MEET SAM!
From the Tiger Beat Archives, February 1971
You want to get to know Sam almost as much is you want to get to know David Cassidy. Sam is a groovy, warm guy who lives with David in their house in the Hollywood Hills. David and Sam have known each other since seventh grade and two closer friends you couldn’t find. Sam is currently working as a film editor, though he is very interested in acting and is studying acting with Jed Horner, head of the new talent division of Screen Gems Studios. So don’t be surprised if you see Sam on your TV screen before too long! Each month Sam will tell you another touching and intimate story about David Cassidy right here in the pages of Tiger Beat. Sam’s stories are exclusively for Tiger Beat and you cannot read them elsewhere! So, don’t miss a single issue and miss out on any of Sam’s groovy stories about David!
Hello out there! Before I start telling you all about how I became acquainted with your friend and mine, David Cassidy, I suppose you and I had better get acquainted ourselves, right? Well, since I’m essentially modest and retiring (ho ho) there isn’t really so much to tell about me. My name is Sam, I’m David’s roommate, and we live in a very groovy house in the Hollywood Hills together with some beat up furniture, mattresses on the floor, and a lot of that warm California sunshine. I’m currently working as a film editor (he’s the guy who puts all the bits and pieces together into a single film and I’m studying to be an actor. I’m two months younger than David.
That’s all about me. Actually, there’s more, of course, but you’ll learn about it as I tell you my story, so I won’t bother your head with it all right now. Let me just say I’m glad to know you, and I hope you’ll like the slightly different viewpoint I can share with you about my friend, Mr. Cassidy.
THE DAY WE MET
Okay, here’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: HOW I MET DAVID. We both had a good friend, named George (I love that name) and George had been telling each of us about the other for some time. You know how it is when you know two people and you’re absolutely sure that they dig each other to pieces, and you can’t wait to introduce them right? Well, that’s how it was with old George. There we all were, laughing our way through seventh grade, and George was dying to introduce us, so he kept building us up, telling each of us how great the other was, and finally came that unforgettable moment when we finally were in the same room at the same time. We shook hands, and smiled, and both of us thought, “Big deal. What’s so special?”
However, fate put in its heavy hand none of this was what you might call Mr. Universe–in fact we were really heavy on the muscles at all! Naturally, being red-blooded American boys, the thing we wanted most was the thing we didn’t have any of, and that was muscles. So, there was about a month when all three of us worked out in the gym together, sweating and straining and puffing and doing whatever else people do in a gym. When it was over we didn’t have any new muscles, but we both had a new friend!
SURFING WAS OUR HOBBY
From then on it was the Three Musketeers! We went everywhere together, even though David was going to a different junior high. We went surfing until our hair was all sun streaked and we were brown as coconuts and we had permanent wrinkles all over our bodies from being in the water so much! (That last thing, about the wrinkles, is an exaggeration, but you’ll have to excuse me because I’m very enthusiastic and I get carried away.) Anyway, we surfed and surfed and practically lived on the beach for about two years.
We even surfed at night! That’s a fantastic feeling, it’s pitch black and the water is like ink, and you’re sitting out on that little board thinking “what am I doing out here, I’m frightened to death,” and all of a sudden you feel the water swell up behind you and you paddle and paddle and then you’re up and streaking through the black knight with pale white foam all around you and the waves thunder is crashing in your ears, and the stars skim by overhead, and then your board digs into the sand (remember, you can’t see) and there you are, lying flat on your face on the shore. It’s great, but it hurts!
DAVID LOVED ACTING
I always had an idea that David would go into acting. Whenever we’d get together in a group of friends, I’d always notice that David would let his imagination run wild and the conversation would be fascinating. I’m just talking with people David would create and it was in this way that he would express his hidden acting talent. Not everyone noticed, but I did and I knew that someday his creative mind would find other outlets.
Even though I wouldn’t have bet a warm Coke on David’s future as an actor, I knew that he was pretty good musically. When we were in ninth grade, we formed a group called “The Pains of Class.” We took over David’s house and we rehearsed every day–David on drums and me playing a little guitar and another friend who could also strum and sing. We thought we were Los Angeles’ answer to the Beatles–until we played our first date!
DEBUT OF OUR GROUP
It was a big dance for the guys’ social club from school in a fancy restaurant called the Sportsmen’s Lounge. We had worked and worked until we had about 12 songs down perfect (we thought) and all that day I was getting nervous, fluttery little happenings in the general area of my stomach. Of course, my friend, the Old Pro Cassidy, kept telling me to “cool it…everything will be a snap.” Somehow, I made it through the day and got to the restaurant feeling like a moose was being born on my chest.
We set up our equipment and went backstage. Nobody talked very much, and I noticed that even David looked a little touchy. Finally, the moment came. We sort of pushed one another on stage and waited in the dark until we heard this weirdo electric voice saying “And now… The PAINS OF GLASS!” Then the lights went out, the curtain parted, and suddenly I felt great! Our first number was The Beatles’ “Help,” and I counted off (real loud and professionally) “One! Two! Three!” And waited for that crashing drumbeat from David and his carefully rehearsed vocal. Nothing. Not a sound. I looked over at “Cool” David and he was as green as grass, staring at me like I just knocked him down or something. He was frozen stiff (just like in the first episode of “The Partridge Family”) and the only thing he could get out was the sort of croaking whisper: “I can’t sing it! It’s too high!”
Well, I am rarely at a loss for words so I just shouted “Four! Five! Six! Seven!” And I could’ve gone all the way to hundred but the other guy finally got the idea and started playing the intro to our second song. Somehow, we got underway and played through the rest of her set.
As to how we went over… Well, I didn’t see anybody actually leave, but I know for a fact that people had fantastic conversations, talked about things they hadn’t talked about for years, during the 45 minutes we were crashing away up there! When we finally got off, there was a little applause (it sounded like they were slapping mosquitoes in the dark) and the Pains of Glass shattered on the spot. We never really got it together musically again.
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