Memories
Welcome to the Bob and Shirley MEMORIES page. Here you’ll find memories in the form of stories, photos, audio, and more. If you’d like to participate, please send your comment, story, photo, etc. to Richard Dworsky.
STORIES
Richard Dworsky – Listen To Your Mother!
Rich and Shirley backstage at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.
A Prairie Home Companion’s First Annual Farewell show – 1988
After a more than 40 year association with Garrison Keillor and his radio show A Prairie Home Companion, people often ask me how that relationship began. The answer is short and simple. My parents…Bob and Shirley. Dad had owned the World Theater and the attached Schubert Apartments since 1970. A Prairie Home Companion was looking for a permanent home and, in 1978, found it at the World Theater (later renamed the Fitzgerald Theater). Sadly, Dad passed away that same year, and Mom became the owner/landlord. She knew nothing about business (that was handled by others), but she did become friends with the show’s producer, Margaret Moos. Mom had been impressed by a talented Russian and Yiddish singer, Sima Shumilovsky, who had recently arrived in St. Paul from the Soviet Union. Mom thought that Sima would make wonderful guest on A Prairie Home Companion and dragged Margaret to a little a cappella performance Sima gave in a basement room at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center. Margaret was very impressed but a little cautious, saying, “Sima is great, but she needs an accompanist”. Mom immediately replied “My son, Richard, can play piano in any style and can learn a song immediately by ear” etc. Margaret was sold on the idea. Mom then came to me with the plan for my approval. Not considering myself a Russian/Yiddish folkie, my response was less than enthusiastic.
But Mom was persistent and begged me, saying “Come on. It’ll be a mitzvah” (Hebrew for a good deed). Sima and I performed on the radio show in February of 1980, and it went so well that we were invited back several more times. After a few shows, I was given an opportunity to do a solo tune. Garrison took notice and invited me back as a solo performer and to accompany him and various other guests. This all led to me eventually becoming A Prairie Home Companion’s pianist/music director for decades.
The moral of the story? Listen to your mother! Every once in a while, she just might be right…and in a way that can change your life.
After a more than 40 year association with Garrison Keillor and his radio show A Prairie Home Companion, people often ask me how that relationship began. The answer is short and simple. My parents…Bob and Shirley. Dad had owned the World Theater and the attached Schubert Apartments since 1970. A Prairie Home Companion was looking for a permanent home and, in 1978, found it at the World Theater (later renamed the Fitzgerald Theater). Sadly, Dad passed away that same year, and Mom became the owner/landlord. She knew nothing about business (that was handled by others), but she did become friends with the show’s producer, Margaret Moos. Mom had been impressed by a talented Russian and Yiddish singer, Sima Shumilovsky, who had recently arrived in St. Paul from the Soviet Union. Mom thought that Sima would make wonderful guest on A Prairie Home Companion and dragged Margaret to a little a cappella performance Sima gave in a basement room at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center. Margaret was very impressed but a little cautious, saying, “Sima is great, but she needs an accompanist”. Mom immediately replied “My son, Richard, can play piano in any style and can learn a song immediately by ear” etc. Margaret was sold on the idea. Mom then came to me with the plan for my approval. Not considering myself a Russian/Yiddish folkie, my response was less than enthusiastic.
But Mom was persistent and begged me, saying “Come on. It’ll be a mitzvah” (Hebrew for a good deed). Sima and I performed on the radio show in February of 1980, and it went so well that we were invited back several more times. After a few shows, I was given an opportunity to do a solo tune. Garrison took notice and invited me back as a solo performer and to accompany him and various other guests. This all led to me eventually becoming A Prairie Home Companion’s pianist/music director for decades.
The moral of the story? Listen to your mother! Every once in a while, she just might be right…and in a way that can change your life.
And a footnote to the above story…
Garrison Keillor created a fictional character for Shirley when she was the owner of the World Theater. In his humorous recurring bit on the radio, he announced that guests on A Prairie Home Companion stayed at “The World Hotel”, which was connected to the World Theater, with its proprietor, “Shirley World”. It was a fun, inside joke. And whenever Garrison saw Shirley over the next decades, he affectionately called her “Shirley World”. In 2007, Garrison made Mother’s Day the theme of a broadcast and suggested I write a song for my mother. I accepted the challenge and wrote and sang the song, “Shirley World”.
Click arrow to hear “Shirley World”
Bob and Shirley Singing Together - 1955
Bob and Shirley sing in English, French and Hebrew. Recorded at home in 1955 on a Gray Audograph, Bob’s very low-fidelity office dictation machine. Bob used this recording method to record family fun until he bought a Wollensak 1500 tape recorder in about 1961.
