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Before Larry went off to make his name in Hollywood he spent time playing music in Texas and his band, "The Four Mascots" became the house band for the Continental Club in Austin, Texas. I remember a big moment when his band was featured on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on CBS. The whole family (and a bunch of neighbors) crowded around the black and white television to watch Larry, our brother, on a national TV show! Larry's band won a recording contract from Columbia Records soon after the broadcast. The band was named "The Four Spades" but changed their name to "The Four Mascots" soon after. This was the "Fifties" and a bunch of white kids calling themselves "The Four Spades" would have caused all kinds of obvious problems for the band as well as the record company. Larry went on to play many clubs, hosted local TV programs, write songs, act in plays, and later write scripts for television and movies. His life was pretty full of people most of the time. Friends like, Kenny Rogers, would drop by an intend to stay a few days, but ended up usually be several weeks. Kenny Rogers used to pay my sister, Janet, and me 25 cents to dance around his cowboy hat while he stayed with us. He took that guitar everywhere and was always picking. Larry and he met while both of them were in the Air National Guard. I remember answering the phone one day in 1968 and it was Bill Cosby trying to get Larry to help with his TV show for the summer hiatus. Growing up with famous siblings (my sister, Joan Hovis, was acting in TV series like "The Lone Ranger") had its perks. It was pretty hard to for a friend to match having your brother on a weekly TV show (Hogan's Heroes) and your sister on TV and broadway.
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