The Singers

After midnight everyone went home from the First Annual California Novice Barbershop Quartet Contest in the city of Garden Grove. Gene Morford and I refused to leave the parking lot because we were having too much fun singing to the moon. We had enjoyed watching the barbershop harmony contest in the early 1960's. The wives of the Garden Grove Chapter S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. had donated sandwiches for the after show party called the afterglow. A party held after the afterglow is called a glimmer. Glimmers often last until daylight. Gene and I were having our glimmer all by ourselves. Some of the best fun I ever had was singing with Gene that night in the parking lot. The barbershop show made us want to sing for ourselves. After everyone left we were reluctant to go. Luckily, the police did not catch us making all that noise.

Gene is able to harmonize immediately without needing to read notes or practice first. His father was a minister and the church nurtured Gene's great gift for vocal music in his youth. He had a deep bass voice that sounded like a great organ, and he was also able to sing as high as a soprano or tenor. At age twenty three Gene was singing professionally at Disneyland in a quartet with my youngest brother Ron Browne. They had been Anaheim High School football players. and they had sung together at Fullerton Junior College in a modern quartet called Four of a Kind. Their music was similar to the HI-LOWS , the FOUR FRESHMEN and other modern quartets. Bobby was a friend of the quartet who loved to sing rock and roll songs and they kidded him about standing in front of a mirror using a mop handle as a microphone pretending to be a big star. On several occasions Ron drove Bobby and Gene to a little bar after school. Laborers stopped at the bar on North Harbor Blvd. in Fullerton on their way home from work to grab a beer. Gene played rock and roll chords on a piano, and Bobby sang songs in a high tenor voice. Gene and Ron harmonized with Bobby. Occasionally they changed a word or phrase to add spice. The men drinking beer made the owner turn off the jukebox, and they bought pitchers of beer for the trio. After a while there were several full pitchers of free beer lined up on the piano.

Ron drove an old Pontiac he had purchased for one hundred fifty dollars. Ron, Bobby and Gene had been singing after school in a little bar on Pacific Highway in Newport Beach. After a couple of hours of singing and sipping beer, Ron asked Gene to drive the car. Bobby and Ron tried to take a nap in the back seat. Before they reached Costa Mesa, Gene hit a cement divider and tore out the under carriage of the old car. The three young men acted sober and the police said they were sorry to see the ruined condition of the car. A tow truck hauled it away, and Ron sold the car for fifteen dollars. Bobby eventually became the rock star Bobby Hatfield. He is the tenor voice of the Righteous Brothers.

Sometimes Gene had low back pain while working with THE DAPPER DANS barbershop quartet of Disneyland. My brother Ron was also in The Dapper Dans. He phoned me to come and give Gene a physical therapy treatment so they could finish their work day. I took time out from my usual job at Westminster Clinic, drove to Disneyland and they let me in free to treat Gene. I gave him heat, back massage, and strenghthening exercises for his low back. Later,Gene worked for me part time tearing down walls of our house so we could make the house larger. Gene used a sledge hammer and a wheelbarrow, and he loaded the heavy wood and plaster in a trailer. My wife Barbara used our station wagon to pull the trailer to the dump where they unloaded it. Gene enjoyed sweating as he worked to strengthen his back. He had a ruddy complexion and a round smiling face. He acted a little shy, spoke politely with a quiet bass voice, and he had a strong football frame like a work horse. Gene was attending Chapman College in the city of Orange studying vocal music.

Gene refused to take his studies seriously and often overslept and ditched school. His father was worried about Gene and went to see my mother Alberta Browne. She told the preacher she knew Gene was rebelling by using tobacco and alcohol, but she assured the reverend his son was a good person. The preacher confessed he had neglected his son in order to serve his congregation. He had tears in his eyes. He said he loved Gene but did not know how to treat him. My mother advised the preacher not to be angry with his son.

My wife agreed with Gene that college was not the most important thing in his life. She and I encouraged him to continue doing what he felt was important, singing.

A couple of years later the Dapper Dans of Disneyland had become one of the most entertaining Barbershop Quartets in the world. They were coached by Val Hicks who had arranged music for and taught the young Osmond Brothers. The Dapper Dans traveled to Hollywood to buy the best choreography they could find. Their act lasted fifteen or twenty minutes. Gene sang bass better than most champion singers, and he was also a good clown during the act. The Dapper Dans received standing ovations from large crowds at Barbershop Harmony shows put on by the Society For The Preservation Of Barber Shop Quartet Singing In America. They performed in many cities on the West coast.

Gene quit the quartet and went to Dallas, Texas and was hired as a studio singer for radio. This was the beginning of a very successful career for Gene. In Texas he sang radio station brakes and commercials that were played all over the nation. Gene married and they moved to Burbank, California. Gene sang commercials for almost all the radio and T.V. stations in the country. He sang as a back-up singer for many of the most popular singers in America and his is the predominant voice in most of the musical productions featured at Disneyland, Seaworld and Disneyworld. He did not try to become famous, and it is seldom his face appears on television.

Gene Morford, Ron Browne and Bobby Hatfield continued to sing for money for many years but not often together. I wonder if the three old friends would like to go back to that bar in Fullerton and sing for a free pitcher of beer?