Happy 86th Birthday to the Late Nuge Schneider, Our Honorary Founder

This week was the 86th birthday of our late Honorary Founder, Nuge Schneider. I’m sure that if he were here with us, there would be a big swanky party at some place downtown in Sarasota where he spent his winters.

Each Monday, Mr. Schneider would call me right around 9:45am. Sometimes he would ask, “what documentary did you watch this weekend?”

“I saw an interesting one about Marilyn Monroe,” I said one time. 

“She’s fascinating. I’ll introduce you to my friend, Amy Greene—spelled with three E’s. She knows Hollywood.”

Not long after that call, Nuge passed away.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, while watching another documentary (this one produced by CNN), there was Amy Greene right in front of me. She was sharing stories about her pal… Marilyn Monroe.

Amy wasn’t just any acquaintance of Marilyn. In fact, they were even roommates for half a decade in the 1950s – Marilyn’s “golden years”, as Amy described it. Amy’s husband, Milton, was Marilyn’s photographer and the co-founder of Marilyn Monroe Productions Inc. He owned 49%, Marilyn owned 51%. 

After seeing Amy on my television, I phoned Nuge’s widow, Dawn, and said, “‘Amy Greene was friends with Marilyn Monroe!?”

 “Didn’t you know that?”

“Uhh, no!” 

Nuge never dropped names, so I wasn’t surprised by Dawn’s answer.

I wanted to meet Amy, so Sunni Schneider and I flew down to Florida last month to take this special lady out for lunch.

And what a lunch that was.

Amy was dressed up in Yankee gear from head to toe. A true local Sarasota celebrity, everyone noticed her crossing the street and at the restaurant.

When we dropped her off, she asked: “Want to come up?”

That home is a true library of the “who’s who” from the twentieth century.

“Amy”, I said. “You should write a book!”

“Daaaaarlin’ – how many pages are free?” she said in her trademark voice.

“Here is Frank Sinatra. My husband took the best photo there ever was of him … 

And this is me and Sammy Davis Jr., dancing the night away … 

Oh, here’s Audrey Hepburn and me. Daaaaaaalin, isn’t she a doll?”

I mistakenly mixed up a Yankee portrait (taken from behind to capture his #5) with a person I thought was Roger Maris (#9, who was a Minnesota native that beat Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1961). 

“Amy, is that Roger Maris?” 

“No, you idiot! That’s Joe D!”

As she said it, I received a right jab (which hurt [trust me]) for the mix-up from the 93-year old.

“I was standing beside Joe during the scene when Marilyn’s skirt blew up at god-knows-what-time-it-was-that-morning. There were hundreds of people catcalling her. Take my word for it, Joe wasn’t happy. And by the way … Maris did not belong in New York City!”

Amy knew all the stars.

But to us, it was the last person she mentioned that Sunni and I most appreciated.

“Nuge and I would both watch women walk by on a patio. I would say, “Nuge, check out the ass on her” and he would say, “…Why the hell would I want to do that?’”

Nuge was larger than life, and so is Amy. It’s no wonder people like them befriend such interesting personalities.

As we left, Amy told us, “Nuge will always live on through the 3 of us”.

He sure will.

Happy 86th birthday, Mr. Schneider.

-written by Jeff Pollock