Frankie Avalon Talks Grease, Billboard Hits, and His Legacy in Hollywood

Lee Habeeb (00:10):
This is Lee Habeeb, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. October is Italian-American Heritage Month, and all month long, we’re celebrating the Italian-Americans who helped shape our nation. From Columbus to Capra. And up next, a story of an Italian-American teen heartthrob. Not many teen idols are able to carve out a successful career as they mature, but Frankie Avalon is one of those exceptions. Avalon had 31 charting U.S. Billboard singles from 1958 to late 1962, including the number-one hits “Venus” and “Why” in 1959. Avalon is also well known for his role in the 1978 musical film, Grease, as Teen Angel, in which he sings “Beauty School Dropout” to Frenchie. Without any further ado, here’s Frankie Avalon with his story.

Frankie Avalon (01:12):
As a young man, young boy, really, growing up in South Philadelphia, I really started into this business of show business, unaware of trying to be in show business. But I became a part of show business at the age of probably, I don’t know, I think about eight or nine. Because in the neighborhood where I lived was a great neighborhood, a melting pot for all kinds of nationalities and great friends. And growing up as a boy, boy, it was really just terrific. There used to be a movie theater called the Point Breeze Theater. It was in South Philadelphia, and on a Saturday afternoon, a lot of the moms used to pack a little lunch and put us in the theater there so we could watch the cartoons and everything for the part of the day. And of course, you know, we’d walk to the theater and of course walk back. It was a very safe neighborhood, and that’s what we did. And this one time when I went in there, and I was about eight years old, in between some of the cartoons, There was a man that came on stage and said, we’re going to have a singing contest. And I never sang in my life, but I said to myself, this is going to be okay.

Frankie Avalon (02:21):
He said, so anybody wants to sing? We got the first prize is going to be a red scooter. So I raised my hand and they took me up there and they introduced me and asked, what’s your name? I said, Frank Avallone. How old are you? I’m about eight years old. Okay, are you ready for this contest? And I said, yeah. And they said, what are you going to do? I said, I’m going to sing. So they said, what are you going to sing? I said, I’m going to sing a song that I hear on the radio all the time that my mom and dad like. It’s called “Give Me Five Minutes More”. He said, okay, you’re on. No band, none of this stuff. And I said, give me five minutes more. Only five minutes more. Let me stay, let me stay in your heart. Well, after that, they had about four or five kids who auditioned. Well, I fortunately won that contest, and I won my first prize, which was a red scooter. So that really was the introduction for me being into this show business world. And as time went by, you know, I really wanted to be a boxer.

Frankie Avalon (03:04):
And I used to box for the Police Athletic League because they kind of kept the kids off the street and had them do something. And I liked boxing. So that became obsolete after a while. And then I went back to the movie theater and I saw a film. I must have been about nine at that time, closer to 10. And there was a film there called Young Man with a Horn. And I stayed until it was getting dark, and I watched that film about six or seven times. And I just fell in love with the sound of the trumpet. And it was a story about a young boy who becomes a trumpet player, becomes very successful. And I kind of related to that, I guess. But I really liked the sound of the trumpet. And I came back home to my dad, and I said, Dad, I want to play the trumpet. Well, my father was a really talented guy, not professionally, but he could play piano, he could play guitar. He could play accordion. He was just a very talented guy, and he loved music. And he said, okay. So the next day he came back, and he told me that he went to this pawn shop, and he bought a horn for about $7 or $8.

Frankie Avalon (04:08):
And he gave me the horn, and I went into my room, and I started practicing. How, I don’t know. I just started blowing on this thing. And in about two hours, I came out of the room, and I played a song called “Music! Music! Music! “. And it went, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, dee-da-da-da-da-da-da, all I want, I love, and you and music. So I played that song, and I started practicing. I loved it so much, I became so involved with this horn that I would play three, four, five hours a day. And I lived in a row house, and a lot of the neighbors didn’t like that, you know, because I was practicing morning, noon, and night. But all of a sudden, after about a year’s time, my dad got me a teacher, from the neighborhood. His name was Danny D. , as he went by. And he started teaching me, and I started reading music. And he finally came to my dad, and he said, you know, Nick was my father’s name. He said, you know, this kid has really got some talent, and I think I can take him so far. I think you ought to look for somebody that can really work with this boy as a trumpet player.

