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

when I kneiv I ivould become an entertainer" But Bobby's dreams still set him apart. He entered the Bronx High School Of Science. "That was a sharp school where a great many academically gifted kids were out on a cold drive for straight A's. 1 bucked for it just long enough to find out that I could hold my own, then I lost interest. I got no kick out of beating them any more. I didn't care about A's in science; I wanted to learn music." Again, there were handicaps. "I was 18 before we latched onto a piano. I used the one in the school lunch room to learn to play. The only musical instruments we had — if you can call them that-— were a harmonica and a beat up ukulele." He borrowed a set of drums and organized a band. "I kept looking for some place in the world that belonged to me." He thought he had found it when he enrolled at Hunter College to major in drama and speech. He didn't belong there, either. "The other kids in the dramatic society would go around quoting lines all day. I couldn't remember a particular line for ten minutes. Instead, I was trying to dig deeper and understand what the author was trying to say about a character." He quit in the middle of the term. "I realized that something was bothering me and that it wasn't going to come out BOBBY'S streak of rebelliousness as a youngster was channelized into realizing his ambitions to become a top musical entertainer. POISED at side of pool, Bobby's learned to take success in stride. as a result of books. The way I saw it, I was copping out from taking full responsibility for myself, using tbe excuse that I was getting an education. Going to college was only going to defer taking that responsibility for four years." He sampled the rigors of the road by touring with a children's theater company, then returned to New York to try to get on the stage. He was keenly conscious that he was contributing little to the support of the family. Nina remembers. "Bobby shared whatever he had and he always tried to do something special for mother. Imagination was more abundant than money. He once celebrated a $30 a week job by bringing Mother one goldfish in a big brandy snifter." Bobby earned his keep by a series of unskilled jobs, such as cleaning drill machines in a downtown factor)' and cleaning guns for the Navy. He says, "I'd get a few dollars ahead, then quit to make the Broadway rounds. I wanted to be an actor, but nobody wanted me." It was then that he drifted into the love affair with the woman who was 31 to his 18. Bobby is still openly bitter about it. "She was a dancer. She had great plans for helping me with my career, but that woman was more mixed-up than I was. After six-months, I did break away, but I went into a deep spell of depression. For a year and a half, everything stank. I hate to think of all the days I wasted. I couldn't face another closed door, and I couldn't face myself. I was so mad at everything that some days I wouldn't even bother to get out of bed." TN THAT murky period, he didn't realize that he had already JL started to put his rebellion to work for him. He is brutally honest about why he began to write songs. "It was the only way I had to get back at the woman for all the lies she had told and for what she had done to me." Those songs, plus a chance meeting in a candy store changed the course of Bobby's life. An objective account of it comes from Don Kirshner. now a prospering young music publisher and singers' agent. Says Don, "During summer vacation from Upsala College, I had happened to write a song which was accepted. The night that I met Bobby. I had my first publisher's contract in my pocket. Actually, the contract didn't continued on page 71 55