Area has two living legends in Harold, Fabian
Do you know Harold Betters or Fabian? Well, these two stars have something in common that, unless you already know the answer, would be nearly impossible to guess, but we’ll get to that later.
So, who is Harold Betters? He is a great jazz trombonist. And Fabian? Fabian was a rock ‘n roll heartthrob of the late 1950s and 1960s who is still causing hearts to throb today. He was also a movie star, and Harold is a jazz legend.
This has to have jarred the memories of the 72,000,000 Baby Boomers and 20,000,000 Gen Xers who are reading this article? (OK, maybe not quite that many people are reading this.) These guys are both living legends, and the key word here is living. For those of you who are too young or too old to remember, let’s dig a little deeper into their stories.
Fabian’s good looks, charming smile, great personality, and voice created the perfect storm on “American Bandstand” in the late 1950s, and when he sang, he made the girls swoon. As his website says, “The girls wanted to be loved by him, and the boys wanted to be him.” I can’t disagree with that. Besides his singing, he appeared in over 30 films and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Over the years he continued to perform with two other Philadelphia natives and friends, Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell, as “The Golden Boys.”
Betters, the 89-year-old jazz giant is an extraordinary man who has enjoyed a career spanning four decades, and he continues to be admired and respected by fans, fellow musicians, and friends from all over the country. Over his career, he released a dozen albums, and in the 1950s, he toured with Ray Charles and later played with great musicians like Al Hirt, Slide Hampton, Ramsey Lewis, and Urbie Green. (OK, look ’em up.)
Harold played all around the Pittsburgh area and continues to play even now. Avid sports fans must remember him playing regularly at Pittsburgh Steelers games. In fact, Harold played at the jazz club, The Encore, in Shadyside for so many years, its nickname became “The House that Betters Built.” He was a guest on “The Tonight Show,” “Merv Griffin,” and “Mike Douglas,” and was recognized by the Playboy Jazz Poll as one of the greatest trombonists in the country and as “Mr. Versatility” by Downbeat Magazine. According to his bio, Harold credits his accomplishments to his parents who had a hot jazz club.
So, what do these two musical giants have in common?
They both live in Connellsville, my birthplace. Betters was born there, and Fabian moved there after he married Andrea Patrick, a local native who had been both a Miss Pennsylvania USA and Miss West Virginia.
As a musical kid, having someone like Harold Betters living near me really charged up my musical life. And Fabian? I’ll never forget when my buddy, Joe Fuller, got a Fabian sweater with that big collar that could be turned up to fight off the cold Western Pennsylvania winds. That was high fashion in 1959.
What set me on this particular journey? It was a chance meeting with Harold Betters in a fun little restaurant, the Connellsville Canteen. We reminisced about mutual friends who are musicians. Harold laughed when I told him that one of my darkest memories from high school was the day we heard that his car had been rear-ended with his trombone in the trunk.
Interestingly, had I been at the Connellsville post office a few days earlier, according to one of my friends, I would have run into Fabian, too. I’m sure he would have recognized me in my Fabian sweater because it was 77 degrees, and I would have been dripping in sweat.
Fabian and Harold. Sometimes, it’s fun to visit our past and come face to face with our memories.
Nick Jacobs of Pittsburgh is the International Director of SunStone Management Resources and author of the blog healinghospitals.com.