Frankie Avalon (05:13):
So finally, my dad talked to some of the people in the neighborhood and him, and they found this teacher who was with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seymour Rosenfeld, And I went to audition for him. He was in North Philadelphia. And my uncle took me there and I auditioned. He said, I’ll work with this boy. And I started studying with him. And because of that, I really learned how to play very well. When there was a singer by the name of Al Martino, who was number one in the world with a song called “Here in My Heart”. I had heard in the neighborhood that one of the neighbors, Silvio, was giving him a party and our neighborhood just loved and admired the fact that he was such a big star. So they threw this party and there was a big crowd outside of this little row house. And I took my horn and I kind of wiggled my way through everybody and knocked on the door. And this man, Silvio, I really didn’t know him. I knew he was in the neighborhood. But he said, yeah, what do you want? I said, well, I’m a trumpet player. I’d like to play my trumpet for Al Martino. He said, come on in, kid. So I went in. They were having a party.

Frankie Avalon (06:20):
Everybody was drinking and eating and having a good time. And I took out my horn from the case and I started to play this song called “Tenderly”. And I kind of stopped the party. And all of a sudden, Al Martino went to Sylvia and said, who is this kid? He said, I don’t know. What’s your name, kid? I said, Frank Avallone. He said, call his mother and father and see if we could take him to New York. I think this kid’s got some talent. I want to take him to my agency. So he did. My mother and father agreed. We knew him from the neighborhood, Silvio. And we drove into New York City and we went to the agency. And Jack Sobel was the agent. And I took out my horn and I played “Tenderly”. And he said, I got a great idea. We handle Jackie Gleason. And he loves trumpet. So he’s right across the street at the Sheraton Hotel. He’s got a penthouse. He said, let’s take him in there. Maybe he’ll play for Jackie.

Lee Habeeb (07:22):
And you’re listening to Frankie Avalon tell a heck of a story. When we come back, more of Frankie Avalon’s story here on Our American Stories. Lee Habeeb here again. Our American Stories tries to tell the stories of America’s past and present to Americans. And we want to hear your stories too. They’re some of our favorites. Send them to us. Go to ouramericanstories. com and click the Your Stories tab. Again, please go to ouramericanstories. com. And click the Your Stories tab. And we continue with our American stories and with Frankie Avalon’s story. We last left off with him as a 12-year-old boy about to perform with his trumpet for the Great One. And that would be Honeymooners Impresario. and comedic genius Jackie Gleason at his Sheraton Hotel penthouse.

Frankie Avalon (08:30):
So we walked in there. They were having a meeting and Jackie wasn’t there, but it was a penthouse. He was there, but I didn’t know because he wasn’t in that particular part of the penthouse. I took out my horn and I played “Tenderly”. And as I was playing, through the corner of my eye, I saw the great one, Jackie Gleason, come out from the second floor of the penthouse. And after I finished, they all applauded. And he said,

Archival television audio (08:52):
Jackie said that there’s writers and producer and director. Write a show. I want them on in two weeks. Oh, come on in, kid. Come on in. All set and ready to go. Where are you going? This is Frankie Avalon. I’m taking him down to Joe the Bartender’s. He’s a terrific trumpet player. Pretty good, huh? I said terrific. Oh, Frankie, this is my good neighbor and friend, Mrs. Cranford. Hi, Frankie. This is my wife, Fixie. Hi. Oh, when you hear this kid, hey, give us a number now, Frankie. Come on out. That was my first major experience on national television with the great one Jackie Gleason. Oh, you sure are wonderful. Oh, you sure are. Kid, you’re ready for the big time. You hear that, Frankie? I’m coming for my wife. Boy, that’s a compliment. She knows. Well, let’s go. We’re going down to join the bartenders. We’ll see you later, girls. Let’s go. Okay, Ed.

