TOURING WITH PERRY COMO
1990, 1991,
1992
by Jack Swersie
Perry Como stood for goodness. That's what he was about. I saw it first-hand in 1990, 1991, and 1992 when I was lucky enough to be his opening act during his very successful and final Christmas tours. I hope you'll take the time to read this tribute to Mr. Como.
I was driving around cold and snowy Michigan for two weeks in October 1990, playing a slew of small one-niter comedy rooms, when I got a phone call that was to put my concert career in high gear.
Jason Stone ran the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island. His lovely assistant, Barbara Wacik, called me to ask if I would be interested in going on tour with Perry Como. Every year at Christmas time Perry would go on tour for four or five weeks, presenting a Christmas show to his thousands and thousands of fans. This particular year, Jason Stone was going to manage the tour and thought that I might be a good support act for Perry.
I told Barbara that I would love to be part of the tour and that I could make myself available if Perry wanted me. Barbara said she’d get back to me, but, in all honesty, I didn’t think I had a chance in hell of getting the tour and really didn’t expect to hear back from Barbara, certainly not with a confirmation. I just never looked at my show as being geared toward senior citizens and didn’t think that Perry would give me the thumbs up.
I was wrong. As later told to me by Jason, Perry looked at ten different video tapes of performers and when he saw mine, he pointed to the television screen and said, "He’s the one!" There’s no accounting for taste.
For the next three years I was to be Perry Como’s one and only opening act for his one month long Christmas tour!
It turned out that his audiences were great for me. I've performed for many senior citizen groups over the years and Perry's audiences were, no doubt, among the finest.
* * *
I was introduced to Perry on November 24, 1990 at the Front Row Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. It was during our technical rehearsal the afternoon of our first performance. Perry immediately made me feel welcome, telling me that it was nice to have me on the tour.
The Front Row Theater, no longer in existence, was a 3000-seat theater in the round with a revolving stage. Westbury and Valley Forge Music Fair were the same, so I had some experience working that style theater. In fact, I loved working in the round because it made a large room seem very intimate by bringing so many people that much closer to the stage. There are no bad seats in theaters in the round, and I felt very comfortable being able to reach so many people who seemed only an arm’s length away from me.
Having successfully worked in the round before gave me a degree of confidence and I wound up having an incredibly strong show. I left the stage knowing that I had done very well.
Jason approached me as I entered my dressing room and told me that Perry had watched a good portion of my show while standing in the back of the theater in his boxer shorts. Perry had told Jason to tell me, "It was perfect. Don’t change a thing!" Perry’s manager, Mickey Glass, personally told me, "Perfect!" A couple of minutes later Perry came up to me, handed me a chocolate candy kiss, and warmly congratulated me.
I was so excited and relieved to have done so well. I felt that for me, there was a lot riding on the success of my performances on the tour and the first night was what would create that all-too-important first impression. I felt that I had just cast a great first impression and wanted to share the great news with my wife-to-be, Jill. I gave her a phone call from the pay phone backstage.
As I was talking to my future wife, Perry, Mickey, and Carl (Perry’s personal assistant) walked by. Perry was heading out to perform his segment of the show and he gave me the thumbs-up gesture. I told him, "My girlfriend Jill says hello." He grabbed the receiver from me and started talking to Jill, joking with her and telling her how talented I was. Perry appeared to be a saint!
* * *
I have never worked with, and will probably never again work with, anyone as terrific as Perry Como!
My association with him did more to boost my career than anything else I had done up to that point. To have been touring with a star of his stature gave more credibility to me as a performing artist than any other successes that had yet come my way. For that reason, and because he was probably the nicest man to walk this earth, I loved the guy.
He was such a terrific person. A real person. Not someone caught up in the trappings of fame and fortune. I remember talking to him on the tour bus regarding his success and asking him how it felt to be a living legend. His response was humble. He acknowledged the fact that he was, indeed, a legend, but he did it with an attitude that showed he was not overwhelmed or self-impressed by the immensity of his accomplishments and success.
It was so easy to converse with him and, many times on the tour bus, he would tell me great show business stories about old friends like Milton Berle, George Burns, Don Amechi and Buddy Hackett.
He had very nice things to say about George Burns and Milton Berle, although he felt that Milton Berle was always making up stories and always trying to be funny. Some comedians are always making jokes while off-stage and Perry wasn’t comfortable with that kind of personality.
