August 26, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, not many teen idols are able to carve a successful career for themselves as they mature, but Frankie Avalon is one of these exceptions. Avalon had 31 Billboard singles, including number one hits, "Venus" and "Why" in 1959. Avalon is also well-known for his role in the musical film Grease as Teen Angel, in which he sings "Beauty School Dropout." He appeared on American Idol to sing for Simon Cowell on his birthday. Here's Frankie Avalon to tell his story!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. Not many teen idols are able to
(00:30):
carve a successful career for themselves as they mature, but
Frankie Avalon is one of those exceptions. Avalon had thirty
one charting US Billboard singles from nineteen fifty eight to
late nineteen sixty two, including number one hits Venus and
Why in nineteen fifty nine. Avalon is also well known
(00:51):
for his role in the nineteen seventies musical film Grease
as teen Angel, in which he sings Beauty School chopout
to French without any further ado. Here's Frankie Avalon with
his story.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
As a young man, young boy really growing up in
South Philadelphia. I really started into this business of show business,
unaware of trying to be in show business. But I
became a part of show business at the age of
probably I don't know, think about eight or nine. Because
in the neighbor where I lived, it was a great neighborhood,
(01:29):
a melting pod for all kinds of nationalities and great
friends and growing up as a boy boy.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It was really just terrific.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
There used to be a movie theater called the Point
Breeze Theater. It was in South Philadelphia, and on a
Saturday afternoon, a lot of the moms used to pack
a little lunch and put us in the theater there
so we could watch the cartoons and everything for the
part of the day. And of course, you know, we'd
walk to the theater and of course walk back.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
It was a very safe neighbor and that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And this one time when I went in there and
I was about eight years old, in between some of
the cartoons, there was a man that came on stage
and said, we're going to have a singing contest. And
I never sang in my life, but I said to myself.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
This is going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
He said, so anybody wants to sing, well, we got
the first prize is going to be a red scooter.
So I raised my hand and they took me up
there and I introduced me.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
They introduced me and as what's.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Your name, I said, Frank Abaloni, how old are you are?
I'm about eight years old.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Okay, are you ready for this contest?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And I said yeah, and they said what are you
going to do? I said, I'm going to sing. So
they said what are you going to sing? I said,
I'm going to sing a song that I hear on
the radio all the time. But my mom and dad like,
it's called give me five minutes more. He said, okay,
you're on no band, none of this stuff. And I sang,
give me five minutes more, only five minutes more. Let
me stay, let me stay in your heart. Well after that,
(02:56):
they had of our four or five kids auditioned. Well,
I fortune only won that contest, and I won my
first prize, which was a red scooter. So that really
was the introduction for me being into this show business world.
And as time went by, you know, I really wanted
to be a boxer, and I used to box for
(03:17):
the Police Athletic League because they kind of kept the
kids off the street and had them something to do something,
and I liked boxing.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So that became obsolete after a while.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And then I went back to the movie theater and
I saw a film. I must have been about nine
at that time, closer to ten, and there was.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
A film there called young Man with.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
A Horn, and I stayed until it was getting dark,
and I watched that film about six or seven times,
and I just fell in love with the sound of
the trumpet. And it was a story about a young
boy who becomes a trumpet player becomes very successful, and
I kind of related to that, I guess, but I
really liked the sound of the trumpet. And I came
back home to my dad and I said, Dad, I
(03:58):
want to play the trumpet. Was a really talented guy,
not professionally, but he could play piano, he could play guitar,
he could play accordion.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
He was just a very talented guy and he loved music.
And he said okay. So the next day.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
He came back and he told me that he went
to this pawn shop and he bought a horn for
about seven or eight dollars and he gave me the horn,
and I went into my room and I started practicing.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And how I don't know. I just started blowing on
this thing.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And in about two hours I came out of the
room and I played a song called music, Music, Music,
and he went, da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da All I want
I love and you win music. So I played that
song and I started practicing. I loved it so much.
I became so involved with this horn that I would
(04:48):
play three, four or five hours a day.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And I lived in a row house, and a lot of.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The neighbors didn't like that, you know, because I was
practicing morning, noon, and night. But all of a sudden,
after about a year's time, my dad he got me
a teacher from the neighborhood and his name was Danny
Dee as he went by and.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
He started teaching me and I started reading.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Music, and he finally came to my dad and he said,
you know, Nick was my father's name. He said, you know,
this kid has really got some talent, and I think
I can take him so far. I think you would
have looked for somebody that can really work with this
boy as a trumpet player. So finally my dad talked
to some of the people in the neighborhood and him,
and they found this teacher who was with the Philadelphia Orchestra,
(05:30):
Seymour Rosenfeld, and I went to audition for him. He
was in North Philadelphia, and my uncle took me there
and I auditioned. He said, I'll work with this boy,
and I started studying with him, and because of that,
I really learned how to play very well. When there
was a singer by the name of al Martino who
(05:51):
was number one in the world with a song.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Called Here in My Heart.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I heard in the neighborhood that one of the neighbors, Silvio,
was giving him a party. And our neighborhood just loved
and admired the fact that he was such a big star.
So they threw this party and there was a big
crowd outside of this little row house, and I took
my horn and I kind of wiggled my way through
everybody and knocked on the door. And this man, Silvio,
(06:16):
I really didn't know him. I knew he was in
the neighborhood, but he said, yeah, what do you want.
I said, well, I'm a trumpet player. I like to
play my trumpet for Al Martino. He said, come on
and kid, So I went in. They were having a party.
Everybody was drinking and eating, having a good time, and
I took out my horn from the case. I started
to play this song called Tenderly, and I kind of
stopped the party, and all of a sudden, Al Martino
(06:38):
went to Sylvia.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
He said, who is this kid? He said, I don't know.
What's your name?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Kid, I said, Frank Avaloni. He said, call his mother
and father and see if we could take him to
New York. I think this kid's got some talent. I
would take him to my agency. So he did.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
My mother and father agreed.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We knew him from the neighborhood Silvio, and we drove
into New York City and we went to the agency
and Jack Sober was the agent. And I took out
my horn and I played tenderly, and he said, I
got a great idea. We handle Jackie Gleeson and he
loves trumpet. So he's right across the street at the
Sheraton Hotel. He's got a penthouse. He said, let's take
(07:15):
him in there. Maybe he'll play for Jackie.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And you're listening to Frankie Avalon tell a heck of
his story. When we come back. More of Frankie Avalon's
story here and our American Stories. Liehbibe here the host
of our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're
bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from
(07:40):
our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't
do the show without you. Our stories are free to
listen to, but they're not free to make. If you
love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.
Go to Alamerican stories dot com and give and we
(08:09):
continue with our American stories and with Frankie Avalon's story.
We last left off with him as a twelve year
old boy about to perform with his trumpet for the
Great One, and that would be Honeymooner's impresario and comedic
genius Jackie Cleeson at his Sheraton Hotel penthouse.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So we walked in there.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
They were having a meeting and Jackie wasn't there, but
it was a penthouse. He was there, but I didn't
know because he wasn't in that particular part of the penthouse.
I took out my horn and I played tenderly, and
as I was playing, through the corner of my eye,
I saw the Great One, Jackie Gleeson, come out from
the second floor of the penthouse. And after I finished,
they all applauded, and he Jackie said that there's writers
(08:54):
and producer and director write a show.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I won them on in two weeks. Oh, come on it,
come on it, all sets ready to go?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
This is Frankie Avalon. I'm taking him down at Jodah Bartenders.
