The Sadness Behind The Death Of Frankie Michaels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        No one said the life of a child performer was easy, though I desperately yearned for it, when I was of age.  Who knows; I might now be a broken down, alcoholic wreck, like Bette Davis in 'Baby Jane,' but at least I would have had my memories of when I had been.

                                        So it seemed with Frankie Michaels.  After puberty set in, and his voice changed, the stunning childhood stopped.  He settled down to a mature voice, and began performing anywhere he could get--local gigs, basically, which kept the performer in him going.  He seemed to work a series of blue collar jobs, such as electrical repairs, to make ends meet, marrying three times, and having a son, Michael, and a stepdaughter, named Desiree Medlin.   He worked also as a voice and piano teacher--the performer never left him altogether.

                                         He also came from a family of five children--four boys, and a sister, who still survive.  Now, it has recently been revealed that the cause of his death was a heart attack.  His three brothers had all predeceased him, so that tells me heart trouble ran in that family.  And Frankie had substance issues, having battled addictions to both alcohol and cocaine.  Poor thing.

                                           But this is the saddest thing of all.

                                           His health was going, and he knew it.  Last November, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery. To finance both it and his funeral, he sold his TONY Award, at auction for
$18, 750.

                                            This is a tragedy. The very object that made him theater history--the youngest TONY Award Winner ever, until or unless another, younger, child comes along to displace him.  Nevertheless, he will remain the first to achieve this distinction, and if hypothetical child should win in the non-musical categories, he will still hold the record for musical.

                                              Which is why I think whomever bought this trophy should return it to his son.  It should be part of his legacy, one he can proud of his father for.  Just like the guy who bought the Salinger letters from Joyce Maynard, returned them to the author, while he was still alive.

                                                  But one last thing, about the photo. Some of "MAME's" staging was legendary at the time, and in "Open A New Window," after the first verse, Frankie and Angela climbed a spiral staircase, where a window drops from above, on which they were seated, and went soaring out into space!  Walter Kerr describes it in his review of the show.

                                                   Imagine doing this at all!  Let alone every night, for a year, at the Winter Garden!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                    Sing, Frankie!  Sing wherever you may be!  Do the "Heaven Hop!"