An evening with Ernie by Bill Kay

Scene: the community hall attached to South Pasadena Public Library. A long, high ceilinged room, windows high up on the left as you look at the stage, capacity around 200.
Doors open 6.30 for 7pm start. At 6.25 there is a polite, quiet line stretching from the door down the steps and out into the path through the greenery, maybe 30 people waiting. Our friend Jim Dawson is sitting in one of two curving stone seats either side of the entrance, so we take the opportunity to join him and probably jump the line a little. Edgar Bullington joins us, standing and chatting.
Dead on 6.30 the doors open and we file in firmly but in an orderly manner. We grab half a row of seats and another couple for Bobb Lynes and Barbara Watkins.
At 6.48 a side door opens - and there is the star, Ernest Borgnine himself, with that trademark wide gap-toothed grin, wearing a powder blue safari shirt. He milks the applause, which lasts about half a minute, then walks to the stage. He clearly intends to get started, but an official whispers in his ear that there is music first.
'Do you want to hear some jazz?' he yells. The audience, realising the situation, agrees.
So Borgnine's real appearance is delayed by 20 minutes or so while a young girl sings a few jazz classics such as All of Me, to a piano accompaniment. She sings well, but is too young to be credibly singing songs designed for someone with more life under their belt.
We are next given some clips of Borgnine hits, including Marty, which won four Oscars - Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actor.
Finally Borgnine reappears, as cheerful as before, but flanked by fussing aides and a so-called moderator who is to handle the Q&A. An English-accented video company executive who ploughs through the career credits of Borgnine and his inquisitor. Happily, the star brushes aside all this nonsense and does his own thing, brilliantly and with real rapport with the audience. He is a natural star - as he should be, after more than 50 years on camera.
Recounting his Oscar win, he couldn't remember who gave it to him - 'that actress who became a princess'. 'Grace Kelly,' fans prompted. 'That's right,' he said, 'look - I'm 91, what do you want?!'
He didn't get on well with the director Richard Brooks, who dismissed Borgnine as 'one of those Goddam thinking actors' when he suggested how to play a scene. Next day Brooks began: 'OK Mr Borgnine, what do you have in mind for this scene?'
He beat Frank Sinatra to the Oscar, as well as James Dean, but he and Sinatra became friends and he recalled how the legendary singer paid for the actor Lee J Cobb to be taken to Sinatra's house in Palm Springs. 'Why did you do this?' asked Cobb. 'Because I like the way you work,' Sinatra replied.
The Poseidon Adventure, one of the biggest films of all time, nearly didn't get made because of a newly-promoted Paramount executive who tried to block it and was later sacked.
Borgnine has just finished shooting Another Harvest Moon in Harrisburg, PA - he said 'It's the state capital, you don't need to go there!'
On 3D: 'You just sit around longer for all the set ups and that's good, because you get paid for the extra time.'
Yes, it's true he used to get on a horse in westerns by climbing a set of steps - 'Bring on the horse, bring on the stairs!' adding that John Wayne used to do the same.
On the second day he was filming Marty, on location in the Bronx, someone asked him 'Are you the guy who killed Sinatra?' After many explanations that it was just only a film, Borgnine (real name Borgnino) was in danger of getting seriously beaten up, so in desperation he said 'I'm Italian!' and was swamped with pizza and salami, etc. But the original thug muttered 'I still think we ought to beat the he'll out of him....'
He is a great fan of Abraham Lincoln, and told us how he picked up a painting of Lincoln for ten dollars off a street market. The next day the stallholder tried to buy it back 'for a museum', he said.
Borgnine shrewdly held on to it, and was subsequently told it could be worth as much as $5 million. He has a room in his house devoted to Lincoln, whom he regards as a great source of 'calmness'. It is a rare solemn moment in an evening that was full of fun.
And no one asked him about his latest appearance on youtube.