He's a terrific trumpet player.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Pretty good.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Huh that's a.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Terrific Oh, oh, Franky.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
This is my good neighbor friend, Missus Crambon. This is
my wife fixing. Oh when you hear this kid, he
give us a number now, Frankie, come on out.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That was my first major experience on national television with
the great one Jackie Gleason.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Oh, yes, your are kid, You're ready for the big time.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You hear that franky coming from my wife. Boy, that's
a compliment, you knows. Well, let's go. We're going down
to Jorda Bartenners. We'll see you later.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
G Let's go.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So, as time went by, because of the success that
I had, I also did an audition for a company
that was run by a bender's name, and he had
another trumpet player, and he thought it would be a.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Great combination of him kind of being.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
My mentor was Ray Anthony, who had a lot of
hit records, the Buddy Hop and all that stuff. So
then they took me to RCA Victor label X. I
auditioned for them and they signed me under a contract
to have a recording contract playing trumpet.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And I did and I had.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
A song called Trumpet Sorrento and it became on the
national charts. As a trumpet player. And from then on
and I kept studying. I became number one trumpet player
in the Old City Orchestra of Philadelphia. And then in
summertimes I would try to play for different bands to
make some extra money as a kid growing.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Up, and I heard about a band called Roco.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Went the Saints, and somebody said they're looking for a
trumpet player. And someone told somebody, and Roco came into
my house and he said, let me hear you play.
And I played for him. He said, oh hey, I'll
give you a job. I said, where are we going
to play? He said, Mary, He's in It's in New Jersey.
And I said, okay, what's a pay? He said five dollars.
(11:21):
I said, okay, I'll play. So as time went by,
I was playing trumpet with Roco and the Saints. We
played on weekends, and finally I started singing a couple
of songs because a lot of There were seven guys
in the band and everybody had to sing a couple
of songs to keep the.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Band kind of fresh.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And I did a couple of songs A lover Man
where it Was and another song, and people started coming
up to Rocker saying, let this kid sing a little more.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So on one of our breaks, he came to me
and he said, how about singing some more songs. I said, no,
You hired me as a trumpet player, and he said, yeah,
but I'll give you extra five hours.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I said, you got it. So that's how I started singing.
Then in the.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Summertime, we went out to a place down the shore
in summers Point, New Jersey, and it was called Bay.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Shores was the name of this club we do.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
We played seven days a week, five sets a night,
two jam sessions, and we were living on top of
the nightclub there. And a new company out of Philadelphia
was looking for some new talent and our band, rock
on the Saints became pretty popular and they came.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
In listened to us, and on one of our breaks we.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Went back to the dressing room and Pete de Angels
and Bob Barcucci were the owners of this record company
and they said we'd like to sign the band, and
of course Rocco was our man to make the deal
and he did and he said, okay, and we want
this boy Frank to sing on one side and we'll
do an instrumental. So we did an instrumental called drive
(13:03):
Him with the Saints, and they wrote a song for
me called Cupid Shot and Arrow.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
So that was my first record, and the record came out.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
They put it out and it really didn't make any
noise at all until in the Boston area.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
For some reason, my song.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
My side of the record, started to make the Boston charts,
and Bob Marcucci drove me into Boston and there was
a man by the name of Joe Smith, and there
was a big rock and roll show with Fat Stamino
and Little Richard and all these guys, and they were
all had had hit records, and my manager went to
(13:41):
Joe Smith and said, could you put this kid on?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
He said, we don't have any money.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
For this kid, and I know he's got a record,
but you know, we don't have any money and we're
all filled up. He said, don't pay him, just just
put him on. And my manager bought me a twelve
dollars suit that I had on.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I went on stage. I did a couple of songs.
The kids were waiting.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Outside for my autograph of but No. My fan clubs
above said, I think you got some of these kids
like you.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And that was the start of being.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That teen idol that that lasted for a while. Now
I'm a recording artist. Now I'm a singer the horners
that put away, and now I've got a contract with
Chancellor Records, and I do a couple of other songs.
I did a song called Shy Guy, which didn't do anything,
and I did something else, Blue Betty, which didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
And then all of a sudden we had I had
one more record to do.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
They took me into New York City, and those days
there was this two tracks, so there wasn't all of
this technology, and the band was in one part of
the room and I was in the other part of
the room. And they started playing this song which.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I was going to record, called Dedi Dina.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And as they were rehearsing, it was a very staccato
kind of a.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Song to me that that I was just doing, kind
of singing through my nose.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Then end up, so they the producer of the record
came out to me and he said, what are you
doing is I'm just having some fun? Sounds very staccato
to me, so let's make a couple like that. Well,
I went back to the microphone and started singing that day,
and they made the take of it. They put it
out and in about a month that started to make
some noise around the country. All of a sudden, it
(15:23):
became a top five or top ten record, which really
launched me as a singer.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Singing through my nose Deedy.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Dina and a lot of people who were out there
held their noses too when they heard it. Now, after
Dede Diana, I had to do another nose job which
I sang in my nose called Gingerbread, and finally they said, noo,
come on, you know you've got a quality that the
kids really like and it's more of a romantic So
(15:52):
they wrote another song for me called I'll Wait for You,
and it was very pretty ballad, and again it became
a chart record and it was probably in the top fifteen,
I think. And then I had another recording date to
do and I was at home in my house and
there was a knock on the door, and again it
(16:14):
was a songwriter and he said, my name is Ed Marshall,
I'm a songwriter. I'd like to play this song for you.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
He came in.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We had a little piano and he sat down and
he played this song called Venus, and I just fell
in love with it the first time I heard it,
and I said, played again, played again, played again, and
finally I called Our record company was in Philadelphia, and
I called Bob Mark Kuchi Ptiss. I said, I got
a song here, can we drive over? So we drove
into town where there's where their offices were.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
They had a piano there and we walked in there
and he played the.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Song and pet Antis, who was my producer, fell in
love with the song and he said, as he played
it again and again, he said, you know what, I'd
like to make two changes to the song, if you'll
permit me to do that.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So the writer, Ed Marshall said, okay.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And you're listening to Frankie Avalon tell his life story
in the business, so to speak. And it starts in
that penthouse auditioning for Jackie Gleeson. The next thing you know,
he's on national television. But as the world will have it.
He's still got to get that next gig, and it's
at the Jersey shore playing all summer long, living above
(17:25):
the joint. He was playing that he would start to sing,
and from singing, well, he gets to the hit song Venus.
When we come back, more of the story the life
journey of the South Philadelphia kid named Frankie Avelone, known
to the rest of us as Frankie Avalon. His story
(17:47):
continues here on our American stories. And we continue with
(18:09):
our American stories. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Frankie Avalon brought a new song to his producer called Venus,
and the producer, well, he fell in love with it.
Here's Frankie with the rest of the story.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So he said, you know it goes da da da
da da da da da da da da da da
da da.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Da da da. He said, I'd like to change one note,
Da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da. So he agreed to that.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So we had made one change, and Pete Chanceler said,
I'd like to make another change lyrically at the very end,
instead of saying as long as we will live, I'd
like to say as long as we shall live. So
we made those two changes, went into New York City.
I made seven takes on the song. You know that
you had to do it straight, just like a performance,
(19:00):
and I waited till four o'clock in the.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Morning to take it home.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I knew that I had a smash record, and I
kept playing it. I didn't sleep for twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And to me, I was right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Pete ded ANDAs was right, and Ed Marshall, the producer
writer of the song, was right. We were all right.
