When They Were Young

[Moondance]

Nicholas Magallanes (1922-1977) and Francisco Moncion (1918-1995) were dancers and charter members of the New York City Ballet. Along with Maria Tallchief and Tanaquil Le Clercq, they were among the core group of dancers with which George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein formed Ballet Society, the immediate predecessor of the New York City Ballet. George Platt Lynes took these photographs of them in New York in 1948:

 

 

http://www.pamm.org/sites/default/files/styles/pamm_photography_900/public/61-Lynes--Francisco-Moncion-and-Nicholas-Magallanes-CROP.jpg?itok=jxImBzbk

[prof]

I saw Mr. Pecker...er, Becker in this marvelous Broadway play. He was impressive.

 

I saw it in Chicago, having purchased a reduced "same day" ticket. I sat very close to the stage, at a slight angle that revealed most every dangle. Wonderful. Also enjoyed the two late 60ish women to my left who very softly gasped and chuckled throughout. At intermission they beamed, laughed and said to me, "Are you enjoying this as much as we are?"

[Moondance]

Mike Miksche (1925-1965) was a Air Force officer, originally from Texas, who became a fashion illustrator in New York while, at the same time, establishing himself as the erotic artist "Steve Masters" (his pseudonymous initials -- SM -- referencing his sexual interests). Alfred Kinsey, intent on documenting every variety of human sexual response, filmed Miksche in a sadomasochistic encounter in the early 1950s and thought he might be dangerous or unbalanced. Miksche tried heterosexuality (and marriage), but his conflicts led to a suicide attempt (he threw himself in the Hudson River in the early '60s, then spent many months in Bellevue). In 1965 he finally succeeded in killing himself with an overdose of pills. His wife subsequently discovered the studio where he worked on his erotica and had encounters with men. She destroyed his work. What remains are the drawings he gifted to others, published (in BIG magazine, for example) or donated to Kinsey.

 

This photograph of Miksche was taken by George Platt Lynes in 1952:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l0FF0xApzjc/UPFvBZ5hUmI/AAAAAAAAWxo/_hz8xMxJQzQ/s1600/1952.+Mike+Miksche+aka+Steve+Masters.+By+GP+Lines.jpg

 

Miksche photographed by Bill Dellenback:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NDfslsvl9w8/UQU_Yi1QAKI/AAAAAAAAVSI/x62d9Fw1uqA/s640/2013-01-21_090740.jpg

 

At work:

 

An illustration by "Steve Masters":

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_D695V3UmCA8/Sv33u-EZOII/AAAAAAAAGRM/MR3jkPTPzAg/s1600/Steve_Masters15.jpg

[bigvalboy]

Mike Miksche (1925-1965) was a Air Force officer, originally from Texas, who became a fashion illustrator in New York while, at the same time, establishing himself as the erotic artist "Steve Masters" (his pseudonymous initials -- SM -- referencing his sexual interests). Alfred Kinsey, intent on documenting every variety of human sexual response, filmed Miksche in a sadomasochistic encounter in the early 1950s and thought he might be dangerous or unbalanced. Miksche tried heterosexuality (and marriage), but his conflicts led to a suicide attempt (he threw himself in the Hudson River in the early '60s, then spent many months in Bellevue). In 1965 he finally succeeded in killing himself with an overdose of pills. His wife subsequently discovered the studio where he worked on his erotica and had encounters with men. She destroyed his work. What remains are the drawings he gifted to others, published (in BIG magazine, for example) or donated to Kinsey.

 

This photograph of Miksche was taken by George Platt Lynes in 1952:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l0FF0xApzjc/UPFvBZ5hUmI/AAAAAAAAWxo/_hz8xMxJQzQ/s1600/1952.+Mike+Miksche+aka+Steve+Masters.+By+GP+Lines.jpg

 

Miksche photographed by Bill Dellenback:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NDfslsvl9w8/UQU_Yi1QAKI/AAAAAAAAVSI/x62d9Fw1uqA/s640/2013-01-21_090740.jpg

 

At work:

 

An illustration by "Steve Masters":

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_D695V3UmCA8/Sv33u-EZOII/AAAAAAAAGRM/MR3jkPTPzAg/s1600/Steve_Masters15.jpg

 

"His wife subsequently discovered the studio where he worked on his erotica and had encounters with men. She destroyed his work."

