By Ray Bennett
‘It wasn’t exactly Elvis in Las Vegas’. That was the lede in our story after my colleague Ron Base and I interviewed Frankie Avalon, who turns 84 today, when he performed in cabaret at a seedy nightclub in Windsor, Ontario, in 1970.
A teen idol opposite Annette Funicello in a series of ‘Beach Party’ movies in the early Sixties, Avalon’s headline days were behind him but his hit song ‘Venus’ left him with devoted fans. The Commodore Club (later to become a popular striptease venue named Jason’s) in downtown Windsor attracted clientele from across the river in Detroit and women of a certain age flocked to see their dreamboat. He didn’t disappoint them, giving a polished and entertaining show.
Club manager Mike Drakich, who also owned the city’s better appointed Top Hat Supper Club, knew Ron and me and was aware that our story would appear in the Toronto Telegram under the byline Victor Gordon (our middle names). We were treated to a fine meal and plenty of wine and vodka as we watched Frankie please his fans.
After the show, he joined us at our secluded table and appeared delighted still to be of interest to the press. We chatted away merrily until I asked him about a big western movie in which I said he had co-starred. You know, I said, set in mining country with John Wayne, Stewart Granger and Ernie Kovacs. Ron stared at me quizzically but Avalon was at a loss.
Suddenly, I realised that the booze had clouded my memory and I’d made an embarrassing mistake. The film I was thinking of was ‘North to Alaska’ with another young co-star, a rival in the teen-idol stakes.
Sheepishly, I confessed, ‘Ah, no, that was Fabian’.
Fortunately, Avalon just laughed.
When I mixed up Frankie Avalon with another former teen idol
‘It wasn’t exactly Elvis in Las Vegas’. That was the lede in our story after my colleague Ron Base and I interviewed Frankie Avalon, who turns 84 today, when he performed in cabaret at a seedy nightclub in Windsor, Ontario, in 1970.
A teen idol opposite Annette Funicello in a series of ‘Beach Party’ movies in the early Sixties, Avalon’s headline days were behind him but his hit song ‘Venus’ left him with devoted fans. The Commodore Club (later to become a popular striptease venue named Jason’s) in downtown Windsor attracted clientele from across the river in Detroit and women of a certain age flocked to see their dreamboat. He didn’t disappoint them, giving a polished and entertaining show.
Club manager Mike Drakich, who also owned the city’s better appointed Top Hat Supper Club, knew Ron and me and was aware that our story would appear in the Toronto Telegram under the byline Victor Gordon (our middle names). We were treated to a fine meal and plenty of wine and vodka as we watched Frankie please his fans.
After the show, he joined us at our secluded table and appeared delighted still to be of interest to the press. We chatted away merrily until I asked him about a big western movie in which I said he had co-starred. You know, I said, set in mining country with John Wayne, Stewart Granger and Ernie Kovacs. Ron stared at me quizzically but Avalon was at a loss.
Suddenly, I realised that the booze had clouded my memory and I’d made an embarrassing mistake. The film I was thinking of was ‘North to Alaska’ with another young co-star, a rival in the teen-idol stakes.
Sheepishly, I confessed, ‘Ah, no, that was Fabian’.
Fortunately, Avalon just laughed.