THE ACCIDENTAL DANCER
It is often said, "All of us have a story,"
and I believe that to be true.
This one is mine.
and I believe that to be true.
This one is mine.
by
HOWARD PARKER
My proud parents, Lesley and Howard, welcomed the arrival of their first child on August 3, 1933 at the Tampa Municipal Hospital. (Their second child -- a daughter named Brandi Lesley -- would not be born until August 6 twenty-two years later.) It didn't take long for my grandfather to nickname me "Chubby" (a terrible thing to do to a child) and as I got older, I not only hated that nickname, I hated going shopping for clothes because Mother always had to take me to the "big boys" department.
During grammar school and junior high, I wasn't actually fat but then I wasn't thin either. That all changed the summer before I began high school at H.B. Plant. As if overnight, I
became six feet tall and slim. It was the first time I ever enjoyed looking in the mirror. Finally, I thought I was cute!
I graduated from Plant in 1950 at the age of sixteen, not because I was terribly smart but because my mother sent me to summer school twice and because my birthday was in August.
There was no money for college and even if there had been what would I study? I got a job as an assistant window trimmer at Sears earning $27.50 a week, most of which I had to give to Mother to help with the expenses. I had been acting in The Tampa Little Theatre throughout high school and continued after I graduated.
One night when I was seventeen, Maurice Geoffrey, the director, pulled me aside after rehearsal and said the words that would forever change my life: "Howard, you're stiff on stage and don't know what to do with your hands. You should take some dance classes to loosen up."
I took the director's advice and discovered -- much to everyone's surprise, particularly mine -- I possessed a God-given talent. It seems I was "born to dance."
One year later, at the urging of my teacher Frank Rey, I attended my first audition in Chicago. In order to buy my plane ticket and afford me lodging for a week or two at the Y.M.C.A., my mother sold her cherished spinet piano. Scared to death, I was one of more than one hundred other young men at the audition. Wonder of wonders, after hours and hours of learning dance combinations and after endless eliminations I was one of only two boys who got the job. It still seems unbelievable to me that I would have been so lucky.
A few weeks later, I was dancing my heart out in the famous "Marine Room," the main dining room of the legendary Edgewater Beach Hotel, in a show starring Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra. I was not yet nineteen.
While still in high school, Billy Hall, my mother's best friend, said to her, "You might as well face it Lesley, Howard Junior is never going amount to a hill 'a beans!" Had it not been for those few sentences spoken to me by one man, Billy Hall's prophetic words just may have come true. But they didn't. And mother made Billy Hall eat those words every chance she got.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
MARILYN MONROE - No Business Like Show Business (film)
JULY GARLAND - Concert tour
FRED ASTAIRE - Silk Stockings (film)
ETHEL MERMAN - Merman on Broadway (TV)
CAROL BURNETT - Once Upon A Mattress (original cast)
MARY MARTIN - Annie Get Your Gun (L.A. revival and NBC TV special)
DORIS DAY - The Pajama Game and Love Me Or Leave Me (films)
BETTY GRABLE - Shower of Stars (TV)
CHITA RIVERA & DONALD O’CONNOR - Bring Back Birdie (original Broadway cast and understudy for Mr. O’Connor)
RED SKELTON - The Red Skelton Show (TV - 7 years)
FRANK SINATRA, PAUL NEWMAN & EVA MARIE SAINT - Our Town (TV)
MITZI GAYNOR - Anything Goes (film)
ANN MILLER, JULIET PROWSE - The Hollywood Palace (TV)
Danced for:
MICHAEL BENNETT - Ballroom (original Broadway cast and dance lead)
BOB FOSSE - The Pajama Game (film), Damn Yankees (1st National Company)
GOWER CHAMPION - The Girl Most Likely (film)
AGNES DE MILLE - Juno (original Broadway cast)
Directed and/or choreographed:
JOHNNY MATHIS - The Ed Sullivan Show & The Kraft Music Hall (TV), Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Christmas concerts with thirty-six singers and dancers
JOHNNY MANN’S Stand Up and Cheer (TV - 3 years)
ETHEL MERMAN - Los Angeles revival of Call Me Madam/Valley Music Theatre
JULIET PROWSE - Los Angeles revival of Damn Yankees/Valley Music Theatre MAMA DON’T BE BLUE recorded by Cheryl Ladd (Warner Bros.)