Frankie Avalon (09:50):
So as time went by, because. Of the success that I had, I also did an audition for a company that was run by a man named Bender. And he had another trumpet player, and he thought it would be a great combination of him kind of being my mentor. It was Ray Anthony. who had a lot of hit records, the Bunny Hop and all that stuff. So then they took me to RCA Victor, label X. I auditioned for them and they signed me under a contract to have a recording contract playing trumpet. And I did, and I had a song called “Trumpet Sorrento”, and it became on the national charts as a trumpet player. And from then on in, I kept studying. I became number one trumpet player in the All City Orchestra of Philadelphia. And then in summer times, I would try to play with different bands to make some extra money as a kid growing up. And I heard about a band called Rocco and the Saints. And somebody said they’re looking for a trumpet player. And someone told somebody and Rocco came into my house and he said, let me hear you play. And I played for him. He said, I’ll tell you, I’ll give you a job. I said, where are we going to play?

Frankie Avalon (11:03):
He said, Mary’s Inn. It’s in New Jersey. And I said, okay, what’s the pay? He said, $5. I said, okay, I’ll play. So as time went by, I was playing trumpet with Rocco and the Saints. We played on weekends. And finally I started singing a couple of songs because a lot of, there were seven guys in the band and everybody had to sing a couple of songs to keep the band kind of fresh. And I did a couple of songs, Lover Man, whatever it was, and another song. And people started coming up to Rocco saying, let this kid sing a little more. So on one of our breaks, he came to me and he said, how about singing some more songs? I said, no, you hired me as a trumpet player. And he said, yeah, but I’ll give you an extra five dollars. I said, you got it. So that’s how I started singing. Then in the summertime, we went out to a place down the shore in Somers Point, New Jersey, and it was called Bayshores was the name of this club. We played seven days a week, five sets a night, two jam sessions, and we were living on top of the nightclub there.

Frankie Avalon (12:29):
And a new company out of Philadelphia was looking for some new talent, and our band Rocco and the Saints became pretty popular and they came in listened to us and on one of our breaks we went back to the dressing room and Pete DeAngelis and Bob Marcucci were the owners of this record company and they said we’d like to sign the band and of course Rocco was our man to make the deal and he did and he said okay and we want this boy Frank to sing on one side and we’ll do an instrumental so we did an instrumental called “Jivin’ with the Saints” and and they wrote a song for me called “Cupid Shot an Arrow”. So that was my first record, and the record came out, they put it out, and it really didn’t make any noise at all until, in the Boston area for some reason, my song, my side of the record started to make the Boston charts, and Bob Marcucci drove me into Boston. and there was a man by the name of Joe Smith and there was a big rock and roll show with Fats Domino and Little Richard and all these guys and they all had hit records and my manager went to Joe Smith and said, could you put this kid on?

Frankie Avalon (13:32):
Said, we don’t have any money for this kid and I know he’s got a record but we don’t have any money and we’re all filled up. He said, don’t pay him, just put him on. And my manager bought me a $12 suit that I had on. I went on stage, I did a couple songs, the kids were waiting outside for my autograph and wanted to know my fan club. So Bob said, I think you’ve got some of these kids like you. And that was the start of being that teen idol that lasted for a while. Now I’m a recording artist now. I’m a singer. The Horn is put away. And now I’ve got a contract with Chancellor Records. And I do a couple of other songs. I did a song called “Shy Guy”, which didn’t do anything. And I did something else, “Blue Betty”, which didn’t do anything. And then all of a sudden, I had one more record to do. They took me to New York City. And in those days, there was just two tracks, so there wasn’t all this technology. And the band was in one part of the room, and I was in the other part of the room. And they started playing this song, which I was going to record, called “De De Dinah”.

Frankie Avalon (14:40):
And as they were rehearsing, there was a very staccato kind of a song to me. So I was just doing, kind of singing through my nose. So the producer of the record came up to me and he said, what are you doing? I said, I’m just having some fun. Sounds very staccato to me. He said, let’s make a couple like that. Well, I went back to the microphone and started singing. And they made the take of it, they put it out, and in about a month it started to make some noise around the country. All of a sudden it became a top five or top ten record, which really launched me as a singer, singing through my nose, “De De Dinah”. And a lot of people who were out there held their noses too when they heard it. Now, after “De De Dinah”, I had to do another nose job, which I sang through my nose, called “Gingerbread”. And finally they said, no, come on, you know, you’ve got a quality that the kids really like, and it’s more of a romantic. So they, they wrote another song for me called “I’ll Wait for You”. And it was a very pretty ballad.

