THE KINGSTON TRIO STORY

The year 1958 was a milestone in American history. The United States put its first earth satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit, the Yankees won the World Series, Alec Guinness and Joanne Woodward received Academy Awards, and three young college types took the country storm.

The three were the young men who formed The Kingston Trio, a folk-singing group which rapidly became one of the entertainment world's most in-demand attractions.

In the years since, the Trio has played most of the top night clubs in the country - packed the auditoriums of virtually every major college and university; and drawn capacity crowds to the Hollywood Bowl and similar spots in every state except Alaska. They have also toured the Far East and Australia and rank among the top record sellers of all time.

Of the 13 albums the Kingstons have recorded for Capitol since 1958, five have become certified million sellers and it is expected that, in due time, subsequent LP's will achieve the same mark.

A ditty titled, "Tom Dooley" was the Trio's first million-selling single. This was following by a space of other hit single records including "Tijuana Jail," "M.T.A.," "Worried Man," "Everglades," and "Where Have All The Flowers Gone."

The Kingston Trio saga began in the spring of 1957 in The Cracked Pot, a colorful college hangout hard by the campus of Stanford University south of San Francisco. Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, just graduated from nearby Menlo College, and Dave Guard, a Stanford alumnus, were playing at The Cracked Pot for little more than pretzels and beer. A San Francisco publicist, Frank Werber, heard about the group and one night came down to see them.

Werber liked what he saw. In fact, he was overwhelmed by the fresh, spontaneous new group. He had never before seen such "natural" entertainers. When the campus spot closed at I a.m., he went backstage to talk to the boys about themselves and their music.

He learned that Bob had grown up in Hawaii, and was strumming a ukulele and singing by the time he was seven, and that Nick was the son of a Navy career officer who returned from periodic sea duty and taught his children songs he had learned in the lands where his ship made port.

Werber saw potential in their work and signed the boys to a personal-management contract - and began grooming them for a professional debut.

First on the agenda was a name. After mulling several, Werber and the boys chose The Kingston Trio because "it sounded collegiate" and calypso music was then in vogue and Kingston also sounded like calypso.

The following week the hard work began. Werber took the Trio to San Francisco's well-known vocal coach, Judy Davis. He bought a tape recorder so they could sing into it, hear their own mistakes, and try again. They began writing out arrangements and working on their battered instruments to put them in professional shape. Sets of casual Ivy League shirts and trousers were carefully tailored. Werber groomed them in their stage manner. They all spent hours in research for new material to bring their repertoire to full night club complement - three hours of songs without repetition.

The Kingston Trio met every day in a storage loft in n Francisco's North Beach area. There, sitting on packing cases borrowed from a neighboring accordion factory, thay spent hours scoring new arrangements, rehearsing. songs and vocalizing.

After months of learning and polishing their material, the group was ready for its "moment of truth" in front of an audience. Werber arranged for their booking into San Francisco's Purple Onion night club -- the city's new talent showcase.

The Trio was to play the club for a week's engagement. That was extended for another week, then another, and another. They ended up staying seven months. After that they all knew they had nothing to fear. The Kingston Trio was a name that would soon be reckoned with. Word about the new singing group in the Bay City spread within the entertainment industry, mainly through the superlative reviews they received, and bids for their services began coming in from booking agents and concert producers throughout the country. Werber felt -- and rightly -- that the experience they would gain at the Purple Onion would be worth much more than any immediate monetary gains from the concert-night club circuit.

But after their seventh month at the club the boys -- and their manager -- felt they were ready to get their feet wet away from home. Werber had arranged a nationwide tour for the Trio. So, from the winter of 1957 until the summer of 1958 they traveled, reversing the "go West, young man" tradition. These young men went East, working to strange, new audiences in concert halls across the country and at some of the nation's best night clubs places like New York's Blue Angel and Village Vanguard and Chicago's Mr. Kelly's.

During this time the Trio also found time to make their TV debut. They started at the top: on Playhouse 90. On May 1, 1958, they appeared in "Rumors of Evening," playing World War 11 pilots, as well as singing.

That summer they also made a triumphal return home to San Francisco, opening at the hungry i. During the next four months the "Standing Room Only" sign never came down at the bistro.

It was a doubly happy homecoming for Nick Reynolds, He had met a young comedienne named Joan Harriss during the Trio's first big success at the Purple Onion in 1957. They had become so devoted that Joan had quit her comedy act at another San Francisco night spot and gone to work as Werber's secretary in order to keep in close contact with Nick while the Trio was on the road. Now they were able to be married, and the ceremony took place between, performances, at-the hungry i.

It was while the Kingstons were playing at the hungry i that the album they had recorded for Capitol Records months before was finally released. It sold well to the people who had seen them in person at night clubs across the country, but that was only a small percentage of the record-buying public. The album was a mild success but no sensation, and The Kingston Trio, too, was a success -- but the big break into the big time still eluded them.

However, it had been a year of rewarding -- though hard -- work for the Kingstons and when they received an offer from the Royal Hawaiian in Honolulu, they accepted the opportunity for a working vacation. This also gave Nick and Joan Reynolds a chance for a honeymoon.

Meanwhile, back on the mainland . . . Bill Terry and Paul Colburn, a couple of disc jockeys at station KLUB in Salt Lake City, had taken a particular liking to one of the Songs in the Kingstons' album and had been giving it a heavy play on their turntables. They found that their listeners liked the song too, and wanted more. Then other record-spinners across the country began picking the tune out of the album and started clamoring for Capitol to release the tune on a single record.

Capitols Voyle Gilmore called Werber, who was in Hawaii with the Trio. "Get those boys back here," Gilmore said. "it looks like you're going to have the record of the year."

