David Cassidy on the Web
Idol worship
C'mon Winnipeg, get happy; Partridge Family heartthrob David Cassidy is here next week and he doesn't have a Valentine's Day date
February 12, 2008
By: Rob Williams
Winnipeg Free Press
DAVID Cassidy built his career singing playful love songs, but this Valentine's Day he'll be alone.
He won't be lonely though. He'll have about 1,500 fans to keep him company during two shows at Club Regent Casino Wednesday and Thursday.
The former teen idol and star of The Partridge Family will be in Winnipeg this week for the first time ever, but his wife Sue Shifrin will be in Scotland. He's not that big on the occasion, though, choosing to be romantic when the mood strikes, not when the calendar orders him to.
For fans of Valentine's Day, Cassidy offers up this advice: "A perfect day is being with the people you love, having the acknowledgment of what they mean to you and sharing your life with you. I don't care where you are -- the canvas can be a restaurant, an entertainment event, a celebration or a one-on-one quiet dinner," he says over the phone during a recent interview.
"Maybe I'll find someone up there to sing a Valentine's song to."
There will be no shortage of takers.
Cassidy has been making girls swoon years since first appearing on North American television screens in 1970 as Keith Partridge, the eldest teenage son on The Partridge Family. For anyone unfamiliar with the show, it centred on a musical family led by single matriarch Shirley Partridge, played by Cassidy's real stepmom, Shirley Jones.
The show ran for four years, ending when Cassidy quit. In that time he had become a teen idol with one of the largest fan clubs in the world, was one of the highest paid live entertainers and sold hundreds of millions of dollars of merchandise, although he was allegedly paid only a fraction of that amount when everything was said and done.
"I made millions, but I should have made $500 million. They owed me, and what they stole from me was huge. I made less than $5,000 a week on a television show that was popular and I was one of the highest-paid actors in comedy. Actors didn't make money back then," he says.
He chronicled his life story in two autobiographies: 1994's C'mon Get Happy and the newly released Could It Be Forever? In the books he writes frankly about the highs and lows of stardom, his money issues, partying like a rock star and his sexual habits, which may have shocked some of his fans who thought that he, like his TV character, was an innocent.
"It was somewhat cathartic, and in my case I wanted to tell the truth without hurting anyone. I never mentioned women's' names; they were mostly young -- in their 20s and early 30s. I was swinging. It was rocking. Any red-blooded American boy has done what I did and probably more. I didn't want to become exploitive in some way. Everyone wants to know, 'Where's the dirt?' but I don't think anyone wants to hear that about me. There's an unspoken trust when you walk away from a relationship. I'm not going to say anything about anyone I was intimate with," he says.
The most common question is whether he slept with his co-star, Susan Dey, who played his sister Laurie on the show. He did, but only once, according to a widely circulated interview he did with tabloid magazine The Globe.
During the television show's run, he and Jones were the only stars of The Partridge Family to actually sing on their recordings, and Cassidy also toured as a solo artist, flying to various cities on the weekend. When the show ended, he took up music full time, singing his own hits and Partridge Family favourites like I Think I Love You, Cherish, I Woke Up in Love This Morning, Rock Me Baby and Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted.
He released several solo albums in the 1970s and occasionally dabbled in acting. In the late 1970s, he earned an Emmy nomination for an episode of Police Story and starred in his own show, David Cassidy: Man Under Cover, which was cancelled after one season.
Cassidy eventually found success in the theatre. He played Joseph in the original Broadway production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, appeared in Time with Sir Laurence Olivier in London and was back on Broadway in the early to mid-'90s as Mickey Johnston in Blood Brothers.
Las Vegas was next. In 1996 Cassidy starred in EFX at the MGM Grand, which drew over one million customers in three years. He then created his own shows, The Rat Pack is Back and At the Copa with writer-producer Don Reo. Both played at various Vegas hotels in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
It was clear Cassidy still had plenty of fans, so he decided to get back on the road and began touring for the first time since the 1980s.
"I'd done 2,000 shows for 3.5 million people in Las Vegas. If you sell tickets, people care, and I had the opportunity to play in L.A. at the Greek Theatre, some great theatres in Europe, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. It's been great," Cassidy says of his return.
"It's a joy. The songs are great, the band is great, the audience goes nutty and it's really fun. Did I mention I love to play? Give me my guitar. Let's rock."
The Cassidy file
At the height of his popularity in the early 1970s David Cassidy allegedly went to the offices of Tiger Beat magazine and begged them not to put him on the cover because he wanted to be taken seriously as a musician and actor, not just another pretty pin-up boy.
Alongside the picture of him with his beaming smile and bright blue eyes, there would have probably have been some kind of trivia box with tidbits about his favourite colour, his idea of perfect date, what kind of car he drove and if he liked ice cream with his cake.
We don't have the answers to any of those questions, but here's a few selective bits of info we do know, including his favourite animal.
NAME: David Cassidy.
BIRTHDATE: April 12, 1950.
PARENTS: Actor Jack Cassidy and actress Evelyn Ward.
RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Married to Sue Shifrin since 1991.
BEST KNOWN FOR: Starring as Keith Partridge in the television series The Partridge Family (1970 to 1974)
SELECTED TV ROLES AS GUEST STAR: Ironside, Marcus Welby MD, The Mod Squad, Police Story, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The John Larroquette Show, Malcolm in the Middle.
THEATRE ROLES: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Broadway, 1983); Jesus Christ Superstar (Starlight Theatre, Kansas City, 1984); Blood Brothers (Broadway and touring production, 1993 to 1996); Time (Dominion Theatre, London, England, 1987); EFX (MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, 1996 to 1998); At the Copa (Rio Hotel, Las Vegas, 2000 to 2001); The Rat Pack is Back (1999 and on).
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY WITH THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: The Partridge Family Album (1970), Sound Magazine (1971), Up to Date (1971), Christmas Card (1972), Notebook (1972), Shopping Bag (1972), Crossword Puzzle (1973).
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY AS A SOLO ARTIST: Cherish (1972), Rock Me Baby (1972), Dreams are Nothin' More Than Wishes (1973), The Higher They Climb the Harder They Fall (1975), Gettin' It in the Street (1976), Home is Where the Heart Is (1976), Romance (1985), David Cassidy (1990), Then and Now (2001).
SELECTED SINGLES (SOLO AND WITH PARTRIDGE FAMILY): I Think I Love You (1970), Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted (1971), Cherish (1971), I'll Meet You Halfway (1971), Could It Be Forever (1972), How Can I Be Sure (1972), Rock Me Baby (1972), Am I Losing You (1972), Breakin' Up is Hard to Do (1972), It's One of Those Nights (Yes Love) (1972), Lyin' to Myself (1990).
BOOKS WRITTEN: C'Mon Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus (1994), Could it be Forever? My Story (2007)
PICTURE THIS: In attempt to turn his squeaky clean Keith Partridge image on its head, he posed nude for Annie Leibovitz in a 1972 Rolling Stone magazine.
FAVOURITE ANIMAL: Horses. Cassidy is a longtime horse breeder.
Concert Preview
David Cassidy
Club Regent Casino
Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m.
Tickets $49 at Ticketmaster (Wednesday only, Thursday sold out)
