{"id":37838,"date":"2024-03-22T09:32:29","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T13:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=37838"},"modified":"2024-04-01T11:38:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T15:38:27","slug":"as-a-new-chapter-in-life-dawns-music-legend-tony-orlando-counts-his-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2024\/03\/as-a-new-chapter-in-life-dawns-music-legend-tony-orlando-counts-his-blessings.html","title":{"rendered":"As a new chapter in life dawns, music legend Tony Orlando counts his blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 03\/22\/24<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><iframe title=\"Tony Orlando &amp; Dawn -  Tie a Yellow Ribbon  ( TOTP ) 1973\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z8fhciUojQ0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tony Orlando ties a bow on his concert career.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courant.com\/2024\/03\/17\/tony-orlandos-career-comes-full-circle-as-legendary-singer-performs-final-live-show-at-mohegan-sun\/\">The last one is tonight at the <strong>Mohegan Sun<\/strong> in Connecticut<\/a>. However, just because the 79-year-old music icon (who&#8217;s been touring since he was 16) is drawing the curtain on his traveling concerts, that doesn&#8217;t mean he&#8217;s retiring. As he said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2024\/03\/tony-orlando-on-his-final-concert-and-legendary-career-fnc-presents-second-annual-faith-friends-concert-series.html\">part one of our conversation posted here Wednesday<\/a>, he plans on exercising his creativity in other other venues &#8211; perhaps perhaps films, Broadway or even a novel.<\/p>\n<p>As our conversation chronicling his amazing career picks up, he finds huge success on television.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: So, it&#8217;s the early seventies and CBS comes to you with the idea for the <em>Tony Orlando and Dawn<\/em> variety hour. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tony Orlando: <\/strong>Yep, CBS did. <strong>Fred Silverman<\/strong>, the president of CBS, came up with that idea. We had a wonderful run on CBS&#8230;It was amazing to be able to work every Wednesday night for 36-million people. The three of us will be together again at Mohegan Sun just as three friends who had a magic carpet ride &#8211; <em>Tony Orlando and Dawn<\/em> which is <strong>Telma Hopkins<\/strong>, <strong>Joyce Vincent Wilson<\/strong> and myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: So, you three have remained friends over the years. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Oh, <strong>God<\/strong>, yes!<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I understand that you were a big fan of Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis and they were both on your show. What was that like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Well, you know, you&#8217;re working with giants! You&#8217;re working with two of the greatest showmen that show business &#8211; television and motion pictures &#8211; ever had! Growing up, I idolized them. Then, in my adult life, I was able to work with them and then, even better yet, become friends with them. I co-hosted the (<strong>Muscular Dystrophy Association<\/strong>) telethon with Jerry Lewis for 33 years. That was a great feeling of accomplishment because he was my boyhood idol.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: When they let him go from that, you also decided to leave.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Yeah. If Jerry wasn&#8217;t there, I couldn&#8217;t be there. Jerry built it and they actually fired him. They let him go. I thought that was wrong for a guy who dedicated his life (to the cause) because they wanted to go to younger audiences or whatever. I thought it was an insult to his work. Without Jerry there would be no DNA science because the actual hard work to find a cure was through the work of (the Muscular Dystrophy Association).\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/mdaquest.org\/how-mda-invests-in-research-success\/\">(Treatment based on DNA research\u00a0 was developed) because of the funding of MDA<\/a>. Jerry Lewis was the leader of that&#8230;We continued to work for Muscular Dystrophy without the telethon. I continue to this day. You know, I have two cousins of mine &#8211; who are more like young brothers of mine &#8211; both with muscular dystrophy. They&#8217;ve been that way since the day they were born and afterward. God bless them. So, it&#8217;s in my life. People in my life have been dealing with this disease so I continue to work on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"xz74otr x1ey2m1c xds687c x5yr21d x10l6tqk x17qophe x13vifvy