The
Harry Smith
Collection

Harry Smith was an avid fan of Perry Como and an ardent collector of everything and anything relating to Perry.

From the middle of 1944 until the day he died in the year 2000 he went anywhere and everywhere in order to fulfill his collection of "Perry-mobilia" from 78 records to the last album Perry recorded, Harry never stopped in his search for those elusive early recordings of his favourite star.

In the early days of the 1960s Harry even attended several of Perry's TV recordings in England, the Royal Variety Performance, in the presence of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Midnight Charity show, in aid of the Children's Charities, Harry attended all these and more.

But this was all later on in his life, the 1950s saw Harry at his most tenacious best, picture the scene, Harry , wife Ann and the children all doing there own thing in the family home, suddenly the telephone rings, Harry answers and his breath starts to come in pants and becomes slightly laboured "ok thanks" says Harry "I’ll get on it right away!", " got to go out" Harry states emphatically, " "but why ?" says Ann "what's the rush?" . . .  "just heard of a chap who might have a 78 recording of "Goodbye Sue" says Harry rushing to put on his shoes and coat, "won't be long, he lives over in Harringay, near Wood Green, be back in about three quarters of an hour".

And before mum could say "Perry Como" he was off.

Many hours later he arrived back home all apologies and smiles with a small square packet under his arm, yes you guessed it he had the elusive copy of Perry singing Goodbye Sue, but what he didn’t tell us until many years later was just HOW he got it!.

Apparently when he arrived at the chaps house the man himself was a 78 record collector/seller, and thousands upon thousands of 78s were all stacked up in piles on the floor and on the staircase, when dad asked if he had "Goodbye Sue" the man said sure but he (dad) would have to find it himself, the best the man could do was to roughly point him in the general direction, which happened to be the stacks on the stairs (18 stairs x 18 stacks of about 3 feet high each).

Dad said he was on the 9^th stack when he found what he came for and in his excitement nearly knocked the piles over in his haste to leave.

That was Harry smith chasing 78s, but he also spent just as much time chasing albums. Harry had many contacts throughout the London area who looked out for or heard of Perry Como album releases, once again a contact phoned to tell him that another album was on the market called "Perry Como – Superstar" and naturally Harry had to have it. He telephoned all his shop contacts, all his record contacts, but was unable to find this elusive album, it appeared that no-one had it in stock, Harry was in despair, how could a record be on sale but no-one have it in stock? For days Harry moped around waiting for the phone to ring saying that someone had found a copy, but no such luck, until about a week later Harry's youngest son Robert heard that Tescos the supermarket store was selling it, he rushed over to their store in Palmers Green, about six miles from where they lived, and attempted to purchase the said album, even Bob met with trouble, "sorry we don’t sell records here" said a member of staff, "have you tried our Home Base Store where they sell everything other than foodstuffs?"

Bob went to the store and sure enough there it was on the shelf and he purchased it and took it home to a very grateful and happy Harry Smith.

This goes to show just how keen and avid Harry was about Perry Como, nothing was too much trouble if it meant his collection was up-to-date.

Apart from spending vast amounts of time and effort into building his collection, Harry was running the "Perry Como Fan Club". He had been doing this since he set up the very first English one in the mid-1940s. Many fans joined the club not only from the UK but from the continent and from the USA and Canada.

Harry received many, many letters from fans who not only wanted the most up-to-date information on their hero but also a photograph or two to keep them going. Harry steadfastly obliged them, answering their letters with the newest information supplied from the Perry Como Headquarters in New York.

Harry also received letters from companies who wanted to be "in on the act" as it were, and it might be nice if you were to see just what I mean.

The following two letters were received in the late 1950s and shows you just how well known and respected Perry had become by then.

The first letter is from a company, Novolor,  who made looking glass mirrors for women, the second is from a magazine, Valentine,  that wished to carry out certain features concerning Perry.

I'm afraid that I don’t know if anything resulted from these letters , other than that Harry did take the advice of Perry's headquarters, whether they agreed or not I don’t know, maybe someone will be able to tell me.

From the 1950s onwards Harry Smith continued to scour the streets of London and the home counties in search of his beloved Perry Como records, and invariably one or other of Harry's children were tagging along behind whether they wanted to be there or not. I recall one particular day when he said "come on, we are going to the market in Bethnal Green" . . .  in those days Bethnal Green market was a place where you could buy or sell almost anything from clocks and watches to sheets and pillowcases, animals were also for sale, pets of all kinds, puppies, kittens, birds of all types, rabbits and so on and so on, but the main reason we were there was because of Harry's relentless search for Perry Como records.

About half of the stalls in the market were selling records of one sort or another so it became a long relentless trek of playing "hide and seek" among the stalls that sold the coveted platters, most of the time we were on all fours on the floor searching through an old cardboard box full of mixed 78s, sometimes we struck lucky, but only sometimes, more often than not we went home empty handed, this didn’t worry Harry one little bit, he knew that he had that day done his best and eliminated another possibility that could have held a cherished record. In those days he was also somewhat jealous of those in the states who had the privilege of watching Perry three times a week on television in his Chesterfield "Perry Como Shows" we here in England were not so lucky as it hadn’t, in fact never did, show over here, and in any case it wasn’t until 1953 that the Smith family were able to afford a television set.

