Tag: Good Deeds

David Bruce: Good Deeds Anecdotes

Joseph Barbera and William Hanna are famous for their Hanna-Barbera cartoons, featuring such stars as Yogi Berra, Huckleberry Hound, and—of course—the Flintstones. They also made cartoons featuring Tom and Jerry that showed before movies. Mr. Barbera once visited an ill boy at the request of nurses in the pediatric ward—Mr. Barbera called them “wonderful, caring, dedicated people.” This boy was depressed and withdrawn, and his mother had not seen him in six months. Mr. Barbera talked to the boy about Tom and Jerry and drew pictures of Tom and Jerry for him. The boy ended up smiling and laughing; the nurses ended up crying. One nurse told Mr. Barbera that it was “the most incredible, moving experience” of her entire professional life. In his old age, Mr. Barbera invited forty of his colleagues to dinner at his favorite Chinese restaurant—a way to say thanks to them. At one point, Mel Blanc, who provided the voices for so many Hanna-Barbera characters, stood up and said, “I’ve known Joe Barbera for thirty years, and I want to say that I have never heard in all that time one person say one bad thing about him.” Mr. Barbera said, “I have never been prouder, happier, or more pleased with myself than at that moment.”

Ed McMahon worked for many years with Jerry Lewis in the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. His daughter Claudia worked for a year with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and she was able to let him know that yes, the money the telethon raised was put to good use. She told her father, “I’ve never seen like it. I’ve never had to say no to a patient’s request. Whatever they need—an electric wheelchair, a ramp built onto their home—the organization provides it for them without any red tape. It’s the most incredible thing.” Frank Sinatra once telephoned the telethon to donate $25,000, but the person answering the phone wondered whether Frank was really Frank. Because Ed McMahon knew Frank, he went to the phone to confirm Frank’s identity. In their private life, the two men shared a toast. Frank would raise his glass and said, “To the festival.” Ed would then say, “To the incredible festival of life.” Therefore, Ed said on the phone, “To the what?” Frank replied, “To the festival,” and Ed said to the telethoners, “Take his money.”

Gerhardt Stehmann, an extraordinarily competent man, sang bass and baritone for the Damrosch Opera Company. Among other abilities, he could learn a role very quickly. The German composer Xaver Scharwenka had written an opera and was anxious to conduct it, and Walter Damrosch agreed to let him use the Damrosch Opera Company for a performance. Unfortunately, the day before the opera was to be presented, tenor Ernest Krauss pleaded hoarseness, and it seemed as if the opera would have to be cancelled, bitterly disappointing Mr. Scharwenka. However, Mr. Stehmann said to Mr. Damrosch, “Give me the part, and I will learn it for tomorrow night.” Mr. Damrosch objected, “But this is a tenor part, and you are a bass baritone.” Mr. Stehmann replied, “Give it to me. I think I can transpose a few of the high notes and can at least save the performance.” He did save the performance, and he did not make a mistake while performing in the opera. This was both a good deed and a remarkable deed.

Edgar Poe was born on 19 January 1809. His father deserted the family when Edgar was very young, and his mother, Eliza Poe, died on 8 December 1811, when Edgar was not yet three years old. Neighbors took in Rosalie, Edgar’s sister, the youngest of three children. William, the oldest child, was taken in by his paternal grandparents. Edgar was taken in by Frances Allen, who was nicknamed Fanny. She had taken care of Eliza during her final illness. Fanny and her husband, John Allan, never formally adopted Edgar, but Edgar used the name “Allan” as his middle name. Mr. Allan and Mr. Poe quarreled over money when Edgar grew up, but Mr. Allan did show personal responsibility. When Mr. Allan discovered that he had an illegitimate child (not Edgar), he acknowledged paternity and gave the child’s mother financial support.

Political cartoonist Herblock once drew a cartoon of President Lyndon Johnson as the Music Man, the creation of Meredith Willson, who wrote the musical The Music Man. Mr. Willson wrote Herblock to ask for the cartoon, and Herblock sent it to him. Mr. Willson wrote him a charming thank-you letter, and one year later, he sent him another letter saying that the cartoon was a “daily joy” and “I’d be a pig not to tell you this.” Herblock said about Mr. Willson, “He must have been as charming as his songs and shows.”

