The World's Greatest Minstrel

He looked just like George Burns. He even smoked a big cigar and wore black-rimmed glasses. He walked like him and talked like him. He was very old when we met him, but, a sharper mind would be hard to find or a kinder heart.

'Say, you gotta hear this kid', he would tell everyone that came into his theatrical office, 'Ain't kidding, he's better than Jolson'. And he meant it too. And Buddy knew what he was talking about because for twelve years he was understudy to the late and great Al Jolson. 'In three great shows', he would say, SINBAD, BOMBO and BIG BOY, I never got to go on once. Jolie never got sick; he would be half dead when he arrived at the theater and at showtime he perked up. I sat there like a squash in the third row center on the aisle every night and loved it. Naw, I never got tired of hearing him, that voice, well, he just had it all. But, lemme tell ya 'This kid is great, he's gonna be a star'.

And Buddy really helped, from the very first he was friendly and kind, got Clive into lots of good places like the GiGi Room at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, and The Eden Roc Hotel on Doral Beach, the world famous Deauville, all prestigious showrooms where he also booked Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck and lots of other headliners.

Buddy Walker was down to earth. 'I seen 'em all kid' he'd say to Clive, 'And you got something special'. 'Hey can you whistle' he asked. Like this, and he put his fingers in his mouth and did a perfect Jolson whistle. Took him about a week to teach Clive and then he said, 'See what I mean kid, you're a natural'. What a natural. After driving me crazy whistling in the car for the next few months Clive developed the Jolie warble. This really astounded Buddy.

We went all over, Buddy and his beautiful wife Helene with Clive and the wide eyed me, especially after shows late at night. Buddy was well over 80 but he never got tired. Show business was his life and he took us over and showed us the ropes, the ins and outs of this terrible, wonderful business. 'Ya gotta have guts, if you're gonna manage him' Buddy told me after a show one night. 'They're sharks out there, they're barracudas out there, watch it kid, loin something'. And I did, I learned from him.

After teaching Clive the Jolie whistle, Buddy gave Clive the wig, the very wig Al Jolson had worn in THE JAZZ SINGER. He had gotten it as a gift from a very generous Jolie and it became one of our special treasures. Clive wore it the night he played the part of Al Jolson at the TONY awards at The Winter Garden Theater, Broadway, New York.

Buddy could not be in the audience that night for he had just passed away, but if ever a spirit could make itself known it was Buddy telling Clive, 'C'mon kid, ya made it, told you ya would, now give it all ya got'. And he did.