(Continued from Thursday, May 26. Click here to see Part 1, or here to see Part 2….)
It was 1964, and still-shy Linda Ferrino (now Linda Hoffman) had just been appointed Bobby Rydell’s National Fan Club President.
(Linda Ferrino Hoffman and Bobby Rydell in 2014)
So when Bobby was invited to appear on the nationally syndicated Mike Douglas Show, she did what any responsible chief executive would do: She had her mom call school and say she’d be out sick that day.
(Continued from Tuesday, May 24. Click here to see Part 1….)
It was Easter weekend, 1960, and young Linda Ferrino was pouting – big time.
She and her young-at-heart mom had both been smitten by Bobby Rydell when he sang “Kissin’ Time” on American Bandstand. It had even been her mom’s idea to watch.
Now her mom was insisting that they couldn’t attend Bobby’s Steel Pier show, because they were expecting Easter guests at their Jersey shore house.
(Atlantic City’s Steel Pier flaunts its star power on an undated postcard. That’s Mr. Peanut tipping his hat at the far left.)
You can’t make this stuff up….
Last June, we told you about a magical, 12-pound photo album that a friend gave us as a housewarming gift when we moved to East Passyunk Avenue.
Inside were over 200 photos of local and national celebrities, politicians and “just plain folks” from the mid-1960s, collected by South Philadelphia columnist and photographer Arthur Tavani.
(Art Tavani’s magical photo album. Click here to see a sample of what it contains.)
WOW – CHECK THIS OUT….
Among the instantly recognizable faces, of course, were three photos of South Philadelphia heart-throb Bobby Rydell…
(Singer Bobby Rydell with Art Tavani, left, and Philadelphia-based TV host Mike Douglas, center, around 1964.)
Karen Benson has always been attracted to photography – and to the unusual.
(Karen photographed “Head Case” at the Chelsea Antiques Garage in New York City. And, yes, there’s a lot going on in that box…)
Unexpected Philadelphia 