77e: Ray Charles

Tomorrow

Tom Snyder ... Dan Aykroyd
... Ray Charles

[Applause. A teddy bear sits among ferns, with superimposed text: TOMORROW. Dissolve to Tom Snyder -- fast-talking, cigarette-smoking host of Tomorrow, NBC's late night talk show -- addresses the camera.]

Tom Snyder: Hello, everybody. Welcome to Tomorrow. Of course, as many of you know, we're doing the show from New York City. It's great to be back in the city of New York. Not "NBC New York" because we really got shortchanged on, ah, office space but I won't say anything about that right now. [chuckles] I did something today, though, that I could never have done in Los Angeles. I bought a pretzel from a guy right out on the street. Of course, when I say "pretzel" most of you at home think I mean the thin pretzels in plastic bags that you get in the supermarket. However, anybody who's been to New York knows the kind of pretzels I mean, the big fat delicious New York street pretzels and now my stage manager, Shelly Schwartz, is - is mad at me because I didn't bring him one and as everybody knows, well, uh, he's a big fella and he loves a good pretzel now and again. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Next time, Shelly, I promise. The music we heard at the top of the show was, of course, "Hit the Road, Jack" as sung by the man who made it a big hit, my guest tonight on Tomorrow, Mr. Ray Charles. [turns to Charles seated opposite] Ray, you're probably the most popular rhythm and blues artist in American history. I guess my first question to you, sir, would be: why singing? Why not Ray Charles the watchmaker or Ray Charles the lawyer? Why Ray Charles the singer?

Ray Charles: Uh, Tom, you're the first person to ask me that question ever. I - I suppose I started singing because I wanted to express what I was feelin' in my soul. And I felt the blues so I needed to sing the blues.

Tom Snyder: All right, sir, fair enough. My next question to you, sir, would be: What the heck are the blues and who gets them?

Ray Charles: Well, uh, you see, the blues is a part o' life, you know. You lose your job, you woman messes around with another man, or a woman loses her man 'cause he's doin' time in some prison. You know, all of these kinds of things could give you the blues.

Tom Snyder: Fine, sir, okay. Given that, let's say I go down to the Red Dirt Country Inn in Mississippi and I become a black sharecropper.

Ray Charles: Mm hm.

Tom Snyder: I get romantically involved with, say, Liza, and, uh, she starts taking up with Big Sam, the plantation foreman. So I go to a bar where they're drinking and I shoot them both dead. There are witnesses and I go to prison. My question is, sir: Would I get the blues?

Ray Charles: Uh, I - I don't know but under those circumstances, most people would. Uh, however, you might be the exception.

Tom Snyder: All right, sir. That's a fair answer to my question, thank you. Ray, you started your career at a difficult time. In the late forties, the music industry was dominated by whites, in fact, most of it was owned and operated by the Ku Klux Klan and I certainly don't think there should be any secret about that here in 1977. Sir, my question is: What about groupies?

Ray Charles: Uh, come on, now, Tom. You - you - you - you're a big television star and - and - and you know what it's like to be a celebrity. You know, women, you know, just, uh, uh, comin' around you all the time, you know, and then you - you got those sexy notes and letters, uh, from young girls.

Tom Snyder: Mm hmm.

Ray Charles: I gotta tell ya, everybody in this business have their groupies. I have my groupies and I'm sure you've got yours.

Tom Snyder: [laughs] Ray, would you believe it if I told you, I don't have any groupies? [laughs] Or at least none that I know of, anyway. Now, there's something here which we - we haven't discussed and, quite frankly, sir, I think we should touch on it. The fact is, sir, you're blind or, let's say, you're a sightless person. You know, I remember a - a movie with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft, it was called "The Miracle Worker" - it was the story of a blind, deaf and mute girl, I can't recall her name right now but it'll come to me. Anyway, they taught her to read and communicate in that movie, it was a touching story and, for my money, it was one of the best movies I ever saw. Normally, I never cry at the movies but this one had me crying, it was great. What did you think of that movie, sir?

Ray Charles: Uh, I didn't see it. [laughter and applause]

Tom Snyder: All right. All right, sir. Fair enough, I'll buy that.

Ray Charles: But I - I - I'll tell you somethin', Tom. My blindness has made me much more aware. My sense of taste -- and touch and smell -- are highly developed, more than most people who can see.

Tom Snyder: Well, could you demonstrate?

Ray Charles: All right, well, from where I'm sitting now, I can tell that, within the past hour, uh, you put on some double-O seven after shaving lotion, vintage 1968. And you're still wearing the same socks for two days in a row.

Tom Snyder: Ray, Ray, I wish we could continue, unfortunately, we're running right out of time.

Ray Charles: Ah, ah, yes, your tie feels like silk, too, but it's really polyester. And you still tuck your T-shirt inside your boxer shorts.

Tom Snyder: That's simply uncanny, sir. You know, you're absolutely right. Please join us on Tomorrow. We'll be talking with a man who's written a book and he claims that he ran a gay bar in Moscow in the early fifties and that it was frequented by none other than Nikita Khrushchev.

Ray Charles: Ahh, I still think your hair's at least twelve different colors, too.

Tom Snyder: Good night, everybody.


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