Charles Pierce Memorial June 19, 1999

CHARLES PIERCE (July 14, 1926 - May 31, 1999)
Forest Lawn, Church Of The Hills
The Pierce service was to begin at 1:00. Soon the chapel emptied, but we were kept “at bay” until everything could be removed from the earlier service. The weather was hot and sunny, with the usual smoggy L.A. sky. A contingent of locals, San Franciscans and ex-San Franciscans was waiting to enter the chapel. Hugs were abundant for Joan Edgar, Charles accompanist for seven years, who flew down from Oakland. I had conversations with Franklin Townsend, well-known Fairmont Hotel hairdresser who pampered Charles’ wigs. Another who flew down from SF was journalist/publicist Ken Maley, who told me that as a teenager, his life was changed by seeing Charles Pierce's show at the Gilded Cage in San Francisco. Other San Franciscans included Charles Black, Jr., and travel agent Sumner Winship, who had been friends with Charles for about forty years. SF transplants included actress/singer Sharon McNight, who was recalling a few of Charles’ memorable lines. Charles had many friends from the early cast of the long-running show Beach Blanket Babylon, including his former dresser Kirk Frederick, Shelley Werk, Jim Reiter and Michael Cameron Benbrook (most recently seen playing the lead in Christmas With The Crawfords). Enamored fans mingled with Charles' Hollywood friends: singer-actress Carole Cook, comedienne Alice Ghostley, actress Beatrice Arthur, night club veteran Michael Greer, actor Bill Erwin and TV star Rip Taylor.
This service was written, directed and produced by the deceased, himself. Yet, it was not a knee-slapping series of recollections and career accomplishments. Charles chose traditional tunes for his harpist (Lori Andrews) to play before, during and after the service. We heard such tunes as “Shall We Gather at the River,” “Smilin’ Through,” “Look For The Silver Lining,” and “I’ll See You Again” as the guests entered the packed chapel, which held about 250 seated. Another 250 stood along the aisles or outside, where they heard the service through speakers.
Actor Michael Kearns made the first remarks when he welcomed the congregation to “...what will be the final Charles Pierce Show,” a line which elicited a hesitant applause.
The first speaker chosen by Pierce was actor Conrad Bain, who played Dr. Harmon on the sitcom Maude, and was the star of Diff’rent Strokes.
Mr. Bain then introduced friend Allan Byrns. who recited a sonnet by the American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950). It was included in a book-reading show Pierce had done many years before his comedy shows.
Byrns then introduced old friend/singer Jackie Altier, who flew in from Washington state, sang a crystal clear, heartfelt “Smilin’ Through,” written by Arthur A. Penn in 1919. The song made it clear to me that Charles Pierce, for all his clever and often caustic wit, and his razor-sharp remarks, had an enormously sentimental sense of his family and home. Later in the service we would learn of his devotion to his mother and aunt, and how their deaths would affect the direction of his adult life.
A bit of brevity was shown by the next speaker, actor Elliot “Ted” Reid (a regular on the tv news satire That Was The Week That Was), who remarked, “Look at this packed house...if Charles could only see this! Imagine what he’d get -- for just the cover charge!”
Pierce asked him to read:
May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand."
[End of Pierce’s own remarks]
Michael Kearns then announced that there was one more poem Charles instructed him to read. It went like this:
A man may kiss a maid good-bye
The sun may kiss the butterfly
The morning dew may kiss the grass
And you, my friends [pause],
Farewell!!
As the harpist played Jerome Kern and B.G. DeSylva's "Look For the Silver Lining," the mourners walked towards the altar and paid respects to a large color photo of Pierce in an idyllic woodland setting. Mourners took long-stemmed yellow roses from a basket placed by the altar. The congregants then drove a few hundred yards up the Forest Lawn hill to the Columbarium of Providence, where an urn containing Charles' ashes was placed in front of a dignified, formal Pierce memorial niche, just around the corner from the niche of Lucille Ball (the plaque says Lucille Morton, her married name), Liberace, and the imposing tomb of Bette Davis. As mourners paid their last respects to Pierce, many placed their yellow roses atop his resting place. Others walked around the corner and placed their roses of the tomb of Bette Davis.
-Peter Mintun
Peter Mintun is a pianist, singer and friend of Charles Pierce.