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

FABIAN'S features remind some of models used in Renaissance paintings. Below, he works out with exerciser to keep in shape. FABIAN continued His rare good look To people in the music business, there is magic in tl name. South Philadelphia is a cradle for stars. No one qui knows why. Drive through this clannish city-within-a-city ar. you will see little that is inspiring. You find mile after mi; of narrow, two-story row houses. Most of them are the tid homes of respectable second-generation Italians with som Jewish families intermingled. Many of the interiors are a tractively modernized, but the facades of the houses remai drab. Only a few trees break the monotony of the endles streets. Yet as Bob Marcucci points out, "You can stan on that corner of Eleventh Street where Fabian lives an j throw a rock and hit Mario Lanza's house, Eddie Fisher' house, James Darren's house and I can't name how man others. Frankie Avalon lives just a short distance away an<| South High School is full of kids who have cut records." Fabian was one of the few South High kids who never ex pected to cut one. He didn't even care about trekking acros town to the WFIL studios to dance at Dick Clark's "Americai Bandstand." He says, "It took too much time away frorr football practice. I was trying to get good enough so tha I could make the team." For the future, his ambition was tc become an engineer. His parents, Domenic and Josephine Forte, approved. Evei since Fabian was born on February 6, 1943, they had shaped their own lives to assure a good future for him and his younger brothers. Robert and Thomas. Domenic pounded a beat as a police patrolman until two years ago when a seriousi heart attack compelled him to take a leave of absence fromi the force. Josephine was so devoted and protective a mother that she would not even permit her sister to baby-sit witb the children. She either took them with her wherever she went or she stayed home. In a close-knit, loving family, anything which affects one affects them all. When Bob Marcucci said to Fabian, "IJ want to make you a recording star," Domenic Forte's im-j mediate concern was to find out about Bob Marcucci. What kind of a man was he? His very first information was reassuring. His neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. John Palmieri, told him, "Bob's a grand guy. t He was our best man. We've known him all our lives . . ."I THE story they told about him was a triumph of determination. Those two South Philadelphia high school boys, Bob Marcucci and Peter DeAngelis, weren't much older than Fabian when they decided they were going to write music. They persisted through years of discouragement and gained their first real foothold in show business when they joined with the Avalone family in managing a series of teenagers' night clubs as a showcase for the talents of Frankie Avalon who had already scored nationally as a juvenile trumpet virtuoso. They discovered, too, that Frankie also had a voice and coached him to record top hits. Could they do the same with Fabian? Domenic Forte doubted it. "Why Fabian?" he asked. "He has never sung a note. In fact, we're probably the only non-musical family of Italian descent in South Philadelphia." Bob answered with another question. "Have you ever really looked at him?" Fond as he was of his son, Domenic Forte was not impressed. Handsome features are, for them, too usual a family characteristic to cause comment. The Fortes come from the northern part of Italy, a district where many of the Renaissance artists found their best models. You'll find similar faces in the old masterpieces. Bob persisted. "There's something about him . . . Maybe continued on page 69