From the bookThats All On Record, Stage & Screen
by Jeff Bleiel.
From
Dick Clark's forward:
"I've
always admired Bobby Darin tremendously."
"He
was equally tough and gentle."
"He
was autocratic and at the same time very democratic."
"He
was generous to a fault."
"If
I were in trouble, no matter where he was, he would find me and
come to my aid. Had I needed it, he would have given me money."
"I
had my share of emotional setbacks. Bobby was always there to advise
and console me."
"I
could always count on Bobby Darin. He knew he could count on me."
Quotes by Dick Clark from the "Beyond
the Song PBS Special."
Submitted by
Katie Hasbrouck.
"I
just want everybody to know how great he was."
"Bobby
Darin and I were very close. We could say anything to one another."
"You
just don't find that much talent all packaged in one body."
From the book That's All: On
Record, Stage & Screen by Jeff Bleiel.
Submitted by
Marilyn Brown and MaryAnn Brown.
Richard
Bakalyan page 42-43
Bobby was one of the guys, one of the boys, Bakalyan
said. Hed go to the wall for you if there was trouble.
Ive heard
that he was a cocky guy and this and that, Bakalyan recalled.
He was far from that. He was a gentleman and he treated everyone
with great respect and they responded in same.
No matter how bad
he felt, he never laid it on other people.
page 192
Alan Thicke
page 185
I think we had a pretty warm relationship for a staff writer-star
kind of situation, recalled Thicke. He was very kind me,
and generally kind to the staff. I was quite honored that he came
to my house for dinner one night. We spent the night shooting pool
and shooting the breeze. I dont think he saw me as just another
writer doing just another job. I think he enjoyed teaching me, and
being my mentor in some ways.
Bobby Scott page
42 But Scott
also saw another side of Darin, a friendly nature apparent to friends
and associate, but rarely relayed in the press.
Im not putting
a halo on his head, he deserves no halos, Scott said, But,
if you run across somebody that really paints him out black, you can
believe they didnt know him.
He was put down
by almost everyone Id met in the business, Scott said,
But I never met anyone who had a decent idea about who and what
he was. The reason I found this contempt odd was that Darin was a
remarkably convivial fellow.
Darin was also a loyal
friend. When Bobby Scotts wife was in the hospital deliver their
first child, Scott was broke.
Bobby Darin came
to the rescue, Scott recalled. He offered to give me
money with no strings attached. He gave me enough work arranging
and accompanying over the next couple of weeks to tidy everything
up for us financially.
The first gift my
daughter gotdelivered to the house by messenger when they got
homewas from Bobby, Scott said, He beat the relatives.
But, he was not
a malicious person, Scott continued. Not at all. A lot
of people thought he was a smart aleck: he wasnt. I think he
threw up a lot of defenses and gave the wrong ideas to people. I think
he was, at core, really a very, very good person.
Richard Gehman page
39 In a brutal
January 1961 TV Guide profile (The Astounding Brash Character
of Darin), Richard Gehman made his intense personal dislike
of Darin explicit He does not merely talk rudeness, he
lives it. Yet, even Gehman could not pronounce Darin completely
unappealing.
There is more than
a suspicion in my mind that the extreme cockiness is merely a device
for attracting attention." Gehman wrote, All I can report
is that for all his faults and offenses
Bobby Darin still is
somehow an appealing, interesting fellow
There is a singleminded
honesty about him and a candor that is all too rare in the strange
show-biz world he inhabits.
Bob Crewe page
197 He
was terrific, very easy to work with, the consummate professional.
A lot of people thought he was temperamental. I never did. He wanted
things right."
Dion DiMucci page
20 He
was a great person to be around positive, fun and extremely
ambitious.
Richard Bakalyan
page 182
Bobby afforded me the opportunity to do a lot of things that
I wouldnt have had the opportunity to do.
Page 184
Bobby had a great sense of humor and put-on. I remember
being at a screening at his house once. He went into the bathroom
for a long time, and we kept waiting for him to come out. We finally
went in, and there was nobody in there. He had crawled through this
very small window, climbed along the ledge, came in through the kitchen,
and was watching everybody look for him in the bathroom. It was hilarious.
Ernest Chambers
page 195
On the set, he was extremely courteous with people. Hed
lose his temper with us, the bosses. But he would never pick on the
little guy. I liked him very much and felt a lot of affection and
respect toward him.
Dick Clark page
12 Clark
has called Bobby Darin my all-time favorite performer
and probably my closest friend in the business.
Page 4
I used to laugh when people told me how Bobby was an
arrogant little son of a bitch. But if you knew him, he was the kindest,
gentlest person.
Steve Douglas page
104
Bobby was very generous in giving that tune [Danke Schoen]
to Wayne. Bobby wanted Wayne to have a hit record.
Geoff Edwards page
182 Everybody
was having a great time and all of us loved him. Working on that show
[The Bobby Darin Show] was the happiest six months of
my life.
