by Tom
Tugend
From
left: Michael
Douglas, Dylan
Douglas and
Kirk Douglas ,
May 2014.
Photo courtesy
of
Infinity-Kornfeld
Studios
Kirk
Douglas, born
Issur
Danielovitch,
the son of an
immigrant
Russian-Jewish
ragpicker,
marked his
98th birthday
on Dec. 9 by
launching his
11th book.
The
legendary star
of 87 movies (who
can forget
“Spartacus”?)
can look back,
in happiness
and grief, on
countless
one-night
stands with
filmdom’s most
beautiful
women,
a helicopter
crash in which
he was the
only survivor,
a stroke, two
bar mitzvahs
and the
suicide of a
son.
He
has written
about this and
many other
parts of his
life in his
previous
works, but
there is
something
special about
his latest,
“Life Could Be
Verse.”
“I
have expressed
my personal
feelings and
emotions more
than in any
other of my
books,”
Douglas,
sitting in his
art-filled
Beverly Hills
home, told the
Jewish
Journal.
In
the slim
volume of
poems, photos
and anecdotes,
he is no
longer the
swaggering
Hollywood star
and serial
philanderer of
the 1950s,
’60s and ’70s.
His
trademark
dimpled chin
and bright
blue eyes are
still there,
but his blond
hair is now
fastened in a
gray ponytail;
he walks
carefully and
speaks with a
slur, a legacy
of his stroke.
What
he has not
lost is his
sharp sense of
humor,
his pride as a
Jew and his
love for Anne,
his wife of 60
years.
The
cover of “Life
Could Be
Verse” shows
an early photo
of Douglas and
his wife,
fondly
kissing, and
the subtitle
“Reflections
on love, loss
and what
really
matters.”
In
his previous
10 books,
Douglas ’
prose is
marked by the
artlessness of
a man whose
casual
conversation
has been
surreptitiously
taped, and his
poetry as well
makes no
pretensions to
Shakespearean
loftiness.
But
there is no
doubt of his
deep devotion
when he
serenades his
wife on their
50th wedding
anniversary in
“Please Stay
in Love With
Me”:
Does
50 years
together
Seem so long to you?
The older the violin, the sweeter the music
It is often said, and it’s true.
To me, it seems like yesterday
We met in gay Paree.
Now Paris is sad, but I am glad
You chose to marry me.
Seem so long to you?
The older the violin, the sweeter the music
It is often said, and it’s true.
To me, it seems like yesterday
We met in gay Paree.
Now Paris is sad, but I am glad
You chose to marry me.
Another,
lesser-known
side of
Douglas is
expressed in
“For Eric,” an
elegy for the
youngest of
his four sons,
whose
drug-induced
death haunts
his father
still:
I sit
by your grave
and weep,
Silently, not to disturb your sleep.
Rest in peace my beautiful son
It won’t be long before we are one,
While I lie down by your side.
And talk, no secrets to hide.
Tell me, Eric, what did I do wrong?
What should I have done to make you strong?
Now I sit here and cry,
Waiting to be with you when I die.
Silently, not to disturb your sleep.
Rest in peace my beautiful son
It won’t be long before we are one,
While I lie down by your side.
And talk, no secrets to hide.
Tell me, Eric, what did I do wrong?
What should I have done to make you strong?
Now I sit here and cry,
Waiting to be with you when I die.
Neither
Douglas ’
first wife,
actress Diana
Dill, nor his
second, Anne,
are of Jewish
descent, but
on their 50th
wedding
anniversary,
Anne surprised
the guests by
announcing
that she was
converting to
Judaism. “Kirk has been married to two shiksas,”
she said.
“It’s time he
married a nice
Jewish girl.”
The
conversion did
not change the
couple’s
relationship,
except for one
ritual. During
the first 50
years, Douglas
lit the Friday
evening
Shabbat
candles, and
now Anne has
taken over.
During
an hour’s
conversation
with the
Journal,
Douglas looked
back on the
lessons of a
very full and
long life.
On
God and
religion: “I
grew up
praying in the
morning and
laying tefillin.
I gave up much
of the formal
aspect of
religion … I
don’t think
God wants
compliments.
God wants you
to do
something with
your life and
to help
others.”
Douglas
celebrated his
first bar
mitzvah at the
Sons of Israel
congregation
in his
hometown of
Amsterdam ,
N.Y., and his
second,
70
years later,
after the
traditional
biblical
lifespan, at
83 at Sinai
Temple in
Westwood, with
Rabbi David
Wolpe.
He
skipped his
third bar
mitzvah at 96,
and plans to
do the same at
109, when he
would be
entitled to
his fourth bar
mitzvah. “That
would be
showing off,”
he said. “I’m
an actor, so I
have already
been showing
off all my
life.”
As a
world-renowned
expert on
women, how
does one go
about
attracting the
other gender,
Kirk was
asked. He
responded with
an anecdote:
“When
I was courting
Anne in Paris,
I couldn’t get
through to
her,” Douglas
said. “One day
she agreed to
go to the
circus with
me, and when
the circus
performers
recognized me,
they insisted
that I
participate in
the show.
“I
had no idea
what I was
supposed to
do, but as a
string of
circus
elephants
trotted out, I
followed them
in my tuxedo
with a shovel
and broom and
started to
clean up what
the elephants
had left
behind.”
Anne
was still
laughing when
he took her
home, and she
bestowed her
first
good-night
kiss on him.
The poet in
him celebrated
the triumph by
noting:
“Anne
thought I was
a big hit,
As she saw me shoveling sh-t.”
As she saw me shoveling sh-t.”
After
this reporter
had left,
Douglas sent
him a final
thought on a
more serious
subject.
“In
the Jewish
tradition, a
birthday gives
a person
special
power,” he
wrote. “And if
he issues a
blessing, his
blessing
becomes true.
So on my 98th
birthday, I
bless all
people in the
Land of Israel
that the
current
conflict
resolves
itself, that
no more people
die or are
hurt and that
you can
continue your
lives in
peace.”
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