News Articles - David's Australian Tour 2002
Cassidy Relives Welcome
Sydney Confidential
September 18, 2002
FORMER pop pin-up David Cassidy may have set teeny hearts on fire all those years ago - but he had another burning issue on his mind during a visit to Sydney this week.
The 52-year-old was reunited for the first time with a heroic hotel boss who saved his life in a terrifying blaze back in 1975.
Twenty-eight years ago, when Cassidy last visited our shores, he stayed at the now demolished Sebel Townhouse - where one George Bedwani was working. While the singer enjoyed a snooze in his penthouse suite, the plant room next door burst into flames. And the only thing that saved Cassidy from being an even hotter pop property was the swift action of Bedwani, who broke in and dragged the star through the choking smoke to safety. The two were reunited by chance on Monday at the Hotel Inter-Continental, where Bedwani is now general manager.
"He didn't even take a second to recognise me . . . he turned to the people with him and told them the story," Bedwani told Confidential yesterday.
"I said 'Gee, you've got a bloody good memory' - he remembered more than I did!"
Cassidy certainly hasn't forgotten his brush with death. At a press conference yesterday, he said: "I never forgot it . . . I woke up and there was black smoke and soot in the room . . . I had been inhaling it and there was black all underneath my mouth and my nose," he said, touching a face which appears even smoother than the days when he reduced teenage girls to tears.
"I tried not to make a deal about it because I thought everyone would think it was a PR thing. I nearly died . . . yeah," he casually drawled.
Former Partridge Family man Cassidy - clad in the same denims he favoured in his heyday - was here to promote his new album, Then And Now. Having tried acting on Broadway, he's also promoting his tour, which hits the Entertainment Centre on November 16.
And the parting shot from the man behind C'mon, Get Happy? "I've never felt as happy as I do now." That's terrific, Dave.
