The door to Rydell's dressing room. The conductor for the show was his drummer of 30 years, a pleasant guy who played loud. Some of the arrangements were quite old; one of them, he said, was used on the Red Skelton television show. That one looked like the Dead Sea Scrolls.
From Rydell's stage patter I learned that he is actually an Italian from South Philly (like "Rocky" and also Barbara deCerchio, my first high school girlfriend. If you're reading this, Barbara, please email.) Some of the arrangements were silly fifties-rock things, but most were hard-swinging big band and quite fun.