GG: The Shoulder Incident

["Anne M. Marble" <amarble@sff.net>]

Yes, I know, another darn post from her... (Well, if you
get tired of my threads, feel free to start a new thread
of your own. <g>)

I haven't seen anybody mention the incident where GG
sued the Steinway employee because of a "tap on the
shoulder."

When I first read about this incident, I thought, "How
odd." Yet the more I learn about it, the more I wonder if we know the whole story behind it. At the very least, GG
was suffering physical injury at the time (from playing the
piano, don't you know). Was the Steinway employee
responsible? OK, probably not. Was there stress between
the two? Surely there must have been.

There's a lot of misinformation about the incident to
begin with. Some articles say that GG sued over a handshake.
Others say he sued over a "tap" on the shoulder. In an
article at the National Library of Canada web site, John
Roberts called it a "whack" on the shoulder. Memories of
people who were there seem to vary. Perhaps we'll never
know the true extent, nor the _real_ circumstances.

Anyone who saw the "Two Portraits" video probably noted the
scene where GG is on the speedboat, and someone (ack, can't
remember his name, somebody famous!) touches him on the
shoulder from behind -- and GG turns around and gives him
a friendly smile. So sometimes, GG didn't mind being
touched. Maybe it depended on who was touching him, and on
the circumstances.


Anne M. Marble