Photo Screen - November 1971

His Best Girl is a "Kiss & Tell" Charmer!!

What Nita Sherman says about her son, Bobby, should be noted carefully by those "other girls" in his life who thought they "really" knew him.

Nita Sherman felt every moment of her son's catapult to stardom, from the days when he was a gangling teenager with nothing more than an intense desire to sing, to the evening he stepped onto the magnificent stages of the Los Angeles Music Center to open the gala benefit show on behalf of the Motion Picture and TV Relief Fund - the same elegant benefit which Frank Sinatra closed - with the closing notes of his career.

Chic, affable Nita Sherman and her husband, Robert, have lived every second of their son's career and wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Today, now a dashing, charming young man, Bobby is one of Hollywood's most eligible show business tycoons.

And, now that he's all grown up, there's something besides fame and fortune of which Bobby has an abundance - girls. They are all around him - most of the time.

They moan and cry with delight as he sings to them; they throng around him; barricading him on the stage when he performs; they mill about his parents' home hoping to catch just one glance of their idol.

And a few, a very special few, are seen on Bobby's arm from time to time. But that's not often, for Bobby's romantic life is a discrete one. He prefers it that way. He feels it's an obligation to his fans to keep only his public face in the limelite - and besides that, he is an enterprising young entertainer who has little time for socializing.

When he does step out for the evening, it's usually for a calm, quiet double date with - his parents. Unlike so many of his show business peers, Bobby Sherman is still his parents' son and wouldn't have it any other way.

"I remember so well the night he went out on his first date," reminisces Nita. "He came to us and told us, 'I met this girl and I'd like to take her out to dinner,' he said.

"Well, we thought that was just lovely. Bobby is like his father in many ways and he's always loved to get dressed up and go out to dinner. Even as a youngster. I guess that's why he thought first of taking her out to dinner.

"Then he said, 'Will you drive us?'"

It was a monumental evening for the whole family. "He went to the door to pick up his little date and she came out so dressed up. Even her little white gloves on.

"I had to chuckle as we drove to the restaurant! There they were sitting in the back seat, with their legs not long enough to touch the floor yet. It was so cute.

"When we took her home, we saw Bobby go inside the house. It seemed like we waited hours. Finally he came out, looking a bit embarrassed to have kept us waiting. 'Well, her father asked me to sit down and have some hot chocolate and we talked. I couldn't just get up and leave.' he said."

Like a page out of a very special scrapbook was this anecdote to Nita and Robert, and retelling the story makes them both a bit nostalgic to remember the shy, well-meaning little gentlemen, the young Bobby Sherman.

Now, however, things haven't changed all that much. "We still double date," smiles Mr. Sherman. "About once a week Bobby will call up and ask us if we'd like to have dinner with him and a date. We always do because we enjoy being together, all of us."

It's part of the life Bobby still insists upon enjoying - a homelife, a normal down-to-earth routine.

Obvious pride, and sincere dignity gleams in the eyes of both parents when they talk about their offspring. But they well remember the beginning of the magnetic career when no one quite understood their personable young son.

"He had enrolled in college, was studying electronics," explains Robert Sherman. "He came to us one day and said, 'I could never be happy pushing a pencil for eight hours a day. I want to be an entertainer.'"

His mother was on the phone checking out the worth of vocal and dramatic coaches, thereafter. "I didn't really believe him at the time," she smiles, "but it was what he wanted and I was willing to help him."

There were a few moments when Nita wasn't certain that stardom was all it seemed to be - like the first big concert he presented.

He was in Arizona and he called us and said, 'Look, you'll probably be hearing about it in the papers, but I want you to know that everything is OK. I'm fine. There was kind of a riot here with the fans. I have a broken finger - nothing any worse.'

"As it turned out, it was before anyone realized how much security was needed at one of his concerts. Guards had to carry him out over the heads of the audiences. Someone grabbed his finger and broke it." Today Nita can laugh about the incident. At the time it wasn't so funny.

"His only worry now is that some of the audience will get hurt - and they have been at times."

Nita is also concerned about one other aspect of her son's fabulous career, the future it holds for him. "He has sat here with us so often and told us that he would really like to settle down, get married and raise a family, but he just can't see his way clear to it," smiles the trim, chic woman.

"He's on the road so much," Mr. Sherman added, "that he doesn't feel it would be fair to any girl to marry her now. They'd never be together. It would be foolish and unfair."

Whenever she attends his concerts, Nita Sherman looks upon the fans of her son with wonder, with amusement - and with pride. Together they've built a powerful legacy - the Sherman family - and together they are enjoying it.

"But I had my turn to cry, too," Nita recalls. "We went to the luncheon with Bobby when he was awarded the Variety Club Award. I cried - I had to - I was so proud of him. So proud of what he'd done and how much respect the people in his own industry have for him."

Indeed, Bobby Sherman's BEST girl has cried as well as smiled over him. Even when she kisses him, all of that gleam in her eyes isn't just the twinkle tint of a smile of happiness; some of it may be the reflected glint of a tear she'll quickly brush away before he notices. "There are some things," Nita Sherman says, "I'll be happy to tell you about Bobby. But some things he doesn't have to know."