 

How and why would anyone destroy art?

[+ WilliamM]

The Broadway cast of Love Valour and Compassion also invluded Nathan Lane and a young pre- 'Angels in America' Justin Kirk.

 

Kirk may havd scored the lead in 'Angels' because of his off- Broadway role in "Ten Unknown" where he also played a gay character. Many people saw the play because Donald Sutherland and Julianna Margolies (The Good Wife) were also very good in "Ten Unknowns." @Kenny.

[Moondance]

Anton Walbrook (born Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück, 1896-1967), descended from 10 generations of Austrian actors, studied with director Max Reinhardt and built a career in Austrian theatre and cinema. In 1936, he went to Hollywood to reshoot dialogue for the multinational film The Soldier and the Lady (1937) and changed his name from Adolf to Anton. Rather than returning to Austria, Walbrook, who was gay, and classified under the Nuremberg Laws as "half-Jewish," settled in England and continued to work as a film actor, making a specialty of playing continental Europeans. His Red Shoes co-star Moira Shearer recalled him as a loner on set, often wearing dark glasses and eating alone. Walbrook retired from films at the end of the 1950s and, in later years, appeared on the European stage and television. He died of a heart attack at age 70.

 

In these pictures, Walbrook is in his 20s:

 

[TruthBTold]

Anton Walbrook (born Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück, 1896-1967), descended from 10 generations of Austrian actors, studied with director Max Reinhardt and built a career in Austrian theatre and cinema. In 1936, he went to Hollywood to reshoot dialogue for the multinational film The Soldier and the Lady (1937) and changed his name from Adolf to Anton. Rather than returning to Austria, Walbrook, who was gay, and classified under the Nuremberg Laws as "half-Jewish," settled in England and continued to work as a film actor, making a specialty of playing continental Europeans. His Red Shoes co-star Moira Shearer recalled him as a loner on set, often wearing dark glasses and eating alone. Walbrook retired from films at the end of the 1950s and, in later years, appeared on the European stage and television. He died of a heart attack at age 70.

 

In these pictures, Walbrook is in his 20s:

 

 

I think he bears a faint resemblance to Baryshnikov.

[Moondance]

Tore Yngve Johnson (1928-1980) was a member of the Ten Photographers, a Swedish photography collective that formed the photo agency Tiofoto. A leading figure in a generation of Swedish photographers who sought new paths in the years after WWII, Johnson went to Paris in the late 1940s to make a living as a freelance photographer. He was inspired by Photographie humaniste, a kind of street photography that aimed to depict daily life with a combination of realism and poetry.

 

This is Tore Johnson in Paris in 1951:

[Moondance]

Ray Danton (born Raymond Caplan, 1931-1992), a descendant of the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) was a radio, film, stage and television actor, director and producer whose most famous roles were in the screen biographies The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) and The George Raft Story (1962). He received a Golden Globe Award in 1956 for New Male Star of the Year.

 

In 1961, as attorney Clem Marker in A Fever in the Blood, a film that also featured Carroll O'Connor in his film debut:

 

[Moondance]

Sonny Landham (1941-2017), born and raised in Georgia, a descendant of the Cherokee and Seminole tribes,was a film actor, stuntman, aspiring politician and convicted felon. He began his acting career in pornographic films, later became a mainstream movie actor and appeared in a number of Hollywood films, including The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Lock Up and Action Jackson. He was best known for his role as tracker Billy Sole in Predator.

 

In 2003, he ran in the Republican Party primary election for the post of Governor of Kentucky, hoping to repeat the political success of his Predator co-stars Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unsuccessful in gaining the nomination, he ran briefly as an independent candidate, but withdrew before the election. In 2008, he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Mitch McConnell -- running on the Libertarian line -- but, on the same day, was accused of calling for genocide against Arabs. Three days later, Kentucky Libertarians voted unanimously to withdraw his nomination.