When cartoon director Chuck Jones was a child, he lived near the Hollywood Bowl. He and other children would climb down the side of a hill and listen to and watch the entertainments for free. One guard was assigned to watch the side of the hill, and he knew that the children were there. Because the guard was a nice man, he would always do such things as whistle or walk into bushes to make noise to let the children know about his presence so that they could hide and not get caught.

When the father of Jamie Farr (who played Klinger on TV’s M*A*S*H) died, Jamie was broke and needed money to get to Phoenix, Arizona, for his father’s funeral. Jamie started to tell a long-time friend, Andy Fenady, his problem, and before Jamie was able to finish, Andy gave him a signed blank check and said, “Fill it out for whatever amount you need.” Jamie filled it out for $50—at the time that was enough money for a round-trip air ticket.

In August 2011, actor Keanu Reeves was riding a subway in New York City. He noticed that a woman did not have a seat, and he gave up his seat for her. Also doing a good deed were the New Yorkers. They had to have recognized the famous actor but did not bother him. (One person did unobtrusively videotape him from a distance, hence the evidence of his good deed.)

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David Bruce: Good Deeds Anecdotes

Zoe Green, a woman who also goes by the online name Pea Green Girl, lives in Bournemouth, England. She writes, “From my perspective, Shelbourne Road is just another long, fairly anonymous Bournemouth street. Nothing really happens here. Other than the occasional social gathering in the corner shop, we go about our daily routines side by side and yet our paths never seem to overlap. I only really know my next door neighbour Paul and his dog Foo. I don’t know who lives opposite, or 2 houses down, which really makes for quite a sad state of affairs. So how can I make a difference? One smile at a time.” On Happy Street Day, she rose early — 5 a.m. — and decorated the street. She wrote, “I don’t intend to change the world, but I know that if you brighten one person’s day they are highly likely to brighten someone else’s. Happy Street Day took place on Monday 15th April 2013. It was my personal mission to bring some unexpected cheer to my fellow Shelbournians, encouraging them only to stop for a moment and talk to one another. This project was about inspiring people. So take my ideas and share them with your community. Go on, spread a little joy.” Pea Green Girl pasted a “Good Morning!” sign on the bridge. She also stuck Post-Its with encouraging messages on a telephone pole, and she put balloons at a bus shelter, post-box, and telephone booth. Anthea Quay of Designtaxi.ocm wrote this about the project: “Green’s little project aimed to inspire people, and it must’ve brightened up someone else’s day—and it was her tiny step to changing the world, one smile at a time. […] If you left your house one morning and walked down the street to find it filled with lovely signs and motifs, [wouldn’t] you feel like nothing could get you down?”

Herman Autrey remembers a good deed that Fats Waller did for a bunch of kids during a theater engagement in Washington D.C. While Fats was taking a break in an alley early in the engagement, a kid approached him and asked to be let in the show free because he had no money. Fats told the kid to come back and bring a bunch of his friends with him. Lots of kids showed up, and Fats treated them to candy and let them in his show free. The owner of the theater was unhappy because the kids were taking up seats for free that other customers could have paid for, but the owner became happy at the next show and all the shows that followed because the kids told their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles how good Fats was, and the parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles bought tickets to hear Fats for themselves. By the way, Fats Waller was very creative musically, but he did not handle money matters well. Once, he was in a hamburger place with Fletcher Henderson and Fletcher’s musicians. Fats ate nine hamburgers and then discovered that he did not have any money. Fats offered to write nine songs for Fletcher if he would pay for the nine hamburgers that Fats had eaten. Fletcher accepted the offer, and Fats got manuscript paper and quickly wrote nine songs, including “Henderson Stomp,” “Hot Mustard,” “St. Louis Shuffle,” “Variety Stomp,” and Whiteman Stomp.” Fletcher was a good man, and he did more than just pay for the hamburgers—he gave Fats an additional $10 for each song.

