 Hi, welcome back to the Curious Giraffe Show. Start with a song. When we sing together, I feel so much better. It's easy and simple to do. When we sing together, the day just gets better. I love making music with you. However, I feel so much better. It's easy and simple to do. When we read together, the day just gets better. I love making stories with you. Sometimes we read stories most of the time. So, I hope you brought your curious minds and hearts today. Hi, dear Dorothy. I brought my curious eyes, my curious ears, and my curious mouth. You brought your curious mouth? Oh, what do you mean by that? Now, I'm curious and have a question or an idea. I bring it up. Oh, that's great. But we also know that some of us, like the curious giraffe George back here, he's quiet but he loves to watch and listen and learn. Yes, yes. So, I am curious, Dorothy. I brought my curious mind and heart and I want to know what book we're going to read today. Okay, well, we'll get right to it with the curious giraffe song, which tells us what book we're going to read today. Here we go. Giraffe looked over at Dorothy and said, I'm curious what book and song she'll share with us today. Dorothy said, fascinating. We'll lead the way and we'll share it under one big sky. Oh, yeah. Share one big sky. Share one big sky. Give the world a big high five. Yeah, we're different and we know it but we all get along because we can all share and we can all care. We're different but we all belong. We're different but we all belong. Yes, we are different and yes, we do belong. So, I told you that today's book is fascinating. And you see the silhouette of a child's face and a grown-up's face. And this book is about the life of Leonard Nimoy. And it was written by Richard Michelson, who was his friend. And the pictures were illustrated by Adele Rodriguez. I think you're going to enjoy it. Now, it says the life of Leonard Nimoy. Leonard Nimoy was a favorite of my son, Nick, when he was growing up because he would watch a show called Star Trek. And Nick, I'll show you, well I'll show you Nick's picture now. For Halloween one year, he dressed up to be one of the people on Star Trek. And Leonard Nimoy was one of them too. But he wasn't always a grown-up actor. He was a little boy and he lived in the city. We're going to find out about him in this wonderful book. Okay, here we go. Lenny took a deep breath and looked out at the playhouse stage. Just that morning, he had been shooting baskets in the gym at the Elizabeth Peabody Settlement House. He hadn't even known the building head of theater. But Mr. Chafflin, the new social director, had heard Lenny chanting the Shema prayer with his father at Temple Beth Israel and he needed someone to sing God Bless America to open tonight's talent show. Lenny peered out at the audience from behind the curtain. Was every person in Boston's West End here? He could see Stanley and George, his best friends since kindergarten. Now it was 1939 and they were in the third grade. And there was his brother, Mel, still wearing his high school science lab apron. In the front row sat two empty chairs. One had a handwritten sign that said, reserved for Max Nimoy. The other said, Andora. Finally Lenny saw his mother herring down the aisle with a big grin on her face. His father, following, was still wearing his barber's smock. He must have come straight from his shop where he'd been cutting hair since immigrating to Boston from Russia 16 years ago. When they arrived in this country, Max and Dora's passports were stamped alien and that was how they still felt. But they trusted the settlement house which taught immigrant families to be American. There were classes in how to boil hot dogs and how to brush your teeth with a toothbrush instead of a rag. There is so much to know. It makes me dizzy, Max would moan. The house lights went down and the footlights went up. Reach for the stars, Mr. Chafflin said as Lenny stepped onto the stage. Walking home with his family, Lenny couldn't stop whistling. Such clapping I never heard before, said his mother beaming. The neighbors leaned out their windows to offer congratulations. Bravo, Mr. Basso Boom. May luck be your friend forever, lad. Mrs. Kiernan sang out. Most of the neighbors were Italian or Irish. Lenny could find his way home with his eyes closed just by following the smells that wafted from each tenement kitchen. Garlic meant they were passing the Greco's apartment and were almost at 87 Chamber Street where he shared four small rooms with Mel, his parents, and his Bubba and Zeta. Most all the kids in the building got along, but every Sunday Lenny felt left out when his friends went to church. Still, he felt special when his father took him to Shul on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Lenny watched the men in front start swaying and singing a special prayer. We're supposed to cover our eyes during the priestly blessing. Max whispered, so don't look. No cheating. Lenny peaked. He was fascinated by what he saw. The men pulled their prayer shawls over their heads, but their chants only got louder. As they blessed the congregation, they raised both