 

Married five times, Landham was convicted on federal charges of making threatening and obscene phone calls to one of his wives, and spent three years in prison. The U.S. Court of Appeals later reversed the conviction.

 

Sonny Landham died last summer in Kentucky at age 76.

 

In PLAYGIRL at age 32, January 1974:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nk85_YRj7cY/UsJxGoXNpxI/AAAAAAACNHs/sZNr6QQyAUw/s1600/SonnyLandham-Horoscope-PG0174-05.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3GshfJAs66Y/UsJxGAg6PGI/AAAAAAACNHk/YhtKATPvIH4/s1600/SonnyLandham-Horoscope-PG0174-04.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--s3QoSZ_vMI/UsJxEx3IpxI/AAAAAAACNHQ/FKgPFBh2AUI/s1600/SonnyLandham-Horoscope-PG0174-02.jpg

[Moondance]

Richard Pacheco (born Howard Marc Gordon in 1948, now 70 years old) is a former pornographic film and video actor, writer and director. He appeared in more than 100 X-rated films and videos and won multiple adult film awards. Raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in Pittsburgh, he was president of his high school class and studied at Antioch College. He met his wife while living on a commune in California and they were married in 1975.

 

In 1978, he was offered his first professional erotic film role in The Candy Striper for $200 per day. He appeared in that first film under the name "McKinley Howard," and used many aliases until Talk Dirty to Me, in which he co-starred as "Richard Pacheco." When that movie became a success, he kept the pseudonym for the box office value it began to accrue. In November 1984, Pacheco stopped appearing in porn movies without condoms in reaction to his wife's concerns about the AIDS epidemic. This cost him most of his adult acting job offers, and effectively forced his retirement from pornographic acting.

 

He has since written and spoken about pornography, and appeared in the 2012 documentary After Porn Ends, a film about life after being a porn actor. He and his wife have three children, born in the 1980s, with whom they have been open about his pornography career.

 

As Howie Gordon, Pacheco was a PLAYGIRL Man of the Month and, subsequently, the magazine's 1979 Man of the Year:

http://liber.post-gazette.com/image/2013/11/12/ca0,0,1613,1075/howiegordon1.jpg

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EdL4vjaISzw/UkldkvjBGdI/AAAAAAABMrc/gFhWpZ9CpZk/s1600/BestOfPG-0180-084-HowieGordon+-+Copy+(2).jpg

[Moondance]

Jonathon Prandi (born in 1972, now 46) is an American male fashion model, actor and IT-consultant. He has appeared on television (Guiding Light, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, The Montel Williams Show), on stage and in films (Deadly Ties, Three's A Crowd) and was Pierce Brosnan's body double in The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). More recently, he started a web design company.

 

In 1996, age 24, he appeared in the February and September issues of PLAYGIRL. In 1997, age 25, he was the magazine's "Man of the Year":

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BymY6Z1H1kc/ToPziG3naFI/AAAAAAAAACI/opY77l1Tyl0/s640/Jonathon_Prandi_06.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ItH1wjpeufQ/ToP0LtAOdxI/AAAAAAAAACU/EvxySh5B2ZA/s640/Jonathon_Prandi_09.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kczol2pU4NY/T_lViwjylNI/AAAAAAABh2E/Nggb0CE9Y-o/s1600/brutos69358_JonathonPrandi.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DbJisx1M-Ek/T_lVnWt3bNI/AAAAAAABh20/c5QFTN-7VS8/s1600/brutos69364_JonathonPrandi.jpg

[Moondance]

Edouard Dermithe (born Antoine Dermit, 1925-1995) was a French painter and actor known for Orpheus (1950), Les Enfants Terribles (1950) and Thomas the Imposter (1965). He was the adopted son, lover and sole heir of Jean Cocteau.

 

Here, at age 23 in 1948, he reclines in front of one of Cocteau’s large works:

[Moondance]

Don Schollander (born in 1946, now 72 years old) is a former competitive swimmer. He won a total of five gold medals and one silver medal at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics. The first person to win multiple gold medals in swimming, he was the single most successful athlete at the '64 Olympics. Schollander attended Yale, and led the Yale swim to three individual NCAA championships. In 1983, he was one of the first group of inductees into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. He now lives in Oregon and runs Schollander Development, a real estate development company.

