Overzealous Fans
(Sorry, I cut off the real title of this article thirty-five years ago.) Bobby Rydell trembles when he thinks of it, but only a few months ago, he was almost squashed to death. Yes, death. And the strange part of it is that he wasn't being threatened by enemies...but by his friends, his fans.His fans tried to kill him, and they did it out of love. They just wanted to pet him, to touch him, to take away some intimate souvenir and prove to their friends they really got close to Bobby. But, in their ardor to overwhelm him with their love, they just about sent him to his grave. The first inkling came right after his opening-night performance at the Trenton, N.J., State Fair. There were several thousand people in the grandstand of the fairgrounds, and Bobby was performing on a stage across the oval track. The audience was wonderful Bobby was elated. "We love you, Bobby!" they screamed. "You're wonderful!" And Bobby responded, "You're wonderful, too!" Then, wet with perspiration, Bobby bowed off, happily, and started to walk to a covered garage that was also his dressing room. As he did, the youngsters, mostly girls, suddenly poured out of their grandstand seats, onto the field, and headed for Bobby. Of course, all they wanted was to get close to Bobby and maybe ask for autographs. But they were moving so fast that if one fell near Bobby, the others would just fall over him and there would be a pileup...and people would be killed, including Bobby. Just as Bobby realized his danger, the fair's security police did too. A squad of them, leading German shepherd dogs on leashes, hurried over and intervened. The sight of the vicious looking dogs scared the crowd, and held it back while Bobby ran to the long casement-windowed building and locked himself in. It was a narrow escape, but Bobby tried to forget it when he performed the second night. When the show was over at 10:30 p.m., the police and their dogs guarded Bobby until he got to his dressing room building. Bobby dressed slowly, and his manager, Frankie Day, went back to the grandstand to collect Bobby's sheet music. Ray Deeley, Bobby's drummer, and Bobby's mother and father also arrived safely in the dressing room. As they waited for Frankie to return with the music, Bobby peered out of a window and noticed the the crowd had thinned out and the police had disappeared. Apparently the police felt the danger was over and had retired. Suddenly, the door burst open and 40 or 50 youngsters poured in, jamming the room. Apparently, somebody forgot to lock the door. Bobby was stunned; but he set to work quickly, signing autographs and hoping the youngsters would be satisfied and leave quietly. Just then his manager, Frankie Day, returned, and when he saw the mad scene, he became furious. "Out! Out!" he yelled. "You want to crush Bobby?" Then he pushed and scolded everybody until he had them out of the building. But the youngsters wouldn't leave. They stood outside and tried to peer into the windows. Some stood on their friends' shoulders to reach the higher windows. Frankie pushed Bobby into the bathroom to hide him. But the girls, unable to see Bobby, threw rocks at the bathroom windows, smashing them. When the bathroom windows were smashed, Bobby ran back into the main room. But more windows began to smash, scattering glass fragments over Bobby, his parents, Frankie and drummer Deeley. A scream from outside indicated that one of the girls was cut with glass. Inside, Bobby tried to protect his mother from the rain of razor-sharp slivers. Frankie shouted, "I'll get the clothes into the car, and come back to get you!" and ran outside toward his white Cadillac about a half block away. Bobby quickly locked the door. Drawn by the noise of the shattered windows, two cops came running over, one leading a growling shepherd dog on leash. The police scolded the crowd. As Bobby followed the tow police, a girl managed to grab his sweater and wouldn't let go. Bobby said, "Let me go, honey, you'll strangle me." "But I love you," she protested, hanging on. Deeley came to Bobby's rescue and pushed the girl away, breaking her hold. Two girls screamed, "We love you, Bobby!" The two policemen kept close to Bobby, pushing kids away but careful not to hurt anybody. They did not want to be accused of mishandling any youngsters. Finally, Bobby tumbled into the car, then Frankie, then his father, and Deeley...and then everybody realized, "Where's Mom?" "Mom must still be inside the dressing room!" yelled Bobby, frightened. "Let me out; I've got to bring her back!" "No!" shouted Frankie. "They'll trample you...Let Deeley run back for her!" Deeley jumped out and ran back. Those in the car locked all doors from inside and prayed. Outside, the two policemen tried to keep the vigorous crowd under control. Deeley pushed his way into the dressing-room building and found Bobby's mother. She had been thrown to the floor; her dress had been messed up; her stockings torn; and she was in a daze. "Where's my Bobby?" she sobbed. "Where's Bobby?" Deeley assured her, "He's okay; he's in the car waiting for you. Now follow me!" He led her carefully towards the car, which was still completely ringed with shouting youngsters. above the hubbub could be heard feminine oasis screaming, "We love you, Bobby!" The police pushed the crowd aside, and Deeley eased mom into the car, then he followed her in. "I guess we should have warned you, Mom." said Bobby, trying to make light of the situation. "This always happens. Just a lot of noise. But nobody wants to hurt us. So relax!" But he was thinking of something else. He was thinking of the time fans had torn Johnny Ray's clothes to shreds. He was thinking of the time fans