My “Buddy”

April, 1967 Philadelphia, PA

I was a 16 year old kid in high school, working on weekends doing local TV (Gene London’s Cartoon Corner’s General Store on WCAU - Philadelphia’s CBS affiliate), when one of my classmates asked me if I was busy the following week. I was a little confused because I knew she had a boyfriend but then she explained that it was about a possible job. Her grandparents owned a supper club/nightclub called Scioli’s and the headliner’s regular opening act was unavailable. She knew I was an entertainer and thought I might be right for the job.

So I went to the club and met Armando “Buddy” Greco. I sang for him, we talked, we shook hands - and the next night at 8:00 PM I was doing my 20 minutes set before introducing him. I did my homework in the kitchen and went back on for the 10:00 PM show, did my 20 minutes and introduced Buddy. After the second show, while the busboys were cleaning up, we sat together at the piano and he went over my set, giving me constructive criticism and making suggestions.

This was our routine for that whole week. When our last night of the engagement ended, Buddy handed me some sheet music to the songs he had been teaching me that week and said, “We’ll see each other again”.

Several weeks went by and the phone rang at home. It was Buddy and he was coming into Philadelphia to play Palumbo’s and wanted me to open for him (at, I might add, an increase in pay). And that led to another week together. Part of it, I know, was that he was originally from Philadelphia and, like me, he grew up poor and he had gotten his first big break, playing piano for the Benny Goodman Big Band when he was the same age I was then.

Other celebrities would come to see him and he would introduce me and give me a big build up. As a result, I became pretty established as a solid opening act whenever someone came into town to play the clubs. Through Buddy, I met and eventually opened for comedian Joey Bishop (another Philadelphia boy), singer Al Martino, comedians Buddy Hackett, Jack Carter and Jack E. Leonard (which led to my friendship with Jimmy Durante The Schnozzola - Jimmy Durante). On one very special night, Sammy Davis Jr. came - and that led to a week opening for him at the Latin Casino in New Jersey.

Between 1967 and 1969, I was a very busy kid with high school, nightclub work and chorus work in two different Broadway shows (both of them flops!)

Vietnam and the demise of the nightclub business ended that career for me, sadly. Buddy and I kept in sporadic contact and seriously re-connected a few years ago. He will be celebrating his 90th birthday in August of 2016 with a performance in Las Vegas (he and his wife, Leslie, live in England).

He is truly “My Buddy”.