Charles Koppelman
page 126
He related to the lyrics. [Tim Hardin songs.] Bobby was a very
honest, compassionate person, and I think those lyrics and that genre
of music struck a chord.
Georges LaForge
page 172
He was a very down to earth person, no pretensions whatsoever.
Roger McGuinn page
87 Bobby
had a lot of influence on me.
It was a good training
ground.
It was almost like coming up in vaudeville
or something. Bobby was like an old trouper. It was like he was from
another era. He was a more professional performer than most people
I know in the business today. He was punctual and he was precise and
he hit the mark all the time. He was a brilliant guy, real bright,
and he could do anything he wanted to do very well.
Terry Melcher page
103 Bobby
was very personable. He was funny and he had a lot of magic and a
tremendous amount of energy.
Don Rubin page
130 He
was a joy to work with. Every time he walked into the studio, he was
prepared and right on, and gave you a great performance.
Bobby Scott page
43 If
I told Bobby I need something, he got it for me. If I
said Six strings aint gonna work, I want twenty,
twenty would have been there. He was as good as his word in all those
departments.
Quitman Dennis – page
151 – “ He was just
being a guy like the rest of us, and we just started clowning around
and doing stuff in the studio. I really didn’t know this ‘other’ Bobby
Darin, and neither did the rest of us, so he loved that. We weren’t
afraid of him; that’s what he liked. Everybody else was intimidated
by him, or wanted something from him. All we wanted to do was play
music, and we liked the guy. He was just trying to be one of the guys,
and play rock’n’roll.”
Nik Venet page
79-80, 91
Darin was a remarkable human being. Ive worked with some
heavy duty people
But Darin was probably the most impressive
person Ive ever met in my life.
The guy would give
you the shirt off his back, and he did. He was the most generous man
in the world.
Darin told me, Stop.
Continue this conversation and Im going to move to another table.
I couldnt even begin a conversation about someone he knew
someone that was part of his family with one negative
word. He wouldnt even entertain the thought of discussing
it.
He wouldnt
treat a porter secondarily, and then go march in a civil rights campaign.
From the book Dream
Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives
of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee by their son Dodd Darin.
Submitted by
to Jane Penny.
Ross Hunter - page 179
- "But I was so excited because there was a room full of these
great big stars and everyone was talking about Sandy and Bobby. Sandy
was wearing a marvelous gown. And Bobby was so darned attentive to
her, it made my heart sing. I thought, well, maybe it's happening.
I wanted to think so. And I do believe Bobby loved Sandy in his way.
Dick Lord - page 184
- "And Bobby was a loyal friend. He loved his friends. He'd call
us his 'inner circle.' He trusted us, was comfortable around us. Here
was a man who really could afford to stay anywhere, and he'd come
to my house and sleep in my son's bed, listening to his fish tank
going all night. He would sleep on Behrke's couch. It was sad in a
way. It was so touching that he wanted to be with us so much."
Wayne Newton - page 202
- "Bobby was a big brother to me. I loved him and I always will."
Also, in Waynes autobiography, Once
Before I Go - page 44-45 -
One night I went to see Bobby at the Flamingo. Because he was
my hero, I would visit him for inspiration. -
page 50 I was a boy soprano-but back then all it brought
me were attacks of vitriolic humor. I was the joke of the industry.
But one man never laughed. He was a giant among men. He was Bobby
Darin and he was my friend.
Dick Clark - page 207-208
- Dick Clark remembers that my dad helped him out of more than one
emotional slump and that Bobby was there for him when he was going
through a heart breaking divorce. Clark adds, " I was desperately
trying to figure out how to get my career from one stage up to the
next one, from Philadelphia to L.A. I did a little pilot presentation
of a show idea. And I did it on location in and around Philadelphia,
partly in my own house. Bobby was the first guy I called. I said,
' I need somebody of star value in this thing. And he came down and
he sang and accompanied himself on the piano just so that I could
have something more than the other silliness I had. He had to schlepp
down from New York to do something that was obviously not top grade.
He never hesitated. That was the Bobby Darin I knew. He was lavish
in his love and praise. He'd give gifts to everyone in the world.
I knew him intimately in my heart, but not on a day-to-day basis.
We didn't have to touch base regularly. If he were alive today and
I called him and said, Tomorrow, you've got to help build another
floor on this building, he'd say, Wait, I'll get my hammer, and I'll
be right over."
George Burns - page 208
- "When Gracie died, Bobby slept in my bedroom with me for three
or four nights. He asked me to do that, I didn't ask him. He just
came here and stayed. Bobby slept in Gracie's bed, and I slept in
mine, and we talked. We talked about Gracie, about show business,
about what I'm gonna do without her. He didn't give me advice because
that kind of advice nobody has to give, because there was nothing
I could do about her. Life must go on whether you want to or not.
