"I Came Here To Blow The Roof Off This Sucker: The Sam Seventies Story"; Prologue
In my spare time, I've started work on what I hope will be the definitive biography of Samuel Gubnick, aka Sam Seventies, the 1970s singer and dancer who is all but forgotten now but was one of my heroes while I was growing up. I hope from time to time to post bits and pieces of the work in progress. I'd like to thank Ken Kayser for sharing his memories.
PROLOGUE
The few hours before the man who became Sam Seventies burst into the national consciousness, he was violently ill.
The NBC cafeteria was serving tuna casserole on Jan. 22, 1974, and 57 people who ate it that day had to be taken to the hospital with food poisoning. Sam was not one of them, but he probably should have been.
His manager, Stan Grumberg, later claimed that Sam was on the stretcher and ready to be transported when he suddenly exclaimed, "No, I have to do the show!" Then pulling the IV out of his arm, he bolted up and ran back to the dressing room. Grumberg, however, was well known for never missing an opportunity to embellish a tale, and no one else has ever corroborated this version.
What seems likely, though, is Sam realized that if he didn't perform that night, he would never get the opportunity again. So Sam, green around the gills and with more anti-nausea medication inside of him than a cruise ship full of Iowans, reported to makeup.
Ken Kayser, the announcer for "Happening!" remembers seeing Sam sitting in a molded plastic chair backstage right before his fateful number. He was alone, his head in his hands. His white jumpsuit was spotless.
"I knew he had to be nervous," Kayser says, "so I went over to give him the pep talk I'd been giving for years to kids getting ready for their national debut. How out of a million dreamers, it was quite an achievement to make it this far. How he should relax and have fun.
"You know what that schmuck did? He stood up, looked me in the eye and said as cool as anything, 'I didn't come here to have fun. I came here to blow the roof off this sucker.'
"And damned if that ain't what that boy did."
PROLOGUE
The few hours before the man who became Sam Seventies burst into the national consciousness, he was violently ill.
The NBC cafeteria was serving tuna casserole on Jan. 22, 1974, and 57 people who ate it that day had to be taken to the hospital with food poisoning. Sam was not one of them, but he probably should have been.
His manager, Stan Grumberg, later claimed that Sam was on the stretcher and ready to be transported when he suddenly exclaimed, "No, I have to do the show!" Then pulling the IV out of his arm, he bolted up and ran back to the dressing room. Grumberg, however, was well known for never missing an opportunity to embellish a tale, and no one else has ever corroborated this version.
What seems likely, though, is Sam realized that if he didn't perform that night, he would never get the opportunity again. So Sam, green around the gills and with more anti-nausea medication inside of him than a cruise ship full of Iowans, reported to makeup.
Ken Kayser, the announcer for "Happening!" remembers seeing Sam sitting in a molded plastic chair backstage right before his fateful number. He was alone, his head in his hands. His white jumpsuit was spotless.
"I knew he had to be nervous," Kayser says, "so I went over to give him the pep talk I'd been giving for years to kids getting ready for their national debut. How out of a million dreamers, it was quite an achievement to make it this far. How he should relax and have fun.
"You know what that schmuck did? He stood up, looked me in the eye and said as cool as anything, 'I didn't come here to have fun. I came here to blow the roof off this sucker.'
"And damned if that ain't what that boy did."
posted by T.C. at 12:06 AM
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