Five O’clock Rock
Talent Show 1957—A Mianus Village Memory by Eleanor Antes
MY WORLD
It was 1957 and I was 9 going on 10, a time in a child's life when you’re proud to say "I'm 9 1/2"!!! It was summer vacation, Mianus Village, Cary Road, Riverside, CT. I was living in my little slice of heaven or so I was to learn over the ensuing years as Mianus Village would one day soon become just a memory.
PUPPY LOVE
Might’ve been that I was bored with swimming in the river, picking wild berries in the woods, playing hopscotch, jumping rope and Hulu hooping with the girls. How many Kool-Aid stands could we actually have? And so my overactive mind took over. At that particular point in time, my world centered around Jackie Scully. He lived down the street at 26 Cary Road; I at 38 Cary Road.
Jackie's mom Mary and my mom Alice were best friends. Every morning—at least in the summer—they got together over cigarettes, coffee and pastries. Jackie never noticed me. Oftentimes he would go out of he was to ignore me. I actually think I annoyed him.
That summer two things mattered most in my life: getting Jackie to notice me and watching American Bandstand. Along with wishing I were 16. Nothing else mattered. I would have given anything to be one of Dick Clark’s girls.
Dick Clark hosted America’s favorite Top 40 music performance and dance program on TV from 1956 to 1989.
THE TALENT SHOW
With all these dreams swirling in my head, I had to do something. Suddenly a light went off. Let's have a Village Talent Show!
What a great chance to lip sync MY favorite songs and get it on with village boys. Without further thought, I knew I would portray Connie Francis and sing “ Who's Sorry Now," Stupid Cupid" or "Lipstick On Your Collar"—maybe all three. I knew all the words by heart and had Connie's moves down pat… or so I thought at that tender and innocent age.
Connie Francis was a top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
My one regret—even today—is that I can no longer remember which songs I assigned to my “besties:” Janet Schmaling, Martha Fuscaldo, and Marybeth MacNamee. Let’s just say they stepped up and lip synced like pros to some of these great girl singers of the 50s.
My biggest challenge was to come. I wanted boys in the show. After all, it was a time in which young, handsome young singers dominated the AM airwaves. Remember these hunks?
I needed someone to sing Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town." AND any good talent show needed two cute boys to lip sync the Everly Bros singing "All I Have To Do is Dream" and "Wake Up Little Susie.”
RECRUITING THE EVERLY BROTHERS
There were only two boys to fit that bill and I knew (or so I thought) it would be a near impossible ask. And the two were Jackie Scully and Teddy Roberts. I kept wondering how does one very enthusiastic nine-year old girl with a hyperactive imagination convince two 10-year old boys on summer vacation—who spent countless hours playing baseball, trading baseball cards, and swimming in the Mianus River—to partake in a talent show and lip sync a couple of Everly Bros songs? My challenge was real. I do not remember exactly what happened next but, bless my soul, they AGREED!!!!! We were on our way.
THE STAGE
The big stage production was to take place in my backyard, down the hill from my backdoor, near the chain link fence that stretched the whole length of the village, all the way down to the dam at the beginning of Cos Cabo harbor. It was a fence, as Jackie writes in Mianus Village, his latest book of free-verse stories:
...built by the government
to save us
from drowning ourselves
My mother donated an old shower curtain for our stage curtain, which we tied between an old oak tree and the chain link fence. The stage was set.
MY KID BROTHER
Enter problem #2. After watching all the excitement, my five-year old brother decided he wants to be involved......OH NO!!!!! I AM NOT HAVING IT, NO WAY. The more my brother cried, the less convincing in urging my mother to keep him out of the show. End result.....YOU HAVE TO LET YOUR BROTHER BE INVOLVED!!! So involved he became. I assigned him, "The Purple People Eater,” the dumbest song I could come up with. Remember these lines?
It was a one-eyed, one-horned,
flyin' purple people eater.
...Playin' rock and roll music
through the horn in his head
With five years between us, I found him to be the most annoying human on the planet and when he practiced the darn song, I thought he looked like a spastic, flinging his arms all through the air. (All I can say is, he has matured a lot since then.)
I made the invitations and personally went door-to-door trying selling tickets. They went for ten cents for admission with Kool-Aid and a cupcake; five cents, if you just wanted admission. Now for practice. To this very day, I scratch my head wondering how I got those young boys to give up a few days of their summer fun—just to please me.
SHOWTIME
Well…the big day finally arrived.
I had borrowed a black-and-white checked full skirt from my mother, miles too big but so what, a scarf to tie around my neck, and what good 50's singer didn't have a crinoline to go under that skirt! I was rockin it, or so I believed.
I had long decided that if Jackie and Teddy were to be believed as the Everly Bros, they HAD to wear suits. Where they scored the threads and two guitars, I have no idea. Even today, they ain’t saying.
When the show was over, I remember we got a standing ovation. In my very young mind, the show was a resounding success.
Little did I know at the time that this little event in the life of a young girl would live on and on. It turned into an unforgettable memory, a huge fun memory that would light up in my mind over and over down through the years.