Seventh in a series.
Re: “Singing and Dancing to Escape a Flying Ashtray”
Growing up as the youngest of five brothers in New York City in the 1950s and ‘60s in a family that pushed boundaries, John Cassese recalled a daunting moment.
“One of my older brothers, Philip, was killed in an automobile accident when he was 23,” said the Santa Monica Dance Doctor. “He was my closest brother. And this was my first experience of the casualty of alcoholism.”
Narrating an autobiographical video he hopes will burgeon into a commercial film, Mr. Cassese turned to another life-altering drama.
“Linda was the love of my life back then,” he said. “She was my girlfriend, and we won all the dance contests at the Village Barn” before it closed in the late ‘60s.
“Linda got pregnant. We decided to go to New York Hospital where she had the baby, a beautiful little girl.”
Almost immediately, she was to disappear from Mr. Cassese’s life. “I didn’t want to be the father my father was,” he says, “an abusive, alcoholic parent.”
The solution was obvious to the anguished couple.
“So we decided to give her up for adoption.”
A separate love of Mr. Cassese’s colorful life was his deeply religious Italian Catholic mother.
“The love my mother gave me throughout my entire life,” he says, “was immeasurable.
“Without her support and her prayers, I never would have made it in New York.”
And the young man did make it in New York.
Those still were the golden days of traditional club entertainment. In his early and mid-20s, Mr. Cassese thrived in the hottest scenes at the time
Television still was growing up.
Couples and singles patronized clubs to witness the kind of live performances their parents jad enjoyed.
“I was performing on the Merv Griffin (television) Show,” Mr. Cassese remembered. “I was opening for Judy Garland at the Plaza Hotel, and performing at the Tavern on the Green every Friday and Sunday nights with my partner and girlfriend at the time Nancy Montez.
“We also were performing at the Drake Hotel, the Essex House, all over New York.”
Could life be better for a youthful, talented, energetic dreamer?
“I was living my dream, and I loved every moment of it. I was also a singer with my band.”
No need to wake up.
Or was there?
(To be continued)