About the last couple of months in college I decided I really wanted to go into show business for a career. I don’t know exactly what got into me to choose this show business… But here I am!
Last month we left off where I was in my final year of high school. Following some really groovy high school days, I entered Pierce College in Southern California where I studied psychology and electronics. Always in the back of my mind I had some kind of urge to go into show business, but there was really nothing tangible. It seemed like starting out in show business was such a far-fetched idea. So, I was basically stuck with my psychology, which really interested me.
About the last couple of months in college I decided I really wanted to go into show business for career, but the only problem was I didn’t know where to begin. And before I had a chance to worry about it, I was getting all involved! Let me tell you how it happened: I was dating a girl who knew the director who was doing “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” which was being made at that time. So, she called me up one day and said she had been invited to a party by an old friend of hers and what I like to go? I said, “Sure.”
CELEBRITIES EVERYWHERE
So we went to the party, it was on 4 July, and people like Natalie Wood and Roddy McDowell and Jane Fonda were there. They had a live band, and it was just ironic that I knew a couple of the guys in the band from high school and we used to play music together. They said to me, “Why don’t you saying, Bobby?” I said, “I couldn’t do that. It’s not even my party.” So the girl I was with said, “Well, why don’t you?”
We worked out a couple of numbers and I did them. Well, the song went well and the band sounded really good. The party was being held on the beach, inside and outside this huge house, and it was blocked off from the public part of the beach by a huge concrete wall. When I started singing, kids started jumping up on the wall from the public side I guess to see who was singing! After it was all over Jane Fonda and Natalie Wood came up to me and said, “We think your very talented, are you being managed?” I said, “No, not really.” And they said, “Well you should do something about it.”
Like two or three days later I received a phone call from Natalie Wood and she arranged a meeting for me. I met a man at MGM studios and then a couple of days after that they introduced me to an agent. I was just beginning to meet people and talk with them about seriously going into the business. About two weeks after that I met Jack good, who was putting “Shindig” together and I auditioned for him.
FUNNY AUDITION
It was a really funny scene at the audition. I, of course, had never made a record and I didn’t have anything on tape, so when I auditioned for Jack Good, I lip-synched to Freddie Cannon’s record “Palisades Park.” After I did the number, Jack said “Groovy, please wait outside.” A few minutes later he came out and said, “How would you like to do 26 of our shows?” I said, “Yes!” And he said, “Great.” Just like that I was in the business!
What happened next was that they were still trying to sell “Shindig” to a network. They had done two pilots and nothing had happened, so they were looking for the all-American kind of kids, because everything else was very long hair and British at the time. Jack good put me on the pilot as this kid with cropped hair, very straight, singing “Back Home in Indiana.” It was just to sell the pilot. After it was sold, Jack then said every week I’d do someone else’s song and I could do more of what I wanted in the way of dress and so forth. Then after a while we began cutting some singles and we had a fairly strong hit record.
WHEN IT WAS OVER
Naturally when “Shindig” was over I was disappointed as everyone else connected with show. But I didn’t really let it get me down, because I knew in the back of my mind that this type of program couldn’t go on forever. When “Shindig” ended, I was fairly “hot” as an artist, not a star by any means, but my name was known and I was getting quite a bit of mail. So soon as the show was canceled, I went out on the road and began making personal appearances as often as I could. Then it happened one night, I was working out a schedule of appearances with my agent, and all of a sudden I just said, “I don’t want to do anymore PAs. I’ve got to try and break into something else.”
That’s when my “dark days” began. I knew I wanted to go into acting, but there are about a million other young actors in Hollywood, so it’s pretty tough getting started. It’s kind of embarrassing for me to say I went through eight months of “dark days,” when you realize that many actors wait for several years before they get a break in the business. But to me it was very tough and I didn’t know how long it was going to last. It wasn’t a question of me worrying financially as much as it was mental worry. I just wanted to do something… Anything.”
FIRST ACTING ROLES
After three or four months of not working at all I got pretty depressed. I was reading for parts and not getting them. Banging on door after door and getting nowhere. I did a few TV things like “Honey West” and “The FBI” and I did one episode with “The Monkees.” That’s when I met Ward Sylvester, who is now my manager, and Steve Blauner, who is the Screen Gems Vice President in charge of new projects. Stephen had seen me on “The Monkees” show and I ran into him one day and he said to me, “I have a show that you might be good for, can you stutter?” I thought, “Are you kidding me?” He told me about the pilot for “Brides” and I thought, “Great.” It’s just something you don’t expect to happen.
The next thing I knew they had given me a two-page script of one scene and were putting me on a plane to New York to test for the part. It was the scene in the first show of the season where Candy is hanging up clothes on the ship and I tell her I stutter and she tells me she bites her nails. So, I went to New York and I did my part and I did the best I could, along with a dozen other guys who tried out. The next day I got back on the plane and when I stepped off the plane in Los Angeles, Ward and Steve Blauner were there to meet me and they said, “Hi, Jeremy!”
Everything that has happened since that day is been more exciting than the day before. I never been so happy working at anything than I am working on “Brides” and making appearances all over the country. I don’t know what the future holds in store, but right now I think I’m about the happiest guy in the whole world!
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