My dear mother - Nina Pearl Lewis - will be celebrating her
97th
birthday on 3rd August 2019.
She was born Nina Pearl Israelstam in Bradford, Yorkshire in August 1922 - three months before the BBC launched the world's first national radio service and fourteen years before the BBC pioneered television broadcasting.
My Mum is a pretty astonishing lady. In 1998, at the age of 76, she went online for the first time - after I bought her an iMac (that I dubbed the iMum!). Many people of her age might have been intimidated by this new technology. But not my Mum. She worked hard to master the computer and internet - and has become a very adept web-surfer and e-mailer.
In 2008, to salute her 86th birthday, I decided to create something as up-to-the-minute as my Mum herself. A homemade music video on YouTube!
So below is my little YouTube salute to a remarkable lady. (But please don't blame her for my appalling singing!)
The song is titled "Nina Israelstam" - my mum's maiden name. (The history of the song is detailed under the video.)
Creating this video also presented an opportunity for me to salute my dear father Louis Lewis - who had passed away that April (2008) - one week before his 93rd birthday. Mum and Dad were married just under 61 years…
2008 was my Mum's first birthday since 1946 without him there to help her celebrate. Lots of people - many of them complete strangers - sent her email greetings. Which certainly cheered her up. So if you feel like dropping her an email as she celebrates her latest birthday - it would probably bring a smile...
I've also updated this website with two more videos celebrating my Mum. A 90th birthday salute I made in 2012 called "Her Name Is Nina!" and a tribute to her inner Beatle-fan "Fab Nina!"
And now - here are those three video tributes to that lovely girl - Nina Pearl!
Her Name Is Nina!
A Celluloid Portrait (2012)
Nina Israelstam A Musical Salute (2008) |
Fab Nina! A Beatle-ish Tribute (2009) |
And here is a brief video montage of some of the
multiple celebrations in August 2012 that I am proud
to have hosted in London, Hollywood and Manhattan commemorating
the 90th birthday of my wonderful Mum - Nina Pearl Lewis!
The song is an adaptation of a song titled "Mary Skeffington" written and recorded early in his career by Gerry Rafferty (later of Stealers Wheel/"Stuck In The Middle With You" and "Baker Street" fame) - for his little-known, 1971 debut solo album "Can I Have My Money Back?" An album I had given my Mum at the time - and that she immediately loved. (In the 1960s, my hipster Mum immediately "got" the Beatles, The Kinks, Manfred Mann and many other musicians. Making her very hard to rebel against!)
Rafferty's original song was a paean to one "Mary Skeffington" - a girl "from a North-of-England town". One day it occurred to me that the title name scanned exactly with my Mum's childhood name "Nina Israelstam" - and that many of the poignant lyrics matched elements of my Mum's own life - a Yorkshire lass from Bradford - "a North-of-England town"
So I decided to create my own version of the song - melding my tuneless warbling with Rafferty's original recording. I changed just the title and a couple of the lyrics. The engineer who did the miracle work was the fabulous Kevin Fischer. (But he's not responsible for my vocal inabilities!)
The YouTube montage was edited by one of the truly great video editors - my dear pal Peter Shelton - working from a handful of pictures I managed to unearth and some very sketchy direction from me.
Click here to view the video on the YouTube website and read comments - or add your own!
Music video edited by Peter Shelton
Webpage created by Adam Forrest
Minor lyric adaptation & bad vocals by Martin Lewis
Original song written & performed by Gerry Rafferty
Song © 1971 Heathside Music
Photographs © The Lewis Family
"Nina & Louis In Hats" in London - 2006 Photograph by Judi Sheffrin
"The Happy Family!" Nina, Louis & Martin in Palm Springs - July 2006 Photograph by Annie Rivera
Music Videos and webpage © 2008- 2019 Martin Lewis & Springtime!
