Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1959 - May 1960)

had ever been away from home for an extended time. Suddenly, the house was 1! iquiet. Too quiet. Nothing seemed fun, Si anymore. It hit Dad worst. Every evening, j he took out the whole stack of Frankie's ! show recordings and played them over and i over. Today, they're so worn out it is hard lito listen to them. Happy as we are over Frankie's success, we still miss him when he's on 4 j tour. So we always celebrate whenever he returns to Philadelphia. For me, the most momentous of these j celebrations was Chancellor Records' anniversary party last year, for there I met I a friend of Bob's, Thomas Belfiore. Tommy, who had recently returned from Army duty in Korea, is the tradiii tional tall, dark and handsome young y man. His dancing first caught my attention. He had been a teacher at the Fred r. Astaire studio. His charm captivated me. i I We hadn't had very many dates before y we began to make serious plans. 5. 11 We thought we were keeping them real 1 1 secret until a night when my mother d Suggested to Frankie, "Tommy doesn't y have a picture of you. Wouldn't you like > to give him one?" Frankie autographed it with a flourish. i "To my future brother-in-law." i I read it and shook. Tommy saw it, did t a double take, said "thanks," and put it i, away. I breathed again. I But when I got Frankie alone, I let e him have it. "What are you trying to do, scare Tommy away?" I demanded. I Frankie just grinned. "I don't think you have to worry." i Not long after that, Tommy and I told j our folks, went to see our priest and set the date for May 8. Frankie was out on the road so we phoned him the news. His 1 response was, "May I be best man?" i His next reaction was intensely prac! tical. Frankie and Bob had found an f ideal ballroom location near Scranton. He came to Tommy to say, "Will you manage . it for me?" The Frankie Avalon ballroom opened l on Easter Sunday, and by the time you : read this, Frankie will have played his I big role as best man at our wedding. When will Tommy be able to return the compliment? When will Frankie follow us down the aisle? You never can tell. Because Frankie has can have 'pillow talk parties' . . . you know . . . everyone brings his or her own pillow to sit on. We'll have music and games and I can cook. I love to cook. "Right now we have some dishes and a couple of little chairs and some TV tables. And kitchen things. "Mom had a big laugh at me when she sent me to buy some sheets and pillow cases and I came home with a gold achieved so many ambitions in such a short time, it is difficult to realize that he won't be 19 until September. Sometimes he seems so grown up. I remember the day that he received word that his friends, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens had been killed in that plane crash in Iowa. Frankie was home, beat-out tired. He had a cold and he needed to rest. But when Mr. Irving Feld phoned to ask him to headline the remaining dates of that tour, Frankie left at once. "It's the least I can do," he said. "Had I been the one to crash, they would have filled in for me." Then there was the night that Connie Francis came to dinner. Over plates of my mother's delicious spaghetti, they laughed as they remembered how they went to their first movie premiere. Each had a record in the charts, but the crowd outside the theatre was made up of motion picture fans. When the announcer boomed into the mike, "Miss Connie Francis and Mr. Frankie Avalon," there was no applause. Connie said, "I was all set to take bows but no one had the slightest idea who we were. I could have cried, I was that disappointed." That "was only a year ago. Since then, Frankie has had the Number One tune in "Venus." Connie, too, has had a succession of hits. They both have network programs. Connie is the featured girl vocalist on the Jimmie Rodgers show on NBC-TV and Frankie just began his own Saturday night radio program on ABC. In accomplishment, Frankie is adult, but when he's home, he can still be very much the teenager. He roughhouses with his collie, Dee Dee Dinah, until my mother yells at him, "Stop it before you smash everything in the place." And when he calls a girl for a date, he's just a riot. Real confidential, he'll say, "Just because it's you, I'd like to sneak away from the fans tonight. Let's go to a drive-in and park away over in the corner where it's real dark . . ." He's so smooth I'm tempted to say, "Little brother, who are you fooling? Are you sure it's because of the fans? I know the signs. One of these days, you're going to fall in love. And when you do, Little Brother, I hope she's just as good and true as you. For, my dear brother Frankie, you're the very best." END coffee pot, an electric one. But it was SO pretty . . . Mom had to go out and buy the bed things we needed. "I cook every night at home. I get all the magazines with recipes in them and try out everything. Then I cook for our parties . . . after trying out the recipes on us." She skittered onto another subject, as is her way. "I used to like to shop for clothes," she said. "Now I like to shop for food and furniture. We haven't any rugs yet but I want white ones. And lots of pale blue in my own room. "We have four bedrooms here and four baths and a wonderful pool. I can't wait to have all our relatives out from the East. We are going to have guests all the time as soon as we're settled. "It is true," she went on, "that I don't have many girl friends. But I have one very good one in New York . . . she's a model . . . and she will be coming out to see me."' "How about you and John Saxon?" we inquired. "One of the columns reported that you two were 'an item'." "That's not true, either," she said, rather crossly. "At least, it isn't true if 'an item' means what I think it does. "In the first place, John wouldn't be interested in me romantically. He'd think I was much too young and I guess I am. But we are very good friends and he has been awfully nice to me . . . sort of like an older brother or a cousin. "Anyhow, I don't feel romantic about any of the boys I know and I am sure they don't feel that way about me. I like boys to have fun with, sort of comfortable people, if you know what I mean. "As I told you, I simply never had a chance to have young friends before and this is a wonderful experience for me." "Is it true that you 'disapprove' of rock 'n' roll music?" "Good gracious, no! Who would I be to 'disapprove' of anything like that? I even like it a little bit but I can't take too much of it at a time. It makes me nervous, somehow. Just as I like Ricky Nelson vety much indeed . . . but I just can't like too much of his music. I can't help it! "But please," she pleaded, widening those lovely eyes, "dqn't let people think I am spoiled and bored and just an all 'round brat, as they might think from things that have been said about me. "I am happy. And grateful. I have everything I want. Money, early success and the chance to work for a new career. I know I'm just plain lucky. I didn't deserve all this and I didn't have to work for it. I just happened to be in the right places at the right times. That doesn't happen to many people. But now I AM working and trying to deserve it all. "That's why it hurts me when I read things about myself that make me think, 'If I read this and didn't know the girl, I'd hate her!' "Will you try to put it right?" Well, we don't think it is all as bad as Sandra imagines. No one who knows her at all could possibly "hate" her. She is too sweet and too genuine. But she is also too young to be able to take unwarranted criticism and misunderstanding in professional stride. No wonder it hurts! We sincerely hope that we have comforted Sandra somewhat and put the record a little straighter. END 63 "Why Do They Lie About Me?" continued from page 31