 

At 18, in 1964:

 

At 19, in 1965:

[Moondance]

Haldor de Becker (born in New York City in 1931, now 87 years old) is an American dancer and writer about dance. The third generation of a theatrical family, he began his career as a child actor on Broadway. He appeared on stage with Ingrid Bergman, Burgess Meredith and Elia Kazan, and in films with Marlene Dietrich, Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor. (He was a schoolboy in National Velvet.)

 

His contact with the dance world began in 1944 when choreographer George Balanchine set a dance for him and two other young actors appearing in the world premiere of Song of Norway. De Becker subsequently danced principal roles with the Los Angeles City Ballet, Southern California Ballet and Grand Opera Company of Los Angeles, and in musicals including Oklahoma! and Plain and Fancy.

 

In the 1950s, de Becker worked for a private detective agency in Los Angeles to pay for his dance classes, and in 1968 opened a private detective agency in Nevada. The Las Vegas Sun Newspaper dubbed him as “The Dancing Detective.” For 25 years, he taught hundreds of professional dancers in Hollywood and in Las Vegas.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_waAT55VRsLo/TReItUXKN3I/AAAAAAAAD7Q/TlaI_e5Fq2Q/s1600/Vulcan%2BHaldor%2Bde%2BBecker%2B001.jpg

[Moondance]

Peter Brown (born Pierre Lind de Lappe, 1935-2016) was an American actor best known for his roles as Deputy Johnny McKay in the 1958-1962 TV western Lawman and as Texas Ranger Chad Cooper in Laredo (1965-1967). Born in New York City, his mother was stage and radio actress Mina Reaume, who played the Dragon Lady on the Terry and the Pirates radio serial.

 

After Army service in Alaska, Brown studied drama at USC, and was soon appearing in plays and on NBC Matinee Theatre. He supported himself with work at a gas station on the Sunset Strip. One night a man paid for his purchase with a credit card bearing the name "Jack L. Warner." Brown asked if he was one of the Warner Brothers. The next day he was offered a screen test at the studio and was soon a Warners contract player.

 

 

http://images.cinemaring.com/upload/upload_screenshots/images/cr_actors/4/4/4/e00403b3fd79fa7755f95bf684b2d9db.jpg

 

Here, with Sammy Davis, Jr. in a 1962 episode of Lawman, Brown is 27:

[bigvalboy]

Peter Brown (born Pierre Lind de Lappe, 1935-2016) was an American actor best known for his roles as Deputy Johnny McKay in the 1958-1962 TV western Lawman and as Texas Ranger Chad Cooper in Laredo (1965-1967). Born in New York City, his mother was stage and radio actress Mina Reaume, who played the Dragon Lady on the Terry and the Pirates radio serial.

 

After Army service in Alaska, Brown studied drama at USC, and was soon appearing in plays and on NBC Matinee Theatre. He supported himself with work at a gas station on the Sunset Strip. One night a man paid for his purchase with a credit card bearing the name "Jack L. Warner." Brown asked if he was one of the Warner Brothers. The next day he was offered a screen test at the studio and was soon a Warners contract player.

 

 

http://images.cinemaring.com/upload/upload_screenshots/images/cr_actors/4/4/4/e00403b3fd79fa7755f95bf684b2d9db.jpg

 

Here, with Sammy Davis, Jr. in a 1962 episode of Lawman, Brown is 27:

 

God he was handsome. One of my all time favorites.

[TruthBTold]

God he was handsome. One of my all time favorites.

 

Really very handsome. However much nicer looking as a brunet than a blond. It's funny that his story about working as a gas station attendant on the Strip is similar (but not really) to Scotty Bowers (i.e., Full Service). I guess gas stations were the place to be in 50s.

[Moondance]

Hugh Laing (1911-1988) was one of the most significant dramatic ballet dancers of the 20th-century. Although never considered a great technician, Laing was known for the intensity of his stage presence, his powers of characterization and an impeccable sense of theatrical timing. Born in Barbados, he moved to London in 1931 to study art, but soon became more interested in ballet. After taking classes with Marie Rambert, he joined her experimental Ballet Club in 1933 and there met dancer and choreographer Antony Tudor (1908-1987), who remained his companion and artistic collaborator.