Gilmore's prediction was no exaggeration. The song was "Tom Dooley," and it was the beginning of a meteoric success story that has already become a legend in show business annals.

When the boys returned from Hawaii, "Tom Dooley" was the Number One song in the nation. Milton Berle, Perry Como, Dinah Shore, Patti Page, and Garry Moore all signed The Kingston Trio for their TV shows. The most famous night clubs were bidding for the act.

But the Kingstons also had in mind another audience they wanted to reach. They have always strongly believed that their music requires intelligent listening because their songs have something significant to say. For this reason, Werber booked the Trio for as many concerts at colleges and universities as he could fit into their schedule, interspersing the campus appearances with night club and television dates. During the fall and winter of 1958 and 1959, the Kingston Trio averaged one college concert every two days.

The Kingstons' rocketing success story was chronicled by the major national magazines: LIFE ran three stories on the group within the year, the final one featuring their collegiate good looks on the cover.

"Tom Dooley" earned The Kingston Trio its first Gold Record, the coveted award presented for record sales of over one million copies. It was followed by other record hits like "Tijuana Jail" and "M.T.A."

It is this kind of response that has filled The Kingston Trio's trophy room. That first gold record is now surrounded by other plaques, cups and awards. Disc jockeys voted them "The Best Group of the Year" in polls of both Billboard and Cash Box (the major music-business magazines). The Ballroom Operators of America gave them their "Best Show Attraction of the Year" award. They received two coveted "Grammys" (a gold gramophone, the record business equivalent of the Oscar and the Emmy) from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. They also have five large plaques, each bearing an LP record - representing their five albums which have each sold over a million copies with more very likely in the offing.

During their ride to the top of their profession, the Kingstons met a young performer and songwriter named John Stewart. In the course of their meteoric career he became an important adjunct to their performance -- writing arrangements and composing some of their favorite tunes, like "Molly Dee" and "Green Grasses." John also became a close friend and the Kingstons took a personal interest in his career when he joined a newly-formed folk-singing group called The Cumberland Three.

In the spring of 1961, after their return from a widely acclaimed tour of Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the South Seas, Dave decided to go his own professional way, leaving Bob and Nick as the original nucleus of The Kingston Trio. It was then that John Stewart joined the group to take a public part in the highly successful organization of which he had long been a strong contributing force as a composer and arranger.

"John was a natural," says Nick Reynolds. "He's not only a talented performer and a swinging musician, but he has that great personal quality of contagious enthusiasm that means so much to your performance."

"And he gives us that extra solid sound we've been looking for for a long time," adds Bob Shane. "We've known John for so long and worked so closely with him that we know there's no problem of tension or temperament. That's a rare quality in this business. And John's a real rare guy."

All three members of the Kingston Trio are now married -- and all are fathers. Nick and Joan, who were wedded in San Francisco on September 22, 1958, increased their family by one on March 31, 1960, when their son, Josh, was born.

During the group's Hawaiian trip Bob met an Atlanta beauty named Louise Brandon. The romance culminated in their marriage on March 15, 1959, in Washington, D.C., and their daughter, Jody, was born on May 4, 1961.

John, the youngest member of the threesome (his birth date is September 5, 1939), married a coed from his alma mater, Mt. San Antonio College, in Pomona. He had met Julie Koehler during his high school days but, although they were friends, romance didn't develop until both had finished their college education. They were married on June 8, 1960, and their son, John Mikael, arrived on February 20, 1962.

Apparently marriage fever is a contagious one in the Kingston organization. Even their mentor, Frank Werber -- for several years one of San Francisco's more eligible bachelors -- has since capitulated. In September, 1961 he wed Carel Rowe, a beautiful University of Arizona senior.

Among the Kingston Trio entourage only their assistant manager, Don MacArthur, remains immune to wedding bands. This is not surprising, considering his work schedule. Starting as the Kingstons' road manager shortly after "Tom Dooley'.' rocketed them to the big time, Don is now captain of a myriad of details, from arranging their complicated travel and hotel bookings to overseeing the lighting and stage management for each of their appearances.

Despite the Kingston Trio's rigorous calendar of concerts and recording sessions, the barnstorming balladeers under the skilful guidance of their mentor, Werber, have taken an active personal part in their other business holdings-for the Trio's interests now range much broader than show-business. The boys take an astute hand in the management of their music publishing firm, their land development company and their real estate holdings. One of their most recent activities is the Trident, in Sausalito, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. A restaurant and lounge, complete with docking facilities for yachts, The Trident opened in the summer of 1961 and was an immediate success. They are also involved in merchandising a line of men's clothing (shirts, slacks, belts and raincoats) and in the spring of 1962 they became stage producers - in association with Frank Werber. The critics gave the enterprise a rousing send-off.

The boys' families travel with them on all trips except one-night stands. For some entertainers this might pose a serious problem in personal relations. But among the Kingstons, there is a basic respect for the privacy of each, together with an appreciation of the personal qualities which have brought them together. In talking with them, one gets the immediate impression that here are three young couples who would be close friends even without the professional association.

The Kingston Trio - Bob, Nick and John - are riding high on the crest of a great nation-wide popularity of their kind of music, a popularity for which the Kingstons can claim almost sole responsibility. Their continued success not only in the recording and concert field but in their upcoming TV and Film enterprises, is proof that the music they believe in, the music they sing, is solidly rooted in American popular culture. And it's also proof that it is a dynamic music, flexible enough to be expanded to further horizons.

Since 1958, when the Trio came into national prominence with a style of music never before heard in this land, this threesome continues to be the most imitated and the most successful singing group, folk or otherwise, in all show business.