Many years before, when television commercials were performed live, Perry did a Polaroid Instamatic Camera commercial with Don Ameche. Perry said that he took a picture of Don, who was the emcee of the commercial, and was supposed to show how the picture developed in sixty seconds. After the sixty seconds Perry tore off the top of the photo, but there was no picture. It didn’t develop! Perry said that he didn’t know what to do and wound up quickly taking another picture. With just about no time to spare, the second photo came out fine. In the future, they would have a picture ready rather than chancing another embarrassment on live television.
Perry was great friends with comedian Buddy Hackett but he could never understand why Buddy always had to talk dirty, on stage and off. He told me about a time, many years before, when he and Buddy went out on the town together. He made Buddy promise not to say anything filthy the entire night and surprisingly Buddy kept his end of the bargain. At the end of the night, Buddy dropped Perry off at his house and Perry couldn’t believe that Buddy had made it through the entire night keeping his promise. Then, as Perry walked toward his front door, Buddy rolled down his car window and yelled, "Perry, fuck you!"
* * *
Perry always treated everyone on the tour with warmth and respect. No one felt any personal distance from the man. He was one of us. When we would arrive in a new city by way of airplane, he would sometimes make one or two of us get into his limousine while he would jump into our van and travel to the hotel with the rest of the tour group. It was so funny one time, when traveling in the van with us, he joked, "I didn’t ride in the van with you just so you’d think I was just one of the guys. It’s just that I’m sick and tired of riding with Mickey and Carl!"
One time, on an airplane, he made me move into his first-class seat while he sat in my coach-class seat joking with the passengers. Another time he convinced the flight attendant to allow him to speak over the intercom on the plane. He introduced himself, saying, "This is your Captain Perry speaking" and proceeded to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. He was great fun on these tours.
To give you an idea of just how much Perry loved and cared about the people he toured with, there was an extremely unnecessarily nasty newspaper review in Pittsburgh that hurt our morale and Perry immediately came to our defense. I had never seen him angry and could not believe how angry he could get.
We had a two-day run in Pittsburgh at a beautiful 3800-seat theater called the Syria Mosque (which has since been torn down). The main floor of the theater seated 1100 people, the first balcony seated another 1200, and the second balcony seated 1500. The theater was built in a horse shoe shape and there was not a bad seat in the place. The first night we had a terrific performance and, as always, Perry and the singers got a standing ovation.
The next day, the morning newspaper bashed Perry, the singers, and me. What he wrote about all of us had absolutely nothing to do with what went on in the theater the night before. The reviewer was nasty and downright malicious about all of us including Perry. It was, quite frankly, disgusting and made me lose that much more respect for those small time concert reviewers. "Those who can...do! Those who can’t do...review!"
We all saw the review that day and still had another show to do that night. Our morale was broken by the disrespectful words of the so-called reviewer and Perry called the singers and me into his dressing room before the show to discuss the situation with us.
He was very emotional and you could tell he was holding his anger in check. He told us, "I realize that some very nasty things were said about you kids, and Jack and I want you to know that I’m going to call that SOB and give him a piece of my mind. This guy can say anything he wants to say about me, I don’t care, but you kids and Jack work too damn hard to have him treat you like that!" Perry went on to say that he loved all of us very much. He gave each of us a hug and on a lighter note told us, "Now get the hell out of my dressing room!"
That meeting was a wonderful display of the love and affection he had for all of the people he worked with. It may have seemed slightly melodramatic but he was truly sincere. He was angry as hell and very much hurt by the nastiness of the review, more for us than for himself. His talk lifted our spirits and we went out there that night and had as good of a show as we were accustomed to having on the tour and as we had the night before.
That was what Perry was all about and why he was loved by so many people. It was never just about him. It mattered more to him that the people around him were comfortable and happy, and he made constant efforts in that direction.
* * *
As the tour progressed, I was developing a great rapport with Perry and it was becoming customary for me to tell him a new dirty joke each day. There were a couple of jokes that we both especially enjoyed.
At the end of each of his shows he would bring me back out on stage for a curtain call. At that time we would give each other a nice hug. Each time, one of us would whisper the punch line of one of the dirty jokes into the other’s ear. Inevitably, one or both of us would laugh. That was fun. It's like when you would watch the Tonight Show and see Johnny Carson whispering something into a guest’s ear as the show went to a commercial break. The audience always wondered what Johnny was talking about. Well, this was my personal, inside moment with Perry, and to me it was special.