And of course the audience around the world was really
infatuated with the song. It became number one for a
long long time and gave me an opportunity to sing
around the world. When I became very successful and was
(19:33):
selling a lot of records and a teen idol had
a fan base of I don't know, we'd get somewhere
around twelve fifteen thousand letters a week and a big
fan base. And so now Hollywood recognized, Hey, this kid's
got fans.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Let's put them in a picture with a major star.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So Warner Brothers made a deal with my manager and
my agent, and they brought me out to Hollywood to
do my first film for Warner Brothers with a big star,
Alan Ladd called Guns of the Timberland and that started
being in the motion picture industry, and from there on
in I made I.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Don't know over forty motion pictures of my career. Well,
what had happened.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I was playing the Steel Pier in Atlantic City and
the film was released and it was very successful and
very successful for me, and I'll never forget I was
in the dressing room. I was doing five, seven, twelve
shows a day, depending upon the weather. He would do
a fifteen minute show and they would show a movie
and then another fifteen minute show. And they had a
(20:39):
phone booth in backstage there and it was by Asian
Jack Gilardi who said, Frankie, it's Jack.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I just got a call from John Wayne.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
He just saw your performance and Guns of the Timberland
with Alan Ladd.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
He wants you to sign.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
A contract to do a picture called The Alamo where
he's going to start direct and it's going to be
done in Texas. And that was my first introduction to
star in a picture with John Wayne and a major
major motion picture.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I'm out there now, I've got to ride this horse.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I play a character called Smitty and I have to
learn how to ride.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So the Duke said, Frankie, here's what you do.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
When you sit on the saddle here, you make it
feel like you've got a clothes hagar that's pulling you up.
So keep your shoulders very straight and very just kind
of go along with a float with this horse. And
I learned how to ride, and I became a pretty
good rider. And it was an experience of a South
Philly kid who nothing but the streets of South Philly
(21:41):
and under a fire plug, you know, when it was
a real hot summer day. But I learned a lot,
you know, being experienced with a lot of Richard Widmark
and Lawrence Harvey and John Wayne and John Ford and
oh my god, it.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Was a great experience for me.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
And I was on that picture for four months, all
of a sudden, becoming involved in motion pictures and meeting
a lot of the celebrities from I don't know, from
Natalie Wood to I did.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
A picture with the RJ.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Wagner, and of course I got to know a lot
of movie stars, and of course Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin,
and then of course working with John Wayne when I
had to promote the film with him. I mean I
was with these major stars, but never the acceptance that
John Wayne would get. When I'd walk into a restaurant
with him. I mean, everybody's jaw just dropped. There was
(22:35):
such respect for him. And he was really such a
shy guy.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
He was six foot five and with his boots on,
he must have been nine feet to me. And we'd
walk in and people would just.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Look at him and look at him and just stare
at him, and nobody would. They were kind of afraid
to even ask for an autograph.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
You know. He was just a major, major, big kunk
of a star.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
So that was a great experience working with him, and
of course traveling with him. So now I'm living in
California in Hollywood, and I'm living right off Sunset Boulevard there,
and I had a lot of my friends there, and
Steve McQueen used to come by, and Jack Nicholson we
(23:19):
all have.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
You know, we were young.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Hollywood at the time, and a lot of gals that
were young onngenews that I was dating and had great
dates with them.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
And then one one night.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I was playing cards with my friends and now Rona Barrett,
who was a big eclumnist. She wasn't at the time,
but she was starting. I had a friend and she
brought her over and introduced me. I left the card
game and her name was Kay, and we started talking
and her she was coming from her mother's birthday party
with Rona Barrett, and we got into a.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Good conversation for about an hour.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And when she left, I went back to the card
game and I said to my friends there, well see
that guy that I'm gonna marrier. And about six or
seven months we dated and got married. We started having
children right away, and our first born we named him
Frank after me and my grandfather, really and after thirteen
(24:17):
months we had another one, Tony, and then another To
kind of sum it up, we had eight children in
ten years.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
So my wife was pregnant every single year, and she
loved being pregnant. She loved having children.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And of course I was on the road and coming
back and here's another one, here's another one, there's another one.
And we're very fortunate to have eight children, very healthy,
and we have ten grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
And she's a great mom. They love her, they adore her.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know, she's like a general to have eight children
and keeping everyone in tach was quite a job that
she had, and of course I'd come home and have
a lot of fun with the kids and she was
the disciplinary, so she was a great mom, still is
and they adore.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
The first time I met at.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Funicello was at the Hollywood Bowl for Dick Clark. We
were playing the Hollywood Bowl. He had a show of
about four or five different acts on the show, and
she was one. She was very popular as a mouseketeer
on the Mickey Mouse Club. And she must have been
about fourteen fifteen, and I would must have been about seventeen.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And we started talking and I.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Said, Jess, I'd like to maybe we take you out
for a pizza and a cool drink or something.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
She said, you got to talk to my mother.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And I went to Virginia and I said, can I
take your daughter for a slice of pizza whatever? She said, okay,
call me and I went over to the house, picked
her up and we went down the street. There was
a little pizza pollor there and we had some pizza
and some soft drinks and that was it.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
And we kept in.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Touch, and of course she was working, I was working,
and that was our first date and only date really
and then time had gone by and I had made
a few films. I must have made about ten or
fifteen films at the time, and I was signed to
a company called American International Pictures. I made some films
for them, and finally they said. I got friendly with
(26:12):
a writer by the name of Lou Russoff, and I
said to him, Lou writes something that's fun for kids,
you know, where we hang out together and laugh and sing.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And he came back at about a month and his years,
so he's here's a script. Read this. It's called Beach Party.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
And I read it and I thought it was really fun,
and it looked like the old den En kids gang
and having fun.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
And I said, who's going to play? D d was
the girl's name. I guess he named her after Dede Dinah.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
He said, we're talking to Walt Disney as a loanout
for a net Funicello.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And you're listening to Frankie Avalon share some remarkable stories.
That call he got at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City.
He was about to work with John Wayne, and this
kid from South Philly soon finds himself in a Western
He met his bride and when he met her he
told his poker buddies, I'm going to marry that girl,
and seven or eight months later he did eight kids. Later,
(27:09):
in ten years, his wife Ka, he calls the General
and then this movie idea Beach Party, back when a
movie could just be silly and fun. The story of
Frankie Avalon, as told by Frankie Avalon continues here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories.
(27:40):
We last left off with Frankie Avalon sharing the story
of how he wrote a movie script about teens well
just having fun on the beach, casting the female role
opposite of Frankie Well, that was up in the air.
Let's return to Frankie Avalon.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
I said, that's great. I'm better when she was young
and would be fun.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And that's how we got together. They put us together.
We did our first motion picture, Beach Party.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
It came out. We did it in January.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I think it came out kind of towards the start
of the summer, and it was a tremendous success at
the box office. And because of that, we had lots
of fun doing those pictures. We made about seven and
made tons of tons of money for AIP I always
wanted to keep a career going by not just being
(28:28):
a teen I and of course those days, you know,
went by the wayside because you're married, you got kids,
and you know, when your fan base got in dwindles.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
And so I wanted to get into the nightclub business,
which I did. I worked with a lot of good
people that helped me.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Develop a show and act, and of course I opened
up at the Copa Cabana, which is once you made
the Copa Cabana, you were really you were in show business.
