An Intimate Chat with the Daughter of Gary Cooper and a Legendary Pianist

Author: Rock Raymond
Published: Mon 29 Jan 2024
Episode Link: https://www.rockstarchronicles.com/

MARIA COOPER JANIS ARTIST, AUTHOR, BIOGRAPHER, DAUGHTER OF SCREEN LEGEND GARY COOPER

AND WIFE OF LEGENDARY AMERICAN CLASSICAL PIANIST BYRON JANIS: AN INTIMATE CHAT WITH MARIA AND BYRON.

*Note: Mr. Janis battled through laryngitis and a nagging cough to take part in this interview. We all thank you for your perseverance and Indomitable Spirit.

Hello and welcome to another edition of Interviewing the Legends I’m your host Ray Shasho.

Maria Cooper Janis was born in Los Angeles, California and lived there with her parents, the actor Gary Cooper and his wife Veronica Cooper.

She followed a painting career in New York and in 1966 married the world-renowned concert pianist, Byron Janis. Although Mr. Janis’ busy schedule has led them all over the world, Mrs. Janis has enjoyed a successful career as an artist. She pursues her paintings with great energy, exhibiting in the United States as well as Europe and Asia.

She has written a book Gary Cooper off Camera: A Daughter Remembers which gives an inside look into the persona of one of the greatest movie stars of all time.

Maria Cooper Janis has also worked on a feature film documentary, “The True Gen,” about the special 20-year friendship between Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway, the score of which is composed by Byron Janis.

Byron Janis is internationally renowned as one of the world's greatest pianists. He made his orchestral debut at age 15 with Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra and the following year was chosen by Vladimir Horowitz as his first student. At 18, he became the youngest artist ever signed to a contract by RCA Victor Records. Two years later, in 1948, he made his Carnegie Hall debut which was hailed as an unparalleled success.

He has a special affinity for Chopin and made a French film on him that was shown around the world.

He was honored by several U.S. Presidents and in 1984, at a State Dinner at the White House in his honor at the invitation of President Ronald Reagan, he revealed that he had been suffering from severe arthritis throughout much of his decades-long career. The painful and crippling condition eventually required surgery on his hands. However, he recovered sufficiently to resume performing and recording commercially and continues to do so today.

PLEASE WELCOME MARIA COOPER JANIS ARTIST/AUTHOR/BIOGRAPHER AND DAUGHTER OF SCREEN LEGEND GARY COOPER AND HER HUSBAND LEGENDARY CLASSICAL PIANIST/COMPOSER BYRON JANIS TO INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS …

PURCHASE

Gary Cooper Off Camera:

A Daughter Remembers

by Maria Cooper Janis

Introduction by Tom Hanks

Available at

https://www.garycooper.com/#gary-cooper-off-camera-a-daughter-remembers

Gary Cooper (1901-1961) is an American icon-an actor whose handsome features and unstudied poise made him one of the great stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era. Now, his only child gives us an extraordinary memoir - a book that reveals the Gary Cooper only she knew. Illustrated throughout with 175 photographs, including many never-before-published family pictures, Maria Cooper Janis’ heartfelt book offers an unprecedented look at her father’s private side, from his Montana boyhood and his Hollywood home life to his friendships with Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, and Jimmy Stewart, among others. Filled with anecdotes that capture the off-screen humor and warmth of this avid outdoorsman and great humanitarian, Gary Cooper Off Camera is an unforgettable portrait of a great star and a beloved father.

Purchase a copy of the book & 100% of the proceeds will be donated to The Gary Cooper Endowed Fund for Student Support for Indigenous Cultures at The University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts.

ALSO

PURCHASE

Chopin and Beyond:

My Extraordinary Life

in Music and the Paranormal

by Byron Janis (Author), Maria Cooper Janis

One of the world's greatest classical pianists reveals how the ""other world"" transformed his life and career.

By any measure, Byron Janis has had an extraordinary musical career. His discovery of two long-lost Chopin scores made headlines around the world, and he has been honored many times for his breathtaking performances of some of the most exciting and challenging works in the standard classical piano repertoire. As he retraces this remarkable journey in Chopin and Beyond, he shares something even more extraordinary: the other-worldly experiences that have shaped his life and music in surprising and profound ways.

Shares milestones and memories from the life and musical career of one of the world's greatest pianists

Includes lively anecdotes of famous classical musicians and other notable figures, including Vladimir Horowitz and Pablo Picasso

Describes his long-secret but ultimately triumphant battle with arthritis.

Recounts the paranormal experiences that deepened his personal association with Chopin, effected near miraculous recoveries from serious accidents, and more.

Like the best music, Chopin and Beyond will open your mind to explore the wonder and possibility of a different world.

and

BYRON JANIS

The Mercury Masters

9 CD/Blu-ray Audio

Box Set, 9 CD

Available at amazon.com

also

COOPER AND HEMINGWAY: THE TRU GEN

DOCUMENTARY

Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen is an unprecedented look at the bond between two of the most iconic artists of the 20th century. Utter opposites... nothing in common. The cowboy and the suburbanite. The conservative and the liberal. And yet these two artists (a word both men scoffed at) were the best of friends, right up to their deaths a mere seven weeks apart in 1961. But is the friendship of these two men really so surprising? A study of these two men is a study of the 20th century. Their internationally renowned careers (Cooper, two Best Actor Academy Awards; Hemingway, Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes) were played out over the same turbulent decades: the hedonistic 20s, the grim Depression 30s, the war-ravaged 40s, and the deceptively slumbering 50s.

available at amazon.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

ABOUT

MARIA COOPER JANIS

VISIT

https://www.mariacooperjanis.com/

Official website

https://www.facebook.com/mariacooperjanis/

Facebook

https://www.instagram.com/mariacooperjanis/?hl=en

Instagram

BYRON JANIS