The most memorable slice of Mehaul O’Leary’s showcase speech this afternoon at the annual Mayor’s Luncheon occurred 20 minutes before he began orating.
Scouts from American Idol or at least the late Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour should have been in the packed second-story room at the Double Tree by Hilton when City Manager John Nachbar invited Culver City’s hottest middle-aged Irish tenor to arouse the crowd by singing the Star Spangled Banner.
St. Patrick’s Day revisited.
It was like watching Barrymore act, Shakespeare write or Koufax pitch.
When Mr. O’Leary unleashes his boyish native Irish charm, he belts out his heart with borderless enthusiasm and both fists.
The agonizingly peculiar construction of the Star Spangled Banner has baffled, exasperated and angered singers for decades.
But for Mr. O’Leary, it was as uncomplicated as draining a glass of bottled water, or better, falling in love again.
Twenty-five years after arriving from Dublin, the mayo, bulging with pride, waves his patriotic fervor at every public speaking opportunity, as if he were stranded in Death Valley, desperately signaling a rescue crew.
No one stands straighter or more stoutly at City Council meetings during the Pledge of Allegiance.
Entering the final month of his one-year rotation in the mayor’s chair, Mr. O’Leary is a suddenly uncaged 4-year-old who has been sentenced to 24 consecutive hours in the sandbox.
At the Chamber of Commerce’s 32nd Mayor’s Luncheon, Mr. O’Leary initially struck a familiar ramrod pose on the podium until it was time for his a capella rendition to start.
As an Irishman who honors tradition, timepieces in his presence are a useless decoration.
Immediately after stepping to the podium, with further ado, the mayor broke into story mode, unfurling the historic account of how the Star Spangled Banner came to be written, under fire, in Baltimore Harbor, on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1814, by Francis Scott Key.
Turning toward the flag in the gigantic room, Mr. O’Leary threw his head back, as is his custom when overwhelming pride at being an American surges through him, and he broke into the opening bars.
As an orator who devoted 45 minutes, which felt like 46, reviewing the flora and fauna of community events of the past year, Mr. O’Leary is sure to be remembered for his singing.
On a Final Note
With four City Council candidates in the audience less than two weeks before the April 10 election – Andy Weissman, Jim Clarke, Scott Malsin and the aforementioned mayor, who was welcomed with the loudest ovation?
The much-debated Mr. Malsin.
