If you'd like to know about some of my family members, please read on.
EUGENIA GINGOLD
Eugenia Gingold, Carole King's mother, dies at 94
By CHRISTINE DOLEN
Miami Herald Posted Saturday 01/01/11
Eugenia Gingold and her famous daughter, singer-songwriter Carole King, have spent much of their lives surrounded by applause. King's has come from adoring crowds at her concerts, including the recent tour, with fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member James Taylor, that brought her to South Florida last summer.
Gingold's came in smaller venues, the New York and South Florida theaters where she performed and directed -- and finally from fellow audience members during her late-life job as a theater critic for Florida Stage and Screen News. Gingold, a South Florida resident since the mid-1970s and an Actor's Equity member, died of congestive heart failure on Dec. 22 in the Hospice Care unit at Delray Medical Center, Delray Beach, her daughter said. She was 94.
Born Eugenia Cammer in Brooklyn, N.Y., on July 31, 1916, Gingold acted in high school plays and won awards for excellence in speech. Known as Genie, she graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in English and drama, then worked as a speech therapist in New York City public schools. Married to Sidney Klein, Gingold gave birth in 1942 to daughter Carol (who later added the "e" to her first name) then to son Richard, in 1948.
PETITE DYNAMO
Her daughter recalls that, as a housewife and young mother in Brooklyn, Gingold produced and directed school and neighborhood plays and musicals. "She brought out the best in all the neighborhood actors, including me as a bratty little 8-year-old," King said.
King, who had a chart-topping hit (the Shirelles' Will You Love Me Tomorrow) at 19 with husband/songwriting partner Gerry Goffin, said from her home in Idaho that her mother was her first music teacher and later, her acting coach. "She had a lovely voice. She exposed me to music from the time I was in the womb," King said. "And when I made my Broadway debut in Blood Brothers in 1994, she was my coach. Later, she came to Dublin to coach me when I played Kate [the character based on playwright Neil Simon's mother] in Brighton Beach Memoirs. I channeled all my ancestors in that." Including, presumably, the petite dynamo who was her mother.
In the '60s, Gingold ran what her granddaughter Louise Goffin describes as "her own little shoestring theater in Greenwich Village," the inspiration for Gingold's play-with-music Nine Years on O.O.B. (Off-Off Broadway), which King and Goffin are hoping to get produced. But like so many cold-weary New Yorkers, Gingold -- who kept her second husband, David Gingold's last name -- moved to Florida, settling in Boca Raton.
FROM ACTOR TO CRITIC
In the 1980s, she directed and acted in plays presented by theater pioneer Ruth Foreman. Joseph Adler, the award-winning artistic director at GableStage in Coral Gables, directed Gingold in Foreman's productions of Social Security and Crossing Delancey.
"You could see where Carole got that charismatic presence when you knew Eugenia," Adler recalled. "As an actress, she was a joy, so sweet. And she was a wonderful person to have in your audience as well. She had a really effervescent, bubbly personality." In the late 1980s, Gingold shifted to theater criticism, writing reviews, becoming a voter in the region's Carbonell Awards program and joining the American Theater Critics Association.
Bunny Yeager, publisher of the defunct Florida Stage and Screen, said of Gingold: "I was so lucky to have her write for my little newspaper . . . She was so gifted. And classy." Goffin, like her mother a successful singer-songwriter, was close to her grandmother, whom she said was spiritual and able to lose herself in a child's world. She wished to be seen as "an equal citizen and not face prejudice because she was 'elderly.'"
When King and Taylor's Troubadour Reunion Tour came to the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise in June, Gingold was there, decked out in a silver suit as she sat close to the stage. King introduced her, and Gingold waved to the audience when the spotlight hit her. "Every time," King remembered, "she took her star turn with pride and pleasure, as the mother of me."
In addition to her son and daughter, Gingold is survived by sister Gladys Lipton. She was buried in Los Angeles's Hollywood Forever Cemetery, final resting place of many stars.