That didn’t stop Harry from getting every ounce of information he could from those he knew who were also fans, because by now he even had contacts in America and Canada whom he had come to know, this in conjunction with Perry's office and Harry's running of the fan club in England brought many new friends who succumbed to Harry's fresh way of enjoyment in someone who they all admired. Newspaper clippings, Women's Magazine clips, a word here, a word there, all started to increase Harry's sacred collection.

But what about the rest of Harry's family? . . . well the children were all on the watch-out for Perry-mobilia, in a way this paid a big tribute to Perry because the mid-fifties was the beginning of a new and exciting era in the world of music, Rock and Roll began, this was a time for teenagers to break out from under the thumb of "grown-up" music and have their very own "thing", so for Harry's children to keep a look-out for Perry records at this time was nothing short of an honour. 

Harry's wife Ann took it all in her stride, she never rubbished the idea or made fun of a grown man getting so wound-up about a singer, she continued to have an interest in her own hero, Al Martino, another Latin crooner who was her idol.

In fact Ann never cared one way or another about Perry, until she met him, and then, following a big kiss and a hug from the maestro himself , she too became a lifelong fan.

Week in week out, up the market or down the lane, Harry spent almost every spare week-end he had in his relentless search for those elusive platters, sometimes he would be lucky and arrive home happy in the knowledge that another gap had been filled, occasionally though he arrived home in a low state simply because the record he was chasing had gone or been sold before he managed to purchase it, but Harry was made of stern stuff, he didn’t let a little thing like "sold" or "out of stock" worry him, he simply placed an order with the dealer or stall holder and awaited the day when it would be in stock and in his collection.

Slowly but surely Harry's collection began to grow, songs like:- "Patricia" on sale here in England in January 1951 became one of his daughter Patricia's favourites (not surprisingly) followed in July ’51 by "Without a Song", March of ’52 saw "Please Mr. Sun" and "Here’s to My Lady" hit the shops, and Harry's collection, year after year they came, great songs one after the other, June ’53 "A Bushel and a Peck", November ’53 "Pa-paya Mama" (one of my favourites) 1954- "You Alone" one of Ann's favourites, "Idle Gossip" and "Hit and Run Affair".

All great numbers to sing-along to.

Then came 1955 when a big change came over the music world and Perry was no exception, with the introduction of Rock and Roll, which Perry never really liked, the kids wanted something that they could now let their hair down to, Perry, very astutely picked up on this trend in the market and came up with his very own brand of "hip" music, this led to "Ko-Ko-Mo" in March of ’55 followed by a string of "up-market" numbers that the kids wanted and became very big for Perry, "Tina Marie"  . . .  "Juke Box Baby" . . . "Hot Diggity" . . . "More" and "Glendora" . . . all this in one year.

1956 saw something occur in Perry's recordings that would have Harry tearing his hair out, Perry recorded his version of "Moonlight Love" backed with "Chincherinchee", this was based on Debussy's "Clair De Lune" and Harry fell in love with it, then came the crunch, because of copyright laws it was found that some of Debussy's family were still living and objected to the release of the record! . . . it was released in the United States and in Ireland but was withdrawn from sale in England.

Now, a problem like this would unsettle even the best of people, but Harry knew that unlike many other fans in England at that time ,he would be able to acquire a copy through his many friends either in the States, Canada or Ireland.

Many days passed and a lot of money was spent telephoning contacts in the trade until at last he found a contact that promised to get it for him, and true to his word , he did, when Harry arrived home with the precious parcel he said that he was very lucky, only six copies were sold before it was taken off the shelves for good, and Harry had one of them.

1957 came and went with some more great songs, "Dancin’" . . . "Just Born" and "Marching Along to the Blues" were but a few before the daddy of them all hit the record shops in 1958 that was to have an enormous effect on the hit parade in this country, a double bill that remained in our top ten hit parade for months on end.

"Catch a Falling Star" and "Magic Moments" were mega hits for Perry, everyone was either whistling it, humming it or just plain singing it, it was a huge run-away success.  Harry was no exception neither were the kids, all day long and well into the night the strains of one or the other would rend the air at the Smith household.

Now that Harry had a television he hoped against hope that one day Perry's television shows would appear on British TV, ( in America since the mid fifties "Chesterfield" had sponsored Perry in a thrice weekly TV show called "The Perry Como Show") and now his wishes were heard for the BBC were committed to showing Perry's TV shows on British TV, and so began another era in Harry's scrapbook on the world of Perry Como.

And so Harry arrived at a new and exciting period in his life, television, it was strange really because many years earlier Harry, along with son Bill, went to Olympia, Earls Court, and actually witnessed the showing of colour television in England for the very first time, and although the set they had then was only black and white, it did mean that the future held very exciting things for Harry in regard to "The Perry Como Shows".

First radio, bringing the strains of "Good evening Sir, good evening Madam, welcome to the Supper Club, your table is ready and you are just in time to hear the star of our show . . . Perry Como!".

Second began the 78rpm record collection that was to last for all his life.

Thirdly came television when Harry was finally able to see and hear Perry in living , moving splendor, albeit in black and white, but never mind, colour was on the horizon and pretty soon he would be able to experience the excitement in his own front room in living colour, meanwhile the expected had arrived, live in his own living room Harry sat down on Wednesday evenings at 8’oclock to watch the "Perry Como Show".