Frankie Avalon (15:47):
And, uh, again, it became a chart record and it was probably in the top, uh, 15, I think. And then I had another recording date to do, and I was at home in my house and there was a knock on the door. And again, it was a songwriter. And he said, my name is Ed Marshall. I’m a songwriter. I’d like to play this song for you. He came in. We had a little piano. And he sat down and he played this song called “Venus”. And I just fell in love with it the first time I heard it. And I said, play it again, play it again, play it again. And finally, I called our record company. It was in Philadelphia. And I called Bob Marcucci and Pete DeAngelis. I said, I got a song here. Can we drive over? So we drove into town where there’s where their offices were, they had a piano there, and we walked in there, and he played the song, and Pete DeAngelis, who was my producer, fell in love with the song, and he said, as he played it again and again, he said, you know what, I’d like to make two changes to the song, if you’ll permit me to do that. So the writer, Ed Marshall, said okay.

Lee Habeeb (17:04):
And you’re listening to Frankie Avalon tell his life story in the business, so to speak. And it starts in that penthouse, auditioning for Jackie Gleason. The next thing you know, he’s on national television. But as the world will have it, he’s still got to get that next gig. And it’s at the Jersey Shore, playing all summer long, living above the joint he was playing, that he would start to sing. And from singing, well, he gets to the hit song, “Venus”. When we come back, more of the story, the life journey, of this South Philadelphia kid named Frankie Avalon, known to the rest of us as Frankie Avalon. His story continues here on Our American Stories.

Frankie Avalon (17:52):
[Music]

Lee Habeeb (18:08):
And we continue with our American stories. Let’s pick up where we last left off. Frankie Avalon brought a new song to his producer called “Venus”. And the producer, well, he fell in love with it. Here’s Frankie with the rest of the story.

Frankie Avalon (18:25):
So he said, you know, it goes da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. He said, I’d like to change one note. Da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. So he agreed to that, so we had made one change. Then Pete DeAngelis said, I’d like to make another change lyrically at the very end, instead of saying as long as we will live, I’d like to say as long as we shall live. So we made those two changes, went into New York City. I made seven takes on the song. You know, you had to do it straight, just like a performance. And I waited till four o’clock in the morning to take it home. I knew that I had a smash record. And I kept playing it. I didn’t sleep for 24 hours. And to me, I was right. Pete DeAngelis was right. And Ed Marshall, the writer of the song, was right. We were all right. And of course, the audience around the world was really infatuated with the song. It became number one for a long, long time and gave me an opportunity to sing around the world. When I became very successful and was selling a lot of records. And a teen idol had a fan base of, I don’t know, we’d get somewhere around 12, 15,000 letters a week and a big fan base.

Frankie Avalon (19:27):
And so now Hollywood recognized, hey, this kid’s got some fan base. let’s put him in a picture with a major star so Warner Brothers made a deal with my manager and my agent and they brought me out to Hollywood to do my first film for Warner Brothers with a big star Alan Ladd called Guns of the Timberland and that started me in the motion picture industry and from there on in I made, I don’t know, over 40 motion pictures in my career. Well, what had happened, I was playing the Steel Pier in Atlantic City and the film was released and it was very successful and very successful for me. And I’ll never forget, I was in the dressing room. I was doing five, seven, 12 shows a day. Depending upon the weather, you would do a 15-minute show and they would show a movie and then another 15-minute show. And they had a phone booth backstage there, and it was my agent, Jack Gilardi, who said, Frankie, it’s Jack. I just got a call from John Wayne. He just saw your performance in Guns of the Timberland with Alan Ladd. He wants you to sign a contract to do a picture called The Alamo. where he’s going to star, direct, and it’s going to be done in Texas.

Frankie Avalon (20:53):
And that was my first introduction to starring a picture with John Wayne and a major, major motion picture. I’m out there now. I’ve got to ride this horse, and I play a character called Smitty. I have to learn how to ride. So the Duke said, Frankie, here’s what you do. When you sit on the saddle here, you make it feel like you’ve got a clothes hanger that’s pulling you up. So keep your shoulders very straight and just kind of go along with the float with this horse. And I learned how to ride, and I became a pretty good rider. And it was an experience of a South Philly kid who nothing but the streets of South Philly and under a fireplug, you know… when it was a real hot summer day. But I learned a lot, you know, being experienced with a lot of experience, Richard Widmark and Laurence Harvey and John Wayne and John Ford. Oh my God, it was a great experience for me. And I was on that picture for four months. All of a sudden becoming involved in motion pictures and meeting a lot of the celebrities from, I don’t know, from Natalie Wood to, I did a picture with R.J. Wagner, and, of course, I got to know a lot of movie stars.

