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Mark Twain derided the conception of Heaven where men stood around in nightgowns and san harmony, because he believed humans were unable to tolerate the results for over three minutes here on earth.
For once, Twain was wrong, judging from the success of family singing groups like the Lennon Sisters, the King Family, the Stonemans and the Osmond Brothers.
Now from Newport, R.I., comes a unit of seven, The Cowsills, with a half-hour pilot called "A Family Thing" preempting "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," Saturday on NBC, and if there are no Twains in the audience chances are The Cowsills will soon conduct a weekly tribal gathering on the tube. (8:30 pm Ch. 10.)
Cowsill, a good English name, belongs to the great grandson of a gentleman who got kicked out of Oxford, a retired Navy chief petty officer whose children have inherited a talent for natural harmony, probably from wife Barbara's side of the family since Bud Cowsills's musical bent is limited to whistling. But Bud makes up for the deficiency with initiative drive, a feeling for logistics and positive thinking.
The problem as Bud sees it is that people don't take the Cowsill seriously. Doors used to slam in his face when he sought bookings for his four sons, including an 8-year-old on drums and a 10-year-old on bass guitar. Still, the kids performed at universities like Princeton, Rutgers and Brown, facing cold stares for 30 minutes followed by applause.
With the addition of son John, Susan, age 8, and wife Barbara, the group broke the ice in '67 with guest shots on Ed Sullivan, a song called "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" which has sold over a million records, plus five good singles with titles like "The Path of Love," "We Can Fly," "Indian Lake" and "Poor Baby."
Four days after the special the family guests on "The Jonathan Winters Show," they'll make two "Hollywood Palace" appearances and join the cast for January's special, "The World of Pizazz," so Bud's problem now is to maintain sanity and follow his own bent whenever possible.
"Everyone told me to keep the wife and daughter out of the act," says Cowsill, "and they've become our biggest draws. So I don't listen to people anymore."
Listening to Bud and Barbara talk about the children's musical beginnings, life in a 23-room Newport mansion, and the dark days when mother waited on table earning good tips from the Australians in town for the America Cup yacht races while Bud and sons were painting houses for a living, it seems the family functions best pushing along without outside advice.
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