* * *
Perry brought so much love to his fans. He showed it on stage and off. I never saw him refuse to talk to a fan offstage. Whether it was backstage or while we'd be walking around a shopping center in one of the cities we were working, he was always most accessible and accommodating to those who would approach him.
His warmth and sincerity touched everyone he talked to. On our way to our shows in Pittsburgh, our tour bus broke down on the highway in the middle of nowhere. The local police shuttled us to a small restaurant off of the nearest exit while arrangements were being made to get us to our destination. We spent about two hours drinking coffee while the employees of the restaurant were phoning all of their friends to let them know that Perry Como had made an unscheduled appearance there. Before you knew it, the restaurant started to fill up with friends of the employees, all hoping to meet Perry and, perhaps, get an autograph. It was fun to watch Perry selflessly oblige them. He really seemed to enjoy it.
Another time, Perry had taken the entire tour out to a nice Italian dinner. As an elderly couple sitting next to our large table got up to leave, they came over to meet Perry. They had seen our show the night before, loved it, and complimented Perry for his fine performance. They told him that, when they were courting years before, they listened to all of his songs and that it meant so much to them to have seen him perform and, now, to actually meet him. Perry was so nice to them, and you could see that this was a very special moment for the elderly couple. It really choked me up.
Here’s another tear-jerker. One of the singers on tour with us asked Perry if he would call his Mom to wish her a Happy Birthday. Perry said he’d love to and, according to the singer his mother was so thrilled that she cried. The joy Perry gives, and the love he has for people is so overwhelming.
Perry really gave more of himself than anyone I’ve ever worked with. It takes a very special person to keep his kind of success and popularity in perspective and to give back to the public as much love as the public has given him. He was quite successful at that. His love of people and his warmth toward them was always sincere. It always seemed to come from his heart. When I worked with Perry, he lived up to his reputation as being a true gentleman. He was the greatest and I loved him.
* * *
Touring with Perry Como was a real event for me because I got to meet and socialize with famous people whom I otherwise would never had gotten to meet. People like Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford.
It was the 1990 Christmas season and we had two nights of concerts at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island. We got to our hotel the day before our first performance because Perry was scheduled to appear on the Live With Regis and Kathie Lee television show the next morning.
We all awoke at 5:30 in the morning and a limousine picked us up at the hotel. Making the trip into New York City was Perry, Mickey, Carl, music director Nick Perito, Jason Stone, and me. Typical of Long Island is the backed up traffic on the Long Island Expressway, and it was no surprise to me, a native New Yorker, that we would get stuck in traffic. And we did. In fact, we were stuck in traffic for so long that we were unable to make it to the ABC studio for Perry’s appearance. But Regis and his television audience were in constant contact with Perry throughout the whole ordeal by way of cell phone.
Regis is a huge fan of Perry, and for a couple of years was quite obsessed with getting Perry on the show. In fact, one year Regis did the craziest thing. He went to Florida, chartered a boat and, with a camera crew, went out looking for Perry by traveling to Perry's home on the intercoastal waterway.
Events did not go according to plan, and Perry was not home at the time so the bit didn't work out as Regis had wanted it to. But, true to anything that Regis did, it was funny as all hell! Regis is really the funniest of all talk-show hosts! He's naturally funny. Not phony. Not dependent on the written joke. His humor stems from his personality. He’s really sharp!
Anyway, getting back to our traffic jam, we finally made it to the studio, but it was too late for that day’s show. So Regis kept his studio audience late and Perry shot his segment that day for the next day's show.
I was lucky to get introduced to both Regis and Kathie Lee. I let Regis know that I thought he was very funny. His response to my compliment was a heartfelt and humble thank you. The extremely attractive Kathy Lee was sweet. Quite often I hear people poking fun at her, and I really don’t understand why. Kathy Lee was very nice to me, and I really liked her!
* * *
The first of my three Perry Como tours had come to an end, and I was now faced with going back to my real world of show business. It was a show business world where the level of professionalism was at the same low as the pay I received for my talent, where respect for my talent was virtually non-existent among the bookers I dealt with, and where the level of bullshit was high enough to drown in.