LOUISE GOFFIN
My daughter, Louise Lynn Goffin, has lived and breathed music since the day she was born and has built a unique career as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, lyricist, and producer.
When she was 17, Louise opened for Jackson Browne at the Troubadour, which provided the opportunity for a record deal and her debut album, Kid Blue followed by the self-titled Louise Goffin and This Is The Place. Louise also took her talents on the road as a side-woman, playing electric guitar with one of the top iconographic bands of the time, Tears for Fears. Motherhood and marriage followed as she continued to write songs and arrange music in her studio at home. Her demos won her a record deal with Dreamworks executive, Lenny Waronker, and the production of the critically acclaimed CD, Sometimes a Circle in 2002.
My first-ever holiday album, A Holiday Carole, is produced by Louise, and was released by Hear Music/Concord Music Group in November, 2011. The album's 12 songs are a mix of well-chosen standards and newly written material. Louise co-wrote three original tracks on the album, including the Latin-flavored "Christmas in Paradise," on which she collaborated with Grammy-winners George Noriega and Jodi Marr, the sublime Goffin/Marr composition "Christmas In The Air," and the deeply moving "New Year's Day," co-written with renowned songsmith Guy Chambers. A highlight of the album for me is "Chanukah Prayer", which is a warm, jazz-inflected tune that includes Louise, my grandson and I on vocals, bringing three generations together. It was such a joy to work with Louise on this album.
Louise recorded an EP in 2015 titled Appleonfire, inspired by and in honor of her late father, Gerry Goffin. Check it out the music video "If I'm Late" from the EP!
Louise performed in July 2016 at the SOLD OUT BST Hyde Park Concert in which Carole performed the songs from "Tapestry" in it's entirety. Read more about Louise and her new album The Essential Louise Goffin: Vol. 1 in her interview in Huffington Entertainment UK. And the Independent UK.
Be sure to take a look and a listen from Louise's album, Songs From The Mine on her label Majority Of One.
Here are a couple of cool interviews with Louise Lynn Goffin: m.o.m. blog cottoncandymag.com
The Art of Listening and Thinking For Yourself - Louise Goffin by Talkhouse.
Louise Goffin teams up with Paul Zollo to host a podcast The Great Song Adventures, featuring in-depth conversations about songs and the songwriters who write them. Be sure to stop in and take a listen... The first interview is Carole King February 8, 2019.
Take a listen to Louise's new podcast "Song Chronicles" featuring Sam Hollander, Desmond Child, J.D. Souther, Kathy Valentine, Gail Ann Dorsey, Peter Case, Al Schmitt, Gloria Estefan, The McBroom Sisters, Linda Edell Howard, Robin Danar, Jeff Trott, Bob Ezrin, Nicole Atkins, Aaron Lee Tasjan.
Be sure to check out The Goffin & King Foundation regularly.
The Gilmore Girls celebrate 20 years and Louise Goffin shares memories about the theme song with Yahoo Music.
Louise wrote a beautiful piece for Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper Exclusive, titled 'Happy Birthday, Tapestry' from her own experience during that time in music history.
To stay up-to-date with news about Louise please visit:
LouiseGoffin.com
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Jango
Wikipedia
SHERRY GOFFIN KONDOR
My daughter Sherry Goffin Kondor took on the role of managing my career in May 2011. Her wisdom and talent have always been energizing forces for me. I'm grateful to have her as my "new" manager not only because she knows me so well as a person, but because she knows how to navigate the business side of managing an artist in the twenty-first century. I am in very capable hands.
Sherry's many prior qualifications include a lifetime of success in the music business beginning in her early years with singing, writing and producing. With the birth of her kids, she was inspired to start a children's record label called Sugar Beats, which became very successful by all measures including winning scores of parenting awards. The discovery of young talent was inevitable, and her passion turned to developing the career of a young Singer/Songwriter/Actor named Jesse McCartney who, under her care for the past 9 years, has grown to international stardom. Her selective eye for exceptional talent included on her Good Noize Entertainment roster: "Dark Pop Diva" Guinevere.
