Fan Tales
Calgary; Where Dreams Are Nuthin' More Than Wishes
By Cat Ortiz-White
After running a fan club for David Cassidy for over a year, in the Spring of 1982 I found out about another David Cassidy fan club based in Germany. The President was Urda Voss. I wrote to her and we decided to merge our clubs together. We were informed that David would be doing the play "Tribute" in Calgary, Canada. We were told the play would be opening on June 9th. I made arrangements to fly up for the weekend on Friday, June 11th. Joining me was Liz Surges who took the bus from Indiana.
Liz met me at the airport and the taxi took us to the hotel my travel agency booked for us. We didn't have the reservation and the taxi driver told us he knew of a better hotel with a lower rate just up the street anyway. So we went there instead. We took a cab with the same cab driver we'd had before and he told us of some mass transit down the road from the theater. When we arrived at the theater, we found out the play had started a week earlier. We got tickets for that evening but we were told that tickets for Saturday were sold out. Needless to say, we were very disappointed after coming all that way that we wouldn't be able to see the show the next day. I was glad I'd taken one nice outfit as we found out it was a nice dinner theater with a dress code. We also found out the play had been running for a week.
We watched the play and it was funny, sad, heart-warming, etc. At one point, Liz and I looked at each other and we each said at the same time "It's JUST like David and HIS DAD!" Which was true. David even said in radio and newspaper interviews that the reason he did this play was because it was like "therapy" for him. The relationship between the character he was playing and his own father, the late great Jack Cassidy was so similar, even though he was not shy like the guy he was portraying. We totally loved the show! Both of us agreed it was the best show we'd seen David in up to that point in his career. David really got to show off his wonderful acting ability in this play as well. The theater also had some drinking glasses with photos of David and his co-star John on them. We decided to get them the following day since we were going to walk to get transportation.
We looked around and waited a while to try to find Urda. She was not there that night and so we started walking down the road to find the mass transit the cab driver told us about. We were just a little bit down the road when we heard a horn honk. It kept honking at us. I was too scared to look. Liz turned around and said "It's DAVID!" I turned and said "WHAT?!" She said "It's David." Sure enough, it was! He drove up to us with his window rolled down and asked us what we were doing. We said "Walking to the bus station." He said "What bus station?" We said we didn't know but the cab driver told us there was some mass transit not too far down the road. He said "There's NOTHING for miles around here! Get on in and I'll give you a ride." We said "No, we're okay. We'll find it." He said "No. There's nothing. Get in here NOW!" So we did.
Needless to say, we were pretty excited about this! Liz sat up front next to him and I was in the back seat behind him. He'd met both Liz and I while touring in the play "Little Johnny Jones," the previous year. I asked about Urda and he said they were there the other night. I told him about our merging our clubs together and that I wrote to her about when I'd be coming. So I was surprised I didn't see her there. I told him that I'd flown from San Diego and that I could only afford to stay the weekend. Liz told him she took the bus from Indiana. He said, "You took the bus! All the way from Indiana!" She said something like "Yeah, it was actually a pretty nice ride." I let David know that we of course wanted to see the show each day, as that's why we'd come, to see him. We were told they were sold out on Saturday though.
He said not to worry about it and said he'd call us the next day. He asked for our phone number and Liz gave it to him. David also told us that some woman was raped and killed not long ago and so not to be walking around at night. He said he'd give us money for a cab if we needed it. We said ok and that we were fine. I was a tad disappointed to see that he was smoking as I'm allergic to cigarette smoke but he was very nice about it and he'd lean out the window to blow the smoke outside. (Note: David tried to stop smoking many times over the years. He went from smoking high-tar cigarettes to low-tar ones, to cigars to small cigars.) We arrived at the hotel and he said we'd hear from him the next day.
We both tried to go to sleep early to get our rest but neither one of us could sleep at all. The next day we got a phone call in the morning. It was Myrna Superstain, who was the Press Representative of the Stage West Theater. She said we had tickets and they were the best seats in the house and not to worry as they were ON DAVID!!! She told us to just pick them up at the box office. WOW!! WAS THAT JUST TOO NICE OR WHAT???!!!! Needless to say, we were jumping up and down with excitement.
After having breakfast, I bought a Calgary T-shirt right away in the guest shop. I'd brought only warm clothes thinking it'd be cold in Canada. Instead, it was very HOT! We then went to a mall where I got a pair of nice dress pants and a nice top for the show. There's no sales tax in Canada and the pants were on sale for only $10.00! We also saw a lion cub in the mall and posed with it for a few dollars. The money went towards saving the animals in the wild. Later we saw the newspaper and there was an article with Urda, Tina and Katy in it! We each picked up a copy and then went back to the hotel to change and get ready for the show.
When we got to our seats we ordered drinks in the Tribute glasses. Unfortunately, they'd already sold out! We also met up with Urda, Tina and Katy. Urda told me that they had found out about the change of dates just in time for them to change there travel schedules and make it there in time.