And now we'd play the show business under contract with
them for about five years. And about nineteen seventy one
or two whatever, it was playing at the Copa and
they wanted to do a promotion for a Broadway show
(29:04):
that was playing there called Grease, and I said, sure,
I'll go. It was in the afternoon, and I met
the cast and Travolta, by the way, was in that show.
Is one of the side guys, one.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Of the chorus boys. And I saw the play.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And then time had gone by, and it was about
nineteen seventy seven. I had got a call. I was
playing golf and I got off the ninth hold. My
manager was there with the script he said, this is
a script. Paramount wants you for this picture. I said,
what's the picture called? He said Grease and I said
(29:40):
what character? He said teen angel. And I thought about
what I saw on Broadway and I said pass And
I went and played the second nine.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
I came back in. He was still there.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
He said they will not take no. They would like
to at least have a meeting with you.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I said, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So I go in with Alan Carr and Patty Birch
who was the choreographer, and Randall Kleiser, who was the director.
And they said, why don't you want to do this?
I said, because I saw the play and it's not
my style. I said, you know, he was all in black.
It comes off of a rope and black leather jacket
and low alongside burns, and there's a little wiggles and this,
(30:18):
and sings this beauty school dropout. I said, not my style.
They said, well, change it. I said, what do you
mean you'll change it? They said, we'll do it all
in white. We'll get a piano over here. Let's see
how you want to do it. They did, and in
nineteen seventy seven I went in for six days of
rehearsals two days of shooting the Five Minutes saw him
(30:40):
and Beauty School Dropout became a part of Greece and
Frankie Avlin was a teenageer. When when we're finally putting
grease together and at rehearsals, I said, look, I don't
want to be a joke of this film.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I think this is a good character and.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
He really something important to this gal her character. I
don't want to be a joke. So they said, oh no, no,
no no, We'll make this absolutely perfect for you and
the people just gonna love it. So when the picture
comes out, they opened it, premiered it in Honolulu, and
(31:20):
there was the big columnist, Liz Smith was her name,
and in her column. She was at the premiere and
she said the film was fun. But when Frankie Avalon
entered his part as teen angel singing Beauty School Dropout,
the audience went wild, and when he left the scene
they applauded.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
So it made its mark.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I had come home from a trip and I'm sitting
in my den with my wife and the phone rings.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
And she hansked me the phone. She said, it's for you.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
It's a Bobby de Niro so I looked at her
and all of a sudden, it clicked in my mind, it's.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Robert de Niro.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Well didn't register with her because she thinks a kid
that I grew up with in South Philly. A lot
of Italian kids thought it was Bobby de Niro associated
at all.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
So he says, Frankie, it's a Bobby.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
We're doing a picture with the Scorsese It's called Casino,
and we know that you were the first guest to
Lefty whose character was Robert de Niro. And Marty Scorsese
likes to be so exacting with whatever he does, and
he did research. He said he would like to use
you to recreate that scene, and I said, sounds good
(32:35):
to me. He said when can you do it. I said, well,
i'm home.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I'm home for about a week. He said, can you
do it Monday? I said, fine with me. They sent the.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Jet and I got on the jet, went into the
dressing room. When I got to Las Vegas, went into Marty.
He showed me the clip and I went on the
set and I stayed there for about fourteen hours shooting
my one scene with de Niro, our first guest to see.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
It's Frankie Avamo. I thought, I've got a large family.
How many kids do you have. I'm very proud to
say that we have eight children. No, no, oh, it's
please gas, there's no please. It's amazing, there's nothing to it.
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And Joe Pesci was waiting for me. After my scene,
we went to this place called Joe Piggs. He had
a Vesuvio restaurant. We went and had chicken meatballs and
the picture came out.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And I was in the picture. Health has been very
exciting for me for a long long time.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I got interested in not only just just vitamins, but herbs.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
And I started back about fifty years.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Ago in where I lived with my wife and eight
children in North Hollywood. There was a place called Herb
Products that was in North Hollywood, and I saw this
sign and I went in there and I got very
friendly with a man who was part of it, and
John was his name, and he started introducing me to
different kinds of herbs that were in big box forms.
(34:05):
They weren't even capsules yet, and he would make capsules
and put together different herbs. So I would start taking
herbs and I really got involved with it and through.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
The years, I started to say, Jesus, should people ask me, Frankie,
what do you do well? I mean, you're still doing that.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I'm in my eighties now and I still go out
there and still perform. I do a lot of singing,
I do a lot of performing. I travel a lot,
and I've been taking herbs and I created a product
with John called Zero Pain. It's a pain reliever that
I brought onto a home shopping network and we sold
tons and tons of it. It still is available today,
(34:44):
and I'm going to tell everybody listening you talk about
being healthy and being taken care of yourself. I have
a company called Frankie Avalon product So if you look
at Frankieavalon dot com, you could look at what I've
been doing for all these years, not only with the
Zero Pain, which is a pain reliever topical which has
helped so many people, from Arnold Palmer to Ernie Banks,
(35:05):
a lot of my friends in the business, and they
still requested it and we still offer it to the public.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
But your health is very important. You never know when
you're going to lose it, so keep trying to keep it.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
They had asked me to do a guest shot on
American Idol.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I said, okay, what do I do?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
They said, well, it's Simon Kyle's birthday and the year
of Venus.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Was nineteen fifty nine. That's the year he was born.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
So we'd like to give him this little birthday gift
and you singing Venus to him. I said, okay, but
you've got to be you know, stay in your dress room.
You've got to be a surprise. So I go to
my dress room and I watched my weight, I watched this.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
I was watching this. That what. So I go to
my dress room and they.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Sent a whole box of candies and things and I'm waiting.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I'm waiting and I'm eating.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
These red hots or whatever they are. But well, I
ate about two boxes with these things ready to go on.
Now I've got twelve minutes to go on and do this.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
This is live, you know. And I said, I really
don't feel good. Now. They got the paramedics right there.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
They take my blood pressure, mind going through the roof,
and they said, I don't think you should go on,
and my blood pressure.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Was very, very high.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I went on and I did that song, not feeling
one hundred percent, but pulled it off. I came off
of there, I calmed down with a lot of water
and all this other stuff, and my blood pressure went down,
and that was quite an experience for me. Like the
show goes on, listen, I want to thank you for
the opportunity I having great conversation going through parts of
(36:39):
my life.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I could write a book, but I won't. But in
the meantime, I just.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Want to thank everybody that's been with me, and I've
been with you for many, many years for being a
part of my life. Thank you so much, and thanks
to Good Lord for giving me the opportunity to my wife,
to my eight children, to my ten grandchildren, and stay
well and God bless.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And a terrific job on the storytelling in production by
Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to Frankie Avalon for
sharing his life's journey with us. That Beach Party series, well,
it was a huge box office success, and Avalon, well,
he'd go on to make a career for himself in
the nightclub business as a prime act to play at
the Copa and then all over the world, and then
(37:23):
came Greece, that paramount picture and that character teen Angel
he passed. He said that character is not my style,
so they changed the character and the rest is history.
