Bill Cayton

...From Trish Cayton

Bill Cayton

Brian Cayton’s father.

Born June 6, l9l8-Died October 4, 2003

His sister – Marcelle was born January 18, l9l7. Esther was 16 when she was born.

People remember the Bill Cayton of the Mike Tyson era (late l980’s)…but his daughter remembers him when growing up as the most extraordinarily happy, enthusiastic, tolerant person she ever met. Every day he came downstairs (at 25 Myrtle Blvd, Larchmont, NY, where he lived for 60 years) smiling, glowing with excitement for the day. He loved music, dixieland, Al Joson, opera, classical music, and most of all, the song “The Poor People of Paris”. Trish remembers him once when she around 12 , turning up the radio, and shooting out of his bathroom with shaving cream all over his face, smiling and singing while he danced to the music.

He spent most weekends either in front of football or talk shows or old (He loved “Gunga Din” and Cary Grant) and new movies on TV…and when he relaxed in the garden, 12 months a year, with his sun reflectors absorbing every last bit of sun…he always wore a bright smile as he listened to his hundreds of classical music tapes, opera or dixieland jazz. “I never remember him raising his voice, being angry or ever anything but the happiest person with life’s simplest pleasures…the smell of the honeysuckle in the garden, the delicious meal Doris was planning for dinner and the 7-8 books he would read a week (he could read 2000 words a minute and retain everything). He loved John McDonald mysteries, and remembered the details of every great classic he read even 50 years ago and adored. He was the least materialistic person imaginable, only excited about his red or white cadillac or the yellow one before it or the green one before that. He bought beautiful clothes in Saks but wore it for years and often bragged about his beautifully shined shoes being “twenty or thirty years old”…and the coat he insisted on wearing when sitting in the sun in the garden , even in 20 degree weather, as from college days. He loved his “Vicuna” coat. He hated hats and never wore one even in winter when he was bald from the chemo at the end.

He loved Halvah…his steak “Burnt!” He hated vegetables, he hated fish; and loved Doris’ homemade coleslaw and thousand island dressing she put on his salad he had every night before his beloved “burnt” steak, or “burnt” lamp chops Doris would have on the table when he got home every night on the 6:15 train. He loved his baked potatoes, burnt and crisp without butter picked up and eaten like a muffin. He loved pastrami with mustard on rye at the very worn looking Ruben’s deli on 39th and Madison, a block from the office and always insisted on taking guest, even Donald Trump and David Stern (head of the NBA) there with great excitement that they would “love” it. He always read one of his paperbacks during every meal, to Doris’ great distress, but she let him do whatever made him happy. He loved bridge and played on the train to and from New York for 50 years. He was a master chess player, and loved black jack and gambling, just a little, always in Atlantic City or Vegas.

His daughter Trish said whenever she went to him for advice he’d listen very closely, chewing on the end of this cigar (he smoked Parliaments for 40 years and gave them up 20 years before he died, only to chew on an unlit cigar) and always reply “I know you’ll make the right decision yourself. And I support whatever you decide”. He loved his Bourbon, “Makers Mark”, and would glow with a beaming smile when he allowed himself a sip here and there.

He loved walking (often to the station usually whistling all the way) and walked faster than most people run. He walked to every business appointment, no matter where in the city, or the weather, from his office at 9 East 40th street for 50 years. (His office the penthouse on the 17th floor, was the former home in the l930’s of the actress Marion Davies, the mistress of C. Randolf Hearst). (Although I imagine it was quite sumptuous when she lived there, he furnished it with metal desks and file cabinets in the l950’s when he moved in and never updated it). He picked this location because it was across the street from the main branch of The New York Public Library. This was before the internet and he constantly needed to do research for his clients and spent a lot of time in the research department at the Library.

He was supposedly a genius with an IQ of l82, but only went to the University of Maryland because Jews weren’t accepted at most colleges or business in the l930’s. Harvard allowed only two to get in each year. He was accepted in l934 but says he turned it down because he went to the admissions interview with his mother, Esther, and they asked her how much she was planning to donate to the school (they felt $5,000 was appropriate) and he wouldn’t allow her to spend the money she had earned working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week in the bakery she and Abie owned (Cayton Bakery) on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, and he went to U of Maryland and got a degree in Chemical Engineering. He hated the Universary of Maryland (it was one of the few school that accepted Jews) and said he spent most of his time gambling at poker with his friends, (which he loved). He entered it at 16, and graduated at 19.

He was born William Irving Cohen, but he changed his name to William Cayton late in high school when it became apparent he couldn’t get work or into most college with a Jewish name. They lived on Caton Avenue in Brooklyn and they simply added the “y” and he became Cayton.

He was a brilliant violinist in the orchestra in high school and even played at Carneige Hall but he said he threw away all the newspaper clippings of the event because they referred to him as William Irving Cohen and he hated the middle name Irving and didn’t want to be known as Jewish in the future (because he was totally not religious) and felt he couldn’t get work. His mother, Esther, wanted him to be a violinist all through his days in college but he persisted in wanting to go into business starting his own company. Cayton Advertising was started in l942 with his office in the “new” Empire State Building. He had worked a year before at an Ad Agency on the Dupont Chemical Account and opened his agency with a part of Dupont as his first account.

While in the orchestra at University of Maryland he became close friends with Harold Goltzer, (parents name were Samuel and Anna (Cooper) Goltzer), a brilliant bassoonist, who went on to play in the New York Philharmonic (with conductor Leonard Bernstein) for 25 years. He brought Harold home for dinner one night to meet his sister Marcelle and they married soon after on Jan. 1, l939, because New Years Day was the only day he had off. They were married for more than 50 years. He spent the last 10 years of his life living outside Aspen, Co, (in Carbondale) where the Philharmonic used to go every summer. He worked with them, playing, teaching and enjoying his daughter Dana her children Alyssa and John who still live near there.

Harold Goltzer was born November 15, l915. Died December 4, 2004. His siblings were: Dorothy (Joe Starley : sons Seven and Daniel), Irving (married Anne) children Robert and Selma), Albert married Doris Delman) sons: Seth and George.

Harold’s brother, (Albert Goltzer) was a great oboe-ist and played next to him in the Philharmonic for 25 years also. (He died in 2007) The oboe’s wife, Doris, played the clarinet at the Metropolitan Opera House across the way from Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center and she finally retired at 70 only a few months ago.

Harold and Marcelle had Dana (born March 29, l941 and Eric, (born September 27, l944).

Dana had Alyssa, born September 11, l963. Alyssa had Olivia, born October 24, l996 and Erica, born Feb. 18, 2003.

Eric had Andrea (born, April 28, l97?) (who married Shawn and had Kaelyn, May 2007 and Liz, born June 12, l974.

Dana also had a son John: