- The Day God Asked A Favor
- of Bobby Rydell
- "I can't!" the boy whispered in fear.
- But he could...he did...and what a blessing was his!
- by Ruth Bowser
The letter trembled slightly in the young man's slender fingers. He leafed through the pages quickly at first, then reread the lengthy message carefully, overwhelmed at the responsibility it asked him to share and frighted that he might not be able to answer this appeal for help.
Bobby Rydell recognized it immediately as not just another fan letter. It was more important than that. The thousands of letters received each week by the youthful entertainer are carefully separated" one pile requesting an autographed photo; another pile asking some personal question; a third pile from people he knows personally. And this letter, put aside for his immediate attention by his mother, Jennie Ridarelli, who is personally in charge of answering all Bobby's fan mail.
Mixed emotions moved through the slight, blond-haired recording star as he concentrated on each word. There was a surprise and a touch of awe at how much the writer, a priest, seemed to know about him, although they had never met.
"I am aware that you attend the Epiphany Catholic Church in Philadelphia," the letter read, "and that you attended the Epiphany Catholic School through the eighth grade. I am also aware that you served as an altar boy for five years."
Bobby felt personal concern for the problem which eventually came out of that letter:
"There are some boys in this parish (which, according to Bobby's wishes, shall remain nameless), boys in the seventh and eighth grades, who refuse to come to church anymore. They aren't bad boys. They certainly aren't juvenile delinquents But they have reached the age where they believed it is a sign of weakness to attend mass regularly or to receive the sacraments.
"However, it is not beyond these boys to use the recreation facilities of the church," the letter went on. "It was there I heard them playing your records and talking about you. I realized they are fans of yours. Knowing your background, Bobby, I feel you are in a position to help solve this problem before it becomes really serious.
"Would it be at all possible for you to visit my parish some Sunday and serve a mass?" the writer asked. "I'm sure it would have an extremely good effect on these young boys who are inadvertently drifting away from God."
Bobby's palms were wet with perspiration when he'd finished his letter the second time. He was frightened. It wasn't that he didn't want to do what he could about the church's problem, or that he thought his personal manager, Frank Day, might not allow it. His fear went deeper than that. Suppose he failed. Suppose he couldn't carry it off.
"I was scared," Bobby admitted much later, "because, although I was an altar boy for five years, I was never good at Latin. There were always two of us, and I depended on the other boy.
"Still, I knew I had an old Latin card somewhere. That's the card that tells you what the priest says and what you say during the mass," he explained.
"I searched through boxes and boxes of old things until I finally found that card," he grinned. "It was all dirty and torn, but I could still read it. I didn't know what Frank was going to say, and whether or not we could work the mass into our schedule, but I was going to be ready.
"As it turned out, the particular date the priest had requested was at a time when we were going to be home for about a week. So Frank and I flew down that Sunday morning and the priest met us at the airport.
"The priest told us that once he got word that we were coming, he announced it in church the week before we arrived.Of course, those he was trying to reach weren't at mass when he made the announcement, but the other boys told them I was coming, which was what the priest figured they'd do. Then, for that whole week, the boys had argued among themselves about whether or not I was really coming. They must have decided that the priest wouldn't lie to them, for they were all there the following Sunday.
"When we arrived at the church, I found a robe that fit me. I guess that's when I started getting nervous. After all, it had been a long time.
"After the mass, I met the boys in the church recreation room. They weren't bad kids. Just normal teenagers. Some of the kids they ran around with didn't go to church Sunday mornings and they didn't want to be 'sissies' and go either. I told them that's the way it had been with me when I was their age. Not everyone in my neighborhood went every Sunday, but I did, and I've never been sorry.
"They seemed surprised when they met me. You, know, they didn't even know I was a catholic. When I told them how I'd served mass for five years, they said, 'Didn't you feel foolish, wearing that robe and all?'
"I told them no; that one way of being closer to your religion is to serve the priest. The boys seemed embarrassed when they asked me about church."
Bobby tried to sense what the boys were groping for by remembering his own life a few years earlier.
"I tried to impress on those boys how important church can be in keeping up a good family relationship," Bobby said. "I told them how serving the church brings you closer to real life; how serving at funerals brings you close to real heartache. You can't serve at the funeral of a little child, for instance, without having it touch you.
"After that they talked hippy, you know, and asked all the usual questions. How did I get started in the business? How can they get started in a singing career? Then we talked about people I'd met since I'd been traveling around the country. All that kind of stuff."
It was well over a year ago that God asked a favor of Bobby Rydell. But it was neither Bobby, Frank, nor the priest who brought the story to light. The good things people do have a way of becoming known, though they often take longer making public notice than the less important deeds.
For instance, anyone not aware of the extent of Bobby's charitable appearances might not know that a few months back he was selected for the Humanitarian Award by the Boys Town of Italy. The honor, presented to him by Mrs. Spyros Skouras, has only been awarded to two others -- Frank Sinatra and Joey Bishop, both members of long standing in the entertainment world.
Charity work is Bobby's way of saying "Thank you" to everyone for his own fantastic success.
But Bobby Rydell is grateful for many other things in addition to his success. He is grateful for the continued good health of his family and himself.
And for as long as he lives Bobby will be grateful for having met up with Frank Day when both were playing at Summers Point, New Jersey. Many persons before Frank had recognized Bobby's talent, but none was able or willing to devote the time and effort necessary to channel that talent.
Then, too, Bobby is grateful for having escaped unscarred from some sideswipes with tragedy. Like the time he was three and with usual little boy curiosity went climbing up a corner cupboard, his tongue between his teeth as he worked at pulling himself upward. His tongue was between his teeth when he fell, too, only then it was cut and bleeding. And his parents and grandparents alike were afraid it might affect his speech.
"I was so worried that he would lisp after that," his mother admitted. "But he didn't, thank God."
There was a near mishap on the highway, too, which was none of Bobby's doing but which still causes his mother to be tense about his driving.
"I was driving down to Wildwood, New Jersey, with my father at about 8:30 in the morning," Bobby remembered, "and a fellow who was coming back was right in our lane. He wouldn't turn, and he was getting pretty close. He turned at the last minute, but we didn't wait till the last minute. We cut off into a corn field to make sure we wouldn't be hit. But we weren't hurt -- thank God."
It's not an affectation they way Bobby Rydell sprinkles his conversation with phrases like "Thank God." It's a sincere and honest feeling of thankfulness that comes out naturally, sort of like thinking out loud.
A few months ago, he made his first tour on the other side of the world. Taking off, he was as excited as at that Christmas season when he'd waited in the Philadelphia music store for the arrival of his first brand-new set of drums. He had never been to Europe and there was so much to see.
But of all the wonderful things that happened to him on that trip, one event stands out above all the others -- being part of a grip to have an audience with the Pope.
For all these things, for everything that has helped in any way to turn a dream into reality, Bobby Rydell is truly grateful. And the best way he knows of showing his gratitude is by doing what he can, reasonably, for others. Even though this has meant taking time from his precious few hours at home to hunt down a Latin card and relearn his phrases, or flying to visit a strange church on one of his rare weekends off.
A few months after this unusual vast, Bobby received another letter from the priest.
"He told me in his letter that the boys are now attending mass regularly and keeping up with Confession and other sacraments," Bobby said recently in his soft-spoken way.
"If I had anything to with that, I'm very happy. It's like really doing something, going out and meeting those boys like that. It made me feel wonderful, like I'd really accomplished something."
And somewhere, in some unknown church in some unknown town, one man of God knows you truly have accomplished something, Bobby Rydell. Perhaps more than you'll ever know.