Songs are: The Sunny Side of the Street, Frére Jacques, Chag Purim (children’s Purim song), Hevenu Shalom Aleichem (Hebrew folk song: “We come to greet you in peace”).
Click arrow to hear Bob and Shirley sing
Interview Audio Excerpts with Aunt Mary (Levy) Sanders
Shirley’s aunt/Sylvia Shure’s sister
Shirley’s Aunt Mary (Levy) Sanders shares memories of Shirley, Bob, her sister Sylvia Shure, her father Lazar Levy, and Minneapolis Jewish gangsters. Edited by Richard Dworsky from a 1985 interview when Rich and Al Dworsky met with Aunt Mary at her home in Menorah Plaza in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
Click arrow to hear Mary’s memories
Some Remembrances by George Latimer – former Mayor of St. Paul
(Excerpts from a conversation with Rich Dworsky on March 23, 2023)
Your dad I knew by his reputation. He was a great lawyer who was already in his prime when I was just starting with Solly Robbins right after law school in 1963. But I never got to be close to him.
But Shirley was in a small group of people called P.I.E., Parents for Integrated Education, in the late 1960s. I remember Mimi Goldstein and your mom, Shirley, and a few other people. They were very early in opposing segregation. St. Paul was quiet about it, but we were segregated. Segregated in our schools and segregated in our neighborhoods. And if you read some of the history that’s being written now, it was really a combination of support from the public, and very clear positions and statements that excluded people like blacks and, God forbid, Jews. That was part of our history, and St. Paul’s history was part of that.
I decided to run for School Board in 1969, and I connected up with Shirley and Mimi and Parents for Integrated Education, and that’s what we really got engaged with. I certainly was inspired by the same things that motivated them. That was my beginning with Shirley. She was wonderful.
I think I must have been the only goy (gentile) in the room when I sat in your living room, when your father died in 1978. I sat with Shirley and just a handful of mainly relatives. I’ll never forget that. My respect and affection for her and your family was very deep. – George Latimer
Your dad I knew by his reputation. He was a great lawyer who was already in his prime when I was just starting with Solly Robbins right after law school in 1963. But I never got to be close to him.
But Shirley was in a small group of people called P.I.E., Parents for Integrated Education, in the late 1960s. I remember Mimi Goldstein and your mom, Shirley, and a few other people. They were very early in opposing segregation. St. Paul was quiet about it, but we were segregated. Segregated in our schools and segregated in our neighborhoods. And if you read some of the history that’s being written now, it was really a combination of support from the public, and very clear positions and statements that excluded people like blacks and, God forbid, Jews. That was part of our history, and St. Paul’s history was part of that.
I decided to run for School Board in 1969, and I connected up with Shirley and Mimi and Parents for Integrated Education, and that’s what we really got engaged with. I certainly was inspired by the same things that motivated them. That was my beginning with Shirley. She was wonderful.
I think I must have been the only goy (gentile) in the room when I sat in your living room, when your father died in 1978. I sat with Shirley and just a handful of mainly relatives. I’ll never forget that. My respect and affection for her and your family was very deep. – George Latimer
Nieces and Nephews
Bob and Shirley loved all their nieces and nephews:
Anna and Jerry Simon’s children: Beth, Jeffrey, Kathy, and Dan
(And the Simon kids’ second “Mom”, Yetta Kadesky Simon)
Harold Shure and Barbara’s (Joy’s) children: Brandi, Holly, and Aaron
Harold Shure and Fran’s child: Joel
Dan and Sylvia Dworsky’s children: Douglas, Laurie, and Nancy
Rare home movies
Family Frolic at Abraham and Tillie Fineberg's | 1936 - St. Paul, Minnesota
A treasured old home movie from 1936 featuring Bob and brother Dan, their parents, maternal grandparents, aunts, and cousin. A day of fun and frolic, games, clowning, and wrestling. Watch future All American linebacker Danny, at age 8, wrestle his 10 year old brother Bobby to the ground, while the ladies watch from the porch in their fine dresses and hats.
Family Frolic at Abraham and Tillie Fineberg's | 1936 - St. Paul, Minnesota
A treasured old home movie from 1936 featuring Bob and brother Dan, their parents, maternal grandparents, aunts, and cousin. A day of fun and frolic, games, clowning, and wrestling. Watch future All American linebacker Danny, at age 8, wrestle his 10 year old brother Bobby to the ground, while the ladies watch from the porch in their fine dresses and hats.
NOTE: To watch videos, click on the arrow. To enlarge the video, click on the full screen icon in the lower right corner of the video or click “Watch on YouTube”.
More Content Coming Soon
Bob's Silly Self Portraits
More Memories
Hover over image for captions
Click on image to enlarge