From the very beginning Harry just sat and stared, never a muscle moving, apart from around his mouth when he silently joined in with a song that he knew, or a smile when Perry had said or done something that was new to Harry.

Guest stars on Perry's shows were stars in their own right, stars like Pat Boone  who had a string of huge successes on both sides of the Atlantic with songs like "April Love" . . .  "Speedy Gonzales" . . . and the ever haunting "Love Letters in the Sand" . . . it was nice to hear the two of them singing a small medley together.

Another famous voice and face was the incomparable Nat King Cole who like Perry spent many years plying his trade around the many states trying to earn and make a name for himself.

Harry was in his element, oh of course we were all used to the Wednesday night ritual by now, come 7.30pm and the whole household were put on red alert, dinner was over, the dishes washed and put away, the proverbial cup of tea had been made and now it was only about ten minutes until the off.

"Dream along with me, I'm on my way to a Star!" Hit the air with a crescendo, Harry liked to be able to listen to Perry without petty interruptions from the rest of the family. I recall one famous statement that Harry made one day when guests arrived for the evening, after they had taken off their coats and showed into the living room, Harry, cool as a cucumber said in all graciousness "come in, sit down, shut up, its on", of course we all new that Harry didn’t mean it as it sounded but from then on it became a sort of family catchphrase.

The days following a Perry Como show were also full of happy times as Harry spoke again and again to anyone who would listen, work mates had to endure the replay of the show from beginning to end, customers were given a running commentary of it by Harry who left nothing out in his interpretation of events, the newspapers were scoured looking for a snippet of the write-up to the show and Harry would moan off about the "uselessness of the press" if nothing was forthcoming the following day.

Something else that Harry was able to utilize to his advantage when passing on the attributes of Perry was his friendship with other stars of British screen and stage, Harry knew several of them personally and had a very good rapport with them on the ins-and –outs of show business, Roy Castle, star of stage and TV, Warren Mitchell, star of TV, theatre , and movies, were but two of the people whom Harry knew and met on numerous occasions, and because of Harry's easy going outlook on life and love of anything to do with show-business, they were able to sit and talk and listen when Harry went on about Perry without getting upset and touchy like many others do.

Harry also had a way with words as many people will attest, apart from Perry and his secretary at Perry's head-quarters, Vera Hamilton, Harry was in constant touch with many people who were high up in organizations that had dealings with Perry, people such as Tommy Loftus who worked for RCA in England and was an executive in that company, many letters, phone calls and the occasional meeting took place between the two of them, Tommy Loftus did also on two occasions send Harry two LPs of Perry's (in the days before CDs) that were not yet available in England, friendship indeed, also on the same wave length as Tommy Loftus was Yvonne Littlewood who worked at the BBC and was Perry's producer here in England for his television specials, many times the phone would ring and it would be Yvonne returning Harry's call of earlier , what ever the subject was the two of them certainly had many a long chat about Perry.

These then were just a few of the people whom Harry consorted with in his never ending quest of promoting Perry Como.

As strange as it may seem, there was never any moment in our young lives that we didn’t have time for Perry. It would have been easy for us to have said "no I don’t like him" or "I prefer so-and–so", but it never was like that, yes we had and still do have our favourites, but with Perry it was different, we grew with him, he was and still remains part of our young lives, even today when we are all grown up we still register Perry among our favourite singers simply because of the easy going sound of his voice not only on our nerves but on our ears. And to parody Winston Churchill, "never have so many owed so much to one person, that person being Perry Como."

From the Monday morning to Wednesday evening , Harry Smith had prowled around the house, making sure that nothing was amiss for the long and eagerly awaited very first broadcast of "the Perry Como show" in England.

Have you ever wondered what a real "jack-in-the-box" looked like, well I did and my father was it, minute after minute, hour after hour, from Monday to Wednesday he never stopped, "is the TV ok?" he would ask for the umpteenth time, and my mother would do the usual and scream "for Pete’s sake, its only a television programme, you’ve not won the pools!" Harry didn’t bite at this remark and continued his act of pretending to tear his hair out. "yes but what if it goes wrong just as the programme starts, Ill miss it!"

And so it went on and on, Ann Smith was giving some serious thought to going out for the evening and leaving Harry and the kids to watch it on their own, but she knew deep down that Harry would take it very hard if she did, so she just kept on pacifying him just to keep him from having a heart attack or something.

And so the great day finally arrived, Wednesday the 1^st of January 1958, a new years day for a new beginning to Harry's future wishes had dawned. And so at 7.30 pm sharp the BBC gave the announcement he had long waited for "The Perry Como Show" and 14 seconds later the show opened with Perry and his guest stars being introduced.

The stars in this opening show were George Sanders, that well known film star, Janis Paige, the equally well known female singer and Johnny Mathis, the International singer of repute. Also in the show was Lou Carter, jazz pianist/arranger for the Tommy Dorsey orchestra who in the 1950s became known as "Louie the singing cab driver" and sang such songs as "What'sa matter Wit Me" and "The Murals on the Wall".

And so we all settled down, some in chairs, some on the floor, the smallest member of the family sat up too close to the set and told to "move away or you will hurt your eyes!" when in reality Harry made sure he had an uninterrupted view of the screen.

