Bobby Leaves Live Performing

In October 1963, Bobby decided to curtail his live performing to concentrate more on his acting career and running his music publishing company, TM Music. (This of course, was temporary.) He also wanted to spend more time with his family. At this time, Bobby graciously gave a short interview which was filmed and broadcast on the TV program Hollywood Backstage.

Question: Bob,we understand your gonna give up the nightclub circuit, is this right?

Bobby:Well,I don't want to make it as blanket a statement as I'm gonna give it up because its been much too good to me....to just suddenly turn around and say well, "bye bye birdie" so to speak. Actually what I'm gonna do is curtail the activities on the personal appearances slate for quite a while due to the fact that requires an awful lot of traveling and I don't think its right to subject my son, or my wife for that matter, to the kind of routine involved. You're in Chicago one day, you're in Australia the next and so forth. So what I'm gonna do is just kind of as the expression goes, "cool it for a while" and stay put, whether it be here in Los Angeles or New York where the other offices are, It will be at least one of two places as opposed to one of 150,000 places.

Question: Now, there two talents in your family, you and of course, your lovely wife Sandra Dee. Don't you think its tough on an entertainer to have two talents in the same family?

Bobby:Well, I tell ya, I think under many circumstances it would be similar, in terms of two celebrities so to speak, being husband and wife. It would occur just because of what I started to describe a moment ago, mainly the traveling situation. Most things can be worked out, and in this particular case.... in all cases actually, you should place an importance on what..... place a value on what really is important to the individual. For example, at one time in my life the most important thing to me was my career. No question about it, I didn't care how far I had to travel, how many times day I had to get up to go here, there and the other place. I'm married 3 years now, have a 3 year old son. That...those circumstances have suddenly become more important than the traveling and the career. Now my career is important. It's a means for making a living , it's something I love to do, no question about it. No matter what type of performing. However, I felt within myself I had to make an adjustment. Now Sandy has also had to make an adjustment, I'm sure she will do... she will think much more seriously about going to Europe or to Asia, or traveling in order to do a film than she would have before. You have to make an adjustment. I think the basic difficulty lies in the fact that two entertainers let their own egos and their own professions get in the way more often than not. Some people like to say that that's what caused the brief split up that Sandy and I had a while back... Some people like to say a lot of things. That possibly was a contributing factor. Adjustments have to be made no matter what the marital situation may be. I feel that if love is stronger than something else, then it has to win out, you just have to take the time to investigate it,understand it and work it out.

Question: Bob, one personal question...how ARE your martial situations, how is your martial situation now? How is it ?

Bobby (Obviously a little angry) : Well, how are your eye teeth ? NEXT !

Question: Alright now, your career started with I THINK the great version of "Mack The Knife", is this true?

Bobby: Well... I don't think any career starts with a particular record. It's like Harry Belafonte's classic line about it took him 31 years to become an overnight success. You work for something. Now when the public gets the chance to hear something and accept something that they like... for all intensive purposes you are born right at that moment.I had four or five hit records before "Mack the Knife" appealing to a younger set... that were rock and roll hits and prior to that I had 7 or 8 complete failures that didn't appeal to anyone except my immediate family, I'll be honest with you. So that when you say "Mack the Knife", it's the biggest single factor contributing to the value of the name "Bobby Darin" certainly. The song was around for years, I didn't create it, I didn't write it, I didn't do anything to it except treat it a little differently and I think the arrangement was as much if not MORE the selling point of the song as was my particular lyric interpretation.

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