I had been spoiled by Perry, Mickey, and Jason, and nothing I could do in this business could possibly compare. I had been paid more than ever for my talent and had been treated like a star for the entire tour. Limousines, five-star hotels, great dinners with Perry, top-notch theaters with fine lights and sound systems, and huge receptive audiences were par for the course.
Mostly, it was the degree of respect that was directed at me by everyone associated with the tour that made me the happiest, and that’s what I would miss the most. I could live and work without the other amenities, but it was respect that kept me going in the show business world. For the month I toured with Perry I was treated like I was important. I was treated like the professional I believed I was.
* * *
I was still to tour with Perry Como for two more Christmas seasons, although I didn’t know that for sure at the time. In the meantime, Perry asked me to perform on May 18, 1991, in a show benefiting Duke University’s Children’s Hospital in North Carolina. It was a yearly celebrity golf tournament and show that Perry was very much involved with and it was an honor to have been asked on board.
The organization that sponsored the charity event flew Jill and me first-class to Durham and had us transported from the airport to the event via limousine. Once again, I was being treated like the star I wished I was and loving every minute of it.
The show that evening was performed in Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, and the hall was transformed into a performing arena as professional as any of the places I worked while on tour with Perry. The stage had all of the proper lighting and the sound system couldn’t have been better. Because of the size of the stadium, big screen television monitors were placed on each side of the stage, and video cameras projected larger-than-life-size images of all of the performers.
The endearing Woody Woodbury emceed the show. Woody was a very successful and popular stand-up comedian in the 1950’s and 60’s and had produced at least two of his own comedy albums, "Woody Woodbury Looks at Love and Life" and "Concert in Comedy." He also hosted his own television variety show in the 1960’s called, simply, "The Woody Woodbury Show."
Woody was one of the nicest men I met at the event and there really couldn’t have been a better person to host a celebrity show. His wit and charm won the audience over immediately and he had them well warmed up by the time he introduced his first guest performer.
Legendary guitarist Chet Atkins was the first celebrity to appear on stage during the star-studded show, and it was a treat to watch him work.
Following him was singing star Helen O’Connell. Helen began her singing career in the 1930’s and got her first big break in 1939 when big band leader Jimmy Dorsey hired her as his female vocalist. The public fell in love with her and she went on to record a couple of hit songs with Dorsey. It wasn’t until 1951 that she made her mark as a solo entertainer, and it was during that decade that she made many television appearances including a stint as co-host of NBC’s "Today Show."
She was a beautiful, graceful, sweet and warm woman. Jill and I spent some time talking to her at the party in Perry's hotel suite following the show and she was one very grand lady. I was very saddened when I heard that she succumbed to cancer in 1993. I was honored to have had a chance to meet her.
Big band era recording artist Don Cornell followed Helen on stage and pleased the audience as much as she did. Don, who had been great friends with Perry Como for decades, sold over 50 million records during his career, had twelve Gold records between 1950 and 1962, and was inducted into the Big Band Hall of Fame in 1993. He’s a true singing legend.
I met Don, but he was very busy socializing with the many friends and admirers he had at the show so I didn’t really get to know him too well. I did spend time getting to know his lovely wife, Iris, and she was terrific.
I performed next and gave an excellent performance. I was asked to do fifteen minutes and I did the best fifteen that I had to offer. The audience loved me!
As I was leaving the stage and walking up the aisle through the cheering audience, a hand reached out to shake mine. It was television and movie actor Dennis Farina! Dennis warmly shook my hand and told me that he enjoyed my show.
That made my night and turned out to be the high point of my weekend, as Dennis was one of my favorite actors. He’s one of those charismatic actors that you just can’t help but love. I had seen him in the 1988 movie, "Midnight Run," and the 1989 movie, "The Case of the Hillside Strangler," and especially enjoyed him when he starred in the late-1980’s television series "Crime Story." In the years ahead he was to star in a number of great movies including "Get Shorty," "Saving Private Ryan," "The Mod Squad," and "Reindeer Games."
I had no idea that he was going to be in the audience. In fact, I had no idea that he was even at the event, so it was an absolute thrill when he congratulated me as I walked off stage. Later, at the party at Perry's hotel suite, Jill and I got a chance to talk to him and have some photo's taken with him. He was as likable off camera as he was on. A wonderful guy!