arms in the air and held out their hands as if they were shooting a two-handed jump shot. What were they doing with their fingers? Fascinating. He couldn't ask or his father would know that he had peaked. That night in his room, Lenny practiced what he'd witnessed. He taped together his index finger and middle finger, then his pinky and ring finger. By the time of his bar mitzvah, Lenny could make the gesture easily with either hand. His fingers looked like the letter shen, which he'd learned in Hebrew school, was the first letter of the word shalom or peace and shaddai, one of the names for God. After school, Lenny peddled newspapers on Beacon Hill. Here, I'm sorry, let me just see that. He learned everything important that was going on in the world when he shouted out the day's headlines. Plus, he made a penny and a half for every record he sold. Some evenings, he also stacked chairs at the band shell. At home, Bubba made him feel good. She sang him a Yiddish song about a boy who wanted to turn into a bird and explore the planet. Zeta added, Go, do, discover. Our world is a fascinating place. Lenny was saving every penny he made. The family had gotten a Kodak bellows camera and he needed film to take some pictures. He captured the wisdom in Zeta's face and he noticed lines around Bubba's eyes. He studied his mother and father through the viewfinder. Lenny knew you needed a dark room without any windows to develop pictures so he closed the door to the family bathroom and turned out the light. Slowly, he watched each image emerge. Fascinating. It was magic. It's getting bigger. When Lenny was 17, he heard that the Settlement House Theater was putting on a performance of Awake and Sing by the playwright Clifford Odettes. It was about three generations of a poor Jewish family who lived together in one small apartment. The director needed someone to play the part of the son who yearned for a better life and a society where everyone was treated fairly. Lenny read the play. Could the author have known the Nimois? How did Mr. Odettes understand what Lenny was thinking? Thoughts he hadn't shared with anyone. Lenny loved performing. He tried out for every play he could. Each character was different and he always tried to figure out their hopes and dreams and their secrets too. He was in a play at a local temple when Father John Bond came backstage. What are you doing over the summer? He asked. I have nothing planned. Lenny answered. Well, you do now son. The priest said he invited Lenny to attend the Boston College Summer Theater Program on scholarship. By August, Lenny knew he wanted to be a professional actor. His parents had traveled across the ocean in pursuit of a better life. Now he would travel across the country to Hollywood to follow his dreams. I'm going to move ahead a little bit, but he worked hard and earned money and finally it came time. Look how grown up he is now. His mother is giving him a goodbye hug and she says, there were tears in her eyes. May you live till 120 and have a long and healthy life like Moses, she said. And in Hollywood he took a while to get the kind of work he was looking for so he became a taxi driver. One night he picked up a man with a Boston accent. Leonard felt homesick. Maybe he should forget his dreams and head home. But his passenger advised, never give up. As long as you can make a difference in people's lives, lots of competition in your business, just like in mine, but an actor is like a politician. There is always room at the top for one more good one. He handed Leonard his business card. Congressman John F. Kennedy. So Leonard took the future president's advice. He worked hard, learned his lines and showed up on time. When he turned 20, he got a small part in a movie called Queen for a Day. Next he played a Martian invader in Zombies of the Stratosphere. And finally he got his first starring role as kid, Monk Baroni. His name was on the Boston West End Movie Theater. He was on his way and his friends and family saw it. For the next 13 years he continued to act mostly in television. He also opened his own studio to help teach younger performers. He got married and had two children, Julie and Adam. Then one day in 1965, he got a call from Jean Roddenberry, a producer who was writing a new science fiction television show called Star Trek. He wanted Leonard to play the part of an alien science officer named Spock. He explained that Spock worked with earthlings on a starship named The Enterprise, which would take the crew to explore many new worlds. But Spock would always feel like an outsider because his father was from a planet called Vulcan where everyone made decisions based on logic instead of emotion. Leonard wasn't sure he wanted the part. He would have to wear pointy ears and a silly haircut. What if the audience made fun of him and his career was ruined? He tried to think about the decision logically. Then he remembered looking at his own father through the camera lens and seeing all the hidden emotion in his face. And he remembered how Zeta always encouraged him to take chances. And he remembered Mr. Chafflin from the back home who told him