It Is A Wonderful World

Once in a while, I come across a reminder of a story I have never written. This weekend I was watching Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam. It is and always has been a great movie that has featured a great song, "It's a Wonderful World" (especially the Louis Armstrong version).

Freddy Beinstock (the father-in-law of one of my daughters) and a good friend of mine, had owned the rights to "It's a Wonderful World" for a long time and it was not doing very well. In fact, it was doing so badly, that the authors of the song were trying to get Freddy to release it back to them. Freddy wanted just one more attempt and told the authors that he'd license the song to a movie that was just about to break. The movie was, of course, Good Morning, Vietnam and Freddy and the authors became wealthy from its success. Freddy died almost seven years ago, but his company, which was very successful, continues and the third or fourth thing I think of after seeing the movie is more royalties or my daughter and the rest of the Bienstock family.