A trip back to visit some of the exuberant, silly, but fun bands of the 60s: Innocence lost and found?
Some of you may remember “The Cowsills,” whose hilariously captivating version of “Hair”
from the famed musical by the same name from the late Sixties, catapulted the family to fame, leading to an appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” But behind the happy, silly, dancing and singing siblings was a story of cruelty, alcoholism and emotional and physical abuse by their tyrannical father.
I think one of the reasons the story is so fascinating and poignant, when you take more of a deep dive than I’ve yet done, is that behind the scenes, their story has all the elements of tragic literature: the villainous father, the submissive wife (I’m guessing), and the gifted and abused children trying to somehow thrive and survive despite all the fallen chips.
Another story of a pop singer who survived emotional abuse and did thrive, and is now still touring at 77, singing his hits with other oldies groups from the Sixties, is Gary Lewis of the band “Gary Lewis and the Playboys.” I always liked his songs, but now realize that back when his dreadful and famous father was alive, he was the “sad clown” he sang about in that hit tune of his. One of his biggest thrills was being invited to go back stage once to meet The Beatles when they invited him to come by for a quick visit.
I never understood the grossly ham-handed humor of Jerry Lewis, and he turned out to be a bitter, spiteful old man who tried to redeem himself by doing endless Muscular Dystropy telethons, an effective, but in his case, creepy way of fundraising. Somehow, having him as the face of the organization had to make you wonder what they did with all that money.
Their Charity Navigator rating is pretty bad.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/131665552
Gary has kept on with what he did best all his life. His comedy schtick was absolutely awful as he tried lamely to imitate his father in this 1966 TV special,
which, apart from the music, is so embarrassingly awful in the beginning segments that I had to avert my eyes. He was also a young man who thought of himself (jokingly??) as some sort of playboy, as you can see in the video from the TV special showing him flirting with the Playboy Magazine look-alike. It’s hard to imagine that this kind of humor, which so blatantly objectified women, was once considered funny, let alone tolerated.
Okay, call me an old curmudgeon, but how sadly embarrassing he was back then. I loved his catchy songs from the Sixties, and still do, but that video has caused me to go into compartmentalization mode and screen out the misogynist antics.
If this story is accurate,
the dad was one sorry specimen in reality, as well as on stage and in comedy acts and movies with Dean Martin. Never got that, either, though old Dean was quite a crooner. I remember sadly and goofily wailing out parts of that lamentably close-to-the-truth song back in the mid-Sixties, “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime!”
Of course “Dino” was big into the hip alcoholic persona on stage and screen, and playing slightly tipsy or drunk on TV in the Sixties was hip and apparently something Dean felt he had to do to be popular and funny. In actuality he didn’t drink much a all, if anything in his later years.
I’m not condoning his stupidity here, this was Sixties “comedy” and HE WAS JERRY LEWIS’ sidekick for a decade, for Pete’s sake! Sad!
This is my all-time favorite Gary Lewis and the Playboys song. Back when I was a 14-year-old avid buyer of 45s to play on our record player, I listened to this ultra-catchy, feel-good song many times. Of course, I never paid much attention to the lyrics of those perky songs, but loved the music, beat and harmonies! But oh, there were some nice lyric parts, as in “…As the bluebird sings it’s magic song…” Sweet!
And, of course, this big mega hit from another group popular around the same time:
Sixties music is unforgettable, that’s for sure.
I didn’t know that Jerry and Gary were related. I never liked Jerry’s humor. I thought it was too stupid for words. Wasn’t a fan of the whole rat pack with their smoking, drinking and womanizing. Awful stuff.
@startingover_1 I much prefer “The Three Stooges” to Jerry Lewis. I’m still trying to figure out why he was so popular in France, but then again I think the French thought his abject stupidity comedy act was the perfect reflection of American society, appealing to their haughty distaste of anything US..
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And remember Dino, Desi, and Billy? Sons of Dean Martin, Desi Arnez and ?? (They had a hit single, “I’m a Fool” ) Actually, I kind of have fond memories of some Jerry Lewis movies – “The Disorderly Orderly” comes to mind. If I were to view them now, I would probably be more critical. But, let’s face it – those movies we were brought up on in the 1960’s were SOOOO blatantly sexist! Those Rock Hudson and Doris Day movies I loved back then would horrify our younger contemporaries today, I just know! Kind of horrify me now – but on another level, I give them a pass because I loved them so much then. Ah, me.
@onlysujema What an interesting note! Oh, yes, I remember, but only vaguely, Dino, Desi and Billy. One hit wonders! Apparently Billy was a friend of the other two celebrity offspring.
You are so right.. the enduring legacy of those movies and entertainers was indeed their blatant sexism. Hard to believe that women sat in those audiences and put up with that stuff. That said, the sexism was a holdover from earlier decades and all of US history in fact, and by the 60s, fortunately, with women’s liberation movements and leaders such as Gloria Steinem, things began to change, and today it’s a different world, albeit still full of a lot of male misogyny.
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