In November 2012, Hager Elsayed, a teacher assistant, lost her princess-cut engagement ring at a New York City subway station. When she noticed that the ring was missing, she thought that she had left it at home, but she searched thoroughly and could not find it. That is when she realized that it must have slipped off her finger. She said, “I guessed that since I lost a few pounds, it slipped off.” Her fiancé, Juan Rivera, a fireproofer, had worked many hours of overtime to buy the ring for her. He said, “I was devastated. I was like, ‘I’m still paying for that ring. How could you do that!’” In January, Ms. Elsayed was at the Fort Hamilton Parkway N-train station. She saw the station agent who had been working there when she lost her ring and asked him, “Did anyone by any chance find an engagement ring?” The station agent, Anthony Tiralosi, said that an elderly Asian woman who spoke no English had found the ring and turned it in. Mr. Tiralosi said, “I knew it was an engagement ring because I used to sell jewelry. As soon as I saw it, I knew the ring was worth at least $4,000. It was a gorgeous ring. I said, ‘Gee, whoever lost this must feel sick.’” He added, “I told my kids that night about the ring. I wanted them to know the importance of returning something that didn’t belong to them.” Ms. Elsayed got the ring back after she provided proof that the ring was hers—including photographs and a proof of purchase from her fiancé. She is grateful to the anonymous Chinese woman who found and turned in the ring. She said, “The whole moral of the story is there are still good people out there.”

People sometimes write Ana Samways, author of the always entertaining column Sideswipe that appears almost daily in the New Zealand Herald. For example, Adrian wrote this about a good deed performed by the Ponsonby Fire Station: “I’m part of the Big Brother programme and my little brother Carlo and I were out for a walk along Ponsonby Rd when he saw some firefighters sitting in the fire truck. We stood there for a minute in case the fire truck was about to race off and the men on duty were nice enough to roll up the door and invite Carlo in to sit in the fire truck and tell us a bit about the station. Carlo was really stoked with it and even got a little goodie bag which he was excited to take home and rip into. It was an extremely nice thing to do.” Ponsonby is an inner-city suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand.

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David Bruce: Good Deeds Anecdotes

Franklin Ajaye met fellow comedian Flip Wilson a few times after Flip had retired with a big pile of money. The last time that Franklin saw him, Flip had driven his motorcycle to a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. Flip bought breakfast for everybody. Another black comedian who did good deeds was Redd Foxx, star of TV’s Sanford and Son. White comedian Tom Dreesen remembers, “Redd would look all over. If he saw anybody that didn’t have any money and they couldn’t pay their SAG or their AFTRA insurance, he would take them to the show and tell the writers, ‘Write ’em in, put them on the show. Let ’em get one line.’ He’d make sure it was a speaking line. That way, he had to pay different [more] money. Redd did that time and time and time again.” By the way, in the early days of sampling, samples were not paid for — it took a while for people to realize that samples need to be legally cleared. Reynaldo Rey once heard a sample from one of his albums on one of Ice Cube’s albums, so he went to Ice Cube’s trailer — Ice Cube was filming the movie Friday— and said, “Hey, man, you owe me some money. I’m on one of your albums.” Reynaldo said that Ice Cube “laughed and invited me in, paid for it, and put me in the movie. Good dude.” Also by the way, in a conversation about Dave Chappelle, fellow comedian Bob Sumner said that Dave is a hero. In his book Black Comedians on Black Comedy, Darryl Littleton quoted him, “Great guy. I know stories about Dave that’s a lot deeper than just being a comedian. He’s a Good Samaritan. Him and David Edwards saved a little girl from being apprehended on a Washington subway one time. They were hanging out late after a gig one night and they noticed this guy had this girl on the subway and this girl was giving them like, y’know, little things that something wasn’t right. They come to find out she was being kidnapped and Dave [Chappelle] and Dave [Edwards] actually got the girl to break loose, y’know, and then they got the guy.”

