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Very recently, the Cowsills, a whole family of rock and rollers, came very close to losing everything. They had no money, the phones had been disconnected, there wasn't any oil for the furnace and it was bitter cold all winter. "Bill and Bob chopped up their dressers to make fire wood and everybody huddled together around the fireplace," recalls Mrs. Cowsill. Finally, the end seemed imminent. Their mortgage was almost foreclosed, and they and the house they loved so dearly were about to be separated forever. A catastrophe for both. Desperately in need of financial help, the family came to New York.
Luck, or maybe fate, introduced them to Artie Kornfeld. Artie is a record producer and songwriter. He introduced the Cowsills to Lenny Stogel, a talent manager. The rapport between Leonard Stogel Associates and the Cowsills led to MGM Records, and from there, in the space of just a few weeks, the Cowsills have come to be considered one of the hottest properties in the entire industry. They're even being considered for their own TV series. Watch out, Monkees!
Bill, Bob, Barry and John Cowsill comprise the nucleus of the group. Their mini-mommy, Barbara Cowsill, lends her sweet, clear voice to the boys' harmony whenever it is needed. The road managers, Dick and Paul Cowsill, who chose not to enter the performing end of the complex, keep equipment straight and in order throughout their journeys. There is also a Cowsill "baby," sweet and cute as can be - eight-year-old Susan Cowsill (who is constantly teased by her all-brother family, who, although they'll never admit it publicly, adore her). Mr. Cowsill, like any father would be, is stuck with the job of coordinating the conglomeration.
Mr. Cowsill, Mrs. Cowsill and all concerned live in a 22-room mansion on top of one of the few Newport, Rhode Island hills. Ivy is growing all over the walls of the house, windows are broken, screens are hanging. It all has an air of the "unreal."
For the past three years, all the money went into "tools of the trade" - instruments, sound systems, amplifiers. "There isn't any furniture," says the family, "but we're happy." In little John's room, there is a cage made of wire which used to house a miniature monkey. "I saved my allowance for six weeks to get Clyde," he said with great tears in his big brown eyes. "I waited for him to come and then, the next day after I got him, I woke up in the morning and there he was - lying in the bottom of the cage - frozen!" Clyde's grave is on the Cowsill property and is marked with a little white headstone.
Buried nearby are a few Cowsills records on another label which didn't go anywhere. But the group's first MGM release, "The Rain, The Park, And: Other Things," assisted by a massive publicity campaign and a 56-city promotion tour, finally made the Cowsills a group capable of standing proudly along-side the Lennon Sister, the Kim Sisters andthe King Family in the gallery of famous show business families.
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