Hi everyone! Today's page from the family album is a little about local music history and our mom's interest in an unusual Bay Area TV personality.....Enjoy!

Mom loved watching the Korla Pandit show on KGO. Dressed in black Indian attire with a prominent glittering jewel in the center of a white turban, Pandit looked directly into the camera with a silent mesmerizing stare. He was billed as a French-Indian musician from New Delhi who played classic, popular and exotic music on an organ and piano simultaneously. It was no surprise that mom could talk dad into taking her to see Pandit when ever he played at Frenchy’s dinner club in South Hayward. Frenchy’s was the most popular East Bay performance venue between Berkeley and San Jose in the 60’s and while San Francisco was becoming known for the Summer of Love, many bands were also finding gigs in South Hayward. Van Morrison, Big Brother Holding Company, The Temptations and the Drifters, Tower of Power, Joe Cocker, Buddy Rich, Bo Diddley, Sly and the Family Stone, Neil Diamond, Elvin Bishop, Bebe King and many others headliners could be heard at Frenchy’s on weekends. Rocker Bobbie Freeman (“Do you want to dance”) was a regular and after departing the Jackson Five, a young Michael Jackson played Frenchy’s to promote his new single ...Beat It. Jerry Garcia performed at Frenchy’s with the Warlocks, the band that evolved into The Grateful Dead. By the 1970’s Frenchy’s had evolved into a more sedate club featuring the likes of Earl “Fatha” Hines and Korla Pandit, and in 1983 the “hippest club in an unhip area” closed it’s doors for good. When ever I drive up Mission Blvd. I can’t help smiling as I pass the former site of Frenchy’s and I think of the enjoyment mom had seeing “Korla Pandit”, a talented performer by the name of John Redd who was actually from Missouri and created a life long career with an adopted Indian persona and an ever increasingly elaborate imagined back story, and who like many others, found his way to South Hayward.