Celebrity Story on the Road with Norman Luboff (part 2)
- Posted on 28th March 2017
- in Celebrity book, celebrity books, celebrity stories online, celebrity story, Entertainment, entertainment books, funny celebrity stories, Hollywood books, Hollywood memoirs
- by Ben
Here’s a
celebrity story
excerpted from Three Stages, Chapter Six, “Sin City and the Road”.
The Norman Luboff Choir’s first national tour began in LA in October 1963. I was tenor soloist.
Norman Luboff Choir 1963
A few Clips from the chapter:
“Almost everywhere we performed to sold-out houses. The only hitch in our shows was that the Norman Luboff Choir was known for pop music. When we opened with Bach there was often a palpable sense of disappointment in the audience. But Norman would win them over with his commentary and when we opened the second act with Tenderly (one of his biggest hits) the applause was spontaneous and tumultuous.
“We went up the west coast into Vancouver, turned around and zigzagged across the northern plains and into the heartland. We sang in auditoriums in cities, school gymnasia in College towns and occasionally fine concert halls in big cities.”
SNAPSHOTS from the tour:
“After a couple of weeks we never knew where we were. Two examples: One day we stopped for lunch after four hours dozing on the bus, got off and began wandering toward a restaurant. I stopped a lady on the street and asked her where we were. She replied, ‘Saint Johns.’ I asked , ‘What state?’ She looked at me as though I was an idiot and barked, ‘Minnesota!’ (I think) Then there was the night we were setting up in a large auditorium and I asked a stagehand where we were. He said, ‘Municipal Auditorium. I said, ‘Which municipality?’ With the same look as the lady, with a bit more hostility, he answered, ‘Omaha.’ Fortunately I didn’t need to inquire about the state.
…
“We stopped for lunch in a small town in Montana. There was a full course T-Bone steak meal for $1.75. (Even in 1963 that was cheap!) I ordered it and asked what was the soup du jour. ‘Oh, Honey, that’s the soup of the day.’
…
“In Chattanooga, Tennessee, André (the road manager) John (one of the black guys) and I went into our hotel to check us all in. The guy behind the desk took one look at John and pulled André aside to explain that they had a ‘no coloreds’ policy. André said that was fine, we’d go to another hotel. Seeing thirty-two reservations about to walk out the guy asked him to wait a minute and got on the phone with the owner. He came back and told us that the policy had been suspended. We had integrated a hotel! The all black staff shined our shoes, pressed our suits and bent over backwards to give us excellent service and would not accept tips.”
My favorite regional incident:
“In some rural town, Mississippi I think, we asked at the hotel desk where we could get some booze. The guy said to look in the yellow pages under ‘Bootleggers’. I swear that this is true. Ten minutes after I made the call a cab driver arrived with a brown paper bag containing the hooch. I kept the page out of that phone book for years.”
There are many stories about the Norman Luboff tour and other showbiz adventures to read when you click here to get Three Stages.
Tags: Bootleggers, Norman Luboff Choir, Omaha
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