I have watched this movie more times than I would
care to admit. Is when you have a wife and
a daughter, this, along with Mamma Mia, is required required
(37:45):
viewing at least a few times a year. And then,
of course that call from Robert de Niro and Bobby
de Niro, probably a bunch of them in his South
Philly neighborhood. Little did he know it was the Robert
de Niro and a scene in Casino, the story of
Frankie Avalon, the story of America in a way from
nowhere to somewhere, and appreciating with great gratitude every single
(38:09):
step along the way. Frankie Avalon story here on, our
American stories,
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. Not many teen idols are able to
(00:30):
carve a successful career for themselves as they mature, but
Frankie Avalon is one of those exceptions. Avalon had thirty
one charting US Billboard singles from nineteen fifty eight to
late nineteen sixty two, including number one hits Venus and
Why in nineteen fifty nine. Avalon is also well known
(00:51):
for his role in the nineteen seventies musical film Grease
as teen Angel, in which he sings Beauty School chopout
to French without any further ado. Here's Frankie Avalon with
his story.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
As a young man, young boy really growing up in
South Philadelphia. I really started into this business of show business,
unaware of trying to be in show business. But I
became a part of show business at the age of
probably I don't know, think about eight or nine. Because
in the neighbor where I lived, it was a great neighborhood,
(01:29):
a melting pod for all kinds of nationalities and great
friends and growing up as a boy boy.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It was really just terrific.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
There used to be a movie theater called the Point
Breeze Theater. It was in South Philadelphia, and on a
Saturday afternoon, a lot of the moms used to pack
a little lunch and put us in the theater there
so we could watch the cartoons and everything for the
part of the day. And of course, you know, we'd
walk to the theater and of course walk back.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
It was a very safe neighbor and that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And this one time when I went in there and
I was about eight years old, in between some of
the cartoons, there was a man that came on stage
and said, we're going to have a singing contest. And
I never sang in my life, but I said to myself.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
This is going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
He said, so anybody wants to sing, well, we got
the first prize is going to be a red scooter.
So I raised my hand and they took me up
there and I introduced me.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
They introduced me and as what's.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Your name, I said, Frank Abaloni, how old are you are?
I'm about eight years old.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Okay, are you ready for this contest?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And I said yeah, and they said what are you
going to do? I said, I'm going to sing. So
they said what are you going to sing? I said,
I'm going to sing a song that I hear on
the radio all the time. But my mom and dad like,
it's called give me five minutes more. He said, okay,
you're on no band, none of this stuff. And I sang,
give me five minutes more, only five minutes more. Let
me stay, let me stay in your heart. Well after that,
(02:56):
they had of our four or five kids auditioned. Well,
I fortune only won that contest, and I won my
first prize, which was a red scooter. So that really
was the introduction for me being into this show business world.
And as time went by, you know, I really wanted
to be a boxer, and I used to box for
(03:17):
the Police Athletic League because they kind of kept the
kids off the street and had them something to do something,
and I liked boxing.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So that became obsolete after a while.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And then I went back to the movie theater and
I saw a film. I must have been about nine
at that time, closer to ten, and there was.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
A film there called young Man with.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
A Horn, and I stayed until it was getting dark,
and I watched that film about six or seven times,
and I just fell in love with the sound of
the trumpet. And it was a story about a young
boy who becomes a trumpet player becomes very successful, and
I kind of related to that, I guess, but I
really liked the sound of the trumpet. And I came
back home to my dad and I said, Dad, I
(03:58):
want to play the trumpet. Was a really talented guy,
not professionally, but he could play piano, he could play guitar,
he could play accordion.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
He was just a very talented guy and he loved music.
And he said okay. So the next day.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
He came back and he told me that he went
to this pawn shop and he bought a horn for
about seven or eight dollars and he gave me the horn,
and I went into my room and I started practicing.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And how I don't know. I just started blowing on
this thing.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And in about two hours I came out of the
room and I played a song called music, Music, Music,
and he went, da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da All I want
I love and you win music. So I played that
song and I started practicing. I loved it so much.
I became so involved with this horn that I would
(04:48):
play three, four or five hours a day.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And I lived in a row house, and a lot of.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The neighbors didn't like that, you know, because I was
practicing morning, noon, and night. But all of a sudden,
after about a year's time, my dad he got me
a teacher from the neighborhood and his name was Danny
Dee as he went by and.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
He started teaching me and I started reading.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Music, and he finally came to my dad and he said,
you know, Nick was my father's name. He said, you know,
this kid has really got some talent, and I think
I can take him so far. I think you would
have looked for somebody that can really work with this
boy as a trumpet player. So finally my dad talked
to some of the people in the neighborhood and him,
and they found this teacher who was with the Philadelphia Orchestra,
(05:30):
Seymour Rosenfeld, and I went to audition for him. He
was in North Philadelphia, and my uncle took me there
and I auditioned. He said, I'll work with this boy,
and I started studying with him, and because of that,
I really learned how to play very well. When there
was a singer by the name of al Martino who
(05:51):
was number one in the world with a song.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Called Here in My Heart.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I heard in the neighborhood that one of the neighbors, Silvio,
was giving him a party. And our neighborhood just loved
and admired the fact that he was such a big star.
So they threw this party and there was a big
crowd outside of this little row house, and I took
my horn and I kind of wiggled my way through
everybody and knocked on the door. And this man, Silvio,
(06:16):
I really didn't know him. I knew he was in
the neighborhood, but he said, yeah, what do you want.
I said, well, I'm a trumpet player. I like to
play my trumpet for Al Martino. He said, come on
and kid, So I went in. They were having a party.
Everybody was drinking and eating, having a good time, and
I took out my horn from the case. I started
to play this song called Tenderly, and I kind of
stopped the party, and all of a sudden, Al Martino
(06:38):
went to Sylvia.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
He said, who is this kid? He said, I don't know.
What's your name?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Kid, I said, Frank Avaloni. He said, call his mother
and father and see if we could take him to
New York. I think this kid's got some talent. I
would take him to my agency. So he did.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
My mother and father agreed.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We knew him from the neighborhood Silvio, and we drove
into New York City and we went to the agency
and Jack Sober was the agent. And I took out
my horn and I played tenderly, and he said, I
got a great idea. We handle Jackie Gleeson and he
loves trumpet. So he's right across the street at the
Sheraton Hotel. He's got a penthouse. He said, let's take
(07:15):
him in there. Maybe he'll play for Jackie.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And you're listening to Frankie Avalon tell a heck of
his story. When we come back. More of Frankie Avalon's
story here and our American Stories. Liehbibe here the host
of our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're
bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from
(07:40):
our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't
do the show without you. Our stories are free to
listen to, but they're not free to make. If you
love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.
Go to Alamerican stories dot com and give and we
(08:09):
continue with our American stories and with Frankie Avalon's story.
We last left off with him as a twelve year
old boy about to perform with his trumpet for the
Great One, and that would be Honeymooner's impresario and comedic
genius Jackie Cleeson at his Sheraton Hotel penthouse.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So we walked in there.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
They were having a meeting and Jackie wasn't there, but
it was a penthouse. He was there, but I didn't
know because he wasn't in that particular part of the penthouse.
I took out my horn and I played tenderly, and
as I was playing, through the corner of my eye,
I saw the Great One, Jackie Gleeson, come out from
the second floor of the penthouse. And after I finished,
they all applauded, and he Jackie said that there's writers
(08:54):
and producer and director write a show.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I won them on in two weeks. Oh, come on it,
come on it, all sets ready to go?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
This is Frankie Avalon. I'm taking him down at Jodah Bartenders.