xh8yej3\" src=\"https:\/\/scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.6435-9\/90009173_3078122742232816_233250005874376704_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p600x600&amp;_nc_cat=109&amp;ccb=1-7&amp;_nc_sid=5f2048&amp;_nc_ohc=SguA2CjfDpoAX-W11g2&amp;_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&amp;oh=00_AfANRI64tkqufK8jFkrlxRIYRRXX4X5-OQb8dqmLNIZw9Q&amp;oe=6623D366\" alt=\"\" width=\"271\" height=\"271\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"xz74otr x1ey2m1c xds687c x5yr21d x10l6tqk x17qophe x13vifvy xh8yej3\" src=\"https:\/\/scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.6435-9\/90296312_3078122848899472_528743528205910016_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p600x600&amp;_nc_cat=109&amp;ccb=1-7&amp;_nc_sid=5f2048&amp;_nc_ohc=2rflJw4OGwAAX8e30ps&amp;_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&amp;oh=00_AfAnSwzGxCUO9JRod0RbZhfQtv-kXBZMG2isrCrSH-nIIQ&amp;oe=6623B645\" alt=\"\" width=\"274\" height=\"274\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialTonyOrlando\/posts\/today-is-jerrys-birthday-how-i-and-the-world-miss-his-love-and-laughter-and-his-\/3078122878899469\/\">From Tony Orlando&#8217;s Facebook page<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Getting back to your variety show for a moment, that format was such strong genre of television in the seventies. The variety show seems to have gone away. Do you think it&#8217;s time to bring it back?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>I think the variety show has changed clothes. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s ever left. I think the variety show today is <em><strong>The Masked Singer<\/strong><\/em>. It&#8217;s <em><strong>The Voice<\/strong><\/em>. It&#8217;s <em><strong>American Idol<\/strong><\/em>. Those are the variety shows of today. Variety shows that we were used to &#8211; back in the seventies &#8211; were more based on burlesque kind of comedy sketches etc. It was a different form of comedy. <em><strong>Saturday Night Live<\/strong> <\/em>is still doing it the way they did it back then. So, variety has just put on a different suit but it&#8217;s still there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: You had some difficult times after your show ended. Your friend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g8f_HY0tUjY\">Freddie Prinze<\/a> committed suicide.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Well, if you lost a friend wouldn&#8217;t you go through some times?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Of course.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>So, let&#8217;s just move on. You know what that would be like. Just think about it. What do you think it would be like if one of your best friends died? Wouldn&#8217;t it be a tough time for you too? Sure, it was a tough time for me, yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: On <em>The 700 Club<\/em>, I believe you said that you were raised Catholic but, after going through a tough time, you became a born-again Christian in 1978.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>I don&#8217;t find any difference between Catholicism and (that). All of us believe in the <strong>Lord Jesus Christ<\/strong>. That&#8217;s what we are. That&#8217;s our religion. It&#8217;s all the same thing. Do you distinguish a difference between Catholics and born-again Christians?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any difference either. I agree with you there. Everybody&#8217;s the same.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>(laughs) Okay.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: You&#8217;re still doing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wabcmusicradio.com\/show\/saturday-nights-tony-orlando\/\">WABC Radio music program<\/a>, right?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>I&#8217;ll continue to do that as long as they&#8217;ll have me. I&#8217;m having a ball with that. I have a great time. When I was a kid it was an iconic station. It still is. I used to listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bruce_Morrow\"><strong>Bruce Morrow<\/strong><\/a>. Most of the performers I have on my show who I interview, everyone one of them says &#8220;Oh, my God! I listened to WABC as a kid growing up! That was my station!&#8221; etc. And here I am on a station that hosts some of the great disc jockeys like Bruce Morrow and like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alan_Freed\"><strong>Alan Freed<\/strong><\/a>. I have the opportunity to do a show that&#8217;s a little bit more autobiographical. I should say a documentary-type show where we have a theme every week and play the music. It&#8217;s just been very rewarding. That show streams to 173 countries. It&#8217;s heard in all 50 states and is very highly rated in our time slot in New York City. So, it&#8217;s\u00a0 been a great experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I know there must be several but, as you look back over your career, are there a couple of highlights that you care to share?