The last two weeks or so of July brought news of several celebrity deaths, including pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, jazz musician Chuck Mangione, actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, metal legend Ozzy Osbourne and singer Connie Francis.
Flashback Friday dug into the archives to see if any of these people had ever visited an Exchange. We found evidence that two of them did. One, Hulk Hogan, visited the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland AFB Exchange in San Antonio as recently as December.
But one actually performed at an Exchange event—when she was one of the biggest pop stars in the United States.
Younger associates might not be familiar with Connie Francis, although her song “Pretty Little Baby”—which was not one of her many hits—went viral on TikTok weeks before her July 16 death, thanks to celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian (with daughter North) and others posting videos of themselves lip-synching to the song, according to The New York Times.
Francis’ heyday, however, was 1958 to 1964, when she had 35 Top 40 hits, including three No. 1 songs and 15 Top 10s. For comparison, the Beach Boys had 36 Top 40 hits, but stretched over a much longer time.
It was when Francis was at her most popular that she performed at an Exchange event.
During the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, the Exchange Hq Employees Association hosted an annual spring dance, which included performances by some of the era’s biggest names. Francis performed at the May 1959 dance; the June 1959 Exchange Post includes a photo of her but no information about what she sang other than “some of her hit tunes.”
Musical guests at the spring dances were often a surprise. Other late ’50s and early ’60s artists who made appearances at the annual dances included singers Tommy Edwards, Joni James, Neil Sedaka and Sarah Vaughan, jazz pianist Erroll Garner and trumpeter Al Hirt.
The spring dances (which occasionally became “summer soirees”) appear to have lasted from 1958 to 1965, which is the last time one is mentioned in the Exchange Post archives. Although the Post reported nearly yearly on the dances, it does not appear to have reported on why they stopped.
Sources: Exchange Post archives, The New York Times, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (7th Edition) by Joel Whitburn.
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