Bobby Rydell, still swingin’! A celebrity story

As I mentioned before I never thought of this autobiography as an

entertainment book or Hollywood memoir.

But it turns out that I have met and worked with and even become friends of quite a few folks who are celebrities. So a celebrity story shows up in nearly every chapter. Here’s a tale about one of the best.
From “Three Stages” Chapter 5, Back to the Biz: California & Arizona 1959–’62

Good-guy showbiz celebrities
In this chapter I told you about doing a TV pilot with Bobby Rydell.

Rydell Bus cropThe Band in the bus with Bobby

He remains among my favorites of the movie and musical stars I was privileged to meet and work with. A superbly gifted and versatile musician he was a huge star in the 1960s and ‘70s. And, good news, he still is. Now his fans don’t have braces on their teeth, their grand kids do but there are a lot of us around who remember and still appreciate his music. As of the day I’m writing this he has over twenty-five gigs booked for this year and is already booking up 2014 including a tour of Australia.

Have a look at his web site.

Anyhow a week or so ago I was thinking about the time we spent together making that ill-fated pilot and how much fun we had. I located his email address and sent him a note. The next day the phone rang and I was having trouble hearing – you know cel phones – and finally it became clear and the voice said, “It’s Bobby Rydell.” I was flabbergasted.

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We talked for ten minutes, reminiscing about what went down fifty years ago, and it truly was like old friends reconnecting.

B R Dance cropBobby and the Band on stage

We agreed that we should get together and we will. He lives in Philadelphia and I’m in New York so it will happen soon. Bobby told me that some clips from the show are on youtube so I found two, downloaded and edited them and here they are. In case you can’t figure it out, I’m the bass player.

The entire tale about this TV Pilot and many more celebrity stories are to be found in Three Stages. You can get it here.

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