"Dream along with me" hit the air for about 15 seconds before the whole of the cast joined Perry in singing the old favourite "Chicago" which put the household in great spirits.

Then the suave figure of George Sanders proceeded to "sing" one of the greatest musical numbers ever written for the screen, "Around the World" before joining Perry in a sort of duet with Perry's hit number "Just Born", another first in Harry's book.

This then led into Perry singing another age old favourite, (made his own by the wonderful Pat Boone) "April Love".

As the first third of the show came and went, Harry was on the edge of his seat, mind you so were the rest of us, we had never seen this type of show in this format before, we were used to our type of musical shows that spent most of the time on the host only and not on the guest stars.

Following her introduction music (written I believe by the great Ray Charles) Janice Paige showed us her versatility with her interpretation of "Its good to be here" before she joined Perry and the orchestra in a great rendition of "Winter Wonderland", two great minutes of TV history. After Janice came the inimitable Johnny Mathis, as he joined the Mitchell Ayres' Orchestra in two numbers "Wild is the Wind" and "Looking at You", another five minutes of wonderful TV.

The first half of the show closed as it were with Perry singing one of Harry's favourite songs "You’ll Never Walk Alone" by Rogers and Hammerstein. This time it was two and a half minutes of sheer joy as Perry belted out this hugely popular song (taken to their hearts by Liverpool football fans) which had Harry in a trance. The proverbial pin could be heard in the Smith household this night.

From this momentous occasion , Perry went into a routine that became synonymous with the Perry Como show, a lone spotlight rests on the single rose that stands in a vase on the platform at Perry's feet, he sits half on half off a stool as the orchestra break into what becomes for many fans one of the most ideal spots in any show, the Ray Charles singers start off the magic moment "Dear Pe.r.r.y , would you be so kind, to sing a request about the song I like best?" and Perry , true to form, starts off with an age old favourite "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" followed closely by "There's no Christmas like a Home Christmas", and the sequence is finished by a rendering of "Jingle Bells". Fine moments indeed, and as Harry remarked "It must have been a pre Christmas show in the States!".

Who cared, we all were in awe of what we had just witnessed, and although nothing was said, many prayers hoped that this was a taste of things yet to come.

Following Perry's solo spot, Lou Carter then broke into song and gave us his renditions of "Candy Brandy"  . . . "Lost Apples" and finished with "the pig with apples in his mouth" not songs that any of the family had heard before or for that matter , since.

The show finished with Perry and the company joining together to sing that real old Christmas number "It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas" which left us in good mood and cheer for the future.

And so ended the very first "Perry Como Show" on British Television, a rare treat indeed and something that would be remembered for many a long year. Harry, for his part would spend the next few days phoning friends and discussing the ins-and-outs and merits of the show, but in the end he and all agreed it was something to behold, roll-on next week.

Shows producer was : John Street, film booking man.

Harry was on cloud nine, he’d had a taste of American television via Perry and he wanted more!.

Everyone has the ability to be patient, but Harry's ability had worn very thin, so much so that he was in grave danger of turning us, his family, off the shows with his constant remarks about "just look at Perry, isn't he great?" Or "doesn’t he make it look easy" and so on, although it did get to us a bit we didn’t mind because he – Harry – was both happy and relaxed, we also knew that sooner or later he would settle down – sooner we hoped.

Now – seven days in a week is more than enough time for anyone to prepare themselves for the next show, Harry was ready in two, it was agony therefore for him to have to wait another five days and then count down the hours and minutes to the start time on the following Wednesday evening, however, like the proverbial saying goes "everything comes to those who wait" and Harry's patience was duly rewarded.

The month of January came and went, leaving Harry walking on air – the arrival of Perry's shows to these shores gave him a renewed vigor which meant that he spent even more time on his search for the earlier recordings of Perry's, this in turn meant a new outlook.

Harry delved into the attic and got out his old and trusty reel-to-reel tape recorder, and before long was taping the shows so that he could "make" his own tapes to listen to at leisure, this led to his list of "Perry songs" getting longer and longer.

Harry liked this new medium simply because it meant that sooner or later Perry would sing one of Harry's favourite songs on air and he could add it to his "tapes" list and play them over and over again, and as he often said, and I could not disagree, "nobody else has a tape like this", and he was right, some of the Harry tapes are out of this world.

And so February 1958 arrived and the telephone wires from and to our humble abode were still red hot with calls coming and going to every corner of the united kingdom and to his many friends in Ireland and the United States.

Not only was Harry on another planet as the "Como Shows" were beamed into our living rooms, for some strange reason, and it wasn’t loyalty to Harry, all the family stayed in to watch the shows, I like to think it was simply the format of the shows themselves that kept us all watching, and as I stated before – our type of shows were vastly different to the American style versions.

One of the main reasons was the size of the sets, ours were rather small and compact which gave the impression of closeness and togetherness where-as the American style sets were large open spaced types of sets, often with little or no props, and the cameras played on the star of the show from every angle which gave the viewer the illusion of space which we in England never had and found rather strange and hard to take in, this in turn led to us watching the box goggle-eyed for fear of missing something.

The BBC really could be given the credit for introducing this kind of television entertainment into our homes and I give them a special pat on the back for having the foresight in buying the "Perry Como Shows" which in turn led the way for other stars shows coming to England, most notably the "Andy Williams Shows" which in turn set the future of television viewing in millions of homes.