He's a terrific trumpet player.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Pretty good.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Huh that's a.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Terrific Oh, oh, Franky.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
This is my good neighbor friend, Missus Crambon. This is
my wife fixing. Oh when you hear this kid, he
give us a number now, Frankie, come on out.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That was my first major experience on national television with
the great one Jackie Gleason.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Oh, yes, your are kid, You're ready for the big time.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You hear that franky coming from my wife. Boy, that's
a compliment, you knows. Well, let's go. We're going down
to Jorda Bartenners. We'll see you later.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
G Let's go.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So, as time went by, because of the success that
I had, I also did an audition for a company
that was run by a bender's name, and he had
another trumpet player, and he thought it would be a.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Great combination of him kind of being.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
My mentor was Ray Anthony, who had a lot of
hit records, the Buddy Hop and all that stuff. So
then they took me to RCA Victor label X. I
auditioned for them and they signed me under a contract
to have a recording contract playing trumpet.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And I did and I had.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
A song called Trumpet Sorrento and it became on the
national charts. As a trumpet player. And from then on
and I kept studying. I became number one trumpet player
in the Old City Orchestra of Philadelphia. And then in
summertimes I would try to play for different bands to
make some extra money as a kid growing.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Up, and I heard about a band called Roco.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Went the Saints, and somebody said they're looking for a
trumpet player. And someone told somebody, and Roco came into
my house and he said, let me hear you play.
And I played for him. He said, oh hey, I'll
give you a job. I said, where are we going
to play? He said, Mary, He's in It's in New Jersey.
And I said, okay, what's a pay? He said five dollars.
(11:21):
I said, okay, I'll play. So as time went by,
I was playing trumpet with Roco and the Saints. We
played on weekends, and finally I started singing a couple
of songs because a lot of There were seven guys
in the band and everybody had to sing a couple
of songs to keep the.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Band kind of fresh.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And I did a couple of songs A lover Man
where it Was and another song, and people started coming
up to Rocker saying, let this kid sing a little more.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So on one of our breaks, he came to me
and he said, how about singing some more songs. I said, no,
You hired me as a trumpet player, and he said, yeah,
but I'll give you extra five hours.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I said, you got it. So that's how I started singing.
Then in the.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Summertime, we went out to a place down the shore
in summers Point, New Jersey, and it was called Bay.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Shores was the name of this club we do.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
We played seven days a week, five sets a night,
two jam sessions, and we were living on top of
the nightclub there. And a new company out of Philadelphia
was looking for some new talent and our band, rock
on the Saints became pretty popular and they came.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
In listened to us, and on one of our breaks we.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Went back to the dressing room and Pete de Angels
and Bob Barcucci were the owners of this record company
and they said we'd like to sign the band, and
of course Rocco was our man to make the deal
and he did and he said, okay, and we want
this boy Frank to sing on one side and we'll
do an instrumental. So we did an instrumental called drive
(13:03):
Him with the Saints, and they wrote a song for
me called Cupid Shot and Arrow.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
So that was my first record, and the record came out.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
They put it out and it really didn't make any
noise at all until in the Boston area.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
For some reason, my song.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
My side of the record, started to make the Boston charts,
and Bob Marcucci drove me into Boston and there was
a man by the name of Joe Smith, and there
was a big rock and roll show with Fat Stamino
and Little Richard and all these guys, and they were
all had had hit records, and my manager went to
(13:41):
Joe Smith and said, could you put this kid on?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
He said, we don't have any money.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
For this kid, and I know he's got a record,
but you know, we don't have any money and we're
all filled up. He said, don't pay him, just just
put him on. And my manager bought me a twelve
dollars suit that I had on.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I went on stage. I did a couple of songs.
The kids were waiting.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Outside for my autograph of but No. My fan clubs
above said, I think you got some of these kids
like you.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And that was the start of being.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That teen idol that that lasted for a while. Now
I'm a recording artist. Now I'm a singer the horners
that put away, and now I've got a contract with
Chancellor Records, and I do a couple of other songs.
I did a song called Shy Guy, which didn't do anything,
and I did something else, Blue Betty, which didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
And then all of a sudden we had I had
one more record to do.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
They took me into New York City, and those days
there was this two tracks, so there wasn't all of
this technology, and the band was in one part of
the room and I was in the other part of
the room. And they started playing this song which.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I was going to record, called Dedi Dina.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And as they were rehearsing, it was a very staccato
kind of a.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Song to me that that I was just doing, kind
of singing through my nose.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Then end up, so they the producer of the record
came out to me and he said, what are you
doing is I'm just having some fun? Sounds very staccato
to me, so let's make a couple like that. Well,
I went back to the microphone and started singing that day,
and they made the take of it. They put it
out and in about a month that started to make
some noise around the country. All of a sudden, it
(15:23):
became a top five or top ten record, which really
launched me as a singer.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Singing through my nose Deedy.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Dina and a lot of people who were out there
held their noses too when they heard it. Now, after
Dede Diana, I had to do another nose job which
I sang in my nose called Gingerbread, and finally they said, noo,
come on, you know you've got a quality that the
kids really like and it's more of a romantic So
(15:52):
they wrote another song for me called I'll Wait for You,
and it was very pretty ballad, and again it became
a chart record and it was probably in the top fifteen,
I think. And then I had another recording date to
do and I was at home in my house and
there was a knock on the door, and again it
(16:14):
was a songwriter and he said, my name is Ed Marshall,
I'm a songwriter. I'd like to play this song for you.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
He came in.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We had a little piano and he sat down and
he played this song called Venus, and I just fell
in love with it the first time I heard it,
and I said, played again, played again, played again, and
finally I called Our record company was in Philadelphia, and
I called Bob Mark Kuchi Ptiss. I said, I got
a song here, can we drive over? So we drove
into town where there's where their offices were.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
They had a piano there and we walked in there
and he played the.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Song and pet Antis, who was my producer, fell in
love with the song and he said, as he played
it again and again, he said, you know what, I'd
like to make two changes to the song, if you'll
permit me to do that.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So the writer, Ed Marshall said, okay.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And you're listening to Frankie Avalon tell his life story
in the business, so to speak. And it starts in
that penthouse auditioning for Jackie Gleeson. The next thing you know,
he's on national television. But as the world will have it.
He's still got to get that next gig, and it's
at the Jersey shore playing all summer long, living above
(17:25):
the joint. He was playing that he would start to sing,
and from singing, well, he gets to the hit song Venus.
When we come back, more of the story the life
journey of the South Philadelphia kid named Frankie Avelone, known
to the rest of us as Frankie Avalon. His story
(17:47):
continues here on our American stories. And we continue with
(18:09):
our American stories. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Frankie Avalon brought a new song to his producer called Venus,
and the producer, well, he fell in love with it.
Here's Frankie with the rest of the story.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So he said, you know it goes da da da
da da da da da da da da da da
da da.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Da da da. He said, I'd like to change one note,
Da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da. So he agreed to that.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So we had made one change, and Pete Chanceler said,
I'd like to make another change lyrically at the very end,
instead of saying as long as we will live, I'd
like to say as long as we shall live. So
we made those two changes, went into New York City.
I made seven takes on the song. You know that
you had to do it straight, just like a performance,
(19:00):
and I waited till four o'clock in the.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Morning to take it home.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I knew that I had a smash record, and I
kept playing it. I didn't sleep for twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And to me, I was right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Pete ded ANDAs was right, and Ed Marshall, the producer
writer of the song, was right. We were all right.
