Here's How Herman is Sold in America


HERMAN - this is an American press hand-out photograph
as supplied by his publicist Connie de Nave.


HERMAN is, of course a smash hit in America. They find him "Something different". And if you'd like to know exactly what is so different, here's "an historical and factual account" what what his American publicist, Connie de Nave, thinks of him . . .
    "Loose in a world he never made but seems to have inherited somewhere along the way. Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone, has torn apart the American pop music field as no one has since the Beatles hauled all that loot back to England. He has a group which, for some obscure reason, is called the Hermits and it has done a remarkable job of reviving the musical hall songs which were popular fifty years ago. The songs are now part of the contemporary scene . . . and have never sounded so nostalgic and charming.

VAUDEVILLE
    The temper of the times being what it is, they will be put under the category of rock and roll, but they are more in the nature of a vaudeville act . . . marvellous corn and all . . . which the British have been nourishing secretly all these years.
    "Peter (Herman) is a song and dance man. He is vaudeville and the two-a-day. Stage front on the vast stage with its attendant pandemonium, he is spot-lighted as he dances, sings, jigs, claps his hands, waves to the audiences, improvises and gets them to sing with him. He is a young Stanley Holloway . . . yet as appealing as a lonely little boy singing to himself. But the indelible impression is of the face that somehow looks like a collage of all the things that go to make a little boy's face. Ed Sullivan said that colour TV was invented for him . . . the yellow hair which is worn in the current fashion but not too long, the sea-blue eyes that have the intimacy of clever people 		  and, above all, the wide grin which keeps the eyes from being adult. He has the presence of an actor and is one. He played in 'Coronation Street', a British marathon soap-opera which is a favourite show. He is not a teenager who plunks a guitar and gyrates with erstaz eroticism . . . he is The Entertainer.
    "Herman is a Yorkshire pudding of a lad who has a way with him. He was voted, by the British Clothing Manufacturers, as one of the ten best-dressed men. His clothes have no affectation, but represent the best of the mods style. He is amazingly old-fashioned in his appearance. Standing, leaning against a lamp post, he looks like a tintype.

MUSIC HALL
    "He began as an actor and somehow or other got involved in the music hall. He will always be an actor no matter what he does. He has that special grace that makes him the boy next door, the younger brother, the classroom cup-up, the older woman's foolish crush, the teacher's favourite, the teenager's latest riot. He's Puck, mixing up the magic dust in the enchanted forest."
    As a matter of factual interest, Herman's Hermits now have three albums out in the States, nine singles, two films - "Where The Boys Meet The Girls" and "Hold On (There's No Place Like Space)". And his telly credits include the tops: the Ed Sullivan Show, host on "Hullabaloo", Shindig, Where The Action Is, The Danny Kaye Show, Hollywood A Go-Go, CBS Special for Sgt. Shriver, Al Hirt Show, Merv Griffin Show.
    Interesting to know what Herman would personally make of this character assessment. But there's no doubt he's being boosted to the very highest stardom in the States.

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