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Published: October 25th 2016
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The Real Reason we went to Reno
About a month ago we were in Sacramento and there were gigantic billboards along the road telling us that “The Golden Boys” were going to have a concert in Reno. Now, some of you may not be old enough to know who these guys are but… my poor husband has heard the story of “my bedroom” when I was 16-17 years old many times… what does my bedroom have to do with anything?
Well, its 1963 I’m living in Sacramento, California and going to school at Bella Vista High in Fair Oaks. I read “Teen” magazine and am “in love” with Fabian. Who is that you ask... well only the cutest guy ever and a Teen Idol. Every time I would get a Teen magazine I would tear out all the pictures of Fabian and tape them to my bedroom walls. Eventually the entire room was covered. I was in heaven.
Now 50 years later, right here on the highway is a picture of my idol…Fabian. And to make it even better, he’ll be in Reno with Bobby Rydell and Frankie Avalon on October 21
st…. As soon as we get home
Cope goes on the internet to find tickets and snags some wonderful seats at the Nugget in Sparks (Reno), Nevada. He tells me it’s a late birthday present… Works for me.
On the day of the concert, as you read in our last blog, we boarded the train for Reno at 0 Dark 30, and headed north. Oh speaking of North… that reminds me… Fabian was in the movie “North to Alaska”. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should, LOL. As we are heading over the Sierras we started talking to some ladies that were sitting across from us, Nancy, Sandy and Jan. Guess what… they have left their husbands and boyfriends behind and are headed to…. you guessed it…Reno for the Golden Boys. We have a lot of fun, laughing and arguing about who was the cutest of the ”guys”. Nancy, has brought trivia questions along and they let me play ;-) Who sang the title song to “North to Alaska”? Why Johnny Horton of course. What year was Fabian Born? 1943. What was Frankie’s co-star’s name in the movie “Beach Blanket Bingo”? Annette Funicello. Who had a hit, "Wild One"? That skinny cute Bobby Rydell. Who
sang "Beauty School Dropout" in Grease? Why that's Frankie Avalon!
When we arrive in Reno at 4:00 we taxi to our hotel, which is on the far east side of Reno in Sparks, rest, have a delicious Del Taco dinner LOL, and grab another cab to the Nugget. OMG there are 1500 people here to see Bobby, Frankie and Fabian. Some are wearing 1950 style dresses others are in jeans, shorts, tennies, flip flops, cowboy hats, whatever. Everyone is in a good mood. Cope buys me a belated birthday 7 & 7 and life is good.
At a few minutes after 8:00 the three Golden Boys run out on stage and start singing “Bandstand”. We’re transported back to our teens and everyone loves it. We are reminded that these three teenage stars were all Italian teenagers living in South Philly where American Bandstand was broadcast. Dick Clark “discovered” these three and they were all on his show, where they all got their first TV performance and later became famous, especially Frankie Avalon. During the concert they were singing their own hits as well as other rock and roll tunes from the late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s. The drummer
was Frankie Avalon’s son, Frankie Avalon Jr., and the guitarist was Don Everly’s son, Edan. (The Everly Brothers)
This was an amazingly fun evening and so easy to do. The train to Reno was easy, getting around was easy and listening to these guys who are all in their 70’s was a rare treat and transported us back to high school ;-) Can’t wait to do it again!
Cope said, the only trouble was that there were a whole bunch of “old people” (our age!) at the concert, but we felt like teenagers again! The most fun in a long time!!!!
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Claudia
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So Cool!
That is so cool, what a fun early birthday surprise! I wish Bill would do something like that for me!