David Cassidy on the Web
David Cassidy Was Headlner at "World's Largest Disco"
November 27, 2011
By WKBW News
WKBW-TV
http://today.msnbc.msn.com
BUFFALO, NY ( WKBW ) 70's icon David Cassidy headlined "The World's Largest Disco" Saturday night at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center.
Cassidy was the star of the 1970's ABC hit, "The Partridge Family," and has enjoyed an amazing singing career.
Cassidy greeted fans, signed autographs, and took pictures with a fee going to charity. He also thrilled the crowd on stage who could not get enough of Cassidy, and music that has endured almost 40 years!
Eyewitness News cameras caught up with Cassidy for a brief interview. He said the 60's and 70's were an amazing time to be alive, and noted how much change happened during that era.
7,000 people were in attendance at the sold out event that celebrates the dance and dress of a memorable decade. The first "World's Largest Disco" was held at the Buffalo Convention Center in 1978.
In recent years, David Piotrowski reorganized the disco that has become a Western New York tradition. Piotrowski has donated millions to charity as a result of the "Disco" presentations.
Here is more on Cassidy from his official website!
David's first desire to become a performer was when he was only three years old when his mother actress Evelyn Ward took him to see his father, the famous Tony & Emmy award winning star Jack Cassidy perform on the Broadway stage. David's parents divorced when he was only four years old. He grew up in West Orange, New Jersey with his mom and grandparents until the age of 10 when his mother decided to move them to Hollywood.
David graduated from Rexford, a private high school in Beverly Hills and even before graduating had performed in a couple of plays and one TV show. For a year after his graduation David was accepted into the prestigious Los Angeles Theater Company (L.A.T.C.) David Cassidy then moved to New York city and studied with David Craig and Stanford Meisner. His first Broadway musical was titled The Fig Leaves Are Falling, with such well known performers as Dorothy Loudon and Barry Nelson. David returned to Los Angeles and was signed for many dramatic guest starring roles in such T.V. shows as Bonanza, Ironside, Medical Center, The Mod Squad, and more. David then landed the role of Keith Partridge in the ever-popular, now classic T.V. show, The Partridge Family. In 1971 David won a Gold Medal Award for Most Promising Actor. The Partridge Family show catapulted David Cassidy to stardom and at the young age of 19, he was an international phenomenon with the largest fan club in history.
Over the next five years, Cassidy sold over 25 million records, garnered multiple Grammy nominations, won a Golden Globe Award, achieved eighteen gold and platinum recordings including four consecutive multi-platinum releases, sold out concert venues around the world, becoming the world's highest paid solo live performer by the age of 21. In 1973 David filled Wembley Stadium, London six times in three days, a record that not even the Rolling Stones have been able to emulate.
Readers of the German teen magazine "Bravo" voted David the best singer in 1973, 1974, 1975. David was presented with the "Goldener Otto" which looks like a little Winnetou. In 1976 David was awarded the Bronce (Bronze) Otto.
After The Partridge Family's successful four-year run, Cassidy continued for the next three years to record hit making recordings that reached the top of the rock charts throughout Europe with his three albums released on the RCA label. David then stopped recording records until 1985 when he returned to performing live and sold out such large arenas as The Royal Albert Hall, having had several more chart topping hit records throughout Europe.
David also returned to T.V. acting in 1978 playing an undercover cop in the T.V. special A Chance To Live, a telefilm that became the highest rated of the Police Story anthology and for which he was recognized by his peers by receiving an Emmy nomination for Best Dramatic Actor in a T.V. Special. This special lead to his starring role in the series David Cassidy/Man Undercover on NBC.
In 1979, Cassidy returned to the theater with his then wife, award winning actress Kay Lenz in the play The Voice of the Turtle. In 1981, he starred in Little Johnny Jones which toured the USA and broke the house record at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. In 1982 he did Bernard Slade's Tribute. Mr. Slade not only wrote such classic plays as Same Time Next Year but he was also the creator of the T.V. show The Partridge Family. David soon starred on the Broadway Stage in 1983 in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Cassidy's film credits include a leading role in Francis Ford Coppola's Spirit of '76 and Instant Karma with Craig Sheffer.
Cassidy was also fortunate enough to have starred in the play Time in London with Lawrence Olivier in 1987. This was Oliviers' last performance before his death and the play was a huge success.
In 1990 David recorded his first American L.P. in over 10 years and instantly had a hit single Lyin' To Myself, a song Cassidy also wrote. Cassidy along with his wife Sue Shifrin, also played an active role in 1994's Rebuild L.A. campaign, composing the efforts anthem, Stand And Be Proud. David also wrote the bluesy theme song to the John Larroquette Show and in 1994 won The Television Music Archives Award for Best Television Theme. He also wrote his autobiography C'mon, Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus which was published by Warner Books.
In 1993, Cassidy accepted another starring role, this time in the critically acclaimed Willy Russell production of Blood Brothers. Sharing the stage in this musical drama was half brother Shaun Cassidy, who is also a multi-talented award winning performer. The show ran on Broadway for a year and enjoyed a limited run on London's prestigious West End. David then joined the USA Canadian tour which ended in May 1995.
In August of 1996, Cassidy took over the starring role in MGM's Las Vegas production EFX. Cassidy replaced an ailing Michael Crawford who later bowed out of the show completely. Cassidy brought new life into the struggling production by changing much of the script and adding new, more contemporary songs. The show then became a tremendous success and was voted Best Show In Vegas, with Cassidy winning as Best Performer In Vegas.
In May 1998, David released his album Old Trick, New Dog. His single No Bridge I Wouldn't Cross hit the top 40 of the Adult Contemporary Charts in the U.S.A. This is the highest selling record of any Independent Label ever!
On January 18, 2000 David was a part ow David Cassidy-At The Copa at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. Cassidy wrote and produced this new hybrid of a Broadway show and a Vegas show himself. It also co-starred the award winning singer Sheena Easton. This show opened for the press on Feb. 3, 2000 and it closed Jan. 21, 2001.
David's CD titled Then and Now was released in the fall of 2001 in the UK and went to number 5 on the UK charts. It's also gone platinum in the UK. The US release date was May 1, 2002. David toured the USA, UK and Australia throughout 2002. David's tour was very successful and a DVD of his April 2002 concert from Glasgow, Scotland was released in November 2002. He underwent yet another successful tour of the UK in 2004, after the release of his CD A Touch of Blue. David Cassidy Greatest Hits Live DVD was recorded during this tour. In 2007 David worked with producer-mixer Craig J to record high energy dance versions of some classic Partridge Family songs.
Headlining the Once in a Lifetime Tour throughout the UK in 2005, David was in the company of The Osmonds, The Bay City Rollers and David Essex. In 2007, David again toured the UK.
In 2009 David worked with his 3 brothers on the TV show "Ruby & The Rockits".
David continually tours throughout the USA when not involved in other projects.