By now things were beginning to settle down in the smith household at a time when the family were prone to disruption when together.

The new phenomena we new as the "Perry Como Show" was alive and kicking the smith family into the 20^th century.

Harry was still in a constant state of daze, apart from the even greater level that Perry had achieved in his eyes, more and exciting guests were being held in Harry's esteem.

Although this new "toy" to Harry was beginning to take over his every waking moments , he never forgot about his precious record collection.

Ever aware of new issues , either, singles, EPs, 45s, and albums, he still spent most week-ends at the markets searching and buying.

The last 78 that Harry purchased to date was "Just Born/Ivy Rose" (on RCA 1027) , which was issued in December of 1957 and was eagerly awaiting his copy of the latest record which was to prove one of Perry's most popular and greatest hits, a double sided 78 called "Magic Moments/Catch a Falling Star" (RCA 1036) issued in February of 1958 which would remain the charts for many a long month.

Whilst out at the market one Sunday morning Harry spied a box of old 78s under a stall, searching through them he came across a 1949 copy of "Better Luck Next Time / Far Away Places" (BD 1242) this was the middle of 1958 and I think that "Better Luck Next Time" was one of Harry's favourites.

The fan club was as busy as ever with Harry taking call after call, most of them wanting to talk or discuss the merits of the previous show, we in the smith household didn’t stand an earthly if we wanted to use the telephone, but we just sighed, we were used to it now and made other arrangements for contacting our friends on the evenings that Perry's shows went out.

And so Harry was ever the "happy bunnie", Perry on the TV going strong, Perry in the hit parade going even stronger, and a new release due to hit the shops called "I May Never Pass this Way Again/ Prayer for Peace" (RCA 1062) to be followed by "Dance Only with Me/Kewpie Doll" (RCA 1055).

This was seventh heaven, and Harry knew that if he never saw another Perry Como show he had enough memories to last him a lifetime, and with Perry's easy going style and relaxed manner during his shows, Harry knew he was on a winner in more ways than one.

And so Harry was left for a period of nearly two months with which to fill his waking hours whilst the Perry Como Show was off the air, it wasn’t easy for him simply because of his ardent fanaticism, the markets weren’t open during the week so that meant he was unable to go out and seek for his elusive 78s so he spent much of his time coping with the sudden influx of letters from fan club members, both new and old, who , like Harry, had arrived at an impasse.

All the old members were writing to Harry to tell him about the TV show that pleased them the most and pleased Harry even more, for it meant that he could write back, or in some cases telephone, and just chat away for hours and hours about his favourite person.

New members were especially pleased because they always received Harry’s "little bit extra" service, he didn’t want this to be a flash in the pan as far as they were concerned, he wanted them to remain members for life.

For the next few weeks and months Harry spent his days creating letters, writing letters , and posting letters, in some he put new membership forms, ready to be sent or given to the friends of others, he always added the latest information that he had received from headquarters in the USA via Vera Hamilton, Perry's secretary, and on the odd occasions he would telephone Vera and they would chat away for hours on end which put Harry in an even happier mood.

Music became a by-word in the Smith household, it always seemed to be playing, mostly of Perry, but also the favourites we liked, morning , noon and night music was on, singers like Al Martino, Ann’s favourite, Dean Martin, Shirley Bassey, Patti Page and many others, my younger sister Angela recalls growing up to music, it was one of the first things she remembers, life was very good, musically, in the Smith home.

All too soon it was October and Harry once more began to count down the days until show time began again.

Perry’s easy going style and relaxed manner seemed to project itself right out of the television and into our living room, but it wasn’t only our television that Harry’s attention was focused on, as a very large family we were more often than not to be found in one house or the other on a "relay" type system, here one week, there another, someone else's the week after that and so on, weddings, engagements, christenings, and even the odd funeral saw the family meeting up with all the other members of the family, sisters, brothers, aunts ,uncles, cousins, we didn’t need an excuse to get together and have a party but when we did you could bet that the latest Perry Como record was on the turntable, this was nearly always at Harry’s suggestion and it mattered not because we always danced to one of Perry’s records which made the evening go with a swing , and we had some swinging parties that became the envy of many.

November of 1958 saw another release from Perry called "Love Makes the World Go 'Round" and "Mandolins in the Moonlight" ( RCA 1086 ) which became Harry’s song of the month, he went around everywhere humming it, singing it, and even whistling it which was a first for Harry, he never whistled.

He was by now spending much of his waking hours on the telephone talking to friends all over the UK, Canada, Ireland and the USA, birthday cards, Christmas cards and the occasional get well cards were coming in every year from Perry and Roselle, never a year went by without Harry and Ann receiving a Christmas card and they all took pride of place in Harry’s house.

Apart from cards Harry was receiving many photographs from other Perry fans who lived in the US and always sent Harry the latest photo and kept him up-to-date regarding many of Perry’s trips around the US. Fans that attended Perry’s golf classics never forgot Harry, oh no, full reports and photo’s arrived weekly by post from all and sundry, even though Harry hadn’t asked for them, friendship indeed.