Jazz pianist and vocalist Buddy Greco was up after my performance. He began singing at the age of four and when he was sixteen years old was discovered by Benny Goodman, whom he traveled with for the next four years. Since then he had sold millions of records and received gold records for such songs as "Oh Look At Her Ain't She Pretty," "The Lady Is A Tramp," and "Around The World." He’s recorded over 60 albums and had over 100 singles ranging in style from jazz to country/western to modern pop. He was another singing legend who enhanced the excitement of the show.
I met Buddy and spoke with him for a short time. Later, he told me he enjoyed my show and asked for my business card, saying he'd like to work with me again sometime. Then I never heard from him again.
Billy Davis, Jr. was part of the vocal group the "5th Dimension." He followed Buddy, sang a couple of songs, and sounded great.
Comedian Foster Brooks was next and didn’t do all that well. Foster was known as "The Lovable Lush" and had been very successful with that character back in the 1960’s, making dozens of television appearances. He even made a guest appearance on the 65th episode of the popular situation comedy show, "Bewitched." (How’s that for a little TV trivia?)
Unfortunately, the idea of a likable drunk didn’t play that well to a sophisticated and affluent 1990’s audience. Drinking was no longer a laughing matter in the United States, and the people watching the show didn’t really buy his character.
Perry was next and the crowd got to their feet as he walked on stage. He had been involved with the Duke Celebrity Golf Tournament and Show for many years and had helped raise millions of dollars for the Children’s Hospital. Even without his participation in the event, he was loved by all, but the fact that he would lend his name, time, and talent each year made him that much more revered. He sang a few songs and left the stage with the audience once again standing on their feet and applauding.
Later that night, many of the people who had performed in the show and other dignitaries and friends attending the show came to Perry’s hotel suite for a celebration. It was not just a celebration of the events of the evening. It was also Perry Como’s 79th birthday.
Also present at the weekend-long event, but not performing, were Jerry Van Dyke and Pat Harrington. (Harrington starred on the television situation comedy show "One Day At A Time.") Jill and I had the pleasure of meeting them at breakfast the morning after the show. They were eating their breakfast so we didn't want to overstay our introduction. We joked around with them for a few minutes, and both of them seemed to be fun guys.
* * *
I had a good feeling that I would be touring again with Perry Como for his 1991 Christmas tour but didn’t know for sure until I worked with him at another one of his fund raising golf tournaments on September 29. His manager, Mickey, called me and asked if I would participate with Perry in a charity event for Good Shepherd Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Naturally I said I would.
It was not to be a star-studded show like the one in North Carolina but Perry, Mickey, and Carl were going to be there and that’s all that mattered to me.
For me, the high point of this event was knowing that, in my audience the night of the show, Neil Armstrong would be watching.
You can’t find more of a true American hero than Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. I decided to put together a new routine, open my show with it, and dedicate it to this great American.
I went to the store and purchased a bag of black balloons and a canister of helium. I filled up three of the balloons, clipped off the nubs, taped them down with black electrical tape and made the balloons look just like bowling balls. I walked out on stage acting as if I was actually carrying three heavy bowling balls. I opened my show by saying, "I’d like to start out with a quick juggling impression and I want to dedicate this to a true American hero, Mr. Neil Armstrong. This is my impression of a man juggling three bowling balls...on the moon." I then tossed the "bowling balls" and, as they slowly made their way to the ceiling, the audience roared.
I was hoping that the dedication would foster an opportunity for me to actually meet Neil Armstrong after the show, but I was quite disappointed to find out that he left the show early and went to bed because he wasn’t feeling well. Honestly, I don’t even know if he saw my routine or not. I’d like to think that he did.
When I was saying good-bye to Perry and Mickey after the show, they told me that they would see me in December. I was hoping that I would hear that.
* * *
The 1991 Perry Como Christmas tour was just as exciting as the tour the prior year and, once again, we performed for standing room only audiences in some extraordinary theaters. I preferred the older renovated theaters like the Fox Theaters in St. Louis and Detroit, and the Eastman Theater in Rochester, New York. There was a certain historical charm to those buildings and knowing that many legendary vaudeville performers had graced those same stages added to the glamour.
Some of the modern theaters like the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida and the Star Plaza Theater in Merrillville, Indiana were equipped with the most modern light and sound technology and were great performing centers but lacked the style and grace of the older buildings.
Most memorable to me during the 1991 tour was my appearance at the Centrum Arena in Worcester, Massachusetts, and that had nothing at all to do with the facility itself. In fact, the Centrum was simply a sports arena which was occasionally turned into a performance venue.
