With mixed feelings of pride at having been selected and remorse at having to leave his boyhood friends behind, Jerry took two buses every day to that other school on the hill (High Street). “However, I remained close to all of my friends” he says. “That’s probably why I feel so much a part of the Weequahic Class of ‘64”. As a matter of fact, if you meet him at a Home Depot on a Sunday morning, there’s a good chance that he’ll be sporting his Weequahic sweatshirt.
Today, Jerry and his wife, Barbara, live in East Brunswick. Whereas Barbara is about to retire from her job as Coordinator of Guidance in Highland Park High and Middle Schools, Jerry needs to continue working in order to support his addiction. Yes, Jerry is addicted to music.
During the day he is the Regional Manager of Human Resources for Johnson Controls, a Fortune 100 company. At night, however, Jerry is melodiously transformed into a cabaret jazz vocalist. He’s appeared at such noted Manhattan nightspots as Danny’s Skylight Room, Don’t Tell Mama, The Triad and Rose’s Turn. Interestingly, he and Barry Levitt (an authentic Weequahic ’64 graduate) are collaborating on a new show.
How did he come to be bitten by the “showbiz bug”? Of course, everyone knows that he comes from a Show Business family. His brother, Alan, a Broadway veteran since age 10, has been a member of the multi-Grammy winning vocal group The Manhattan Transfer since its inception over 30 years ago. After graduating from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a degree in Political Science and an eye toward the legal profession, Jerry chanced upon summer stock in Laconia, New Hampshire. Immediately thereafter, in the fall of ’69, he landed an honest-to-goodness speaking role in the Broadway revival of “Three Men on a Horse”, directed by the legendary George Abbott, the show’s playwright. Who wouldn’t have been bitten?
With Law School now a passing interest, Jerry spent two years on the Great White Way and on the road as Assistant to the Producer of Bette Midler’s Broadway show entitled “Clams on the Half Shell Revue”. He spent much of the first 10 years after graduation working in various positions in professional theater.
When Jerry married Barbara in 1978, he abandoned his professional theatrical career and got a “real” job in the Human Resources field. However, he continued to work in local community theater for over 20 years. It had always been his secret desire to be a “boozy saloon singer”, and that is how his cabaret singing career began. Graduating from doing showcases to doing his own show backed by some of the best jazz musicians in NY.
Passing this tradition on to the next generation, his daughter, Nicole, a recent University of Miami graduate, is an aspiring casting director in New York City.
When not working or singing, Jerry is active in his synagogue, having served on the Board of Trustees at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick where he sang in the choir and founded and headed the theater program (surprise, surprise).
In his spare time Jerry likes to learn new songs and fine-tune his repertoire. “The fun is in putting it together,” he says. “The show is almost anti-climatic.” Jerry may be reached at jerryw50@aol.com.
