Peter Boyle

There’s a Kind of Hush

All over the World….

I was so much in love with Herman of the Herman’s Hermit’s when I was 14. I wrote him a love letter when I was only 13. Probably went something like “I love you, please wait for me” since I had never even kissed a boy & was just out of my training bra.

  • What young teen couldn’t love Herman?

By the next year Herman’s Hermits were coming to Detroit in concert. I just had to meet Herman. I broke out in an excited sweat when I saw that there was to be a press conference for the Hermits consisting mostly of school kids interviewing them for their school newspaper before their concert to which my friend & I were attending. I begged my grams, who worked for the Editor at the Detroit Free Press, to talk to Loraine Alterman a reporter for their teen/entertainment page to see if she could get me into that venue. I used to go down to the paper during summer vacation once in a while & met various photographers & reporters. It was so exciting.

  • All the guys lined up behind the table getting ready to leave after the interview. We naturally tried to rush them.

Loraine not only got me in, but let me write a byline about the experience for their page by posting it as a “letter.” She was great & such a sweet person too, always smiling. She ended up writing for Rolling Stone which is where she met her future husband Peter Boyle in 1977 til his death in 2006. He was a wonderful actor & must have been a great guy too. Supposedly John Lennon was their best man at the wedding. Small world. I used to hang with someone that John got released from jail many years ago, as well Yoko Ono was one of my first followers, coincidentally, on Twitter years ago when I only posted my art & photography.

Man…name dropping like hell right now but it really is a small world.

  • Looks as aged as the Declaration of Independence & pretty dorky too.

Fast forward 40 years… I hear that Peter Noone was going to be the headline at the Dearborn Homecoming, which is what they call their summer festival. I knew he might want some of the photos I had of the group so I decid to go up there before the show one hot August night. I was dressed like a sweaty slob & no makeup & told someone at the stage I wanted to drop off the photos for Peter so I could just go home to my air conditioning.

You know how badly the thrill was gone for me to do that? If I was in my right “fan-girl” mind I would have put on my nicest outfit, fixed my hair & done my makeup but no. I just go over to “drop off some photos with one of his people.” So I get there my plan all set & his stage hand says…”NO…stay for the show & give it to him yourself afterwards. So I stay for the show & thoroughly enjoyed it too, but it might have been the heat stroke.

  • Peter Noone started to sign his autograph when I stopped him short.

Peter was prepared for autographs & a meet & greet with his fans behind a table that I soon approached with my folder of 8 X 10’s which I told him I wanted him to have. He was in a hurry, opened the folder & started to sign his autograph “Herman” for me. I stopped him saying “no these are for you to keep.” He said that he appreciated it but asked if I could send them digitally to him instead so he wrote his email address on the folder, which I still have because after all it’s still an autograph. The next day I emailed the photos & he thanked me & that was that.

Now if I was still a “fan-girl” how great would that be to have your crush’s personal email address! I was laughing to myself thinking OMG, what I wouldn’t have given for this kind of access to him 40 years ago. I actually thought he’d gotten better looking as he matured.

Hope you enjoy a song that he & his daughter Natalie sing every year at the UK Unity Telethon called “The Angels Are Crying in Heaven Tonight.” The refrain states that the angels are crying because they can’t understand why we can’t find the light. I can’t either.