"Isn't he wonderful?" sighed Sharon, the pretty fifteen-year-old who was sprawled across one of the twin-beds, listening in rapture to Bobby Rydell's rendition of "That Old Black Magic." There were three girls in the room -- all her classmates in junior high. Each of them had that same far-away expression. Sharon was giving a pajama party, but none of them could go to sleep until they'd played every last one of Bobby's records. There was a knock at the door. Sharon's older sister -- twenty, blond and attractive -- paused to look in. "Isn't it getting kind of late?" "Please, Sis -- we've just got to play this through -- it's Bobby Rydell--" No other explanation was necessary. The older sister, sighing, turned to leave, then stopped. Something in the magnetism of that voice held her to the spot. She found herself lingering to hear Bobby finish "That Old Black Magic." Yes, Bobby Rydell has the kind of voice, and the kind of stage presence, that casts a spell over any girl, anytime. Maybe each of them sees something different in him but one thing's for sure -- he's really got "That Old Black Magic" where girls are concerned. There's Zina Bethune, for one. The talented blonde star who plays Gail Lucas on "The Nurses" really overflows with enthusiasm at the mere mention of Bobby's name. Actually, Zina and Bobby have a lot in common. Although both went into show business when they were no more than kids, they weren't content to rest on their laurels. They adopted a professional attitude and worked hard to develop their talents. "I guess we both missed out on a lot of the ordinary fun that other teens enjoy," Zina says rather wistfully. "But it was worth it, because we wanted to perfect our talents, to learn all those little things that make the difference between a real performer and an amateur." In Bobby's case, although he was immediately signed up by Paul Whiteman for the TV Teen Club after his first audition at the age of nine, he didn't count on his natural talent alone to bring him to the top. Instead, with the help of his manager, he set up a rigid course of study:
"Bobby and I both love to dance," Zina says. "He's got a wonderful sense of rhythm. You can see it when he just walks out onto a stage." Her eyes glow when she talks about Bobby -- her whole face lights up and you can tell she means every word. Cheryl Holdridge and Annette Funicello are both ex-Mouseketeers, but these two pretty teen-agers have more than that in common: they've both dated Bobby Rydell, and both fell hard for his particular brand of charm. There wasn't a serious romance in either case: both girls wisely feel they've "got a lot of living to do" before they settle for that one special boy. Still, Annette's dark eyes sparkle in a very special way when she recalls the number she did with Bobby at the Space Bar in Disneyland in the NBC-TV show, "Disneyland after Dark." It was thrilling," Annette says. "A dream come true! When you do a number with Bobby -- well, it's something to remember forever." Cheryl Holdridge, who had a few coke-dates with Bobby, says: "It's something about the way he looks at you -- and his voice, it just makes you shiver clear down to your toes." But it isn't only the ponytail types who flip for Bobby. Although Ann-Margret's only twenty-one, she's been around during her years in Hollywood, and she's had dates with a whole series of the film colony's most eligible young men; there's been Eddie Fisher, Peter Brown, Gardner McKay, Ty Hardin, Peter Mann and Frankie Avalon to mention just a few. But the emerald-eyed Swedish bombshell really lights up when she describes how she felt playing opposite Bobby Rydell in "Bye Bye Birdie." During those weeks on the set of the big musical, the couple got to know each other very well; it was only natural since Ann-Margret, as the small-town beauty, Kim McAfee, is cast in the role of Bobby's steady girl. Although -- for purposes of the script -- she has a brief fling with Jesse Pearson, who plays the title role -- at the end, she goes back to Bobby. We asked her if there was any parallel between her love for Bobby in the movies and her feeling for the singing idol in real life. "I wouldn't say so," Ann-Margret told us, her green eyes reminding us of the cat who swallowed the canary. "But -- well, let's just say that dancing with Bobby was a very special kind of excitement for me -- he really throws everything he's got into a number, just like I do." As for the blonde sexpot, Diana Dors, the British version of our own Jayne Mansfield, even she wasn't immune to Bobby's charms when she met him on a recent trip to New York. "He's wonderful in his nightclub appearances," she said. "I'd heard him on records, of course; but I think you have to see him perform in person to get the full impact -- if you know what I mean." Evidently, Diana wasn't the only one who felt that way. When Bobby appeared at New York's Copacabana, he wasn't facing a teen-age audience, but a group of sophisticated big-city types who've seen every top entertainer and can be very critical. The crowd who regularly spend their nights at the Copa aren't easily impressed. But Bobby played to Standing Room Only audiences and for the first time in Copy history, the famed Copa chorus line was omitted from an opening night, to make way for the overflow of eager and enthusiastic patrons who couldn't get enough of his act. He got a similar reception at the Sands in Las Vegas, where the audience isn't exactly part of the malt-shop set, either. When Bobby went on a three-month around-the-world tour, he proved that his appeal wasn't just limited to the girls here in America. At the Palladium in London, where so many top performers have appeared, he created his usual sensation. With his dark-blond hair and hazel eyes, the electric movements of his lean, rhythm-charged body, and above all, that spellbinding voice, he had the same magnetic effect on those English girls that had made the crowd go wild when he sang closer to home, at Palisades Park in New Jersey. It's the same everywhere he goes: The Olympia in Paris, theaters and clubs in Germany and Italy, and even to such distant parts of the glove as Australia and the Far East. When Bobby steps out on a stage, he has the girls in the palm of his hand. At eighteen, Bobby was signed by Columbia Pictures; they were eager to corner the market on his particular brand of appeal. His contract called for him to appear in one picture a year for seven years. Frank Day, Bobby's personal manager, insisted on a clause in the contract specifying that Bobby was to be cast in no parts of a pure rock 'roll or juvenile delinquent type. Both Bobby and his manager feel this will prevent him from being pushed into the type-casting that could retard his development as a performer. Because it's plain that while Bobby's done some remarkable things during these past years, his future can be even greater. There are no limits to the heights he can reach. And it's those girls at the pajama party, listening raptly to his records -- those girls and thousands more like them, who've put him on top as a singer. It was this kind of audience who recognized something special and wonderful in his first records for Cameo. And if they, and all his other female fans, could put their feelings for Bobby into words, they might just use the title of the record that made him famous: "All I want is you."
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He Can Have Any Girl -- Anytime 