When I arrived there with the tour, I was overwhelmed by the size of the arena. The stage was set up in the middle of the playing field and surrounding the stage were thousands and thousands of seats. That pleased me just fine as I loved working in the round. I was ready to do my thing. That night I was to perform for the largest audience in my entire career.
10,000 people showed up to see Perry Como that night. I repeat, 10,000 people! Armed with a cordless lavaliere microphone attached to my shirt and lots of confidence, I went out there and performed one of the strongest shows of my career. I could do no wrong that night. From every corner of the arena people responded to my jokes and juggling, and I felt like a complex, well-oiled machine performing just about as perfectly as it could possibly perform. With the cordless microphone, I had the freedom to move about the stage and communicate with every section of the arena, and not one of the 10,000 people felt left out that night.
It’s hard to describe the feeling that I had being surrounded by so many people, all giving me the adoration that every performer craves. The amount of love in the room was staggering. In line with my theory, I gave my all to the audience, they gave back equally, and the excitement in the room grew and grew until I left the stage to the most thunderous applause that I have ever heard.
Backstage, you couldn’t calm me down. I was jumping up and down as if I had just won the World Series, my arms flailing aimlessly above my head. Tears filled my eyes, although I don’t think I actually let them drip down my cheeks. Oh all right, one tear did drip but I wiped it clean before anyone could see it.
Perry and Mickey approached me backstage, calmed me down, and congratulated me.
Twenty minutes later, the applause that I received when I left the stage would no longer be the "most thunderous applause that I ever heard." That’s when Perry entered the arena. He beat me out by many, many decibels!
* * *
In March, Perry asked me to appear at yet another charity event. It was a telethon in St. Louis, Missouri, which raised money for an organization benefiting handicapped children. It was run by ‘Bucky’ Bush, uncle of President George W. Bush and brother of President George Bush, Sr. I met him and thought that was pretty cool since I had once met Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy. I was then able to say that I'd met the brothers of two United States Presidents! (A few years later I was to meet Maureen Reagan, the daughter of former President Reagan, at a corporate gig in Florida. I may not have performed for Presidents, but I sure met a whole lot of their kin folk!)
There were many celebrities participating in this telethon including singer Dionne Warwick, who pretty much carried the show. She's a terrific talent and a great singer, known for such songs as "Walk On By," "I Say a Little Prayer," and "This Girl's in Love with You." She sang many songs during the eighteen hours of the telethon, and it was great to watch her perform from backstage.
In recent years she had been hawking all that psychic nonsense on television infomercials and it was always a mystery to me why, with her immense talent and huge success, she chose to partake in something so alienating to the many skeptics like myself who otherwise loved and respected her. I kept my curiosity about that to myself.
A couple of years later I was scheduled to work with her in Indiana, but the concert was canceled due to bad ticket sales. Shouldn’t she have known that was going to happen?
Television and movie actress Angie Dickenson co-hosted the telethon and you couldn’t have asked for a better person to do the job. On stage and off, she was charming and endearing and, overall, she was just easy to be around. So optimistic. Always saying nice things about everyone. She was a very uplifting person, and you couldn’t help but feel good in her presence.
Angie was like one of the guys, telling off-color jokes to Perry Como and anyone else who would listen. In fact, she told me a very funny joke that I occasionally tell on stage to this day.
John Forsythe was Angie’s co-host. For nine years, John’s portrayal of Blake Carrington, the ruthless Denver oil magnate in Dynasty, brought him into our living rooms once a week and won him critical acclaim as well as several Emmy nominations.
At the time of the telethon, Dynasty had been off the air for a few years and John had been working on his new television situation comedy show, "The Powers That Be," in which he played Senator William Powers. The show actually made its network debut the night of the telethon, and I watched the first episode in my hotel room prior to meeting him. (The show also starred the hilarious David Hyde Pierce, who would later play Niles Crane on the hit show "Frazier.")
I thought the show was very funny and when I was introduced to John, I told him so. But then, joking in my serious voice, I added that what the show really needed was a role written for a comedian and juggler. He smiled and looked at me funny as if he didn't know whether I was being serious or not. He really should have given my suggestion some consideration because the show didn’t last more than one season.
