Long Island Entertainers Get Top Billing at Archives Month Conference

In a walk down musical memory lane, clips of Louis Armstrong singing "It's A Beautiful World" had a few people dabbing at their eyes, others hummed along to a 2008 performance by The Tokens of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," and some in the audience chuckled as Twisted Sister's Dee Snider acknowledged his Long Island Music Hall of Fame award by raising it high and saying "Here's to Long Island, baby."

Long Island's entertainers got lots of promotion Thursday at the 15th annual Archives Month conference at Oheka Castle, organized by the Long Island Library Resources Council.

What the entertainers all had in common is some connection to Long Island – they were either born, raised, worked or lived in one of the four counties for a significant portion of their careers. Librarians and archivists swapped stories and resources, sharing information they can take back to their home facilities.

Three speakers looked at Long Island entertainers from different perspectives. Tony Traguardo, media librarian at the Port Washington Public Library, spoke about the Long Island Music Hall of Fame's upcoming induction Nov. 16 at Oheka Castle, and showed clips of a few famous inductees. The Hall of Fame is dedicated to the idea that Long Island's musical heritage is a resource to be celebrated and preserved for future generations.

"When we first started this, people said, 'After Billy Joel and Peter Lemongello, who is there to induct?'" Traguardo said.

Well, the list is long. This year's inductees include folk singer Oscar Brand; Carole and Paula, stars of TV's The Magic Garden children's show; Teddy Charles, jazz pianist; Dream Theater, a heavy metal band; Stanley Drucker, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic; rappers Eric B and Rakim; rock photographer Bob Gruen; The Shangri-Las, a 1960s girl group; Lou Reed; and even a venue, My Father's Place in Roslyn.

"If you remember it, you weren't really there," Traguardo wisecracked.

Traguardo played several clips featuring performers who've been inducted into the Hall of Fame, including The Tokens performance, Simon and Garfunkel singing with Andy Williams, and LL Cool J's acceptance speech.

"I'm appreciative from the bottom of my heart, because I know this doesn't happen to everyone," LL Cool J said as he talked about going to school in North Babylon. "There's nothing that an artist loves more than to have their contributions to the world appreciated."

Huntington Town Clerk Jo-Ann Raia left energized after learning about fellow graduates of her alma mater, Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn.

"I didn't know about The Tokens," Raia said after Traguardo played a clip of them performing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." "I have to go home and find my Landmark, the yearbook." She did, however, know about two other famous musical alums from her high school, Neil Sedaka and Neil Diamond, who graduated the same year she did.

Michael Cogswell, director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens, talked to the audience about cataloguing the enormous collection of photos, tapes and scrapbooks Armstrong made over the years he lived in the house, from 1943 until his death in 1971. While Geri Solomon, archivist at Hofstra University and assistant dean of special collections, discussed some of Long Island's early entertainers, including several who were more notorious than talented.

Solomon also shared a story that made all the archivists in attendance take notice: she showed a slide of a 1997 commencement program containing the scribbled lyrics to a song Billy Joel wrote while he was waiting to receive an honorary degree, which he then sang as his speech.

"The person sitting next to him had the sense to ask him for it for the archives," Solomon said.

For more information and tickets to the Long Island Music Hall of Fame inductions and fundraiser on Nov. 16, visit www.limusichalloffame.org, call (631) 331-0808, or contact the Cinema Arts Centre. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. with the red carpet arrivals at Oheka Castle. Tickets range in price from $100 to $250.