His on-going pre-occupation with the fan club kept Harry going and all the family (without exception) were roped in to assist in this very important work, either putting the letters in envelopes or sealing them or sticking the stamps on, everybody had a job to do, and they were done without complaint, which for teen-agers at the time was pretty rare, such was Perry’s likeable nature.

While all of this was going on of course Harry was building his prized record collection and by the end of 1958 his collection of albums was growing as well. The very first album of Perry's that Harry purchased was a 10 inch copy of "Evergreens" ( HMV-DLP 1026 ) issued in England on mono in 1949, there were only 10 songs on the album including "Temptation", this led Harry to wanting more but the only other LPs were only issued in the USA, this didn’t stop Harry, he simply went to a record contact he knew and requested they "Import" the said LPs for him, this they duly did and the next five album added to Harry's list were "So Smooth" ( RCA-LPM 1085,1955 Mono ) "I Believe" ( RCA-LPM 1172, 1956 Mono ) "Relaxing with Perry Como" ( RCA-LPM 1176, 1956 Mono ) "A Sentimental Date with Perry Como" ( RCA- LPM 1177, 1956 mono ) and "Hits from Broadway Shows" ( RCA-LPM 1191, 1956 mono ) five really superb albums.

1957 saw the issue of "We Get Letters" Vol 1 in Mono ( RCA-RD 27035 ) shortly followed in 1958 by "We Get Letters" Vol 2 in mono ( RCA-RD 27070 ) which was a British version of Perry's 1955 album "So Smooth". 1958 also saw in England the issue of "Dear Perry" ( RCA-RD 27078 Mono ), In the USA this was issued under the title of "Saturday Night with Mr. C."  The final album of 1958 was "When You Come to the End of the Day" ( RCA- RD 27106 mono ) which included one of Harry's Favourite numbers "In the Garden".

These five albums represented the basis of Harry's collection which he continued to add to until it contained well over one hundred albums, and he didn’t stop collecting until Perry's final LP was issued this being "Perry Como – Today".

A lot of water flowed under the bridge during these long years, and Harry's long association with Perry continued unabated, Birthday cards and small gifts were often given to Harry by Perry, at Christmas time Harry waited for the postman every morning until his "Card from Como" dropped through the letter box, those cards from Perry and Roselle are still in Harry's Collection, he treasured every one of them and it became a sort of a "race" as to whom received one first, Harry or Me, of course he won hands down every year, the phone would go and it would be Harry "Got my card this morning, got yours yet?", naturally I didn’t receive half as many as Harry and that was to be expected.

By now Harry was talking about meeting Perry in the flesh, and in 1960 he got his wish, for in April of that year Perry visited England for the very first time to record a TV special in his popular "Music hall" series for the BBC called "Perry Como Comes to London" which had an array of guests unseen on any British television show then or since, the show was produced by Yvonne Littlewood, although most of the scenes were shot outside of the studio, the interior shots were done at the television studios at Wood lane, Shepherds Bush, London W12, it was here that Harry managed for the first time to come face to face with his idol, it would be 11 long years before the chance presented itself again, and then they greeted each other as long lost friends.

In 1962 something occurred that the reader may find amusing, my brother Bob had joined the R.A.F. and later met and married his wife Norma, they had a child, a little girl, and the usual question of a name cropped up and as Bob tells it, "I thought long and hard about a name, "Kokomo" and "Glendora" were given lots of serious thought but we couldn’t make up our minds, until it was decided that "Tina Marie" would be fine but with a different spelling for Tina, and so "Teena Marie" it was.

Later on when they were doing a spell of duty overseas, Harry would send "Tapes" to them and on many would be a little number with "Harry and Perry" singing along, Harry loved to do this with his trusty reel-to-reel, at the same time Harry would send a letter to his grand-daughter and always drew a picture on the back of someone looking over the wall, which Harry named "Mr. Sun" after Perry's record of 1952 "Please Mr. Sun". ( B10232 March 1952 / B side "Here’s to My Lady" )

("Home for the Holidays"  / "Tina Marie"- Oct 1955-POP103)

Between 1960 and 1971 when Perry once again returned to these shores, Harry delved deeper and became more embroiled into all aspects of Perry’s life.

Harry’s wife Ann also became a great supporter not only of Perry but of Harry’s involvement, whether it was through the fan club via Vera in New York, ( who by now had also become a very good family friend ) taking telephone calls and making sure that Harry would be available when either Tommy Loftus of RCA Records, or Yvonne Littlewood of the BBC rang for one reason or another, usually it was in return to one of Harry’s calls, that was another of his loves, talking to people in "the business" as he put it, the family have tried to work–out whether a week went by when Harry was not on the telephone to anyone who didn’t have a connection to show-business, and we could not think of one, he really did take an interest and the feelings were returned by many stars who liked just to talk and listen to Harry, it wasn’t just idol adoration, Harry really did know what he was talking about and they in turn were grateful for his input.

By late 1960 the old style 78s were no longer being used by record company’s to promote their stars, this had given way to the new style 45s and EPs ( 45 RPM Extended Plays ), this meant that Harry’s forays into the street markets in search of Perry’s old 78s took on a new turn, especially as his 78 collection was virtually up-to-date.

Many of the fan-clubs members who had kept Harry occupied with the latest information, continued to ring him, write with the news and send photos, and naturally they all wanted to hear what news Harry had, being that he was "closer" so to speak, he didn’t disappoint them.

