Bob Hope
Right out of high school in Atlanta in 1972, my folks drove down to pick me up, and we headed back to New Jersey. I felt pretty much out of sorts back there, since I missed my friends and the travel experiences I had gained. I did land a job as a security guard for $1.50 an hour at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ, a beautiful facility that holds about 10,000 people. The place was owned by the Garden State Parkway Authority, so it was bureaucratically governed from Day 1.
I had heard about some of the concerts that previously taken place there. Acts like the Doors and Janis Joplin had appeared, but after too much pot smoke and too many acid-soaked hippie concert-goers had OD’d and/or passed out in the parking lots, the highway authority put a moratorium on future rock acts at that venue. My dad had taken me to see Iron Butterfly with Chicago (then Chicago Transit Authority) opening, and I didn’t remember anybody being out of line. Of course, I was only fifteen, and wouldn’t have known what to look for then anyway. I suppose somebody falling down or lying in the parking lot would have been a dead giveaway, but I don’t remember anything like that. I just remember loving the music, and appreciating my dad for taking me. That was in June of 1969.
When I actually got the job, I was pretty excited. I would be able to go to the beach during the day, then be at work by 6PM and be able to experience each show.
The first week I was there, though, I had to work matinee shows each day. The arts center was busing in thousands of senior citizens to see a big band show by Bing Crosby’s brother, Bob Crosby & The Bobcats. Bob would start the show with “Summertime”, which I’m told was his signature song. Another week had the United States Military Band in town. I really enjoyed these guys. They had a full orchestra as well as a 250 voice chorale. The guys were in their sharpest military uniforms, with shiny buttons and shine shoes, and were straight ahead at attention while onstage. When the chorale guys would file offstage to the back, they would start cutting up and holding their aching heads caused by their hangovers from the previous night’s partying. When, after talking to a few of them, they found out I played music, they brought the conductor over to meet me. I told him that I had been drum major during my senior year in high school, and that I had played trumpet since the 5th grade. He asked me if I would like to be in a band like theirs. It really caught me off guard, because I didn’t know how to respond. I said it looked like it would be a great experience, but in the back of my mind all I could think about was basic training and 3 or so months of having to get up at dawn and crawl through mud. The other issue is that Vietnam was still in full swing, although I’m told de-escalation was in progress. My draft number was low, so I was concerned as it was. I had just spent 5 years at a partial military school, so I was really ready to things on my own terms. I don’t have many regrets, but I often wonder what the outcome would have been had I given it a shot. I would have had to audition on trumpet anyway, and I wasn’t that good. I can still just picture blowing the audition and being sent to the front lines.
By this time, since rock acts were banned, the hardest hitting talent I experienced there was Arlo Guthrie. It just so happened I was an Arlo fan, and it just happened to be July 10, 1972, his 25th birthday. I gave him a lift to his vehicle after the show, and was talking to him about music. I asked him what I needed to do to get into music, and he said just do it anywhere and everywhere you can. He also said he
remembered when he had to practically pay to play in some situations. Although he is talented plenty in his own right, I’m sure that being the son of Woody Guthrie didn’t hold him back. I still have his autograph wishing me luck.
Many shows that stemmed back from Vaudeville were the norm that year, I know because the older crowd would behave and not be throwing up on the lawn seating. The Mills Brothers came through one night, as well as artists like Liza Minelli. She was real nice to me and asked me to walk her dogs, and to please make sure her sister, movie star Lorna Luft, got in backstage OK. Desi Arnaz, Jr. was accompanying her, and he sat in on drums with the band and did an admirable job. She seemed like good people, but sure has been the butt of many jokes about her personal life later on. I got my grandmother in free one night to see Liberace, and she enjoyed that, and I felt good making it happen.
One weekend, Bob Hope was doing his USO type performance at the GSAC. Duke Ellington was the opening act. I so much wanted to see the Duke in action, although I was only just turning 18, and probably wouldn’t have understood what he was doing. The boss assigned me to guard the house Bob Hope was staying in, and although that was a memorable experience, I was flipped out because I wanted to hear Duke Ellington in person. When it was time for Hope to leave for the theatre, I did get to shake hands with him. He was cordial, but I’m sure he could have cared less about this skinny teenager in a rent-a-cop uniform. To me, Bob Hope was someone my folks were interested in, as was Duke Ellington, but the Duke played music, and I wanted to hear it. As soon as Hope was in his limousine, I was down the road to the venue in a flash and drove backstage as fast as I could, running in hoping to catch any part of Duke’s show. When I got to the stage, the curtain was closed and the Duke was gone. His piano was still there and it was still warm. I went straight to his grand piano and stuck my head straight into it, knowing I just missed one of my life’s greatest opportunities. Maybe by sticking my head into Duke Ellington’s piano just after he played it, something…. anything… might rub off. I was livid at my boss because I think he assigned me to Bob Hope on purpose. I carry that memory of my head in that piano to this day, and as I got older, I gained much more respect for Bob Hope by realizing just how many people he must have touched during his lifetime.