Unlike everyone else participating in the telethon, Arte Johnson of television show "Laugh-In" fame seemed a bit full of himself, and I really didn’t like being around him. Not knowing that he had a supporting role on a television soap opera for the previous couple of years, I asked him if he was working on any show business projects. He seemed offended that I didn’t know he was on a soap opera, like I really should have known that. Whenever he spoke to me that day, he would call me "kid" in that condescending way people talk down to other people. "Hey, kid!" "Yea, kid!" "Right, kid!" I hated that!
Television and movie actor Jim Byrnes appeared on the show as well. He's starred in such television shows as "Wiseguys," and "Highlander, The Series." The very likable Jim is also a fine musician and singer, and he delighted the audience with his singing several times over the course of the day.
For me, the highlight of the day was meeting the young and firm Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders who were there to do...well... to do some cheering. I did a small amount of flirting and conversing with them, and they were all well-educated, very bright, and quite personable. All of them were in college or employed in professional careers. Looking pretty and leading cheers was a means to an end for those ladies, not a goal.
* * *
The 1992 Perry Como Christmas tour was to be Perry’s last career tour. By that year he was over 80 years old and, while in overall good health, was starting to get easily run down from the rigors of a winter tour in the brutally cold northern United States.
Each year the tour would culminate with appearances in sunny Florida, but the earlier visits to Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and upstate New York were snowy and cold.
The last half of our tour in 1991 was almost canceled when Perry got a nasty head cold and couldn’t sing. We were in Detroit at the time and had to cancel two nights there and a couple of nights in Illinois. In fact, everyone on the tour was flown home, not knowing whether we would finish out the rest of the scheduled dates. Perry rested for a week, the tour was completed and we made up the canceled dates in January.
In 1992 Perry was starting to feel tired and sick again, and everyone on the tour just kind of knew that it would be the last time Perry would want to subject himself to a winter tour, or any tour for that matter. There was talk of a Japanese tour and a possible spring and summer tour, but most of us saw the writing on the wall and could certainly understand why Perry wouldn’t want to continue at that pace.
When we were in Florida that year, Perry invited everyone on the tour over to his home in Jupiter and then to his country club for a holiday dinner. What better way to celebrate the Christmas season than spending a day with Perry Como at his own home!
We had a couple of days off between two of our Florida bookings, and it was then that we all climbed aboard our plush tour bus and traveled to Perry’s modest home on the intercoastal waterway of Florida’s east coast.
What a sight it must have been as twenty or so people poured out of the tour bus parked in front of Perry’s suburban home. I’m sure his neighbors got a kick out of that. Perry’s wife, Roselle, welcomed all of us with open arms and snacks and drinks were served. Roselle showed us around their beautiful and unpretentious house, and Perry took us out to his backyard to show us his dock and boat.
I was really impressed with how humble his home was. Nothing ostentatious. Everything was very modest. Don’t get me wrong, his home was beautiful and everything in it was first-class, but nothing was overdone or too showy. A true reflection of the modest man himself and his classy wife, Roselle.
In his den, nicely framed gold records hung on the walls along with various plaques and awards that he had been presented with over his long and successful years as a crooner. In his backyard Perry had a putting green where he practiced his golf swing, a small built-in swimming pool, and a dock where his fishing boat floated.
In the spirit of the Christmas season, Perry later presented all of us with "Perry Como Christmas Tour" jackets and then herded us back into the tour bus for a short drive to his country club and a Christmas dinner that spared no expense.
We finished out the last two Florida concerts over the next couple of days and said our good-byes. It was very sad for me, both personally and professionally, to see the tour come to an end. I was more than lucky to have been asked to work with Perry for three straight holiday seasons and knew that this would be the end of an era for me.
I really loved and respected Perry, and it was hard to imagine a Christmas season without a Perry Como Christmas tour. As sad as it was for me, it seemed even sadder for Perry, and he got very emotional saying good-bye to everyone he had gotten to know and love over the past few years. I think he knew at that time that he was through touring.
I stayed in touch with Perry over the next couple of years, calling him at Christmas and on his May 18th birthday. Generally, Roselle would answer the phone, and most of the time Perry was out golfing or fishing and I would just leave a message with her. Roselle was always very appreciative that I would remember to call on those holidays. A couple of times I did get to speak with Perry and that was always nice.
After a few years, I just stopped calling. I wish I hadn't.
PHOTOS OF PERRY COMO FROM 1990 TOURS