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

FRANKIE AVALON continued In accomplishment Frankie is already an adult, but at DANCING with a neighborhood girl friend, Frankie's the picture of poise. He now has a weekly radio show on the ABC network. MUSIC ia Frankie's first love, but until he was 10 years old, he was a confirmed music-hater. But a movie changed all that. There was just one way that he disappointed my father. He absolutely detested music, and in the Avallone family, that came close to being a major crime. My father, a machinist, had always wanted to be a musician. Dad plays piano and some guitar. Our uncle has a band — Marty Avalon and His Gaytones. Almost every week all the relatives gathered at our house to sing up a storm. All except Frankie. He made a perfect nuisance of himself whizzing through the living room on his scooter or on roller skates. He'd do anything he could think of to make a noise and break up the singing. He and my father argued constantly about the piano. I was taking lessons, but Frankie refused. My father coaxed him, saying, "Just try this scale, Frankie. It's easy." Frankie always backed off. He'd say, "Who wants to learn that sissie stuff? Come on, Dad, put on the gloves and spar a round with me." There wasn't a thing my father could do to make that boy touch a key. THEN, when he was ten years old, our whole life changed because Frankie saw a movie called "Young Man With A Horn," in which Kirk Douglas starred and Harry James played the trumpet solos. Frankie came home so excited he could scarcely talk. "You've got to see it, Dad," he insisted. "The music is just the greatest ever." From Frankie, the music hater, this was surprising, so sur 40