November, 2008
My first agent, was
Philomena Smyth, an unter-der-radar agent for
choristers, who was referred to me by Rick Ricardi,
the day after I sang at his club, The Horn, in Santa
Monica. After auditioning for her over the phone,
with me playing and singing “On the road to
Mandolaaa-ay” (I’ve just dated myself). She set up
my first audition, where I was hired for chorus at
the Sacramento Music Circus. I sang that Summer and
was rewarded with all of the available solos that
weren’t assigned to a lead, which did much for my
confidence.
I took out a year
to study voice, music theory, repertoire, German and
piano, at the University of Denver, Florence Lamont
Hinman School. I quickly realized I was being taught
by amateurs to be ... an amateur! Had I not had the
experience at Sacramento ... I wouldn’t have known
that ... Flossie Hinman always spent twenty-five
minutes of my scholarship half-hour lessons, talking
about her one claim to fame, Frank Valentino, who
was singing at the Met. She lived to see me on
stage, when I bought her tickets for the the
National Company of Music Man, when we went through
Denver–I was in the “train scene” and chorus. And,
she knew about my success with the N Y City Opera.
She was pleased, several years later, when I came to
the Denver Opera and sang on of my signature roles;
Scarpia in Tosca, but had passed on before I too
made my debut at the Met.
When I finished at
DU, I returned to L A and showed up at The Horn.
Rick was delighted to see me and asked to sing that
night ... and for the next year and a half. He never
even gave me gas money and I sang three or five sets
a night. Bet ... most importantly, he gave me a one
hour coaching, once a week with the brilliant Carlos
Noble, as a partial payment of sorts from Rick. I
just got better and better, even picking up the
string bass one night when Joe Valenti–brilliant
trumpeter and bass player–had a night off. Then I
added bongo drums and maracas and specialty numbers.
One night Rick
introduced me to Mitch Gertz, a big Hollywood agent,
who asked me to drop by the next day. Mitch offered
to “manage” me and told me he would give me $60 a
week. He ultimately gave me $300 for some clothes
for performing and eventually paid another $60 a
month for acting lessons with Columbia Pictures
talents, Benno and Betami Schneider.
I was constantly singing for Hollywood parties,
because “There will be some casting directors and
producers there ...” said, Mitch. He sent me out for
a few casting calls, but my hairline had already
started to recede and I didn’t really fit the
Hollywood concept of a leading man. But, Mitch kept
up the lessons an the $60 ... which was a lot of
money, in those days.
It wasn’t until much later ... that I realized he
was being paid for my services at each of these
parties and making about $300 a pop. His secretary
told me that, after he died ... “There’s no such
thing as a free lunch!” I also found out,
subsequently, that agents were not legally “allowed”
to also manage. But ... I was the ultimate winner
from the additional learning experiences.