to reach for the stars. My folks came to the United States as immigrants. They were called aliens and they became citizens, he told Mr. Roddenberry. I was born in Boston as a citizen. Then I came to Hollywood as an outsider and now it's time for me to become an alien. I am Spock. Leonard poured all his experience into the role and people everywhere identified with Spock's attempts to fit in even though he was different. They cheered as he stood up to bullies, argued for justice, and tried to convince everyone that it made sense to live peacefully. Back home in Boston, boys started coming into Max Nimoy's barbershop asking for a Spock haircut. Max taped a picture of his son, the science officer, to the mirror. He was proud that Leonard was making a good living. In Star Trek's second season, the Enterprise visited the planet Vulcan. It was the first time viewers could see the world that Spock came from. The script told Spock to shake hands with the Vulcan queen, but Leonard wanted to have a special greeting. Asians bow when they meet. He told the director and military men salute. And how do Vulcans greet each other? He was asked. Leonard thought for a while and then he remembered the time in the temple when he was eight years old. He held up his hand in the ancient Hebraic gesture and he blessed the actors he worked with and he blessed the audience and he blessed everyone all over the universe. Live long and prosper. That symbol and that message is one that people learned everywhere. And even though that TV show only went on for about three years, they made movies about it and many, many people greet one another this way. See if you can do it. Put two fingers, two tall fingers together, the two small fingers together. Say, live long and prosper. Put it together. Live long and prosper. So my son, like I told you, was one of those people who watched that show and got so much out of it. So that's one greeting. And I wrote a song about other greetings. With a high or a hug or a high five with a high or a hug or a... You see me too. You don't with the time that you take before you'll take the time to greet you when I meet you and it won't cause hugging and high-end. All kinds of greetings. Box greeting again. Two fingers together, two fingers together. Live long and prosper. So my friend Dave Canoine wrote a song that I think fits in really well and I think that Leonard Nimoy would have sung if he had known it. I think I can. He really did. When he was asked to sing a solo, he sang a solo. When he was asked to be in a play, he learned the part and was in the play. And when he couldn't get the work he wanted at first, he said, well, I think I could be a driver. I could learn my way around and give people rides. And he just always believed he could. And so this song is to encourage all of us. I think I can. I think I can. So I'll try it. I'm on my way. I say I think I can. So I'll try it. I think I can. I like trying things I never tried before just to see what I can do. It may look hard. It often does. But I'll take my chances just because I think I can. So I'll try it. I'm on my way. I think I can. I want to encourage us that when we have ideas, to go ahead and do it. Don't wait for someone else because the idea came to you. It's yours to figure out and see what happens. So this says, when something's calling you, I mean, like something in your head, you say, oh, I think I could or it would be really great if we could. Your heart says, oh, I wish someone would do for someone. And you realize, oh, my heart is telling me, maybe I can be the one to do that something or find someone who could. When something's calling you, don't wait around for something. So take the first step. One else to draw. Make progress on your own. Be way. Progress on your own. Get up and go. What seeds will grow? We take it, get up and go. They change their dreams into real things. So just like Mr. Chathlin was a friend of the boy, and he was eight of Leonard Nimoy's. When he was eight, he said, reach for the stars. There's a song called So Many Stars about people. I think of an idea as like a bright light, like a star that's up there. And here's my song called So Many Stars about people who had ideas that came true. So many stars, you can't come, and a star is a great fire palm From far away our dreams may look small Move toward the switch on a light Will the room remain dark or be sudden? Well the light switch was once just a dream in the mind Now it's a part you can't count From far away our dreams may look small Just sit where you are Well the come from far away our dreams may Last time it was a great fire Both my son had dreams too. Lots of people, sons and daughters, watched him acting, believing in himself, and his character had such good messages like, peace is logical. Yeah, yeah, wow, I'm gonna think about that. Okay, but it is time to go already. I can't believe how quickly our time together went. So, oh, I get to lead the song? Sure, sure, go ahead. Keep singing, keep looking, Questions and never give up, keep. We'll see you next time. I think I can So I'll find things I never tried before Just to see what I can