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In the land of dreams, Christmas Eve is always peaceful, compellingly serene, with the tree trimmed and the stockings hung, and all the shopping long finished. A quiet snow has fallen on the rooftops and there is time for meditation and prayer.
In reality, it may not be quite this way, but even the normal rush and chaos of Christmas Eve is like a monastery retreat compared to an interview with the Cowsills, one of the more recent singing groups to strike suddenly with a hit record and a hit album.
Their record, "The Rain, The Park and Other Things," was number one 'on the charts,' as the vernacular goes, and is still in the top ten, and their album "The Cowsills," is in the top twenty. They make their second appearance on the Ed Sullivan show tonight, and they have been signed for several more Sullivan appearances.
It is a family operation, the Cowsills, four boys, a mother and a daughter, who make up the performers, and a father and two other sons who work behind the scenes. Bill, 19, Bob, 18, Barry, 13, and John 11, are the nucleus of the singing group: Mrs. Barbara Cowsill and Susan, 8, tune in on cue. Bud Cowsill, the father, a former enlisted man in the Navy, who retired three years ago, is the general manager. Dick, 18, Bill's twin, and Paul, 16, are road managers.
Now about the interview.
A 'Happening'
It was a happening. It took place in a small room in the offices of the Cowsillls' agent-manager, Lenny Stogel, and there were more people there than you could count, some of them unidentified.
Ideally, two or three people participate in an interview. Four is a crowd. For this, all Cowsills were present, except the father. They filled the chairs and three were lying on the floor. All of them talked at once, and in the same high key.
Lenny Stogel and his wife were also much present. A couple of press agents were there. Two or three girls, in some way associated with Stogel's office, came and went. It could be described in a word, bedlam. Above the din and the babble and the teasing and the children's jokes, a few basic facts about the Cowsills trickled through.
Mr. and Mrs. Cowsill try to raise their chikdren with love and understanding, but with a firm hand.
Mr. and Mrs. Cowsill are both from Cranston, R.I. He joined the Navy when he was 17, and they married two years later. Her mother, Mrs. Helen Brooks and a sister, Mary Jane Brooks, live in Providence.
Self-Trained
The Cowsill kids are all self-trained musicians, who developed their own natural talent. They began singing together about the time they started to talk and the older boys taught the younger ones.
Barry was the original drummer until John took over. Now Barry plays the bass guitar and sings. Bill and Bob do all the musical arrangements.
They've lived many places, but just before they moved to Newport, R.I., they lived in Portmouth, Va.
Mrs. Cowsill joined the singing group because she wanted a good reason to travel with the family.
"When Bud was in the Navy, I got so tired saying goodbye," she said. "When this all started, I decided to join them. Otherwise Susan and I would be home alone most of the time. I'm terrified, of course. My hands and feet turn to ice. It's not like singing around the kitchen. But it's better than staying behind."
The Cowsills' home is a 22-room mansion in Newport, a white elephant nobody else wanted. It is still sparsely furnished and in terrible disrepair, but they are about to set out on the road to restoration.
"There is a couch and two chairs and a television set in the living room," said Mrs. Cowsill. "That's it. There's a pool table in the dining room and a 1917 gas range in the kitchen. Whatever money we could get our hands on went into stereo, instruments, all that stuff.
Wants 'Real' Kitchen
"The first thing I'm going to do is put in a real kitchen. Then I start on the living room. I've been dreaming of doing that living room since I first laid eyes on it."
However, Barbara Cowsill sees it in her dreams, the living room will be a ravishing vision to her children tomorrow. This is where they will spend Christmas Day. They are here in Manhattan, imprisoned in an apartment and a television studio for Christmas Eve, but after the television show this evening, they will drive directly to Newport.
There would be no room for more furniture tomorrow. Their tree is ten feet tall and the presents take up the rest of the room. Only Bill, obviously the leader of the group, and a father-figure to them all, had no long Christmas list.
"I love Christmas," he said, "but I never ask for anything specific. I like to be surprised. What I really want most is to see these nuts have fun."
It may not be the quietest living room in all of Newport on Christmas morning, but it may be one of the merriest. Mrs. Cowsill is stuffing a turkey. And baking pumpkin pies. And her hands are nice and warm. She's singing in the kitchen.
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