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Last month Mrs. Cowsill told us how her talented family got started as a group. After retiring from the Navy five years ago, Bud Cowsill (Dad) decided to devote all his time to making his family a big success. Times were very hard because little money was coming into the house, and finally Barbara had to go out to work as a waitress to make ends meet. "There were many times when I wondered where the next penny was coming from," she told us.
Three years ago, after playing at concerts and dances in the area of their home in Middletown, R.I., the Cowsills got their first real break. They were introduced to singer Johnny Cash. And soon afterwards they made their disc debut with a song called All I Really Want Is Me - a number which Bill and Bob penned.
"It didn't become a hit or anything, " says Barbara, "But it was something else for Bud to carry around with him!"
It was just about then that the Cowsill family decided that they wanted their Mom to stop working and stay home. And then there was NO money coming in, except for Bud's pension from the Navy.
"Bill, Bob, Barry and John worked some weekends and earned about $300 every time, but all that went on bills," Barbara recalls. "We owed so many people so much money that I never thought we'd ever get out of debt."
Then two years ago the Cowsill family moved into a 23-room mansion in Newport, R.I.
"The house is surrounded by six and a half acres of land and it a wonderful place for a growing family," says Barbara. "And the reason we managed to get it with a small down payment was that nobody else wanted it!"
But they'd only been in it for a short while when more problems began to arise. First of all, the local store refused to deliver any more oil till the rather large outstanding bill had been paid. And there just wasn't any money around to pay it with. So the family was left with two alternatives: they could either freeze alive or chop up the furniture and burn it on the kitchen fire. They decided on the latter course of action - and pretty soon bedroom dressers and other bits and pieces were going up in smoke to help keep the family warm.
Then the phone was cut off. "I remember that one of Bob's friends asked him why we weren't on the phone anymore, and Bob just told him outright that we'd been cut off because we couldn't pay the bill. And Bob was most upset because his friend didn't believe him! You see however poor we were, the kids were always beautifully dressed and no one, except the people we owed money to, knew how broke we were. Some people in town who really had faith in the boys let us have extended credit, and the man who owned the clothes store made sure that the boys weren't short of clothes. It was a sort of investment for him."
By the time 1967 came around Barbara was beginning to despair. "I thought that everyone was crazy," she says. "Bud was still convinced that his boys were going to be stars and was still trying to get people to listen to him, and the boys kept practicing away and doing dates in the area. Any money we had went on equipment. Bud knew how worried I was, but he kept telling me that everything was going to be all right. Then we got four months behind in paying the mortgage on the house and I really imagined that was the end."
Then in June, 1967 a Fairy Godmother came into their lives in the form of Lenny Stogel who is the shrewd, and very successful manager of Sam The Sham, The Royal Guardmen, Tommy James, and the Shondells and Keith. He saw Bill, Bob, Barry and John rehearse. Happily, he flipped!
Soon afterwards he signed them to a management contract, paid off the arrears on their house, moved them into a Manhattan apartment and scheduled a recording session. The song they recorded? The Rain, The Park, And Other Things. And you know the rest.
Suddenly, everyone knew about the Cowsills. No sooner had the disc reached number one than they were off on a long, hectic cross country tour. Ed Sullivan booked them for twelve appearances on his show, and concert and television offers began to flood in.
It was just before their first big tour that the boys asked Mom to join the group. "I'd sung with Bill and Bob some Sunday evenings at a club in Newport, but I'd never thought of taking it up seriously. Then I thought how dull it would be if the boys were away from me on tours, half the time, and as I knew I couldn't beat them I thought I'd better join them. Then Susan asked if she could join! So, we're all involved now."
Even the Cowsills can't believe all the good things that have happened to them in the past year. "Bud always told me that one day the family was going to be famous," smiled Barbara, "But I must admit that I never really believed him. I'll never doubt him again!"
The Cowsills don't have any money worries any more and there's no doubt that the group is going to be with us for a long time. "But, " says Barbara, "if what we're doing stopped being fun, we'd back up tomorrow. First and foremost we're a family, and if our career showed signs of hurting our relationships with each other then I wouldn't want it any more. None of us would."
But having met, and got to know, the wonderful Cowsill family, we know chances of that happening are very remote. They're very happy.
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