The best part of Super Bowl Sunday for me and my wife Theresa was that we got to spend our afternoon with Maria Cooper Janis, one of the great artist in America, and her husband Byron Janis who just happens to be probably the greatest classical pianist of all time.
To be able to hang out with this incredible couple is truly always an amazing honor for me. I consider them true American royalty. I also consider them my very true friends.
Byron is 95 years old and Maria is 85 however they have the heart and souls of people so much younger.
They have shared with me so much about their lives and helped me to deal with the spiritual aspects of things I have needed to hear. Whenever I leave their home I come out stronger and better than when I went in.
I first met Byron in 1980 when he was doing a special show for that era’s most famous baseball player, Reggie Jackson at Carnegie Hall. Even though we got together then, I wasn’t mentally mature enough to understand the true magnitude of this great man. For that, I get sad because if we had become friends then, I feel that my growth as a man would of been bigger and possibly of incredible stature. After all your talking about a man that has been accepted by Kings and Queens around the world. He has actually entertained 7 Presidents. The material that this man has written and performed is considered some of the greatest of all time. His name is up there and mentioned with Bach and Mozart etc yet when this Puerto Rican boy sits down and talks with Byron he genuinely talks to me and treats me totally as an equal.
His beautiful wife Maria is a perfect match for him because the artwork that she paints equals the beauty that this lady radiates inside and out. The warmth that you get from her eyes as she talks to you is overwhelming. She also makes you feel like you are the most important person in in the room as you speak about whatever issues we may be discussing.
Even though Maria happens to be the daughter of one of the greatest movie stars of all time and 3 time Academy Award winner Gary Cooper, you would not know it if it wasn’t for the Oscars that sit on the shelves.
One of the other reasons that I love visiting with Maria and Byron is because they represent everything that one of the most important people in my life, George Steinbrenner loved so much. The classical music that Byron has brought to the world and he so loved Gary Cooper and his movies, especially The Pride of the Yankees and High Noon… I always love to tell the story of how on the Boss’s 75th birthday I got him a framed picture and autograph of Cooper in a Yankee uniform and Cooper as Marshal Will Kane. He loved that gift so much and I was so happy because I knew that I had made him happy … that was important to me. I remember driving home smiling and saying to myself… thank you, Gary Cooper.
I just want Maria and Byron to know that they made my wife Theresa so very happy today because now she understands why I have so much love for the two of you and if the rest of the world got to know your incredible true beauty as people than the world would be so much better. Thank You.
