When I Met a Teen Idol in Baltimore City

When I was in high school, Rex Smith was a teen idol. We loved his song, You Take My Breath Away, which he performed in his TV movie Sooner or Later.

Sooner or Later was broadcast in March of 1979. Rex Smith plays a 17-year-old guitar teacher who becomes friends with a girl named Jessie. She is 13 years old. Uh-oh… Yup. She pretends to be older because she likes him. Gulp! It all comes crashing down when she finally reveals her real age. (If you want to relive it, the movie is available on DVD.)

Girls in my class talked about Sooner or Later at school the next day — Rex Smith was our heartthrob. One girl was upset because his character was angry at the heroine for not revealing her age. Another girl had to let her in on the concept of “jailbait” and explain that he could have gone to jail for being with her. (Another sign that sex education classes were sorely lacking back then — and probably still are lacking.)

Interesting side note: The director of Sooner or Later, Bruce Hart, was better known as a songwriter. He wrote the theme song for Sesame Street!

In 1979, Rex Smith’s song You Take My Breath Away was released. Among other things, it hit Number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It hit Number 1 in my school! Like many girls my age, I bought the album. Who could resist the gorgeous cover?

Seeing Him Live!

Around this time, Rex Smith appeared in Grease on Broadway as Danny. (He started out as the understudy and later replaced the original performer.) And wouldn’t you know it? He came to Baltimore in a touring production of Grease.

I went with my high school boyfriend, Bill — and his mother. Bill was really into musical theater. He’s the one who introduced me to a lot of the current Broadway musicals. We had already seen the famed movie adaptation of Grease.

So when Grease came to Baltimore, we had to go see it. And when the show was over, we had to try to get autographs from the performers. Somehow, we navigated to where Rex Smith and some of the young women from the show were gathered outside.

I’d gone to plays and musicals before, but I rarely had a chance to try to get autographs. We were usually in such a hurry to get back home. (Once, many years before, Mum waited to get an autograph from a famous ice skater, but the skater was too tired to meet the public. So maybe that put a damper on autographs for Mum.)

My boyfriend spurred me on to see Rex Smith. I was being just a tad reserved. So I managed to mumble something about how jealous the girls in my school would be when they learned I got to meet him.

And Rex Smith’s reaction? He said something like, “Let’s really give them something to be jealous of.” And he gave me a light kiss on the lips.

swoon

Rex Smith didn’t have to give me a kiss. He didn’t even have to talk to me. But he made my night even more memorable. He truly did give the girls in school something to be jealous of.

According to my boyfriend, one of the women mocked me as this was going on, spinning around, draping herself around a fellow performer, and saying something like, “Ohhhh, I’m soooo glad to meet you!” (I sounded nothing like that. I sounded more like “I… Hi? Can you … sign this? What? Huh? Oh!”) Anyway, according to my boyfriend, Rex Smith also cut her performance off.

My boyfriend may have embellished some of this. (He tended to embellish the truth…) But whatever actually happened, I was completely oblivious to this because I was walking on a fluffy cloud.

Back at School

What happened back at school? Of course, I shyly told some of my classmates that I went to see Grease and — more importantly — told them that I got a kiss from the leading man, Rex Smith.

I think some of them didn’t believe me. But we know better, don’t we?

Rex Smith Today

As part of my research, I listened to You Take My Breath Away for the first time in years to see if it holds up. It’s better than I remember!

Holding my breath, I looked up Rex Smith to see how he’s doing today. Is he still performing? Is he still singing?

Of course he is! If you’re a fan, you know he’s only gotten better.

He has appeared in many TV shows and movies, starring in the TV series Street Hawk. His musical theater productions have included Sunset Boulevard (you can listen to him sing those demanding songs), The Pirates of Penzance, and The Sound of Music, as well as non-musical roles. Not to mention current performances in Love Actually Live.

So yes, he’s still acting, and most of all, he is still singing! And I have the sudden urge to go to a musical again.

You can find out more on his official website. And the Real Rex Smith Facebook page.

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