A Tallahassee man claims to have one of – if not THE – largest collections of Tom Lehrer memorabilia to be found anywhere.
Even if the name “Tom Lehrer” doesn’t ring any immediate bells, you may have heard the closest thing he had to a hit record, a deceptively bright and upbeat little ditty entitled, “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.” Lehrer, whose day job was professor of mathematics at Harvard University, also wrote and performed acerbic, sometimes acidic and always hilarious satire songs in the 1950s and 60s. And Greg Cohen, the owner of Tallahassee’s Lofty Pursuits soda fountain and game store in the Village Square shopping complex, has an extensive collection of Lehrer memorabilia.
“That’s an autographed place card from the release party from that book signed by Tom Lehrer and Al Capp….and here’s another one of the first 200, so you’re at 1% of his original print run,” Cohen said, pointing out the dozens of artifacts in the store’s display case.
Of course, the Cohen collection contains lots of Lehrer’s music in multiple formats.
“I have a lot of his singles with the oddball art, I have cassette tapes, 8-track tapes, commercial reel-to-reel tapes as well as CDs here on display,” he said. “Then Cameron Macintosh produced his music into a musical and I have all the early programs and handbills of this for New York. I even have the one from the test run in Brighton, but it was too delicate to bring in.”
Then there are all the examples of personal correspondence Lehrer had with agents, managers and venue operators, including one in which he’s asking the performance hall for some freebies.
“‘Could you please send me 16 reasonably good tickets, orchestra, but not the first few rows for the Carnegie Hall concert?’, Cohen read from Lehrer’s letter, adding he played Carnegie Hall once. ‘I’d like two groups of 8, but with the two groups not too near each other.’”
Obviously, one doesn’t go to the time, trouble and occasional expense of amassing such a collection unless he’s a HUGE Tom Lehrer fan, which Cohen readily admits he is. He also admits he’s been at this for quite a while.
“I’ve been collecting this stuff for the better part of 30 years…oh, and over there hiding in the corner, did you know he wrote songs for the Electric Company?”
That of course being the PBS Kid’s program that aired from 1971 to 1977. Lehrer stopped writing and performing in 1972. But Cohen said his work seems as fresh and popular as ever.
“If you Google his name what I always found fascinating – or better yet go to Nexus/Lexus and look up his name – you’ll find that every week he’s quoted 5 or 6 times. It’s not like his relevancy has gone down; if anything, his absence has lifted his relevancy up.”
Tom Lehrer celebrated his 88th birthday on Saturday, which was the main reason Cohen decided to open his Lehrer display at Lofty Pursuits.
“I’m going to keep this up for a couple of weeks at least, because the stuff that’s supposed to go in this display case hasn’t arrived yet, so I have to fill it with something.”
It’s a rare chance to see some very fascinating artifacts connected with a true, original American talent.