LOOK AT ME AND LOVE ME recorded by Rhodes-Chalmers-Rhodes (Warner Bros.)
WHY IS SHE ALL I SEE recorded by The Establishment (Star-Day King)
STOP FIGHTIN’ START LOVIN’ recorded by The Establishment (Star-Day King)
NEW YORK AT CHRISTMAS - opened tree-lighting ceremonies at Rockefeller Center
SO PROUDLY WE HAIL - title song for Johnny Mann’s Las Vegas debut
THE WHITE HOUSE
Staged and directed Johnny Mann and the Johnny Mann Singers and accompanied them for two invitational appearances in 1973 and 1975. While there the first time, I was inspried to write the words and music to SO PROUDLY WE HAIL
PRESS REWARDS
BALLROOM - original Broadway production
"Again, in ‘One by One’ he (Michael Bennett) has the splendid and agile
Howard Parker take Patricia Drylie and lead her in a cork-screwing Lindy through the
quietly dancing couples. None of the other characters, nor the actors (excluding Dorothy Loudon and Vincent Gardenia) who play them, are memorable but some of the dancers are. Aside from Mr. Parker, Victor Griffin and Liz Sheridan stand out particularly."
Richard Eder, The New York Times
VALLEY MUSIC THEATER in Los Angeles
JULIET PROWSE in "Damn Yankees"
"Her 'Who's Got the Pain?" number with dancer-choreographer Howard Parker stope the show in it tracks." Hollywood Reporter
ETHEL MERMAN in "Call Me Madam" "Howard Parker’s choreography usual high standard of theatre." Daily Variety
ETHEL MERMAN in "Call Me Madam" "Howard Parker’s choreography usual high standard of theatre." Daily Variety
JANE POWELL in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" Howard Parker’s choreography deserves special mention." Hollywood Reporter
JOHN RAITT in "The Pajama Game"
"... and especially Howard Parker, for his choreography can take long low bows." Los Angeles Times
PAT SUZUKI in "Flower Drum Song"
As Howard Parker has choreographed them, the dance numbers are eye-popping spectacles." Los Angeles Times
THE ESTABLISHMENT
With PERRY COMO at the International Hotel in Las Vegas
"THE ESTABLISHMENT," currenly the number one music group in all of show business, proves to be an enormous factor as Perry's supporting act." Las Vegas Sun
With BURT BACHARACH at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas:
"Opening the show is one of the tops in the class of singing groups, THE ESTABLISHMENT."
The Hollywood Reporter
With ANN-MARGRET at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas:
"THE ESTABLISHMENT, unquestionably the best group, vocally, and visually, currently on the scene, is an outstanding asset. Howard Parker’s choreography is crisply creative."
The Hollywood Reporter
THE ESTABLISHMENT was nominated for a LAS VEGAS ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR award in the duo or group category. the other nominees that year were Sonny and Cher, Steve and Eydie, The fifth Dimension and the Osmonds.
The short story preceeding my accomplishments is, of course, but a brief preface to my career. Still some months away from my seventy-ninth birthday, there's is so much to tell. Much of it is already written as I worked on my memoir a few years ago. As is my usual habit, I spent a lot of time researching the book publishing process from the one-page query letter one must submit to agents to the editorial process itself. Show business memoirs, particularly those lucky enough to get published by people like me without celebrity status, never seem to make much money so
I ultimately came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be worth my time and effort monetarily.
It was a wonderful time to be a dancer, particularly for a gay male. Being gay was for me, as it should be, just as natural and normal as being straight. There was no prejudice whatsoever in the entertainment industry that I was aware of. The girl dancers discussed their boyfriends at work and so did we. We all had good dates and bad dates. What a blessing it was for us never living the life of those poor gay men who were forced to remain closeted so much of their young lives. I do not mean to imply that all of the male dancers were gay because that was not the case. And I only came in contact with a handful of female dancers who were admittedly gay.
I don't know if anyone will find this blog but I plan to keep on writing it in the hope that someone will.
I welcome and appreciate all questions.
JOHNNY MANN and the JOHNNY MANN SINGERS
"One of the highlights came in Howard Parker's tune, 'So Proudly We Hail,' which the composer dashed off a month ago while en route to The White House where Mann's group entertained at a luncheon given by the first Lady."
Los Angeles Times
