Old time music fans already know that Connie Francis was among the
most popular singers in the country about 60 years ago. Let’s call her the Katy
Perry of 1960. Francis actually grew up in an Italian
section of nearby Newark and later moved to Belleville, where she graduated
high school. The family then moved “up”
to Bloomfield. To complete the story, her family
later moved further “up” to the exclusive community of Essex Fells. She got her big break in 1958 on Dick Clark’s
American Bandstand show. She was the
first woman to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to sell
over 100 million records worldwide.
Our discussion focused on Bloomfield though. Was it Beverly Road
or Huck Road that she lived on? Neither of us really cared but it was out there
- kind of like searching for the Bat cave’s actual street address. A thorough web search turned up no
clues for her address but she definitely lived in the neighborhood.
It was after posting this important question on the “I Grew Up In
Bloomfield” Facebook page that I realized how much people enjoy connections to
celebrities.
“She went to the prom with a family friend,” said one post. Another
reader remembered Connie coming to her grandmother’s apartment building to see her
dressmaker, Mrs. Zuckerman. “My
friends and I walked by their house and saw the garage had racks and racks of
clothing. They also built a bomb shelter while they were there.” Post after post spoke kindly of interactions
with the girl who put Stupid Cupid and Who’s Sorry Now on the pop
charts.
I never saw her in person but pointed out her former house many
times. Today I realized I was pointing out the wrong house all those years. The
Facebook crew straightened us both out – she lived on Dalebrook Road, just
around the corner.
Connie was probably not there in 1960 but that didn’t stop people
from walking or driving by. There is
something fascinating and a little embarrassing about driving up to a celebrity
home when the famous people no longer live there - or never did in my case.
They didn’t have to fear stalkers and
would come out to greet fans. One post said that Connie’s family gave out
memorabilia instead of candy on Halloween. Those are the fun stories about
hometown kids who made it big. Many smaller towns and neighborhood fans tell similar
tales of celebrities who walked the same streets.
One final post caught me by surprise. A grammar school classmate, Bob Fredette, and
his family lived in the Francis house when they moved out in the 1960’s. The 1950’s split level (now affectionately called
Mid-Century Modern I guess), still had the bomb shelter and probably still had
Connie Francis fans cruising by now and then.
One of those celebrity seekers was me but the Fredette’s had no worries there. I was incorrectly showing off a house a block away.