The show opened on June 2nd which gave David only ten days of rehearsals! Urda, Tina & Katy were there for a few weeks. We all talked about how super nice David was and how much we liked the show, etc. We found out that David had taken them out to lunch a couple of times. Fans Sharon and Terese had also come from England to see David but they flew home on Saturday. David had also treated them to lunch. After the show, we met with David briefly backstage. Liz gave him a very nice leather jacket with horses on it. David told us to see meet him at the backstage entrance the next morning.
We all arrived early for our meeting with David. He drove up in a white rented car. David use to always rent cars as you used to be able to look up people's addresses at the DMV if you knew what car they drove. Some fans had found out David's address this way and bothered David and Kay at their home. Some even sleeping on the lawn and such! David asked, "Did you see the article about me today?" (It was titled 'Tribute to dad.') I said "Yes, I really liked it."
David (left) in the horse racing jacket that Liz gave to him.
He said "Yeah, but it was a bit fabricated." I said "Do you mean you didn't cry?" David said "Of course not. Can you see me sitting there across the table crying? Am I crying now? And they always have to mention that girl (the one who died at his concert in '74.) Why do they always have to mention that?"
There was also another article in the local newspaper about Urda, Tina, and Katy. He said he thought it was well done. We agreed that it was very complimentary.
Politics also came up as David mentioned he was not a big fan of Ronald Reagan. David is a liberal Democrat. I mentioned that I'm a "Democratic Socialist." He said "REALLY?!" I said "Yeah, like Sweden, not like Russia or anything crazy like that. I'm with DSA, which is the largest Socialist organization in the U.S. and they work with the Democratic Party. You know, Michael Harrington? The famous political writer & organizer. I came from his side, DSOC which merged with NAM to form DSA." He just nodded like he understood and said "Okay." I think that even he was a bit surprised that a fan of his wouldn't be so "mainstream." Of course, I'm speculating but that's what I believe.
Liz asked David if he could pose for some photos with the jacket she gave to him. He went to his dressing room to put it on and posed nicely. We were all very happy to have a few photos of David in some other clothes for our newsletters!
David was really super to all of us and we had a fabulous time! At one point David asked to take a photo of us with one of our cameras. Unfortunately, the photo David took of us didn't turn out too well but it was very sweet of David to want to do that for us! David said his best friend Sam had come up and they were going to do some back packing for a while later.
Near the end, David asked us if we were going to the next show which was a matinee. We all said yes. David said something like "Hey, Sunday's are usually pretty dead. Could ya do me a favor and really laugh and clap and stuff like you hadn't seen it before." We all agreed to do that.
Turned out during that show, we didn't even have to pretend especially during one scene with a salt shaker. There was a part where John Lawler takes a salt shaker to sprinkle salt over his shoulder. (A gesture of good luck in many cultures.) The lid came off and John just cracked up! David was trying not to laugh but turned his head a bit to try not to show he was holding in his laughter.
The whole audience, including us just cracked up for a good while. David came back with a REALLY EXCELLENT ad-libbed line that was a great "save." The audience clapped and cheered. So much so that John started laughing again. So then David started laughing. Then we were all laughing.
After the laughter died down, John and David looked at each other and they both tried not to laugh. But then one would start and so then he other would crack up. This happened several times until finally, John said "Excuse us a minute" and both he and David left the stage. They came back on and everyone clapped. They looked at each other and laughed. Left and came back on again. They finally started where they left off. That really loosened up the audience for the rest of the show. The rest of this performance and the audience were just fantastic. We were really happy we were all there for that one!
My very favorite photo of me with David. As you see, I later got it autographed.
David posed with us again for some more photos before the evening performance. We made sure to change clothes so that the photos would look a bit different. Besides, I wanted to wear the new outfit I'd bought at the mall! The photo that Tina took of David and I together is still my favorite photo of David and myself. Urda and I also posed with David together. At one point David said, "Hey, I have an idea!" He had each of us kiss him on the cheek at the same time and when we did, he opened his mouth. I think you'll agree that it turned out to be a super cute picture!!
After the show, Liz and I went back stage to say good bye to David and to thank him for everything! Liz had the "Infamous Nude Fruit Picture" of DC with her to get autographed. David said "Hey, you know who took that picture?!" She said "Gina Lollibridgita." He said "Yep!" He seemed very proud of it. He said to take care of our selves and have a good trip home, etc. We each got a very tender, little "friendly" kiss on the lips good bye. We got a cab back to the hotel to get packed to go home the following morning.
When I returned home, my boyfriend Mark who I lived with had a special "Surprise" waiting for me. I went in the bathroom and saw a little bowl and said "A KITTY!" Mark said "I didn't know how else I'd beat you seeing David Cassidy and so I thought I'd get you something really special." The cutest little fluffy black and white kitten came out and ran straight to me. Mark said "He must know he's YOUR cat because he was afraid of everyone else." I named him Ricky after David's song "Ricky's Tune" which he wrote about his black and white dog Ricky. Ricky cat was my very best friend until he passed away at the age of 19 in the spring of 2001.
I think you can all see why this was my very favorite DC trip EVER! It did indeed prove that "Dreams Are Nuthin' More Than Wishes and a Wish Is Just A Dream You Wish to Come True."
