Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Abraham Asner - October 10, 1982

Ed Asner 2

And I... about six years or seven years ago uh, Ed's son has bar mitzvah in Los Angeles. I don't... He called me up, he sent me an invitation, then he called me from uh, coming to the bar mitzvah. I said, "Yes, I'm coming." He said, "Big shot, you coming to bar mitzvah or not?" I said, "I'm coming." I went to the bar... to the bar mitzvah and was uh, Reform rabbi. The ??? was a, a woman. And uh, and that speech what Ed have was lots of celebrities by that bar mitzvah and he introduced me to everybody. And uh, and that speech what he have at that time are mostly everybody cried. Such a touching speech he give to his son. And uh, he, he took me, introduced me uh, Ed introduced me to, to producers and TV directors and all to his friends uh, and, and uh, by the end he said, "When, when you got to go back?" Because I made reservations to go back. I said to him, "Like on Friday." I said... he said to me, "Postpone the flight on the next day and I'll take you where we tape the show, to, to show you how the show, where they're taping the show." And I'll see, and he said, "And I'll take care of the ticket." I say, "I'll stay. No just... I'll take care of the ticket." "No, no," he said to me, "I'll take care of the ticket." So, I said to him, "I'll take care of the ticket to myself." He said, "If you want to take care of your ticket, then you can go on." Then I stay uh, and he, he took care of the tickets. Uh, I was staying in uh, from the beginning an old ??? down then. From the beginning I was uh, said, I told him to make me a reservations, you know, a hotel, all the guests going to be his brothers and his sisters and uh, I think Lena at that time was too to the bar mitzvah. And uh, and I was uh, staying at a hotel, then everybody left. I said, "I'm going to leave too." He said, "You come to me." I stayed in his place for, for a couple days, and then he took me to the airport, and he took care of the ticket. When I come to pay for the hotel, come to pay, they say, it's paid already.

He's a mensch, huh.

Oh, he's a nice guy. I didn't uh, I don't have time, I didn't uh, in August and I just met him for an hour and a half. I met him, because he was out the time. And uh, then finally he come uh, from, he was in Kansas City for a reunion from high school. And when he come back on Monday, I called him Tuesday morning. He said, "I, I don't have time, I got to go to a meeting," because he's president from, from the union, from the actors. And he said, "Where you going to be? Here's my phone." I said, "I got your phone," because he sent me a card because he's moving in another office, and he changed the phone. I said... I, I, I said to him, "I got your phone." He said, "Where you got it?" I said, "You send me a card with the phone." "Okay," he said, "phone me, when you will be ready." And we had make some arrangements to go to visit the wax museum in uh, Los Angeles. Finally by four o'clock we come back, I call him, still he got some meetings. Then he, he phone me before to the other cousin down there, and he's not in very good terms with the other cousin. I don't know, that girl what she was, survived together with me in, in the woods. And then he phone... he phoned me, he said, "Take a cab and come over in my place and I'll pay for the cab." And I come over to his place and uh, we have supper together. And then me and his wife, we took him to the airport and he left to Oregon. I saw him maybe for an hour and a half. And I was always in Kansas City... in uh, Los Angeles.

Los Angeles.


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