Save the Last Dance #5.
Romancing the Night Away at Harlem’s Cotton Club

Fanny and Charlie as they were in Cotton Club publicity photographs.

Imagine two handsome soulmates—looking like a Vogue Magazine couple—romancing and dancing the night away at the Cotton Club in Harlem in the 1930s.

Imagine America’s then-favorite romantic baritone, Russ Columbo, singing Save the Last Dance for Me, on center stage in front of a 25-piece orchestra.

Imagine, the man proclaiming their relationship was like the perfect diamond because “there was not a flaw in it.”

Imagine the couple decides to make Save the Last Dance their song.

Imagine the man becomes one of the most famous entertainers of his time.

Imagine the woman waits another 55 years… for what was not to be.

Imagine he marries twice, she marries once, never to each other.

Imagine they are buried near each other in the same cemetery in New York City.

Imagine a love story that is epic and intimate, bittersweet, yet uplifting.

There is no need to imagine. The story was true. The woman, nicknamed Fanny, was my mother. And, the love of her love was Charles Magnante.

If you’d like to read an ode to love that will put a smile on your face and bring a tear in your eye, you might consider my book SAVE THE LAST DANCE. A Bittersweet Love Story about Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams.

“Superbly Crafted Ode to Love.”
– San Francisco Literary Review

“Pure and Simple. A Proper Love Story. They don’t make them like this anymore.”
– Kayla@ Good Reads