Frankie Avalon (22:02):
And, of course, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And then, of course, working with John Wayne when I had to promote the film with him. I mean, I was with these major stars, but never the acceptance that John Wayne would get when I’d walk into a restaurant with him. I mean, everybody’s jaw just dropped. There was such respect for him. And he was really such a shy guy. He was six foot five. And with his boots on, he must have been nine feet to me. And we’d walk in, and people would just look at him and look at him and just stare at him. They were kind of afraid to even ask for an autograph. He was just a major, major, big hunk of a star. So that was a great experience working with him and, of course, traveling with him. So now I’m living in California, in Hollywood, and I’m living right off Sunset Boulevard there and had a lot of my friends there. And Steve McQueen used to come by and Jack Nicholson. We all have, you know, we were young Hollywood at the time. And a lot of gals that were young ingenues that I was dating and had great dates with them. And then one night I was playing cards with my friends.

Frankie Avalon (23:30):
And now Rona Barrett, who was a big columnist, she wasn’t at the time, but she was starting. I had a friend and she brought her over and introduced me. I left a card game and her name was Kay. And we started talking and she was coming from her mother’s birthday party with Rona Barrett. And we got into a good conversation for about an hour. And when she left, I went back to the card game and I said to my friends there, well, see that gal there? I’m going to marry her. And about six or seven months, we dated and got married. We started having children right away. And our firstborn, we named him Frank after me and my grandfather, really. And after 13 months, we had another one, Tony. And then another, to kind of sum it up, we had eight children in 10 years. So my wife was pregnant every single year. And she loved being pregnant. She loved having children. And, of course, I was on the road and coming back, and here’s another one, here’s another one, here’s another one. And we’re very fortunate to have eight children, very healthy. And we have ten grandchildren, and she’s a great mom. They love her. They adore her. You know, she’s like a general.

Frankie Avalon (24:38):
To have eight children and keeping everyone intact was quite a job that she had. And, of course, I’d come home and have a lot of fun with the kids, and she was the disciplinary. So she was a great mom, still is, and they adore her. The first time I met Annette Funicello was at the Hollywood Bowl. For Dick Clark, we were playing the Hollywood Bowl. He had a show of about four or five different acts on the show, and she was one. She was very popular as a Mouseketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club. And she must have been about, oh, 14, 15, and I must have been about 17. And we started talking, and I said, Jesus, I’d like to maybe take you out for a pizza and a cold drink or something. She said, you’ve got to talk to my mother. And I went to Virginia, and I said, can I take your daughter for a slice of pizza, whatever? She said, okay, call me. And I went over to the house, picked her up, and we went down the street. There was a little pizza parlor there. And we had some pizza and some soft drinks. And that was it. And we kept in touch. And, of course, she was working. I was working.

Frankie Avalon (25:42):
And that was our first date and only date, really. And then time had gone by. And I had made a few films. I must have made about 10 or 15 films at the time. And I was signed to a company called American International Pictures. I made some films for them. And finally, they said I got friendly with a writer by the name of Lou Rusoff. And I said to him, Lou, write something that’s fun for kids, you know, where we hang out together and laugh and sing. And he came back in about a month and he says, here’s a script to read this. It’s called Beach Party. And I read it and I thought it was really fun. It looked like the old Dead End Kids gang and having fun. I said, who’s going to play Dee Dee was the girl’s name. I guess he named her after “De De Dinah”. He said, we’re talking to Walt Disney as a loan out for Annette Funicello.

Lee Habeeb (26:45):
And you’re listening to Frankie Avalon share some remarkable stories. That call he got at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, he was about to work with John Wayne. And this kid from South Philly soon finds himself in a Western. He met his bride, and when he met her, he told his poker buddies, I’m going to marry that girl. And seven or eight months later. He did. Eight kids later, in ten years, his wife Kay, he calls the General. And then this movie idea, Beach Party. Back when a movie could just be silly and fun. The story of Frankie Avalon, as told by Frankie Avalon, continues here on Our American Stories. Our American Stories And we continue with Our American Stories. We last left off with Frankie Avalon sharing the story of how he wrote a movie script about teens, well, just having fun on the beach. Casting the female role opposite of Frankie, well, that was up in the air. Let’s return to Frankie Avalon.