As the years rolled away, it wasn’t long before 1971 was on the horizon which created a general stirring of new emotions in the Harry Smith camp. For rumour had it that Perry would be returning to England to do another TV special at Shepherds Bush.

Once Harry confirmed through Perry's New York office that 1971 was indeed a "go" date as far as they were concerned, Harry began the countdown to the time when he would once again be able to see and hopefully meet his idol, the date and time of the venue were obtained, tickets sought and purchased, and all the relevant information gathered so that when the time arrived , nothing had been left to chance.

Harry asked me if I would accompany him this time to the BBC Television studios in West London, I agreed, and all too soon the great day arrived.

It was great for two main reasons, 1. It meant that this time I would get to meet the great man and 2. It meant that I would be able to witness the making of a TV show which I hadn’t had the chance to do before, I must admit it was one of the best days I have ever experienced. It was Perry's first British television Special, was recorded on the 12^th May 1971 and shown on BBC TV on the 19^th May 1971.

And so the years rolled on, 1972 no change, 1973 Perry does a guest slot on "Julie Andrews' " show with the Muppets, then 1974 arrived and with it Perry would be doing two shows in England which set Harry's heart all a fluttering, in May 1974 Perry would be the star of a "Midnight Charity Show" ( which included one of Harry's favourite female stars, Josephine Baker, of Follies-Bergere fame who sadly passed away in early 1975 ( 1906-1975 ) and then in November 1974 he would be the star of "The Royal Variety Show" , both taking place at the London Palladium , London.

The 9^th of May saw the arrival of the big day, Harry was ready to be entertained and he, along with his youngest son Bob, duly arrived at the London Palladium ready to take their seats for an evening of magic. Having to queue before the doors opened at 11.15 pm was no problem for Harry and they duly talked to all those close at hand while they waited. Following a great evening of song and laughter from the other guests and at around 3.00 am Perry called it a night and went out to meet some of the fans who still waited to meet him, Harry and Bob included, by now it was getting on for 4.30 am and Bob was worrying about how to get Harry home safely, when a voice said "Hello Harry!" it was Perry and Harry almost died on the spot, "How did you know it was me?" asked Harry…"Oh I’d know you anywhere" said Perry, and the two of them talked as if they had said goodbye only hours before, Bob said that Harry was in his element, absolutely ecstatic that Perry even stopped to say hello , let alone know him, it made his night that much more special , Harry spoke about it to all and sundry for months on end.

A Charity feast from Perry Como

This evening saw a lucky group of people, including Harry, wallow in the delight of a singing sensation who has been around show-business for over thirty five years. I'm talking about Perry Como, the seventh son of a seventh son who likes nothing better than to sing.

We all know he started out as a barbers apprentice, singing to the men from the mining town of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, USA, whist giving them a shave or haircut, and progressing from there to the long, long roads of the traveling bands.  And now he has attained the great height of singing for the public that has taken him to their hearts in a special Gala Midnight Charity Show at the London Palladium put on by the Variety Club of Great Britain in association with the International Music Industry and RCA Victor Records in aid of Children's Charities.

Strange as it may seem, this is Perry's first Overseas Concert, and the people of Great Britain are overwhelmed and ecstatic that it was here that he chose to perform it.

It was a few days before we were able to hear what Harry thought of the show as he was still on cloud nine but he was able to confirm what we had read in the following days newspaper (copy below) and that was that Perry, as usual, had wowed them, had given another of his wonderfully relaxed performances and left them wanting more.

Harry, when he came down from cloud nine, was full of praise and other superlatives for the great man, “it was everything I expected” he stated “absolutely wonderful” (it wasn’t as if this was the first time Harry had been to see Perry, indeed it wasn’t, for Harry, along with son Bill, had gone to see Perry at the Television Theatre in Shepherds Bush, West London, on the 23^rd of April 1960.)  Expecting nothing more or less than greatness is what you receive when you go to a Perry Como show, although he doesn’t show it, he takes the time to bring you closer to him, to give the impression that its you and you alone that he is singing and talking to, he makes you feel warm and snug, safe in the hands of a very special person whom you trust to give his all and then some more, and he does.

The Children's Charities were all the more thankful to Perry following this mega-performance, and all those who witnessed this feast of chat and song from the maestro will never have forgotten in a hurry just how privileged they were that night to catch a glimpse of someone very special.

An interesting little anecdote took place while Perry was here in England for the "Royal Variety show", Perry was staying at the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, at the time and Harry, along with my uncle George ( who taped all Perry's "Supper Club Shows" in the early days with Harry ) and my aunt Vi, went along during the afternoon to hopefully get to see Perry, this he managed to do, but because Robert Mitchum was also staying at the Hotel, the crowds were getting a bit out of hand and it looked as though the meeting would have to be postponed, but they didn’t reckon with my aunt Vi, she promptly blocked the doors and physically held the crowd at bay ( my aunt Vi was 5’ 11" tall and weighed around twenty four stone ) whilst Harry, Perry, and Uncle George went to the safety of the lounge, Robert Mitchum saw all this and promptly offered my aunt a job as security guard to him and could she go back to the states with him!. This is true, I swear it.

Later that evening Harry & Ann, and Vi & George suitably attired in evening dress attended the "Royal Variety Show" and had the time of their lives.

