MICHAEL WAGER

At 16 West 11th Street he was a magical presence. Many years have passed but not the memories. Thank you.

Mendy was a welcoming presence at 16 West 11th in the 70's and early 80's. His parties were glamorous, with the Bernsteins comfortable and friendly and everyone very interesting. I can see him standing on the stairs of that wonderful brownstone as if it were happening right now and, of course, wish it were for Mendy's sake and my own.

Praying for Michael's Family....

I met Mendy in 1967 through Leonard & Felicia Bernstein. At that time he was called "The Golden Voice" because he was the best & most popular voice-over announcer in the business. The minute I became a producer of commercials at Benton & Bowles in 1969 I hired Mendy for every commercial I produced. We became very good friends & I found out that he had real "yichus" - his father was Meyer Weisgal, Chaim Weizman's closest friend. Meyer was a famous impresario who brought Kurt Weill & Bertholt Brecht to America and was a very esteemed theater producer. Meyer raised a lot of money for the fledgling Israeli government & raised most of the money for the founding of the Weizman Institute in Rechovot, Israel. His nephew Jonathan, who became an agent at CAA, in the early days, also became a good friend of mine. I spent many a weekend at Mendy's barn in Connecticut. He was witty, entertaining, very educated, and knew so much about music & opera & loved to share his knowledge with his younger friends. Terence McNally wrote "The Lisbon Travista" & many people surmised that the lead character was based on Mendy Wager. His second wife was Susan Hammerstein Fonda Ades Widmark and they had a son, Marco. With his first wife he had a daughter named Alexandra. We shall all miss him very much. Baruch Dayan Emet.

I treasure the years I knew Mendy Wager and learned from him and I am grateful for all of the wonderful people I got to know through him....and most of all, I will miss being his friend, as I have for the past ten years.