 

In 1938, Laing became a member of Tudor's London Ballet, a short-lived troupe for which he danced in Tudor's Gala Performance and Judgment of Paris. He accompanied Tudor to New York in 1939 to participate in the first season of Ballet Theater, as American Ballet Theatre was originally known. There Tudor choreographed several of the roles for which Laing became famous.

 

His reputation as one of the significant dancers of his era was almost certainly enhanced by Tudor's choreographing to his strengths. Their longtime relationship (from 1938 until Tudor's death in 1987) was briefly interrupted when Laing married the American ballerina Diana Adams in 1947. They divorced in 1953.

 

Laing is on the right (age 29) in these two 1940 photographs with Antony Tudor taken by Carl Van Vechten:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j3QgyWC0r7Y/TzeWjUm-xLI/AAAAAAAAO7g/e7MFs2VVI6A/s1600/VanVechten-Tudor-Laing.jpg

 

 

Here in another 1940 image by Van Vechten:

 

And here in LIFE magazine in 1944 (age 33):

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iCIihgvJmfs/UaARnaPVMhI/AAAAAAAAQKQ/tIPET6GJ6Dw/s1600/Ballet+dancer+Hugh+Laing+executing+a+leap+w.+legs+split.jpg

[TruthBTold]

Hugh Laing (1911-1988) was one of the most significant dramatic ballet dancers of the 20th-century. Although never considered a great technician, Laing was known for the intensity of his stage presence, his powers of characterization and an impeccable sense of theatrical timing. Born in Barbados, he moved to London in 1931 to study art, but soon became more interested in ballet. After taking classes with Marie Rambert, he joined her experimental Ballet Club in 1933 and there met dancer and choreographer Antony Tudor (1908-1987), who remained his companion and artistic collaborator.

In 1938, Laing became a member of Tudor's London Ballet, a short-lived troupe for which he danced in Tudor's Gala Performance and Judgment of Paris. He accompanied Tudor to New York in 1939 to participate in the first season of Ballet Theater, as American Ballet Theatre was originally known. There Tudor choreographed several of the roles for which Laing became famous.

His reputation as one of the significant dancers of his era was almost certainly enhanced by Tudor's choreographing to his strengths. Their longtime relationship (from 1938 until Tudor's death in 1987) was briefly interrupted when Laing married the American ballerina Diana Adams in 1947. They divorced in 1953. . . .

 

Interesting (and odd I think) that he starts his relationship with Tudor in 1938 and then leaves him to marry the named ballerina in 1947. Then he actually stays with her for 6 long years until he leaves her to go back to Tudor. Of course, he could have continued to see Tudor while they staged various works.

[gallahadesquire]

For a website of this stuff, blackdogue.net has a collection of pre-1995 Playgirl models.

 

Blackdogue.net

[Moondance]

John Fraser (born in Glasgow in 1931, now 87 years old) is a BAFTA-nominated Scottish actor and writer. One of his earliest roles was in the second film version of J.B. Priestley's The Good Companions (1957). He had leading roles in films such as El Cid, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (playing Lord Alfred Douglas), Repulsion and Isadora.

 

In 2004, he published his autobiography, Close Up, in which he wrote frankly about being a gay man, and wished that actor Dirk Bogarde had admitted during his lifetime that he was gay ("Dirk's life with [Anthony] Forwood had been so respectable, their love for each other so profound and so enduring, it would have been a glorious day for the pursuit of understanding and the promotion of tolerance if he had screwed up the courage ... to make one dignified allusion to his true nature...").

 

 

Roman Polanski directs Catherine Deneuve and John Fraser (age 34) in Repulsion (1965)

 

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7HAFGUCTmpU/VCVvO_ccj7I/AAAAAAACDlI/8JJBQNyMrFg/s1600/Old%2BPhotograph%2BJohn%2BFraser%2BScotland.JPG

[TruthBTold]

John Fraser (born in Glasgow in 1931, now 87 years old) is a BAFTA-nominated Scottish actor and writer. One of his earliest roles was in the second film version of J.B. Priestley's The Good Companions (1957). He had leading roles in films such as El Cid, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (playing Lord Alfred Douglas), Repulsion and Isadora.

