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The Cowsills are what the publicists call "America's all-family phenomenon."
There are six healthy, mop-haired boys with toothpaste grins, a perky little lady of eight (the baby of the family) and Mum and Dad Cowsills.
They had an American top-seller with a song call "The Rain, The Park and Other Things." Soon M.G.M. Records were calling the family "the hottest properties in the entire music industry."
Back home, the Cowsills are big business. A whole consumer industry - bubblegum, comics, colls, guitars - has sprung up around them.
Now, the whole family have made a mini-invasion of London.
"We stopped off in Britain to show that we were real people," ruminated Cowsills Sen., seated in the centre of a noisy family parley. The remark seemed hardly necessary.
No hillbillies
The Cowsills are not hillbillies plucked from the wooded hills of Tennessee, but very much a jet age family from Rhode Island, New England.
The older boys want to meet the Beatles. The younger ones are eager to stock their wardrobes with Carnaby-street fashions.
The price of transporting a family group the size of the Cowsills is hig. It cost the family 1,000 pounds alone in overweight baggage.
They brought 44 pieces of luggage and took over five rooms on the third floor of a smart West End hotel.
It was very much open house with the Cowsills. Dad relaxed in a corner clinking Scotch and water, Mum was stretched out taking it easy on a bed. The family poured in and out of the room.
Run by dad
"I can feel this city Dad. I can actually feel it," said 18-years-old Bob Cowsills with an earnest expression on his face.
"You know what it is, Bob," mused Cowsills Sen. "It's history. You'll feel it everywhere in Europe. It's gonna crawl all over you. It's gonna eat you up, son."
Although you may have the impression tht Dad is an underling in the American family way of life, Pop Cowsills runs the show, on and off the road.
The children make the music. Two of the older boys act as road managers. Mum adds her voice, and advice when needed.
Cowsills Sen. was in the U.S. Navy before turning family impresario four years ago.
Hard times
The story goes that the Cowsills were on hard times when they turned to show business to stop the foreclosure on their house.
Mrs. Cowsills, an attractive 39, recalled: "The two eldest boys, Bill and Bob, chopped up their dressers to make firewood and everybody huddled together around the fireplace.
Reminisced Cowsills Sen.: "I knew there was much talent in the family.
"But I was a bit cautious at first about pushing the family image. I didn't think the kids would like the idea of a mum and dad being in the group.
"Most kids want to get away from their parents. But it's different now. The kids, the fans, want to know about the family. Mother gets as much fan mail as the boys.
"They think that she must be the greatest mum in the world if her sons allow her to play in the group."
Problem letters
Mrs. Cowsills nodded. "Every other letter I get is a problem letter.
"I had one from a 13-years-old boy in Tennessee, telling me that he had overheard his mum and dad talking about getting rid of him.
"The boy had seen us on television and said we looked like such a happy family that he wanted to join us. He said he could play an instrument.
"He actually went as far as to tell us when and where we could pick him up. Letters like that break you up."
On another occasion, a young girl with divorced parents wrote to the Cowsills and said she spent half her time with her mother and was very unhappy.
Said Mrs. Cowsills: "On these occasions I may get one of the boys to ring the letter writer and say, 'hi'"
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