Comedian Jack Benny was noted for his professional generosity to other entertainers. Singer Abbe Lane worked with Mr. Benny in a theater-in-the-round, and before the opening they looked at letters on the marquee. Ms. Lane’s contract stated that her name would appear at “100 percent billing” — this refers to the size of the letters on the marquee. However, “The Jack Benny Show” appeared in 100 percent, while “and starring Abbe Lane” appeared in 75 percent. Mr. Benny looked at the marquee and said, “No, no, no, that will never do.” Immediately, Ms. Lane thought that Mr. Benny, who was a huge star (and obviously his name should appear first), was going to insist that her name appear in smaller letters, but he said, “I want this changed. I want it to read ‘The Jack Benny and Abbe Lane Show.’” She did the first half of the show, and Mr. Benny did the second half of the show. In addition to singing, Ms. Lane spoke about shopping at Neiman-Marcus. Mr. Benny also had jokes about Neiman-Marcus, and Ms. Lane told him, “Jack, I just feel awful, because if I make any references to Neiman-Marcus, it’s going to take the edge off what you do.” Mr. Benny replied, “Don’t be silly. I have lots of other things that I could say, so you do it.” Ms. Lane remembered later, “And then he improved on what I had to say. I can’t think of another performer in the world who would do that. It was the most wonderful engagement. I felt that I had finally arrived and was working with the best of the best.”

When Joan Oliver Goldsmith decided to earn an MBA degree at the University of Minnesota, she ran into some major problems trying to understand statistics, and so she went to Professor Norm Chervany and said, “I’m going to need some help.” Then she started crying. She went to the ladies’ restroom and washed her face, and then she came back to Professor Chervany, who, she says, looked more embarrassed than she felt. He told her, “Don’t worry. I’ll work with you ’til you get it. And you will get it.” He tutored her twice, and the night before their third scheduled tutoring session, intellectual lightning hit her, and she suddenly understood the statistical curve. She telephoned him to cancel the tutoring session, and he said, “That’s a bit sooner than I expected, but I knew you’d get it.” By the way, one of Ms. Goldsmith’s friends is named Vern, who used to live upstairs from her. One day, she fell and she could not lift up her head without vomiting. She called Vern for help, and he insisted that she see a doctor, so he called an ambulance to take her to the emergency room. Later, he called her in the emergency room. He told her that he had cleaned up the blood and the vomit, and he offered to take care of her cat if she needed to stay in the hospital.

• Lee Castelani, a Senshido instructor in Montreal, Canada, has a brother who was in a taxi that broke down at a red light. When the light turned green, the driver in the car behind the taxi honked his horn—not aggressively, but as a way to alert the taxi driver that the light had turned green. The taxi driver got out of the taxi and apologized to the driver, who offered to take the taxi driver’s passenger to wherever he was going. (People in Canada are often very, very nice.) He drove the passenger to the passenger’s parents’ house, and he asked, “Hey, do you know Lee?” The driver turned out to be a friend whom Lee had not seen for a while. Lee wrote, “My brother is a pessimist and doesn’t have a very good view of the world. But he was blown away by the generosity of a complete stranger.”

“A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.” — Joseph Joubert

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” — Dalai Lama.

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David Bruce: Good Deeds Anecdotes

In the mid-1970s, New York City occasionally suffered electricity blackouts. Vernon R. Alden was in NYC for a Colgate-Palmolive Board Meeting when one such blackout occurred. He attended a play, and in the middle of it the lights went out and an usher announced, “New York is completely blacked out. I suggest that you leave the theater and make your way back to your hotel or wherever. Navigating by the headlights of vehicles, Mr. Alden walked back to his hotel: the Waldorf Towers. His room was on the 30th floor, and with the elevators not working, he decided to walk up the stairs to get to his room instead of staying in the hotel lobby. He met an old, fragile lady around the 15th floor. She was crying, and he asked, “May I help you?” She replied, “Yes. Could you assist me to my room?” In his book Presidents, Kings, Astronauts, and Ball Players: Fascinating People I Have Known, Mr. Alden wrote, “I picked her up and carried her step-by-step another twenty-seven floors to her suite at the top of the Towers. Arriving there, she thanked me profusely and identified herself as Mrs. Douglas MacArthur.”

