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Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was born Walden Robert Cassotto and became one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s. He is widely respected for being a multi-talented, versatile performer, who challenged and successfully conquered many music genres, including, folk, country, pop, and jazz.
Darin was born to a poor, working-class Italian-American family in The Bronx, New York. His father disappeared a few months before he was born at the height of the Great Depression. He once remarked that "my crib was a cardboard box, later a dresser drawer". As a result, his mother had to accept public assistance to take care of her infant son. It was not until he was an adult that he learned that the woman he thought to be his sister Nina, 17 years his senior, was in fact his mother and the woman he thought to be his mother was in fact his grandmother. The identity of his father was never publicly or privately disclosed. His mother refused to reveal that information even to him. He went to his death without knowing the identity of his birth father.
Frail as an infant, perhaps from the poverty that resulted in a lack of proper diet and medical attention, at the age of 8 he was stricken with multiple bouts of rheumatic fever. The illness left him with a seriously diseased heart, and he lived with the constant knowledge that his life might be a short one: as a child he had overheard a doctor tell his mother he would be lucky to reach the age of 16. Driven by his poverty and illness, and with an innate talent for music, by the time he was a teenager he could play several instruments, including piano, drums and guitar. He later added harmonica and xylophone.
An outstanding student, with a genius-level IQ, Darin graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and then attended Hunter College on a scholarship. Wanting a career in the New York theater, he left college to play small nightclubs around the city with a musical combo. In the resort area of the Catskill Mountains, he was both a bus boy and an entertainer.
As was common with ethnic minorities at the time, he changed his Italian name to one that sounded more "American". He allegedly chose the name "Bobby Darin" because he had generally been called Bobby as a child (some called him "Waldo", a version of his first name) and because he had seen a malfunctioning sign at a Chinese restaurant reading "DARIN DUCK" rather than the intended "MANDARIN DUCK" and thought the "Darin" looked good. Later this story was modified, as he said on one occasion that the name was randomly picked out of the telephone book. Neither story has been verified.
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