David Cassidy on the Web
Boomer teen-dream David Cassidy settles in South Florida
Sunday, January 4, 2004
By Liz Doup
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
www.marconews.com
FORT LAUDERDALE - C'mon, get happy!
How often can you hang with David Cassidy - singer, actor, producer and former teen dream who made a nation of 14-year-olds swoon playing Keith, the hair-tossing hunk on the silly '70s sitcom "The Partridge Family."
Imagine! He picked Fort Lauderdale to live and does his darndest to make the place home. He served as grand marshal of the city's annual Winterfest Boat Parade last month, on board with his wife, songwriter Sue Shifrin-Cassidy, and son Beau, 12.
Hey, David. We think we love you!
But gosh, time sure zips by, doesn't it?
Seems like yesterday it was bell-bottoms and puka shells for Cassidy, who today favors black slacks and a neatly pressed shirt that shades toward blue-violet.
OK, so he doesn't do that hair-flipping thing with his mane anymore, but at 53 he still has plenty. And judging from his looks - fit, trim, virtually wrinkle free - he's got great genes or a great surgeon.
Fifteen months ago, he left his digs in Las Vegas, with its faux New York skyline and Eiffel Tower, for real palm trees, a real beach, and, he hopes, a real normal life.
Well, rock me, baby ... That's Cassidy you see all over town, at PTA meetings at Beau's private school and on the baseball field, helping coach Beau's team. Heck, Cassidy even surfaced at a recent public meeting to argue for partially closing a road in his neighborhood on the Intracoastal.
No, he was not feelin' groovy. Traffic problems, you understand, and kids could get hurt.
You might think such everyday doings are too mundane for a showbiz guy, but Cassidy didn't move here to be a star. Been there, done that. He knows fame can fade faster than a copy of Tiger Beat, left forgotten by the pool.
"I make an effort to make this a normal life," he said. "We are too occupied with celebrity. Believe me, it's not what it's cracked to be."
It's not the burbs
More on the celebrity stuff later, but at the moment, Cassidy pauses to exchange a hug and kiss with Beau, just home from school. Then he offers a quick tour of his family's two-story remodeled home, filled with objets d'art. ("My wife is the shopper.")
No doubt, musicians live here. Notice the shiny black grand piano overlooking the pool, another piano in a nearby room and one of Cassidy's guitars, propped inconspicuously in the family room.
The tour even includes a quick peek into Beau's bedroom, bedecked in sports memorabilia and a pingpong table with a few dozen balls scattered about.
"Beau," Cassidy said, softly, patiently. "You need to clean up those pingpong balls."
Cassidy then moves to the pool and patio area where a gazebo is filled with Sue's orchids and towering bougainvillea create a lush, secluded sanctuary.
"It's so private," Cassidy said. "This is paradise."
Granted, it wasn't easy convincing his wife of 13 years that Fort Lauderdale was the place to be. A '67 Miami Beach High graduate, she didn't want to come back. The area was so changed, though a few friends still call South Florida home.
Vacationing here made the transition easier. So did changes in sleepy, little Fort Lauderdale, now morphing into a hot, new city.
"I just didn't want it to seem like we were going to the elephant graveyard to die," she said, pausing to give her husband a quick shoulder rub.
But how could it when Cassidy has worked nearly nonstop since he unpacked? Career-wise, he's all over the place, singing everywhere from concert halls to casino palaces. A native New Yorker and serious Yankees fan, he sang the national anthem during a Marlins playoff game and "God Bless America" during the World Series.
Incidentally, his office is home to more baseball memorabilia than showbiz glam. That includes an autographed photo of Mickey Mantle and a picture of real life stepmom Shirley Jones, who played his mother on The Partridge Family, with members of the '61 Yankees, including Roger Maris.
A framed People magazine featuring Cassidy and half brother Shaun on the cover sits on a shelf. But the gold records are packed away.
"I don't need to remind myself of the trophies," he said. "I know what I accomplished."
At the moment, he has a new album out, "A Touch of Blue," featuring Santana's Spooky and Lennon and McCartney's Blackbird. If you're set on hearing "I Think I Love You," you'll have to listen to the Cheerios Berry Burst cereal commercial, which uses the tune.
Give Cassidy credit for a willingness to play along. In February, he appeared at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City where he officiated at the "marriage" of a strawberry and a Cheerio.
Hey, it's no easy road when you shoot sky-high at 19, then suddenly, it's over. When "The Partridge Family" bus rolled away for the final episode in 1974, Cassidy was adrift.
It took him a decade to recast his career and even longer to get his head where it is today. About $100,000 worth of analysis helped, he said. "And that's conservative."
For anyone who lost track of Cassidy post-Keith Partridge, let's review.
Behind him: two unhappy marriages and the predictable drug and alcohol problems. He got it together, heading to Broadway for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in the early '80s, then "Blood Brothers" in the mid '90s. He's since headlined in a high-tech Vegas production, "EFX," and produced musicals including "The Rat Pack Is Back."
A decade ago, he penned his autobiography, "C'mon, Get Happy," a book that wouldn't have pleased Mrs. Partridge one bit, though Cassidy said the salacious saga got more ink than his soul searching.
Summary: the young Cassidy loved sex, groupies and dabbled in drugs. He hated the whole Partridge gig, right down to his character's name, Keith.
He was, after all, the son of an actor, the late Jack Cassidy, and Jones, a singer-actress. He was 19 when the show started in 1970, and before he strapped on that guitar, he'd hoped for a serious acting career.
But who'll think you're serious after parading in crushed velvet bell-bottoms, cruising in a psychedelic bus?
A bummer. Really. And Cassidy doesn't want to see his kids hit the spotlight in their teen years, the way he did.
He wanted his 17-year-old daughter, Katie Cassidy, who lives with her mother in Los Angeles, to put her showbiz dreams on hold. Katie is his daughter with ex-model Sherry Benedon, who had an on-again, off-again relationship with him, though they never married.
Instead, Katie Cassidy recently released a dance-pop version of his 1970 No. 1 tune "I Think I Love You."
"It's like sticking a needle in your child's arm," he said. "Don't do it."
In contrast, Beau, while musically adept, is into sports and other kids' stuff.
"I want him to be a normal guy," Cassidy said. "I want him to be preoccupied with homework."
Beau's a veteran of his father's show business life. He's been to performances, traveled with Dad to gigs, even seen old Partridge Family shows.
The latter will always be part of David Cassidy's story, and he's fine with that now.
When Cassidy performs in Los Angeles, he catches up with his stepmother, who caught one of his latest shows. During a recent trip back, he did Danny Bonaduce's radio show. Bonaduce, for anyone too young or too old to remember, played a younger brother on the show.
Cassidy's real-life half brothers, Shaun, Patrick and Ryan Cassidy, still toil in Los Angeles, involved in everything from writing and performing to set decorating. Cassidy is glad he can work from anywhere, especially Fort Lauderdale.
He just bought a boat, and the diehard Yankees fan is getting season tickets to the Marlins. He'll have another team to root for now, he said, flashing those memorable dimples.
Happily, some things never change.