And of course the audience around the world was really
infatuated with the song. It became number one for a
long long time and gave me an opportunity to sing
around the world. When I became very successful and was
(19:33):
selling a lot of records and a teen idol had
a fan base of I don't know, we'd get somewhere
around twelve fifteen thousand letters a week and a big
fan base. And so now Hollywood recognized, Hey, this kid's
got fans.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Let's put them in a picture with a major star.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So Warner Brothers made a deal with my manager and
my agent, and they brought me out to Hollywood to
do my first film for Warner Brothers with a big star,
Alan Ladd called Guns of the Timberland and that started
being in the motion picture industry, and from there on
in I made I.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Don't know over forty motion pictures of my career. Well,
what had happened.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I was playing the Steel Pier in Atlantic City and
the film was released and it was very successful and
very successful for me, and I'll never forget I was
in the dressing room. I was doing five, seven, twelve
shows a day, depending upon the weather. He would do
a fifteen minute show and they would show a movie
and then another fifteen minute show. And they had a
(20:39):
phone booth in backstage there and it was by Asian
Jack Gilardi who said, Frankie, it's Jack.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I just got a call from John Wayne.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
He just saw your performance and Guns of the Timberland
with Alan Ladd.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
He wants you to sign.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
A contract to do a picture called The Alamo where
he's going to start direct and it's going to be
done in Texas. And that was my first introduction to
star in a picture with John Wayne and a major
major motion picture.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I'm out there now, I've got to ride this horse.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I play a character called Smitty and I have to
learn how to ride.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So the Duke said, Frankie, here's what you do.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
When you sit on the saddle here, you make it
feel like you've got a clothes hagar that's pulling you up.
So keep your shoulders very straight and very just kind
of go along with a float with this horse. And
I learned how to ride, and I became a pretty
good rider. And it was an experience of a South
Philly kid who nothing but the streets of South Philly
(21:41):
and under a fire plug, you know, when it was
a real hot summer day. But I learned a lot,
you know, being experienced with a lot of Richard Widmark
and Lawrence Harvey and John Wayne and John Ford and
oh my god, it.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Was a great experience for me.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
And I was on that picture for four months, all
of a sudden, becoming involved in motion pictures and meeting
a lot of the celebrities from I don't know, from
Natalie Wood to I did.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
A picture with the RJ.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Wagner, and of course I got to know a lot
of movie stars, and of course Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin,
and then of course working with John Wayne when I
had to promote the film with him. I mean I
was with these major stars, but never the acceptance that
John Wayne would get. When I'd walk into a restaurant
with him. I mean, everybody's jaw just dropped. There was
(22:35):
such respect for him. And he was really such a
shy guy.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
He was six foot five and with his boots on,
he must have been nine feet to me. And we'd
walk in and people would just.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Look at him and look at him and just stare
at him, and nobody would. They were kind of afraid
to even ask for an autograph.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
You know. He was just a major, major, big kunk
of a star.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
So that was a great experience working with him, and
of course traveling with him. So now I'm living in
California in Hollywood, and I'm living right off Sunset Boulevard there,
and I had a lot of my friends there, and
Steve McQueen used to come by, and Jack Nicholson we
(23:19):
all have.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
You know, we were young.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Hollywood at the time, and a lot of gals that
were young onngenews that I was dating and had great
dates with them.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
And then one one night.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I was playing cards with my friends and now Rona Barrett,
who was a big eclumnist. She wasn't at the time,
but she was starting. I had a friend and she
brought her over and introduced me. I left the card
game and her name was Kay, and we started talking
and her she was coming from her mother's birthday party
with Rona Barrett, and we got into a.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Good conversation for about an hour.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And when she left, I went back to the card
game and I said to my friends there, well see
that guy that I'm gonna marrier. And about six or
seven months we dated and got married. We started having
children right away, and our first born we named him
Frank after me and my grandfather, really and after thirteen
(24:17):
months we had another one, Tony, and then another To
kind of sum it up, we had eight children in
ten years.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
So my wife was pregnant every single year, and she
loved being pregnant. She loved having children.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And of course I was on the road and coming
back and here's another one, here's another one, there's another one.
And we're very fortunate to have eight children, very healthy,
and we have ten grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
And she's a great mom. They love her, they adore her.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know, she's like a general to have eight children
and keeping everyone in tach was quite a job that
she had, and of course I'd come home and have
a lot of fun with the kids and she was
the disciplinary, so she was a great mom, still is
and they adore.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
The first time I met at.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Funicello was at the Hollywood Bowl for Dick Clark. We
were playing the Hollywood Bowl. He had a show of
about four or five different acts on the show, and
she was one. She was very popular as a mouseketeer
on the Mickey Mouse Club. And she must have been
about fourteen fifteen, and I would must have been about seventeen.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And we started talking and I.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Said, Jess, I'd like to maybe we take you out
for a pizza and a cool drink or something.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
She said, you got to talk to my mother.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And I went to Virginia and I said, can I
take your daughter for a slice of pizza whatever? She said, okay,
call me and I went over to the house, picked
her up and we went down the street. There was
a little pizza pollor there and we had some pizza
and some soft drinks and that was it.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
And we kept in.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Touch, and of course she was working, I was working,
and that was our first date and only date really
and then time had gone by and I had made
a few films. I must have made about ten or
fifteen films at the time, and I was signed to
a company called American International Pictures. I made some films
for them, and finally they said. I got friendly with
(26:12):
a writer by the name of Lou Russoff, and I
said to him, Lou writes something that's fun for kids,
you know, where we hang out together and laugh and sing.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And he came back at about a month and his years,
so he's here's a script. Read this. It's called Beach Party.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
And I read it and I thought it was really fun,
and it looked like the old den En kids gang
and having fun.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
And I said, who's going to play? D d was
the girl's name. I guess he named her after Dede Dinah.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
He said, we're talking to Walt Disney as a loanout
for a net Funicello.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And you're listening to Frankie Avalon share some remarkable stories.
That call he got at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City.
He was about to work with John Wayne, and this
kid from South Philly soon finds himself in a Western
He met his bride and when he met her he
told his poker buddies, I'm going to marry that girl,
and seven or eight months later he did eight kids. Later,
(27:09):
in ten years, his wife Ka, he calls the General
and then this movie idea Beach Party, back when a
movie could just be silly and fun. The story of
Frankie Avalon, as told by Frankie Avalon continues here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories.
(27:40):
We last left off with Frankie Avalon sharing the story
of how he wrote a movie script about teens well
just having fun on the beach, casting the female role
opposite of Frankie Well, that was up in the air.
Let's return to Frankie Avalon.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
I said, that's great. I'm better when she was young
and would be fun.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And that's how we got together. They put us together.
We did our first motion picture, Beach Party.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
It came out. We did it in January.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I think it came out kind of towards the start
of the summer, and it was a tremendous success at
the box office. And because of that, we had lots
of fun doing those pictures. We made about seven and
made tons of tons of money for AIP I always
wanted to keep a career going by not just being
(28:28):
a teen I and of course those days, you know,
went by the wayside because you're married, you got kids,
and you know, when your fan base got in dwindles.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
And so I wanted to get into the nightclub business,
which I did. I worked with a lot of good
people that helped me.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Develop a show and act, and of course I opened
up at the Copa Cabana, which is once you made
the Copa Cabana, you were really you were in show business.
And now we'd play the show business under contract with
them for about five years. And about nineteen seventy one
or two whatever, it was playing at the Copa and
they wanted to do a promotion for a Broadway show
(29:04):
that was playing there called Grease, and I said, sure,
I'll go. It was in the afternoon, and I met
the cast and Travolta, by the way, was in that show.