In 2004, he published his autobiography, Close Up, in which he wrote frankly about being a gay man, and wished that actor Dirk Bogarde had admitted during his lifetime that he was gay ("Dirk's life with [Anthony] Forwood had been so respectable, their love for each other so profound and so enduring, it would have been a glorious day for the pursuit of understanding and the promotion of tolerance if he had screwed up the courage ... to make one dignified allusion to his true nature..."). . . .

 

Roman Polanski directs Catherine Deneuve and John Fraser (age 34) in Repulsion (1965)

 

Damn, I don't know who is more stunning in this picture Deneuve or Fraser.

[Moondance]

Mario Andretti (born in Italy in 1940, now 78 years old) had a long career in racing, and is the only person to be named United States Driver of the Year in three decades (1967, 1978, and 1984). He is one of only two drivers who have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR racing, and had 109 career wins on major circuits. With his final IndyCar win in April 1993, Andretti became the first driver to have won IndyCar races in four different decades, and the first to win automobile races of any kind in five.

 

When Mario and his twin brother Aldo were born in Montona, Istria, it was part of the Kingdom of Italy, but the area was annexed by Yugoslavia at the end of WWII, and the Andretti family left in 1948 during the Istrian exodus, ending up in a refugee camp in Lucca, Italy. In 1955 the Andrettis emigrated to the United States, settling in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. The twins modified a 1948 Hudson funded with money earned in an uncle's garage and, in the late '50s, took turns racing the car on dirt tracks near Nazareth.

 

Andretti is now the senior member of a racing dynasty that includes both of his sons, two nephews and his grandson Marco. He lives near Marco in Bushkill Township, Pennsylvania. His wife Dee Ann -- a native of Nazareth who taught him English and married him in 1961 -- passed away this summer.

 

As a young man, with the Hudson:

 

In the garage area at Daytona in 1967, age 27:

 

The 1967 Daytona 500 winner:

 

[Moondance]

Bobby Vee (1943-2016)--singer, musician and early '60s teen idol-- was born Robert Velline in Fargo, ND. His career began in the midst of tragedy on "The Day the Music Died" -- February 3, 1959 --when three of the four headline acts in the lineup of the traveling Winter Dance Party (Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper) were killed in a plane crash en route to their next show in Moorhead, MN. A call went out for local acts to replace the lost musicians in the show at the Moorhead National Guard Armory. Not yet 16, Vee and his 2-week-old band volunteered, along with three or four other bands. The appearance was a success, setting in motion the events that led to Vee's career. A little over two years later -- in the summer of 1961, when he was 18 -- his song "Take Good Care of My Baby" went to No. 1 on Billboard's U.S. pop chart.

 

Early in Vee's career, a musician calling himself "Elston Gunnn" briefly toured with Vee's band. This was Robert Zimmerman--later Bob Dylan--whose autobiography includes complimentary details about their friendship. In a concert at Midway Stadium in St. Paul, MN in 2013, Dylan played Vee's hit "Suzie Baby," introducing it with these words,

 

"I lived here a while back, and since that time, I've played all over the world, with all kinds of people … everybody from Mick Jagger to Madonna, and everybody in there in between. I've been on the stage with those people, but the most beautiful person I've ever been on the stage with was a man who is here tonight, who used to sing a song called "Suzie Baby." I want to say that Bobby Vee is here tonight … so, we're gonna try to do this song, like I've done it with him before once or twice."

 

A skilled rhythm guitarist and occasional songwriter with a clear, ringing singing voice, Bobby Vee had six gold singles before his hits diminished with the British Invasion. He recorded into the 2000s and maintained a steady touring schedule until 2011, when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

 

Here, at age 18, in 1961:

 

http://cdn.arn.com.au/media/7597620/bobby-vee.jpg

 

http://blog.thecurrent.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/9/files/2016/01/Bobby-Vee.jpg