Almost famous

 I’m going to say right off the top that I don’t know how much of this story is true. I especially don’t know when and where this took place. 

My dad was once in a band and that band almost got on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was a country western band and all the men were in the armed services. I have photos of them on stage. I used to have the shirt. 

“We were supposed to go on Ed Sullivan. They only wanted us because we were all military, they didn’t care if we were good. We did the rehearsal and we were backstage waiting to go on live. Then (some big star, I don’t remember who he said) showed up at the last minute and they bumped us.”

Here are the problems I have with documenting this. The Ed Sullivan Show first went on air in NYC the year my brother was born, 1948. I know around that time my parents were in California. The paperwork I have shows my dad was honorably discharged from his enlistment with the Army and immediately enlisted in the Air Force at Edwards AFB that year. 

Part of my mom’s later security clearance application shows a few months as a salad girl in the officer’s club at March AFB, also in California, in 1950. In 1952 my dad was sent to England and my parents lived there until my dad resigned from the service in 1954. 

So, to be on The Ed Sullivan Show while still in the military I this would have had to be between 1948 and 1952. It seems like it would have been a big expense for the show to fly a novelty band from California to New York, only to bump them at the last minute. 

But stranger things have happened. 

My son was in a heavy metal band and my teen daughter played base. They even performed at the famous Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. They were booked to perform there again to open for a well known band. Their band broke up weeks before the gig. 

So many bands dream of fame and fortune. Each one has a story of that time they almost broke through. 

But still. Ed Sullivan! The Whisky! Being even an almost of such a famous piece of history deserves some bragging rights. 

Looking at the photos, my dad wasn’t just in the band that I never learned the name of. He was out front singing the songs. He had this spiffy navy blue cowboy shirt with a white yoke and cuffs. The shirt was buttery soft, I think it was rayon. It had some white fringe along the bottom of the yoke. My mom hand stitched some music notes across that white yoke to make it fancier and patriotic. It was his Band Shirt! It hung, enshrined, in his closet for years. 

In the early 1970’s, my mom allowed my teenage wannabe hippy folk singer self to take ownership of the shirt. I loved that shirt. I wish I could remember how and when we parted ways. I seem to have a vague memory of passing it on to my daughter, but I may be wrong. I do remember the cuffs fraying and the fringe slowly unraveling.

Even as our dreams unraveled we built new ones. The legacy of music runs deep. I have never regretted a single reach for the stars. Even if we are only ever almost famous, at least we followed a passion. Even if we don’t even have the shirt anymore, we were there. We will always have our stories.