Modern Screen (Jan-Dec 1960)

Record Details:

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who pulled the Trio together, whipped them into shape and shoe-horned their first breaks. Only, when Werber first spotted them they weren't a Trio, but a quartet — and their tag was "Dave Guard's Calypsonians." Dave and Bob had started that combo with a bass fiddler and a girl singer, while Nick was still dragging his feet in Coronado. They played the party circuit again, still around Stanford, with a steady home at The Cracked Pot. Off nights they auditioned San Francisco at famous clubs like the Hungry i and the Purple Onion. "Okay lor college — but too unprofessional" was the verdict they usually got. But during one tryout at the Purple Onion, a waiter hustled upstairs to the two-by-four office where Frank Werber squeezed out a living as a night-club press agent. "Catch these kids downstairs," he advised. "They ain't bad." Frank caught one song — but at first he didn't get the message at all. Used to professionals, he thought the "Calypsonians" were strictly for amateur night. Then, on a hunch, he gambled the gas to Palo Alto to hear them in their natural rah-rah setting. At the Cracked Pot, with the Stanford kids whooping he thought he saw something. "But the fiddler and the girl are drags," he told Dave. "Know anyone one who might work into a trio?" Did they! That night Nick Reynolds got a wire: GREAT THINGS ARE COOKING. GET UP HERE FAST. DAVE AND BOB. Wake up and live, man Nick got there fast enough, but the great things, he learned even faster, were mostly a lot of wild hopes jazz. As he wobbled indecisively, Dave unleashed the hard sell. "Wake up and live, Nick," he plugged. "You want to shrivel up and go to seed in that sunny rat race down there? Come on, Man, let's get some beer and talk." That night they tried to drink all the brew in San Francisco and wound up climbing statues in Golden Gate Park. But by dawn Nick was persuaded. They rented a one-room San Francisco apartment, all slept in the one bed and rehearsed night and day until the landlord threatened to call the cops. A week later they walked into Frank's attic office and said they were ready. Frank wedged them in downstairs for one week's tryout. They stayed seven months. Of course, Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds didn't Cinderella into the slick Kingston Trio via one easy stanza. It took work, seasoning and discipline to turn that trick. Says Frank Werber, "What the boys had was natural talent, enthusiasm, sharp humor and a fresh, intelligent slant on songs. But to them it was still mostly a ball and they were plenty rough around the edges." For one thing, all three were singing themselves hoarse each night. Frank routed them to Judy Davis, a professional voice coach, who taught them how to relax and spread it out. For another, the boys were tossing their rapid fire wit around ad libitum and forgetting the good ones. Frank camped each night with a notebook jotting the best down, then turned Dave Guard loose to write a crisp patter routine. He made them rehearse six days a week before the show and then a couple of hours afterwards, polishing this and that. Most important, "I made them take the pledge," chuckles 'Black Bart.' "They signed on the line not to take a drink for six months — and I guess that really hurt. If they backslid or acted up — no paycheck. I figured that could hurt even more." After seven months at the Purple Onion the Kingstons had got to believing they owned the joint. Frank took them down several pegs by booking them into Holiday 54 Hotel, a gambling lounge in Reno. Up there, if you started drawing attention from the gambling play the dealers hollered, "Shut up!" and the normal clatter was awful anyway. By the time they left Reno, Bob, Nick and Dave knew a few more hard facts and tricks about show business. All this polished a raw college combo into a smooth team of pros. They went to Hollywood next, to make their first album, The Kingston Trio, for Capitol. In it was a haunting lament they'd always scored big with at the Purple Onion, Tom Dooley. They didn't dream how big that would score. In fact, for the next few months, in Chicago and MHHVHMWMUHMHMVUMWMW j! Erin O'Brien figures a sensible j! J[ girl's one who has sense enough J[ «' not to look sensible. <! I! Earl Wilson ', l> ii, the New York Post <> ^wwvwvvwwwwwwwwwwwvw^ next in New York, at the Blue Angel and Village Vanguard each one was still living on $60 a week, and Frank Werber was chronically floating loans to keep them going. They flopped in crummy hotels, ate in one-arm joints. The money looked good — but a trio's expenses swallowed it up. Whenever Bob, Nick or Dave would ask Frank, "How's the album doing?" the answer was, "It ain't." Appropriately the Trio came back to San Francisco playing the Hungry i. That was the summer of '58. A disk jockey in Salt Lake City flashed the good news first. He called Frank at the Hungry i. "All they want to hear up here is Tom Dooley from that Kingston album," he complained. "Can you bring those guys to town?" Seattle d.j.'s called next — same thing. Frank buzzed Capitol Records