Bobby Sherman was never on a hit TV series. He was, however, showcased as a bashful, stammering logger on the romantic western drama Here Comes the Brides (1968-70). This put him on a zillion teen magazine covers. By 1970, Sherman was receiving more fan mail than any other ABC TV personality.
Combine that with a recording career that pre-dated Brides (he was a regular on the pop music series Shindig) and a couple of bubble gum hits (including 1970’s “Julie, Do You Love Me”) and Sherman’s tanned and smiling face was pinned up in teen bedrooms across North America.
One fan in Toronto was Elaine Loring. For years she was an entertainment host and reporter on Global News. I’ve known her since 1974 when she was a waitress and I was a busboy at The Blockhouse restaurant at Ontario Place — a venue recently raised to the ground so the premiere of the province can build a parking garage next to a spa.
But I digress. Back when Loring was just 14, she had a mad crush on Bobby Sherman. When the actor/singer was coming to Toronto to perform in concert, the future reporter enlisted her mother — then working at a popular Toronto radio station — to find out when Sherman was due to land at Toronto’s Pearson airport. Having also confirmed the airline, she and her younger sister Carrie grabbed a bus to the airport and staked out the arrival gate.
They weren’t the only ones. The Silver sisters, one named Frenelle, had also cracked the Bobby Sherman arrival code. Wary at first, the rival fans decided to join forces and, autograph pens at the ready, pounced as he emerged from his flight.
“Screams!” writes Elaine or her Facebook page. “We met him, took pictures, got autographs, shot shaky film, and nearly fainted. He was incredibly nice and kind to these nutty kids.” Sherman was every crush’s dream. Friendly, generous, very mindful of his good fortune, he made their day. The notion, “never meet your heroes,” did not apply to Bobby Sherman.
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This wasn’t the end of the story. That night at the concert, the Silver sisters sat right behind the Lorings in the front row. Fifty-five years later, Elaine and Frenelle remain lifelong friends. One became a news reporter, the other moved to LA and became a TV writer for The Carol Burnett Show, Donny & Marie, Three’s Company, and other network series. Loring reunited with Sherman at half a dozen subsequent press encounters; Frenelle keep in touch with the performer and had him make funny, unexpected birthday phone calls to Elaine in Toronto.
Some calls were more meaningful than others. In 2011, when Loring was recovering from a cancer scare, Sherman left a message of support and encourangement on her answering machine. And yes, to the amusement of her husband and kids, Elaine still listens to that message.
While TV Guide magazine ranked him among the top Teen Idols of all time, Sherman did not stick with acting much past his brush with fame. He paired with fellow heartthrob David Cassidy on an episode of The Partridge Family. That led to the short-lived spinoff series Getting Together. Sherman later made the requisite stops on The Love Boat and on Fantasy Island before capping off his career in 1997 as Roz’s teen idol fixation on a fun episode of Frasier.
His appearance on an episode of the ’70s action drama Emergency! however led to an eventual career change. Sherman became a first responder, volunteering with the Los Angeles Police Department where he gave CPR and first aid classes to paramedics. For decades, he was a technical Reserve Police Officer with the LAPD. He filled a similar role with the San Bernadino County Sheriff’s Department.
Along the way Sherman, to the dismay of the Lorings and Silvers, married somebody else. He and Patti Carnel raised two children and later divorced. In one of those odd Hollywood twists of fate, she then married his former Here Come the Brides co-star David Soul. She subsequently gave up on him baby as well.
Earlier this year, Sherman and second wife Brigitte Poublon went public with his diagnosis of stage 4 kidney cancer. He passed away at his home in Los Angeles on June 24 at the age of 81.
Elaine still has all of her Bobby Sherman comic books, a CHUM Top-30 radio chart with DJ Tom Rivers and Sherman on the cover (and his song “Easy Come, Easy Go” ranked at No. 22), and even a card she received from ABC after complaining about the cancelation of the series.
Never cancelled will be her affection for Sherman. Not every Teen Idol can handle or live up to the heartthrob hype. By all accounts, Sherman, like John Candy or Robin Williams, had a gift of putting fans at ease and restoring faith in basic human descency. Condolences to his family, friends and many fans.
