Performing with The Ritz

We used to play all sorts of childish gags on each other like TP-ing their dressing room or penciling mustaches on their poster. The best prank we ever pulled on a those guys was on a show in Monroe Michigan. The show was emceed by Bob Whitledge. The Ritz used to do a song called Jenny Brown, a fifties novelty song in which they would wear dark glasses and really ham it up. Bob Whitledge thought it would be funny if he could get one of us to put black tape on one lens of each of their glasses. Of course Bob Hartley volunteered for the job. As soon as they started their show package, he snuck backstage and did the dirty deed. 

I went out into the audience to watch the fun. They started the song by turning their back to the audience and putting on the glasses. I saw them take their glasses off and try to peel the tape off, to no avail. Then I saw their backs start to shake and I knew they were laughing. By that time I was in hysterics, unfortunately I was the only one, because nobody else knew what was going on. Jenny Brown is a bass solo and they actually made it to Ben's part of the song. About three words into his solo, Ben lost it, and the quartet went with him. After explaining to the audience what happened and who was responsible, they went on to finish the song. 

The only problem with playing a joke of that magnitude on a quartet is you don't know when your going to get your payback. We spent the rest of our career wondering what they were going to do to us. They tried a couple of lame japes on us, but nothing quite lived up to what we did to them. I (Dave) recently saw the Ritz on a show for the same chapter and when I ran into Nick Nichols after the show, he looked at me and said "aha.... you've returned to the scene of the crime, eh!"

.

Tourists
April '87
.

Cub Scouts
April '88
.

Crazy
April 89'
.

WhiteTux
July '89
.

'