Bobby Short - A New York Legend

For almost forty years, Bobby Short entertained New Yorkers with his magical singing at the Cafe Carlyle. He sang all the great jazz and blues standards - George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, you name it - and getting a ticket to one of his shows wasn't easy or cheap. Bobby Short was probably the classiest man in New York City, a standard bearer of sophistication in an increasingly vulgar age.

I sadly never got to see Bobby Short perform live (he died in 2005) and have always regretted it. Thanks to TV and the Internet, however, we can still see him play. He also appeared in Woody Allen's great 1986 movie "Hannah and Her Sisters." And will always be remembered as a New York icon. The city even named the street around the Hotel Carlyle on 76th street and Madison as "Bobby Short Way."

Here he is performing in that other elegant venue, The White House.