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Of course, the first time we ever stepped on stage to do a CBS network show. We were the first multiracial group to ever have a prime-time variety show on a major network. That was a pretty amazing accomplishment for us. We were awed by that &#8211; and proud of it, by the way. Still are to this day. So, that I would have to say was an amazing moment for the three of us.<\/p>\n<p>For me, working for eight presidents. As a kid from Chelsea in New York City with only an eighth-grade education, that was pretty astounding to be able to perform for them. I have a red, white and blue state of mind. It&#8217;s not one party. Whoever is president, I root for and I hope and pray for. So, to work for eight of them &#8211; actually nine of them &#8211; has been an amazing feeling of accomplishment. It doesn&#8217;t get better than that. I look back on it and I think how fortunate. Only in this country can a kid with an eighth-grade education find himself having dinner with presidents. It&#8217;s crazy &#8211; and a wonderful feeling.<\/p>\n<p>And, you know,<em> Yellow Ribbon<\/em> &#8211; because it&#8217;s been so upfront in welcoming home our hostages from Iran in 1980. Then, of course, throughout Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan, it stood for homecoming for our veterans. It&#8217;s been an unbelievable ride for me.<\/p>\n<p>The one thing I will miss is the people. Looking out at those faces when you&#8217;re on stage, you see happiness and laughter. You look at their faces of joy. It&#8217;s all because maybe you&#8217;re bringing that to them. Maybe they forget their problems. Whatever it is, they&#8217;ve been so supportive all these years. That&#8217;s the one bittersweet part of this moment&#8230;I&#8217;ve been doing this since I&#8217;m 16-years-old. There&#8217;s a lot of it that I&#8217;m going to miss, especially those people out there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Is there anything else you&#8217;d like to say as we wrap up?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Thank you very much for taking the time to interview me. I really appreciate it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Well, I appreciate you taking the time with me.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Well, may God bless you and keep you happy. I wish for you what I wish for myself &#8211; and I really mean that, John. We both are in a business that can give us great enjoyment. We should never forget that. We&#8217;ve been blessed, you and I.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I agree with that. Thank you, very much. It was really nice talking with you. I really do appreciate it.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TO: <\/strong>Thank you, my friend.<\/p>\n<p><em>John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God. <\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 03\/22\/24 Tony Orlando ties a bow on his concert career. The last one is tonight at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. However, just because the 79-year-old music icon (who&#8217;s been touring since he was 16) is drawing the curtain on his traveling concerts, that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16538,16541,16535],"class_list":["post-37838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jerry-lewis","tag-muscular-dystrophy-association","tag-tony-orlando-and-dawn"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>As a new chapter in life dawns, music legend Tony Orlando counts his blessings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2024\/03\/as-a-new-chapter-in-life-dawns-music-legend-tony-orlando-counts-his-blessings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As a new chapter in life dawns, music legend Tony Orlando counts his blessings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 03\/22\/24 Tony Orlando ties a bow on his concert career. 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However, just because the 79-year-old music icon (who&#8217;s been touring since he was 16) is drawing the curtain on his traveling concerts, that&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2024\/03\/as-a-new-chapter-in-life-dawns-music-legend-tony-orlando-counts-his-blessings.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2024-03-22T13:32:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-04-01T15:38:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.6435-9\/90009173_3078122742232816_233250005874376704_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p600x600&amp;_nc_cat=109&amp;ccb=1-7&amp;_nc_sid=5f2048&amp;_nc_ohc=SguA2CjfDpoAX-W11g2&amp;_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&amp;oh=00_AfANRI64tkqufK8jFkrlxRIYRRXX4X5-OQb8dqmLNIZw9Q&amp;oe=6623D366"}],"author":"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37838"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38156,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37838\/revisions\/38156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}