Frankie Avalon (27:57):
I said, that’s great. I met her when she was young, and geez, that would be fun. And that’s how we got together. They put us together. We did our first motion picture beach party together. It came out, we did it in January, I think. It came out kind of towards the start of the summer, and it was a tremendous success at the box office. And because of that, we had lots of fun doing those pictures. We made about seven and made tons and tons of money for AIP. I always wanted to keep a career going. by not just being a teen idol. Of course, those days went by the wayside because you’re married, you’ve got kids, and your fan base kind of dwindles. So I wanted to get into the nightclub business, which I did. I worked with a lot of good people that helped me develop a show and act. And, of course, I opened up at the Copacabana, which once you made the Copacabana, you were in show business. I would play the show business under contract with them for about five years. and about 1970, one or two, whatever it was, I’m playing at the Copa, and they wanted to do a promotion for a Broadway show that was playing there called Grease.

Frankie Avalon (29:01):
And I said, sure, I’ll go. It was in the afternoon, and I met the cast. And Travolta, by the way, was in that show as one of the side guys, one of the chorus boys. And I saw the play, and then time had gone by, and it was about 1977, I got a call. I was playing golf and I got off the ninth hole. My manager was there with the script. He said, this is a script. Paramount wants you for this picture. I said, what’s the picture called? He said, Grease. And I said, what character? He said, Teen Angel. And I thought about what I saw on Broadway, and I said, pass. And I went and played the second nine. I came back in. He was still there. He said, they will not take no. They would like to at least have a meeting with you. I said, okay. So I go in. with Allan Carr and Patty Birch, who was the choreographer, and Randal Kleiser, who was the director. And they said, why don’t you want to do this? I said, because I saw the play and it’s not my style.

Frankie Avalon (29:48):
I said, you know, he was all in black, comes off of a rope and black leather jacket and long sideburns and does some little wiggles and this and sings this beauty school dropout. I said, not my style. They said, we’ll change it. I said, what do you mean you’ll change it? They said, We’ll do it all in white. We’ll get a piano over here. Let’s see how you want to do it. They did. And in 1977, I went in for six days of rehearsals, two days of shooting the five-minute song, and “Beauty School Dropout” became a part of Grease, and Frankie Avalon was Teen Angel. When we were finally putting Grease together and at rehearsals, I said, look, I don’t want to be a joke of this film. I think this is a good character. It really is something important to this gal, her character. I don’t want to be a joke. So they said, oh, no, no, no, no. We’ll make this absolutely perfect for you. And the people are just going to love it. So when the picture comes out, they opened it, premiered it in Honolulu. and there was the big columnist, Liz Smith was her name.

Frankie Avalon (31:12):
And in her column, she was at the premiere, and she said the film was fun, but when Frankie Avalon entered his part as Teen Angel singing “Beauty School Dropout”, the audience went wild. And when he left the scene, they applauded. So it made its mark. I had come home from a trip, And I’m sitting in my den with my wife and the phone rings and she hands me the phone. She says, it’s for you. It’s a Bobby De Niro. So I looked at her and all of a sudden it clicked in my mind. It’s Robert De Niro. Well, it didn’t register with her because she thinks the kid that I grew up with in South Philly, a lot of Italian kids, thought it was Bobby De Niro. She didn’t associate it at all. So he says, Frankie, it’s Bob. We’re doing a picture with Scorsese. It’s called Casino. And we know that you were the first guest to Lefty, whose character was Robert De Niro. And Marty Scorsese likes to be so exacting with whatever he does. And he did research. He said he would like to use you to recreate that scene. And I said, sounds good to me. He said, when can you do it? I said, well, I’m home and I’m home for about a week.