The Royal Variety performance

At 8.00PM on the Evening of Monday, November 18^th 1974, Her majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother attended the 45th Royal Performance in aid of the Entertainment Artistes Benevolent fund at The London Palladium, it was also Harry's very first and only visit to a Royal variety performance.

This evening was a first for another reason, that being that Perry Como was the Top of the Bill at this very auspicious occasion, and along with the Tony Mansell singers, Nick Perito as Musical Director, Ray Charles as Choral Director, and the Jack Parnell Orchestra, the whole evening was a wonderful success which had Harry talking about its wonders for weeks.

Also on the Bill were that very funny comedian, George Carl, from France, that all-round entertainer from England, Roy Castle, also from England, the well known impersonator, Paul Melba, and finally one of Harry’s favourite female singers/entertainers, Josephine Baker, who sadly passed away not long after this show.

As is normal on these occasions, it is very difficult to obtain any kind of list that gives what the artistes sing or do throughout the show as they do not exist other than with the director of the show, Harry managed to obtain the shows Brochure which listed the evenings events as they were due to unfold and because of his friendship with many people, he also obtained some photographs of Perry with the Queen Mother, and also through a photographer friend, some back stage photos taken at rehearsal for the show which few people would have had sight of.

Harry unfortunately neglected to write down what Perry sang at the show so I have no knowledge of the same, but I am attempting to find out if possible.

Needless to say Harry was ecstatic following this evening out, not only did he get to see and meet Perry after the performance, he was able to catch a glimpse of H.M. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother as well.

Later that year, 1974, it was Harry and Ann's 25^th Wedding Anniversary, and I suppose that through Harry’s various telephone conversations with Vera in New York, Perry found out, because later that year Harry and Ann received a silver rose holder that resembled the one which Perry featured on his shows, it is now in the proud possession of my sister Angela, Harry and Ann were two of the worlds happiest people that year.

Following this year that Harry considered "could not be bettered" came 1975 which would, to Harry, be the "icing on the cake" for Perry, true to his words after the "Midnight Charity Show" in 1974 stated "if Britain was this good, then expect me on an extended tour in 1975", and sure enough a tour was arranged so that Perry could be seen by his many, many fans throughout Great Britain from Bournemouth to Edinburgh, from Bristol to London, and all places in between such as, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Southport in Lancashire, April of 1975 would never be the same again in Harry’s eyes.

Come the Month of April, Harry had obtained tickets to all three of Perry's London venues, namely, the London Palladium, the Royal festival Hall, and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Accompanying Harry to the Palladium were, myself, brother Bob, and sister Pat, for what happened at the show see "The Harry Smith Collection – Author", following the show we met and had an interview with Yvonne Littlewood who was doing a television piece on Perry which would be on BBC TV later that year , ( which also appeared on the radio as "The Barber Comes to Town" which naturally Harry has a copy of. He also has a copy of other radio broadcasts from various regional radio stations, including one called "The Singing Barber".)

It was at this show that Perry introduced to the audience, although we already knew him, Des O’Conner, one of England's nicest stars, a singer and Television chat show host who had written a song for Perry called "World of Dreams" ( RCA-2541 ) which Perry sang, the B-side was "Wonderful baby".

By now Harry had given up the task of trying to maintain the fan club single-handed and it had also been amalgamated into the "International club" with Harry as Honorary President, besides , he was approaching his sixtieth year and wanted to just sit and listen to over forty years of collecting, he had earned it.

Not being active in the fan club didn’t deter Harry from being as active as ever when it came to contact with other fans and friends he had made over these many years, he still maintained contact and wasn’t alone in semi-retirement, many of the older fans had also gone into semi-retirement, his good friend Tommy Loftus for one had retired from RCA after a life time of service.

And so the air waves became just a little bit quieter as Harry settled into a new routine, he seemed to walk a tight-rope parallel with Perry, who also had gone into semi-retirement, by only doing the odd special and the yearly Christmas shows from around the world.

Life for Harry and Ann became a little more relaxed as both were now retired and trying to enjoy the lateness of their years with the peace and quiet they both so richly deserved, Ann as always supported Harry in whatever he wanted to do, and now that Perry was taking things easy Harry spent and made time for other things in his life, in short, he wound down, other younger people were now taking up the cudgel full time on Perry's behalf and Harry just went with the flow, he wasn’t sad or upset, far from it, he was happy that he had become a sort of father figure to many hundreds of fans all over the world who still took time and delight in contacting Harry to pass on the latest information regarding Perry.

1977 saw Perry in England again to do another BBC TV special, this time a talk show with the one and only Michael Parkinson, this seemed to put the seal on Perry's career because the only other thing he did on these shores again was in 1993 when he performed his only concert in Ireland, and like it or hate it, it became his swan song, Perry never performed live again.

Being one of Perry's oldest fans, Harry was sorry that the maestro had to finish under a slightly cloudy sky, but he still had enough love left for his hero to shrug it off and say "we all have a bad day, this was Perry’s".

Harry continued to worship his hero right up to the end, and Angela the youngest member of the family was both relieved and happy that Harry didn’t have to face the grief or mourn over the passing of his hero. The family decided that to mark the occasion, "When I Need You" would be played at Harry’s funeral as a tribute to Perry’s most famous and dedicated fan, Harry Smith.