in Hollywood. They shot out a single of Tom Dooley and put the promotion works behind it. When the Trio rolled into Seattle a few weeks later it was behind a police motorcade. They cleaned up $3000 in two nights. Since then, the Kingston Trio has rolled in triumph almost any place you can name — except Kingston, Jamaica. This winter they fly to Australia, next spring to Europe. They've turned down four movies, but the right one comes soon. Three hot selling albums, their own publishing firm and TV make the Kingston Trio, Inc., big business. Off hand, you wouldn't say the boys had a problem in the world. But they have one. Home life. Dave, Nick and Bob all owe their happy marriages to the Trio. Gretchen Ballard, for instance, first laid eyes on Dave Guard when he sang at a Stanford football rally. A tall, tailored type, Gretchen was a mere freshie there at Stanford and, although she rated Dave "dreamy" right off, her prospects seemed slim. Dave dated her big sis, Sarah, and after that pinned her best friend, Cordie Creveling. When he finally got around to Gretchen, Dave was heating up The Cracked Pot, so that's where he took her on their first date. From then on all Dave's songs were beamed at Gretchen. "The child bride," as Nick and Bob call her, was the first female to crack the Kingston club. That happened in September of '57 during their first paid engagement at the Purple Onion when the whole crew and half of Stanford University traveled to San Marino, California for a full dress wedding, with Nick best man and Bob head usher. Gretchen's dad hired champagne-stocked busses to haul the wedding party away and pour them on trains and planes. Life afterwards wasn't so plush. "We spent our honeymoon in Dave's bachelor apartment — a slum, believe me," sighs Gretchen. "He went to work the next night and I stayed awake until 3:00 a.m., scared half to death." Mrs. Guc got used to it though and until she vi pregnant, scooted around wherever 1 boys went. But Dave bit his nails ale in New York waiting to hear he was father. Their daughter, Cappy, is n< eighteen months old and they're expect; again in May. "Cappy's wild about Dav smiles Gretch. "I tell him it's because ? likes strangers." Nick Reynolds tumbled next for cu bouncy Joan Harriss, who's almost double for Shirley MacLaine. In ii. Joan, a San Francisco girl, was a corner enne, too, "set to be the biggest thi ever to hit night clubs, sex and all tha she admits, "when I got hooked on tl Reynolds man." That happened at t Purple Onion, too. Joan was just arou the corner at Ann's 440, where she v giving out songs and satirical sketches. "Nick started it all by dropping ir Ann's after his show for a beer and pee ing at me," relates Joan. "Now, I spe half my life waiting for a peek at hir The romantic switch took a little lonj to come about than Gretchen and Dave although from point of contact, Joan 1 been in on the Kingston act as long. A she's the only wife who's been on t payroll. When Frank Werber first to the boys away, he hired Joan (who's typist, too) to run his publicity offi Then she took off for New York, hopi to crash Broadway, but ended up a hosti in Verney's restaurant down in the V lage. Guess who was at the Village Va guard, nearby — and who picked her every night after work? That's right. Nil "It just kind of gradually, inevital happened," says Joan. "When the T: went back to the Coast, I said 'Nuts to career' and went, too. When they | booked in Hawaii next — well, that seem awfully far away from Nick." Half way through the Trio's last ni| at the Hungry i, Nick whispered sorr thing to Bobby Shane right before intt mission and the pair ducked out. Wh they came back, late for their show, Jo was with them, her face as pink as r nuptial dress. The orchestra struck the Wedding March, best man Bob hopped up on the stand to announce ii and the place went wild drinking chai pagne on the house and smashing t glasses. Joan flew with the Trio to Hawj as Mrs. Nicholas Reynolds. That's where 1 last Kingston hold-out began to weak Bobby Shane didn't know it, but a dar eyed Atlanta belle was already talki about him aboard a boat steaming i Diamond Head. Louise Brandon certainly would ne\ have met Bob if she hadn't heard Tt Dooley. Not that Louise was a cool < particularly. On the contrary, soft spok< queenly Louise was educated in sel< seminaries as befits a gentle young Sout ern lady and had made her debut. B grandfather was on the Board of Gene] Motors, her dad a successful Atlar lawyer. Louise had been to Hawaii a f< weeks before and liked it so much tr she was going back to stay with a frie for a year. Her cabin mate was a deligr ful, sixtyish lady named Miss Evel; Shane. "Those Kingston brothers" They discovered a love for classic music in common (Louise plays the pian< "But when I left Atlanta," she remark* "all you heard around there was a so called Tom Dooley by those Kingst Brothers." Miss Evelyn nodded unde standingly. She'd heard it plenty herse she allowed. Her nephew Bob was one the Trio — only they weren't brothers all. Bob's dad, Art, met his sister at i boat. So Bobby Shane had two fami members telling him about the beautif