Why 1971 was a big year for my dad, Donovan Morris

After the recent passing of Dolly Parton and my mentioning Dad was part of the country music scene in the early 1970s, I thought I'd share a little more of that here.  After forming the Morris Brothers band in the 1960s with his brothers Mike & Shane, Dad struck out on his own and got a weekly gig performing as a singer and piano player on the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia.  

One of Dad's publicity photos

It was a very popular live audience radio show showcasing regional country music, but always billed someone famous.  Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Jerry Lee Lewis, June Carter & Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Charley Pride, Dolly Parton--the Jamboree had 'em all, and was considered second only to the Grand Ole Opry.

Mom with Charley Pride, after one of the shows at the Wheeling Jamboree

Dad became a local celebrity of sorts, and when he recorded 2 of his songs for a 45 record, the local paper accompanied him to the recording studio and did the nice article above.

Those songs got played plenty on our own local AM/FM radio station in Waynesburg, WANB.

I remember as a kid, strangers often approaching myself or one of my siblings and saying "Aren't you Donovan Morris' kids?  We're big fans!"

One time in sixth grade, the kids were invited to bring in their favorite records for an afternoon party.  The girls brought in Donny Osmond, the Carpenters and Partridge Family, and one boy (Audie M) brought in my dad's 45.  I was so proud of my old man.

Anyway, Dad spent a couple years on the Jamboree then reteamed with his brother Mike and played music for the rest of the 70's as Donovan & Mike Morris and The Country Rockers.  But those early years were some heady times for sure.  You can listen to my dad's 2 "hit songs" below.

Goodbye Dolly

Mom & Dolly Parton, 1971

In the early 1970s, my dad was a weekend fixture (a singer & piano man) on the WWVA Jamboree, a country music radio show in Wheeling, West Virginia.  It was second only to the Grand Ole Opry, and my parents got to meet and hang out backstage with some pretty big names--Jerry Lee Lewis, Charley Pride, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash--and Dolly Parton.

I was never a big fan when it came to her music, but of course I loved her dearly and in the few movies she made; 9 to 5, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias.  Never missed her on tv, she was always funny and sweet & honest in every interview.

And of course, she devoted her life to helping millions thru various charities and her famous literacy program.

Anyway, I was just sitting down with my dinner and turned on the 4:30 local news and saw where she'd died.  I've only shed tears over 2 celebrity deaths in the last 20 years--Ralph Waite (who played John Walton on The Waltons) in 2014, and Leonard Nimoy in 2015.  Dolly Parton is the third.   Goodbye, Dolly.

The older I get, the stranger some things from long ago seem

This is me, October 31, 1981.  It was my 20th birthday.  (My mom always got me a Halloween-themed birthday cake.)   I have a good memory of this day.  No longer a teenager, I got a pretty short haircut and Mom told me I looked like a man.  It really meant a lot to hear that.

I was dating someone my age named Charlotte who I really, REALLY cared about.  She took me to dinner at Pizza Hut, and then we went to see a movie.  Two pictures were playing:  Arthur with Dudley Moore, and Only When I Laugh with Marsha Mason & Kristy McNichol.

Charlotte wanted to see Arthur, I didn't.  I saw the trailer and didn't think there was anything funny about someone who was drunk all the time.  (45 years later, I've still never seen it.)   I remember telling Charlie "C'mon, Marsha Mason is great!  I loved her in The Goodbye Girl!"  

Since it was my birthday, she said okay.  Afterwards she said something along the lines that it was a lame movie and I remember thinking she was right.  

The reason I'm sharing this is because a few days ago I came across the movie on The Roku Channel, and realized I hadn't seen it since the night of my birthday, almost 45 years ago.  I couldn't even remember what it was about, so I put it on.

In a nutshell, Marsha Mason is a stage actor who is coming home from a 3 month rehab stay for alcoholism, and her estranged daughter (Kristy McNichol) wants to move in with her for her senior year of high school.

Without giving away the ending, it's a pretty tough film and doesn't have a "happily ever after" ending--but it does have a bittersweet, very honest one.

So the whole time I sat here watching it in the present... our culture was so different then.  I wasn't feeling any sense of nostalgia.  More like a sense of wonder.

In the opening scene, Marsha is leaving an upscale rehab clinic in upstate New York.  She fumbles out a cigarette and lights it, and will begin every scene in the movie lighting a cigarette or smoking a cigarette.  Every single one.  No exceptions.  She kisses the row of white doctors and thanks them, hugs the row of white nurses and thanks them, waves goodbye to the row of black housekeepers and shouts "Thanks for smuggling in that rumcake for me, girls!"   

She's so madcap! 😏 Her upper East Side, wealthy best friend Joan Hackett is waiting to take her back to the city.  (Sadly, Joan died of ovarian cancer just 2 years after making this picture.)   

While driving her Cadillac in Marsha's neighborhood, Joan sees kids playing in the street and says "Why must you live someplace with all these children?"  Madcap Marsha puffs on her cigarette and says "Because I've got a 2 bedroom sublet for $300 a month from Mary Todd Lincoln that I'm keeping till the day I die!"  

Marsha is so funny.. and wow, 300 bucks for a 2 bedroom apartment in the city.

Meanwhile, Marsha's best gay friend James Coco is arranging flowers in her apartment and fluffing pillows, when a smirking Latino grocery boy delivers 2 paper sacks of groceries.  In one bag you see a one liter bottle of TAB Cola and red carton of Marlboro cigarettes.  The delivery boy tells James Coco it's $14.28.  James is shocked--for two bags of groceries??

James Coco put out bagels and cream cheese for Marsha's triumphant return

I forgot to mention that while in rehab, Marsha lost 35 pounds.  When James opens the door and hugs her, he yells "Where is your ass--WHERE IS YOUR ASS!!"  Madcap Marsha flings her luggage down and says "I packed it away in one of my suitcases just for you, I knew you'd miss it!" 

Anyway, in the days that follow Marsha meets up with estranged daughter Kristy McNichol and is talked into letting Kristy move in with her.  Kristy is not madcap, in fact she's quite the opposite.  

"Someday when I grow up" Marsha tells her daughter "I want to be just like you."  Not exactly what a kid wants to hear from their mother.

That first night, Kristy comes into Marsha's bedroom and asks if they can have a mother daughter chat.  Marsha takes off her reading glasses, puts down the script she was reading and invites her into her bed.  

You can't see it in the photo above, but when Kristy begins talking, Marsha reaches over on her nightstand for her pack of Marlboros and lights one up.  Smoking in bed?  Yep, we all did.  With your kid right beside you breathing that secondhand smoke?  Yep, we all did.

I don't want to give away the rest of the picture, but in one scene where Marsha falls asleep on her living room sofa during the late show, she wakes up and fumbles around, looking for something.  "Where's my cigarettes?"   She slips on her shoes and exits the building and looks for an open business but can only find a bar.  Ducking down, she enters and puts 55 cents into the cigarette machine and pulls the knob--nothing comes out.  She yells "GIMME MY CIGARETTES!" and pounds the top of the vending machine.

The bartender says "Lady, stop beating on my machine!  How much money did you put in there?"  She yells back "TWELVE DOLLARS!"  The bar patrons erupt in laughter.  

A pack of Marlboros in New York will now run you $18.00.