Is one of the side guys, one.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Of the chorus boys. And I saw the play.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And then time had gone by, and it was about
nineteen seventy seven. I had got a call. I was
playing golf and I got off the ninth hold. My
manager was there with the script he said, this is
a script. Paramount wants you for this picture. I said,
what's the picture called? He said Grease and I said
(29:40):
what character? He said teen angel. And I thought about
what I saw on Broadway and I said pass And
I went and played the second nine.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
I came back in. He was still there.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
He said they will not take no. They would like
to at least have a meeting with you.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I said, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So I go in with Alan Carr and Patty Birch
who was the choreographer, and Randall Kleiser, who was the director.
And they said, why don't you want to do this?
I said, because I saw the play and it's not
my style. I said, you know, he was all in black.
It comes off of a rope and black leather jacket
and low alongside burns, and there's a little wiggles and this,
(30:18):
and sings this beauty school dropout. I said, not my style.
They said, well, change it. I said, what do you
mean you'll change it? They said, we'll do it all
in white. We'll get a piano over here. Let's see
how you want to do it. They did, and in
nineteen seventy seven I went in for six days of
rehearsals two days of shooting the Five Minutes saw him
(30:40):
and Beauty School Dropout became a part of Greece and
Frankie Avlin was a teenageer. When when we're finally putting
grease together and at rehearsals, I said, look, I don't
want to be a joke of this film.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I think this is a good character and.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
He really something important to this gal her character. I
don't want to be a joke. So they said, oh no, no,
no no, We'll make this absolutely perfect for you and
the people just gonna love it. So when the picture
comes out, they opened it, premiered it in Honolulu, and
(31:20):
there was the big columnist, Liz Smith was her name,
and in her column. She was at the premiere and
she said the film was fun. But when Frankie Avalon
entered his part as teen angel singing Beauty School Dropout,
the audience went wild, and when he left the scene
they applauded.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
So it made its mark.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I had come home from a trip and I'm sitting
in my den with my wife and the phone rings.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
And she hansked me the phone. She said, it's for you.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
It's a Bobby de Niro so I looked at her
and all of a sudden, it clicked in my mind, it's.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Robert de Niro.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Well didn't register with her because she thinks a kid
that I grew up with in South Philly. A lot
of Italian kids thought it was Bobby de Niro associated
at all.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
So he says, Frankie, it's a Bobby.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
We're doing a picture with the Scorsese It's called Casino,
and we know that you were the first guest to
Lefty whose character was Robert de Niro. And Marty Scorsese
likes to be so exacting with whatever he does, and
he did research. He said he would like to use
you to recreate that scene, and I said, sounds good
(32:35):
to me. He said when can you do it. I said, well,
i'm home.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I'm home for about a week. He said, can you
do it Monday? I said, fine with me. They sent the.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Jet and I got on the jet, went into the
dressing room. When I got to Las Vegas, went into Marty.
He showed me the clip and I went on the
set and I stayed there for about fourteen hours shooting
my one scene with de Niro, our first guest to see.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
It's Frankie Avamo. I thought, I've got a large family.
How many kids do you have. I'm very proud to
say that we have eight children. No, no, oh, it's
please gas, there's no please. It's amazing, there's nothing to it.
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And Joe Pesci was waiting for me. After my scene,
we went to this place called Joe Piggs. He had
a Vesuvio restaurant. We went and had chicken meatballs and
the picture came out.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And I was in the picture. Health has been very
exciting for me for a long long time.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I got interested in not only just just vitamins, but herbs.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
And I started back about fifty years.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Ago in where I lived with my wife and eight
children in North Hollywood. There was a place called Herb
Products that was in North Hollywood, and I saw this
sign and I went in there and I got very
friendly with a man who was part of it, and
John was his name, and he started introducing me to
different kinds of herbs that were in big box forms.
(34:05):
They weren't even capsules yet, and he would make capsules
and put together different herbs. So I would start taking
herbs and I really got involved with it and through.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
The years, I started to say, Jesus, should people ask me, Frankie,
what do you do well? I mean, you're still doing that.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I'm in my eighties now and I still go out
there and still perform. I do a lot of singing,
I do a lot of performing. I travel a lot,
and I've been taking herbs and I created a product
with John called Zero Pain. It's a pain reliever that
I brought onto a home shopping network and we sold
tons and tons of it. It still is available today,
(34:44):
and I'm going to tell everybody listening you talk about
being healthy and being taken care of yourself. I have
a company called Frankie Avalon product So if you look
at Frankieavalon dot com, you could look at what I've
been doing for all these years, not only with the
Zero Pain, which is a pain reliever topical which has
helped so many people, from Arnold Palmer to Ernie Banks,
(35:05):
a lot of my friends in the business, and they
still requested it and we still offer it to the public.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
But your health is very important. You never know when
you're going to lose it, so keep trying to keep it.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
They had asked me to do a guest shot on
American Idol.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I said, okay, what do I do?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
They said, well, it's Simon Kyle's birthday and the year
of Venus.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Was nineteen fifty nine. That's the year he was born.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
So we'd like to give him this little birthday gift
and you singing Venus to him. I said, okay, but
you've got to be you know, stay in your dress room.
You've got to be a surprise. So I go to
my dress room and I watched my weight, I watched this.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
I was watching this. That what. So I go to
my dress room and they.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Sent a whole box of candies and things and I'm waiting.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I'm waiting and I'm eating.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
These red hots or whatever they are. But well, I
ate about two boxes with these things ready to go on.
Now I've got twelve minutes to go on and do this.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
This is live, you know. And I said, I really
don't feel good. Now. They got the paramedics right there.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
They take my blood pressure, mind going through the roof,
and they said, I don't think you should go on,
and my blood pressure.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Was very, very high.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I went on and I did that song, not feeling
one hundred percent, but pulled it off. I came off
of there, I calmed down with a lot of water
and all this other stuff, and my blood pressure went down,
and that was quite an experience for me. Like the
show goes on, listen, I want to thank you for
the opportunity I having great conversation going through parts of
(36:39):
my life.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I could write a book, but I won't. But in
the meantime, I just.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Want to thank everybody that's been with me, and I've
been with you for many, many years for being a
part of my life. Thank you so much, and thanks
to Good Lord for giving me the opportunity to my wife,
to my eight children, to my ten grandchildren, and stay
well and God bless.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And a terrific job on the storytelling in production by
Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to Frankie Avalon for
sharing his life's journey with us. That Beach Party series, well,
it was a huge box office success, and Avalon, well,
he'd go on to make a career for himself in
the nightclub business as a prime act to play at
the Copa and then all over the world, and then
(37:23):
came Greece, that paramount picture and that character teen Angel
he passed. He said that character is not my style,
so they changed the character and the rest is history.
I have watched this movie more times than I would
care to admit. Is when you have a wife and
a daughter, this, along with Mamma Mia, is required required
(37:45):
viewing at least a few times a year. And then,
of course that call from Robert de Niro and Bobby
de Niro, probably a bunch of them in his South
Philly neighborhood. Little did he know it was the Robert
de Niro and a scene in Casino, the story of
Frankie Avalon, the story of America in a way from
nowhere to somewhere, and appreciating with great gratitude every single
(38:09):
step along the way. Frankie Avalon story here on, our
American stories,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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