My favorite of John Raitt's many appearances was not in The Pajama Game or in the many exciting, memorable moments he gave the world from the Broadway stage. Not that there was anything wrong with any of them. He was as fine a singer as there ever was, and he sure set a fine example of what it meant to be a musical comedy star. But my favorite John Raitt moment came around 1964 and it took place on the stage of the auditorium at Ralph Waldo Emerson Junior High School in West Los Angeles. That night, as a fund-raiser for something-or-other, my mother and I attended a show that a couple of the teachers had thrown together, mostly with talent from the faculty.
The cast, performing songs and sketches, consisted of a number of teachers, a few students…and an advertised "Surprise Special Guest Star," who was rumored to be someone very famous. Who would it be? A few years earlier, before any of us had been students at Emerson, a similar benefit had closed with Jerry Lewis. Legend had it he came out for what to have been ten minutes and it turned into more than an hour of songs and banter and falling off the stage. Would we get Jerry again? If not, then who? We all expected someone equally stellar, and a lot of names were bandied about in tingly expectation. None of those names were John Raitt, in large part because few of us had heard of Broadway Legend John Raitt. We had kids in my class who hadn't heard of Broadway. So when he was announced like the biggest star in the world, most of us went "Who?" and felt a little cheated.
But actually, that was just us students. The parents who were present — my mother, for instance — sure knew who John Raitt was, and they were more than a little delighted. And I knew who he was, sort of, and I realized I should have guessed it might be him. There was a girl in some of my classes named Bonnie who occasionally sang (I think she was also in the show) and I knew her father was the guy in the movie, Pajama Game.
So Bonnie Raitt's dad came out to perform. With great wisdom, and some knowledge of the ability of our school band, he brought along his own piano player. And he proceeded to sing for maybe forty minutes…songs from Oklahoma! and Carousel and a couple from Gigi, as I recall. What I really recall is him just winning over that whole audience. He had the adults from the moment he walked out on stage, and he even won over a couple of the teenage girls just because he looked so danged handsome. But by the time he closed, he had everyone in the house cheering, and very happy it wasn't Jerry Lewis.
A few years ago, I attended a concert by Kristin Chenoweth and as a surprise — planned, I am sure — she introduced John Raitt in the audience and had him come down on stage to do a number with her. Backstage afterward, I met him and told him about the time I'd seen him at my junior high school and how impressed I'd been. He had only a vague memory of that performance, and I think he was wondering why I'd brought that up instead of one of the many wonderful things he'd done in more impressive venues. But he did appreciate that he'd done something I thought was very, very good. I hope, wherever he is now, he appreciates that so many people feel that way about so many things he did.