had torn off Crash Craddock's pants and shorts. He was thinking of Elvis always moving in the center of a husky entourage for protection. He remembered the time a kid grabbed one end of his tie and another fellow grabbed the other end...and they pulled, each wanting the tie as a souvenir of their love. They almost strangled him. If his manager Frankie hadn't saved him, he would have choked to death. But he was also thinking of how hard he had worked and sweated to get where he was; how, even with the support of his family, friends, and manager, he never would have been able to make it without his fans. Yes, he was scared. Plenty scared. But he knew that taken as individuals, one by one, each youngster was a one-man cheering section to be dearly prized. He snapped out of his reverie, and saw, painfully, that the two police just couldn't control the crowd. Some youngsters bent the aerial and were trying to yank it out of its socket. Others were grabbing at the window wipers. "Are they trying to wreck the car?" Mrs. Rydell asked fearfully. "No, Mom," Bobby explained. "They're looking for souvenirs, so they can go back home and be big shots." Others came running over, attracted by the riotous noise. The police called for reinforcements, but none came. Finally, the two policemen decided that pleading was not enough and they'd have to get tough if they expected the car to escape. So the policemen with the dog started pushing the kids away, sending some of them sprawling. "Close the window!" he ordered Frankie, who rolled up the window by his driver's seat. As the window went up, a couple of kids hanging on had to let go or get their fingers crushed. "Get moving!" the policeman ordered Frankie, who stepped on the gas pedal. As the car started to move, the kids fell back and path opened to let the car through. Within a few minutes, the car was far enough out for it to speed toward the exit gate ...and safety. Bobby's terrified mother chattered incessantly. "They could have killed us...Does this happen all the time?...What kind of life is this, Bobby?...It must stop at once!...It isn't worth it!...No career is worth this!..." "Sorry, Mom," Bobby said. "We usually have better protection than tonight. It was our fault We shouldn't have lingered. We forgot to lock the door from inside. We should have asked the security police to stay with us until we got off the fairgrounds." Everybody tried to laugh, to relieve the tension and calm down mom. But the laughter was fake, nervous, and everybody knew it. It was the forced laughter of frightened people. Bobby did not tell his mother, but he had recently played the Allegheny County Fair, and something similar had happened. After the show, two security police had driven him to the police sergeant house nearby. They parked a few yards away and all three walked leisurely to the house, where Bobby would rest and prepare to be driven later to the hotel. But suddenly more than 300 youngsters came screaming out of the bushes, where they had hidden. They had planned this Indian-style "ambush" so they could get autographs from Bobby. The police realized the crowd might knock Bobby down and stomp him to death, so they just lifted Bobby off the ground and carried him, running into the house. They stumbled uphill, with the crowd pursuing. Then the police rushed to the door, dumped Bobby in, and shut it, posting themselves outside as guards. At another time, Bobby recalled, a girl in a threatening crowed reached out and tore a button off his jacket. "Now why did you do that?" Bobby asked. "Because I love you," she said, hurt at such a question. "This button I'll keep the rest of my life...because I love you." Such love I could do without, he had thought, but he did not tell it to the girl. What was the use? she wouldn't understand anyway. He wanted to cry out, "Please don't love me so much!..Don't love me with such violence!" But of course he didn't. If he protested, no matter how sensibly, they would only think he was snubbing them. In Hollywood, where he stayed several months to work in the movie, Bye,Bye Birdie, Bobby did not go out much. He slipped right home after work, sent out for food, and ate in, with his father and manager, Frankie Day. He was very tired, and this was one way of avoiding crowds. But he couldn't escape completely. Two girls, 20 and 18 years old respectively, somehow got his home phone number and kept calling him. They wanted to come over to take his picture. So Bobby said, "Okay, come over." They came and took snapshots and stayed around for an hour and a half, and then they went. But that was not the end. They camped in front of his house every day, and tailed him in their car wherever he went. When he went to Las Vegas, they followed him there by bus, then they phoned to say, "Somebody stole our bus ticket for the return trip and we're broke." Frankie Day phoned the girls' parents and told them, "This is going too far!" Then he bought them bus tickets and made sure they got on the bus. On every trip, Bobby comes up against some sample of passionate, violent, irrational adoration by fans. He shakes his head, bewildered, and says, "I don't know what to do. I'm thrilled they like me. I want to meet as many as possible personally. I want to sign every autograph and answer every letter. But this business of tearing at me, crushing me, haunting me...all in the name of sincere love...it's just too much! This kind of love is killing me!" But his hazel eyes softened as he said, "Yes, they do play rough sometimes -- but I'm grateful for them -- my fans! They may love me, but believe me...I love them too...every single one of them."
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