Frankie Avalon (32:20):
He said, can you do it Monday? I said, fine with me. They sent a jet, and I got on the jet, went into the dressing room when I got to Las Vegas, went into Marty, he showed me the clip, and I went on set, and I stayed there for about 14 hours shooting my one scene with De Niro. Our first guest this evening is Frankie Avalon. Thank you. Well, I’ve got a large family. How many kids do you have? I’m very proud to say that we have eight children. No, no, no, no, please, please, please, please, no, please. That’s amazing. There’s nothing to it. It’s my pleasure. And Joe Pesci was waiting for me after my scene. We went to this place called Joe Pigs. He had a Vesuvio restaurant. We went and had chicken meatballs, and the picture came out, and I was in the picture. Health has been very exciting to me for a long, long time. I got interested in not only just vitamins, but herbs. And I started back about 50 years ago in where I live with my wife and eight children. In North Hollywood, there was a place called Herb Products. It was in North Hollywood.

Frankie Avalon (33:49):
And I saw this sign and I went in there and I got very friendly with a man who was part of it. And John was his name. And he started introducing me to different kinds of herbs that were in big box forms. They weren’t even capsules yet. And he would make capsules and put together different herbs. So I would start taking herbs and I really got involved with it. And through the years, I started to say, People ask me, Frankie, what do you do? Well, I mean, you’re still doing that. I’m in my 80s now. And I still go out there and still perform. I do a lot of singing. I do a lot of performing. I travel a lot. And I’ve been taking herbs. And I created a product with John called Zero Pain. It’s a pain reliever that I brought onto a home shopping network. And we sold tons and tons of it. It still is available today. And I’m going to tell everybody listening, you talk about being healthy and being taking care of yourself. I have a company called Frankie Avalon Products.

Frankie Avalon (34:30):
If you look at FrankieAvalon.com, you could look at what I’ve been doing for all these years, not only with the Zero Pain, which is a pain reliever topical, which has helped so many people from Arnold Palmer to Ernie Banks to a lot of my friends in the business, and they still request it and we still offer it to the public. But your health is very important. You never know when you’re going to lose it, so keep trying to keep it. They had asked me to do a guest shot on American Idol. I said, OK, what do I do? They said, well, it’s Simon Cowell’s birthday and the year of “Venus” was 1959. That’s the year he was born. So we’d like to give him this little birthday gift and you singing “Venus” to him. I said, OK, but you’ve got to, you know, stay in your dressing room. You’ve got to be a surprise. So I go to my dressing room and I watched my weight. I watched this. I was watching this, that, whatever. So I go to my dressing room and they sent a whole box of candies and things. And I’m waiting, I’m waiting. And I’m eating these red hots or whatever they are. But, well, I ate about two boxes of these things.

Frankie Avalon (35:54):
So I’m ready to go on now. I’ve got 12 minutes to go on and do this. This is live, you know. And I said, I really don’t feel good now. They got the paramedics right there. They take my blood pressure. I’m going through the roof. And they said, I don’t think you should go on. And my blood pressure was very, very high. I went on and I did that song, not feeling 100%, but pulled it off. I came off of there. I calmed down with a lot of water and all this other stuff. And my blood pressure went down. And that was quite an experience for me. Like the show goes on. Listen, I want to thank you for the opportunity to have a great conversation going through parts of my life. I could write a book, but I won’t. But in the meantime, I just want to thank everybody that’s been with me and I’ve been with you for many, many years for being a part of my life. Thank you so much. And thanks to the good Lord for giving me the opportunity to my wife, to my eight children, to my 10 grandchildren. And stay well and God bless.

Lee Habeeb (37:00):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and production by Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Frankie Avalon for sharing his life’s journey with us. That Beach Party series, well, it was a huge box office success. And Avalon, well, he’d go on to make a career for himself in the nightclub business as a prime act to play at the Copa and then all over the world. And then came Grease, that Paramount picture and that character Teen Angel. He passed. He said, that character is not my style. So they changed the character. And the rest is history. I have watched this movie more times than I would care to admit, because when you have a wife and a daughter, this, along with Mamma Mia, is required, required viewing at least a few times a year. And then, of course, that call from Robert De Niro, Bobby De Niro, probably a bunch of them in his South Philly neighborhood. Little did he know it was the Robert De Niro in a scene in Casino. The story of Frankie Avalon, the story of America in a way, from nowhere to somewhere and appreciating with great gratitude every single step along the way. Frankie Avalon’s story here on Our American Stories.