From the Tiger Beat Archives, April 1970
By Dick Larsen, USAF
An intimate true story from Mark’s high school days by one of Mark’s closest friends. Dick was there the day Mark fought for his girlfriend’s honor and he was there to witness Mark’s entertainment debut. Now you can join Dick as he recalls those days gone by…
The tall lanky teenager with the long hair and the Pat Boone white box walked nervously on the stage in the high school gym in the small town of Cambridge, Idaho. The crowd that had gathered to watch the collection of local talent smiled to themselves while some of the teenagers standing around the edge of the seats left openly. From behind the curtains the record player began to scratch out with the beat of the latest Elvis record. With the first beat of the music, the nervousness was gone–the youth now confident and in command. Miming the words at first, he silenced the laughs and replace the smiles with looks of amazement. At the finish, the crowd of ranchers and small town folk sprang to their feet filling the gym with a tremendous burst of spontaneous applause. Mark Lindsay had made his musical debut.
The Mark Lindsay of today is eons away from the teenager who won a talent contest in the small Idaho town. As one of the most powerful performers on the music scene, his records sell more copies than there are people in the whole state of Idaho. With Paul Revere and the Raiders, he had his own television show, “Happening.” But every time I see him perform on the stage, I can’t help but see the Mark Lindsay I went to school with.
Mark was a real loner at Cambridge high school. His father was a teacher in the high school and worked on the railroad for my father in the summer. The Lindsay’s were not a wealthy family. They lived in a small wooden house on Rush Creek, fifteen miles from town at the foot of Cuday mountain. Because of his humble home in the vicious cleanliness among small-town kids, he just never seem to fit in. When we were going to school dances, Mark was going home to work. When we were driving around town on Saturday, Mark was helping his father clear land.
DESIRE TO SUCCEED
The most amazing thing about Mark Lindsay was his burning desire to succeed. When all we freshman boys went out for football, Mark was there, taking the hard knocks, extra hard for him, and getting up for more. My high school annual shows Mark sitting by me in a faded, left over jersey. I can remember the practices–Mark trying to catch a pass thrown just a little hard and getting up off the ground making a joke of himself because he didn’t catch it but determined to try twice as hard the next time. In scrimmages he would be in the line taking on the more experienced men with only his desire to help him. No matter how hard he went down, he got up and tried it again.
Mark was handsome with his dark eyes and dark hair. And in a small town school was small town kids, this is like red in front of a bull. The kids in a small school can be brutal in their treatment to one who doesn’t fit their idea of the mold. And Mark just didn’t fit in the mold.
PRETTIEST GIRL IN SCHOOL
He was going steady with a girl name Delma Edwards. She was the prettiest girl in school and more than one young man had failed in an attempt to date her. Compounding the problem was Mark’s idea of dress. He wore his hair long and wavy in the Elvis style on the collar of his shirt was turned up. To a group of kids who were wearing Levi’s, T-shirts and cowboy boots to school, this was a sign of the showoff.
Mark and I were friends so when the plotting started, I stood back and listened. The clan decided that the only way they could show the school that Mark Lindsay had overstepped his place was to egg him into a fight and then beat him up. To champion their cause they selected a dangling sophomore named Darrell Henry.
TRIED NOT TO FIGHT
The contest began with the usual remarks about only “greasers” having long hair, and other childish insults about the quality of manhood. Through it all Mark kept to school and tried to avoid coming to blows. Finally the only way that Darrell thought he could make Mark fight was to insult Delma. It worked and the two were shortly squared off in the grass beside the Masonic Hall. Around and around in circles they went sparring but never landing a blow, all the time telling one another of the great bodily harm they were going to do and telling the other to strike the first blow. Well, after about ten minutes of this, without a blow being landed, they decided they would only kill one another so they shook hands and called it off. But Mark had proved once and for all that he would fight over a matter of principle, in this case the honor and virtue of his girl.
With the start of the school year, Mark’s warm, friendly personality quickly won him friends among his classmates. He was elected vice president of the class, a position of some respect in a class of less than 30 kids. He took his job seriously and in a short time, had won the respect of class advisors and faculty alike.
JOINT SCHOOL CHORUS
Mark’s tendency toward music displayed itself long before he left Cambridge to become a member of a group of lads calling themselves Paul Revere and the Raiders. He was a member of the school mixed chorus. His voice was not the smooth, polished voice heard throughout America today, but he could carry a tune and seemed to have no trouble with the rhythm.
Every time Mark and I talked about the future, he always talked about music and being a singer. In a town where the most ambitious youth just wanted to take over their father’s ranch or move to the “big city” of Boise, his dream seemed completely unreal.
Mark’s entry into the entertainment business came at the annual school talent contest. This was an event that each year seem to be identical to the last with just a change of faces. There was the kid whose dad owned the sawmill playing the piano, the daughter of one of the largest ranchers in the Valley singing, and the trumpet player, of which every small town seems to have one. But this year it would be different. This year Mark Lindsay was going on the stage. Every kid in the whole high school knew Mark was going to perform. The ones who envied him and disliked him because he was different silently hoped for him to fall flat on his face. His friends, with me at the head of the list, hoped he would show everyone. Even the parents got into the act as they talked about it in the stores and at church.
MARK’S DEBUT
The big night came in the gym had been lined with folding chairs. All during the program the audience that separates the singing, trumpet playing and piano banging. Every time a kid finished his act, the loudest applause came from the parents. And then it was time for Mark.
The master of ceremonies announced quite simply, “Now here is Mark Lindsay singing ‘Blue Suede Shoes’.” You could’ve heard a pin drop. The silence was oppressive. From my place at the back of the audience, my heart was beating like a triphammer as I waited for my friend to begin. I hoped and prayed and even crossed my fingers. He had to show them, he just had to! If he failed now he was through in our school!
HIS GREATEST PERFORMANCE
My friend, the performance he put on was greater than any he has or will do. I saw old and young alike begin tapping their toes to the beat and then slapping their hands on their knees in time to the music. And Mark was as if he had truly found his station in life–on the stage before a live audience. Before the song was half finished, his voice was overpowering the record in the words we heard were coming from his mouth. The real Mark Lindsay was born.
The song ended and for a split second there was again complete silence in the gym. Then the applause and cheers began to roll off the walls and ceiling. The crowd was on their feet applauding and shouting for more. And Mark stood there with a look on his face that said more than words ever could.
The announcement of the winner was really just a formality. There wasn’t a doubt in anybody’s mind as to who it would be. When he was named the winner, the applause once more filled the gym. And Mark stood there on stage quietly accepting the reward for his talent.
Mark left Cambridge that summer to go to Southern Idaho. His father stayed on in Cambridge teaching in the school and finally he left after the 1959 school year. The school annual for that year is dedicated to him.
As for Mark, well I never saw him again. As the years passed, I heard of him and his musical companions as their fame spread in the states. Then after graduation and my entry into the Air Force, I lost track completely. Returning from England in the next school year. The school Annual looking at me from the television on American Bandstand. Since then I have followed his career with interest.
Many entertainers today are stars one day and forgotten the next. But Mark Lindsay is one who will be on the music scene for a long time to come. And I don’t envy him his success one bit. If he wants a stable of new cars, let him buy them. Brother, if you had known him when I did, you would know that he has earned every bit.
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