In 2013, at a fast-food restaurant in Cupertino, California, an employee is working at the drive-thru. As usual, the employee says,“Hi. Welcome to [restaurant]; what can I get for you today?” The customer asks, “Are … are you a recording?” The employee replied, “Yup. I’m absolutely a prerecorded message to take your order and make your day just a little brighter!” The customer ordered and then drove to the payment window, where the employee asked, “Am I a recording?” The customer laughed and said, “Sorry. You were just so chipper that we thought you were a recording!” The employee replied, “It’s no problem. I’ve been up for three hours already, and I’m loaded up on caffeine! Anyway, your order comes out to [total].” The customer then asked, “Okay. So, if I drive off right now, do you get to keep the change?” The employee said, “Umm … That hasn’t happened before, so … maybe?” The customer then said, “Okay. Well, have a great day, then!” and drove away, leaving the employee a $15 tip.

On 8 January 2014, Lalo Nunez-al-Faisal, age 5, of Ames, Iowa, donated his “Give” money to the Ames Public Library to replace lost children’s books. How much money? Lalo said, “Lots of money. Quarters, one dollar.” He had saved the money in a “Give” jar, and he donated all of the money he had saved: $18.59. On Facebook, the library wrote, “For the last year he has been saving part of his chore money and decided to give it to the library to replace lost children’s books. What a kind thing to do! Thanks, Lalo, for being a super star.” Lalo’s mother, Jehan Faisal, said, “I think that maybe we had a book fall in the snow or something, and he was worried about books.” Lalo earned a quarter a chore; chores were such things as picking up his toys. Lalo said this about books: “They’re fun to read.” Lalo’s sister also had a “Give” jar. She donated her money to the Ames Animal Shelter.

On 2 March 2014, the 86th Academy Award (Oscar) ceremonies took place on live TV. Ellen Degeneris was the host, and she ordered a Big Mama’s & Papa’s pizza, which was delivered by Edgar Martirosyan, who had expected to deliver the pizza backstage — not on international TV. He said that Ms. Degeneris “said, ‘Just follow me,’ and I’m going and I’m on a stage. I was in shock.” The following day, Mr. Martirosyan appeared on Ms. Degeneris’ daytime talk show, and she gave him his tip: $1,000. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he said that he was excited to see Julia Roberts in the Oscars audience: “She was like my woman in dreams. I always watched her movies … it was something crazy — crazy to me to deliver.” When giving him his tip, Ms. Degeneris said, “I passed a hat around, and I ended up getting about $600, something like that. Here’s some more. Here’s a thousand dollars, so you have a total of a thousand dollars.”

In July 2014, the Tempe, Arizona, band The Black Moods toured throughout Texas. While getting gasoline in Tyler, Texas, they found a woman’s wallet on top of a gas pump. The woman had been travelling from Seattle, Washington, to Austin, Texas, and her wallet was filled with cash and credit cards. Lead singer Josh Kennedy said, “It was like a challenge for us, like ‘let’s get this lady her goods back,’ you know.” By using Facebook, they located her and were able to give her wallet to her father in Austin, Texas. Her father said, “You guys, you have no idea how deeply I appreciate this.” He added, “That is so awesome, I literally before I contacted you guys spent the last two hours on the phone with her just crying hysterically, I told her to stop, we’ll figure it out.” Mr. Kennedy said, “Money’s tight, but we’re firm believers in karma, so the last thing we need when we’re out on the road is bad vibes coming our way.”

In the summer of 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge became popular as a way of raising money for and awareness of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. In this challenge, celebrities dump a bucket of ice water on their heads and then often challenge three other celebrities to accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Sir Patrick Stewart, best known for his roles in Shakespeare, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the X-Men movies, accepted the challenge but modified it to a more dignified version. His video, in which he does not speak, shows him writing a check to the charitable organization ALS Association and then taking ice from an ice bucket, putting it in a glass, pouring liquor into the glass, and then drinking the liquor. Sir Patrick is 74 years old, and this is a healthy — and classy — version of the Ice Bucket Challenge.

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” — Jean Jacques Rousseau

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