When you love someone, you cry, you keep crying. I couldn't stop.
I couldn't sleep. When Bobby left me he said, Sleep in Gracie's bed.
You'll feel better... I took his advice, and that did the trick. After
that I could sleep."
Andrea Yaeger Darin Burton
page 271
- I noticed right away that Bobby was a very earthy person.
He drove a Renault, and he enjoyed spending time on a lake, if he
had a boat, or camping out. He was very warm, easy to be with
John Miller page
286 - My last
fun night with Bobby, we went to Nathans Coney Island Hot Dogs
on Broadway and Forty-third just to goof off. There were a couple
of girls in the lobby of the Copa, and we took them with us to Nathans.
A lot of characters who hung out in there recognized Bobby, and he
wound up buying hot dogs for fifty-five people, at least. It was like
saying the drinks are on the house. The whole thing came to about
twenty-three dollars. It wasnt that much, but he had such a
good time in there. He loved talking to all these people. He did impressions,
he danced, he really put on a show, and we had a sensational time.
Bobby was a very special person to me. I would have great difficulty
writing about him. When he died all I wrote in my column was that
I would think of him every day for the rest of my life.
George Scheck page
297 - Bobby
was a clever man. Heres an example. I went to see him at a show
he was doing in Miami. I went in style. I took thirty-one people...Then
he sent a note that I should come up to his dressing room with
your entourage. So I went back and started to introduce him
to thirty-one people! I taught him this. Forty minutes later, when
they all left, he said good-bye and thank you for coming, and he used
each of their names. They never stopped talking about this. Bobby
charmed everyone. He was the greatest charmer in the world.
Harriet (Hesh) Wasser
page 300
- A friend called me at about four in the morning to tell me
that Bobby had died. I wasnt surprised, but I think I went into
shock. I had known about his illness since we first met. And since
we first met, I knew that my life was changed by meeting him. I think
most people would say that Bobby Darin was one of a kind and that
you truly felt you were gaining a new experience by being a part of
his life.
Vee Walden page
304 - Its
important to understand that Bobby had a phenomenal memory
..
How could you not love this man? Thousands and thousands of people,
and he remembers you. You were somebody special. He had that effect
on total strangers, and when he listened to what you had to say, he
listened with both ears, which is a nice quality.
Dr. Philip Oderberg
page 316 - I
thought he was a very bright guy. When he began to trust me, he was
very open, very related, and really willing to share himself in a
very direct way. I really liked him. I thought he was an interesting
guy.

From the
book Borrowed Time by Al DiOrio.
Submitted by Donna Carter.
Director
David Miller (Captain Newman) - page 134
- "Bobby had a reputation as an angry young man. His image seemed
to fit all the prerequisites. It seemed many people didn't like him,
and I couldn't find out why. When I met him, he was so much more than
I expected. I just fell in love with him."
Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz
(Son of the legendary screenwriter, producer, and director, Joe Mankiewicz.)
- page 160-61 -
Bobby gave a dinner party for all his bachelor friends. "He was
so determined to take care of all of us that day," remembers
Tom, "It meant so much to him that we enjoyed ourselves and that
he had taken us into his home. He was one of the warmest, most affectionate
people I've ever known."
Columnist Barbara Howar
- page 164-165 -
"He was a self-styled intellectual, a young man with a political
conscience and the Elmer Gantry ability to convert those who did not
share his convictions. I know it would make better reading to report
that I began thinking of the world's problems through an exposure
to John Kenneth Galbraith, but it was Mr. Darin who led me through
the maze of bigotry in which I lived, backed me down on every narrow-minded
point, and made me care. Whatever my Washington reputation suffered,
Bobby Darin did fine things for my soul. At the very least, he showed
me I might have one."

From the book The Wanderer Talks Truth by Dion.
Submitted by Patricia Zimmer.
From chapter 6 -
"On those tours in 1958 we went from glory to glory, headlining with the likes of Eddie Cochran (“Summertime Blues”), Gene
Vincent (“Be-Bop-A-Lula”), and Bobby Darin (“Splish Splash”).
Bobby was another Italian boy from the Bronx, a few years my senior and more hip to the ways of the business world. He became
a close friend and a mentor, giving me good advice about how to read my contracts and file my taxes. Bobby grew up the same
way I did and had many of the same worries. He spoke to my frugal nature, my inner Mom. A lot of early rockers got jerked
around and bled dry by their agents, their record companies, and the crowd of scammers that follow the money wherever it goes.
If I managed to survive rock stardom with a couple nickels to rub together, no small credit goes to Bobby Darin, who spoke my
language (Bronx) and gave me free accounting lessons on the tour bus."

Thanks to Marilyn Brown, MaryAnn Brown,
Donna Carter, Jane Penny,
Patricia Zimmer, Katie Hasbrouck and Thomas Rhodes Jr.
for
compiling these quotes!
More Quotes on the Late Great Bobby Darin!
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