What my father wanted to do was to sing because he had a nice, tenor voice. And so he proceeded to pester my grandfather to send him to a place where he could learn. And this was ridiculous, as far as my grandfather was concerned. My grandfather - I never met him; he died when I was two - but I've always thought that he must have been just like the father in Clarence Day's biography.

He wanted to be an opera singer. And so he boiled about this for a while, not getting anywhere and suddenly decided to write a letter to Enrico Caruso, who was singing at the Metropolitan at that time.

And he was amazed because he got a very nice answer, says: sure I'll listen to you. Come on down such and such a day. And he did. And Caruso was very impressed, and said, yes, you need training badly. And he said, I know just the man in Italy to do this. And so he went to study for two years in Italy, and had the grandest time. And he even got a job in an Italian national… no, it was a company. And never sang a concert for them because just after he was given the offer, the First World War broke out. So he had to come home, and enlist, and all that sort of stuff.