The "Oh, What A Night!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a bit more about one of my former classmates at Millersville State Teacher's College.   Guy's name was Roy Clair who happened to take Wood Shop the same semester that I did in 1965.   The course was Wood II which featured students who were taking Wood Shop a second year in hopes of maybe becoming a Wood Shop teacher in the future.  Each student in Mr. Eshelman's course was to design a piece of wooden furniture and make it from scratch.  I decided to design and make a stereo unit since I was getting married in the near future and my wife and I could use the stereo for entertainment.  Seems that Roy was doing the same thing as myself, so we worked together making our stereo units.  As we were finishing them, Roy asked me where I was buying the sound system that was needed for the stereo.  I had no idea, so he offered to get one for me.  Seems that he and his brother Gene were in the sound and technology business.  Roy bought two stereo units for both he and I and my stereo had the best sound anyone could imagine.  Little did I know at the time that Roy and his brother Gene would one day become one of the best sound and technology companies in the United States after establishing Clair Global.  

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

And...one of their best known customers was Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons who happen to be in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, my home town, this weekend for a show at The American Music Theatre.  They are performing the same time that the Broadway smash hit about the Four Seasons' glory years, 'Jersey Boys' is running at Lancaster's downtown Fulton Theatre.  Frankie Valli is partly responsible for creating the foundation of Clair global which in turn helped turn Rock Lititz into the musical production juggernaut that it is today.  Roy said in Lancaster, Pennsylvania's local newspaper that never did Clair Global ever think that the Four Seasons would be the ones that were responsible for Clair Global's success.  "Without them, we wouldn't have been successful.  There isn't a day goes by where we don't pinch ourselves and say, weren't we lucky to have the Four Seasons," reports both Roy and his brother Gene.  It all started when the Clair brothers father bought them a sound system in 1955 for a Christmas gift.  They used it to play records at local school dances.  They moved to doing college programs and finally to do a show for Dionne Warwick.  The next big show would be for Valli and the Four Seasons.

The day after they used the Clair Brothers sound system at F&M College in Lancaster, the music group called and asked if they could bring their system to nearby Allentown, PA, since they didn't like what they were given to use.  The brothers borrowed Roy's wife's uncle's truck and before long were in Allentown.  It was at that show that the Four Season's manager asked the Clair Bros. to go on tour with them.  It was the start of one of the best sound systems traveling the country with the Four Season's.  All for the initial rate of $100 a show.  Then in 1968,  Clair Bros. got a call from British rockers "Cream" who were going to perform at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.  That led to "Elvis" and "Live Aid."  Gene Clair died in 2013 and Roy is now retired but still lives in nearby Lititz.  Roy says he keeps in touch with Valli and went to see him a year ago.  Roy became the Mayor of Lititz and still keeps in touch with Valli.  I often wondered what ever happened to Roy's stereo cabinet that the two of us made together in the early 1960s.  As for mine...well, it became obsolete and eventually bit the dust!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.