Word: levant
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...more than four decades, Oscar Levant slew his friends-with insults, wisecracks and backchat. When he died at 65 last week, Levant had become a Hollywood legend: the Oscar that no one could...
...image that Levant nurtured like a hothouse nightshade. The son of a Pittsburgh jeweler, he dropped out of high school at 15 to seek a concert pianist's career in New York. He caromed from dance bands to luncheon orchestras, waiting for his big break. Whenever opportunity knocked, Levant immediately bit its hand. Upon greeting George Gershwin, for example, Oscar went Wilde: "George, if you had it to do all over again, would you fall in love with yourself...
...composer laughed off the insult -possibly because he saw worship in the puffy face of the speaker. Levant soon became a freeloading guest of George and Ira Gershwin until Leonore, Ira's wife, ordered him out of the house. Levant rose, paused, then sat down. "I'm not going," he told Leonore. "Why?" "Because," he mourned, "I have no place to go." Oscar stayed another two years...
...symbiotic relationship: Oscar and his hosts dined out on remarks like that. Levant swiftly became a fixture at Beverly Hills parties: the lap dog with rabies. Though he continued to play and compose (he once studied with Arnold Schonberg), Levant's musicianship was never taken very seriously -except, of course, by Oscar. His classical composition had a sweet, derivative aura, reminiscent of movie scores. (He wrote several, including a mini-opera for Charlie Chan at the Opera.) His pianistic enthusiasm was showy but, except for Gershwin's music, Levant tended to pound the instrument like the back...
Indeed, his concerts were less appreciated by critics than by hoods. Mobster Frank Costello was one of his biggest fans. In New York's Lewisohn Stadium, Levant annually played Gershwin to a bench of discriminating cauliflower ears...