ESSAY
A true story of Norwich Night on Broadway, Parent and Family Weekend 1997, and culinary misadventure
O
ur conversations always began something like this: “Hello,” I would say. Werner Klemperer’s voice on the other end of the line was distinctive, raw and dynamic. “Driver! How the [expletive] hell are you?” “Werner,” I said to the man who was known as Colonel Klink on the 1960s television show Hogan’s Heroes, and who was the son of the world-famous conductor Otto Klemperer. “Great to hear your voice. How are you?” “The whole world is going to [expletive]
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shit, but what else is [expletive] new?” Lots of expletives filled any conversation with Werner Klemperer, but he was always warm, and friendly, and the rest just seemed to spew out naturally—almost matter-of-factly. I am sure that those closest to him heard more of the same playful banter that I did on his calls. Werner started referring to me as “Driver” during the 1997 Parents and Family Weekend appearance that he and his wife, the actress Kim Hamilton, attended at Norwich University. I don’t recall him once calling me by my name. It would have seemed awkward if he had.
Werner and Kim were introduced to Norwich a year before at Sardi’s Restaurant in New York City when our mutual friend and restaurant owner Vincent Sardi invited the couple to be special guests at one of our “Norwich Night on Broadway” events. The reception and dinner preceded a performance that evening of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, starring Nathan Lane. It was memorialized in a superb photo from the reception with then NU trustee Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan ’59 (USA, Ret.); NU Pres. Richard W. Schneider, RADM, USCGR (Ret.); and, of course, Colonel Klink.
Photo by Picture Partners
BY ED TR ACY P ’02