - Alexander's Ragtime Band.



For 5 decades, Irving Berlin composed ballads, dance numbers, novelty tunes & love songs that defined American popular song for much of the century. Irving Berlin standards include: How Deep Is the Ocean, Blue Skies, White Christmas, Always, Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better, There's No Business Like Show Business, Cheek to Cheek, Puttin' on the Ritz, A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, Heat Wave, Easter Parade, Let's Face the Music & Dance, & God Bless America.

He wrote for Broadway & Hollywood. He composed 17 complete scores for Broadway musicals & revues, including the phenomenal score for Annie get Your Gun. Among the Hollywood movie musical classics with scores by Irving Berlin are Top Hat, Follow The Fleet, On The Avenue, Alexander's Rag Time Band, Holiday Inn, This Is The Army, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, White Christmas & There's No Business Like Show Business. His songs have provided memorable moments other films, from The Jazz Singer in 1927 to Home Alone in 1991. Among his many awards are a dozen Grammys, 2 Tony Awards & the Academy Award for White Christmas in 1942.


In 1978, a jaw-droppingly handsome young man with deep blue eyes, stood center stage, straight up & still & with a sweet pure tenor, sang the 1924 Irving Berlin tune- What’ll I Do? for an audition. I was impressed with his looks & his talent. More than a year later this young man would tell me that he was in love with me while Harry Nillson sang What'll I Do on the stereo in the background. This man would eventually become my Husband & I would spend more than half of my life at his side. What’ll I Do remains my favorite Irving Berlin song, although I love them all. I also have quite a soft spot for You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun:

Oh, a man may be hot...
But he's not... 
When he's shot! 
Oh you can't get a man with a gun!

The Hippest Jew In Show Biz

"I have to be a star like another man has to breathe."
Sammy Davis Jr.




As a child I was totally enamored of “The Rat Pack”, which was led by his old friend Frank Sinatra, & included such fellow performers Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, & Shirley MacLaine.

Sammy Davis Jr started in vaudeville at age 3 & despite the barriers of racism, he would conquor Broadway, recordings, Las Vegas, films & television.He was in show biz for 60+ years. 43 years ago, Sammy appeared on the TV special- Movin’ With Nancy, where he greeted the star-Nancy Sinatra with a kiss on the lips. As far as I can research, this was the first black-white kiss broadcast on American television.

As an African American & Hispanic, Davis was the victim of racism throughout his life. He was a large financial supporter of civil rights causes, but he had a complex relationship with the black community, & attracted criticism after physically embracing Richard Nixon in 1970. Davis died of throat cancer in 1990; he refused treatment that might have ruined his voice. One day on a golf course with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. Sammy:"Handicap?  I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew."

His recording of Gotta Lot of Livin’ To Do (from Bye, Bye Birdie) was on my November Mix. I wish he had made it to his 85th birthday today... It would have been so groovy to have Sammy as a guest on my holiday special- A Very Steve Christmas!. Sammy would have done his very cool version of My Favorite Things & we then would have done a duet of Baby, It's Cold Outside, before joining Liza for a medley of We Need A Little Christmas, It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas & Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel. I would really have loved that.

He Was The Hippest Jew To Ever Work In Show Business

As a child I was totally enamored of “The Rat Pack”, which was led by his old friend Frank Sinatra, & included such fellow performers Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, & Shirley MacLaine. Sammy Davis Jr started in vaudeville at age 3 & despite the barriers of racism, he would conquor Broadway, recordings, Las Vegas, films & television. 42 years ago, Sammy appeared on the TV special- Movin’ With Nancy, where he greeted the star-Nancy Sinatra with a kiss on the lips. As far as I can research, this was the first black-white kiss broadcast on American television. As an African American & Hispanic, Davis was the victim of racism throughout his life. He was a large financial supporter of civil rights causes, but he had a complex relationship with the black community, & attracted criticism after physically embracing Richard Nixon in 1970. Davis died of throat cancer in 1990; he refused treatment that might have ruined his voice. One day on a golf course with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. "Handicap?" he asked. “ I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew." His recording of Gotta Lot of Livin’ To Do (from Bye, Bye Birdie) was on my November Mix. I wish he had made it to his 84th birthday today... I would have been so groovy to have Sammy as a guest on my holiday special- A Very Steve Holiday!. Sammy would have done his very cool version of My Favorite Things & we then would have done a duet of Baby, It's Cold Outside, before joining Liza for a medley of We Need A Little Christmas, It's Beginning To look A Lot Like Christmas & Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel. I would really have loved that.