According to the 2010 Census, the borough of New Hope has a total area of 1.4 square miles. Yet this marvelous little town has been host to some amazing entertainment and a cavalcade of stars over the years. One of the people responsible for putting New Hope on the map for music lovers is Bob Egan. Piano player extraordinaire and the man behind Bob Egan’s Supper Club, he began his career at the famed Odette’s. He took a moment between rehearsals to speak with us.
PGN: Tell me about the family. BE: My parents were both from Philly. When they got married, they moved to Bucks County, which is where I grew up. My father worked for the government at Frankford Arsenal. I’m the oldest of six; we’re like the Brady Bunch: three boys, three girls.
PGN: What was it like being the oldest of the bunch? BE: I loved it. [Laughs.] I had it good: I got my own bedroom and they all had to share! Music was always my thing. I took piano lessons since I was in fourth grade.
PGN: Were your parents musical? BE: No. Neither. I don’t know why I wanted to play the piano: It was just out of the blue. When I got into college, I was going to go as a language major and then found out that I could actually study music. I had no idea it was a major! I started out in Bucks County Community College — which I loved, I think they were two of the best years of my life — and then went to the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, which I also loved. It was great fun being in Center City in the late ’70s. I got my first job playing music here in New Hope, just as I was finishing my second year of college. It was at a little place called the Swan Hotel. It was a blast, everyone piling around the piano and singing and having fun. I thought it was the best job in the world. I liked it so much, I changed my major from music education to performance. I decided I didn’t want to teach — I wanted to play.
PGN: Did you miss out on anything working through college? BE: No, because all my friends would come to the bar every Friday and Saturday to see me. We would all have a good time, but I was getting paid for it. In 1985, a friend of mine bought Odette’s and things really opened up. They asked me to play there and take over the music operations. I performed and booked other people and then I had the idea to start a cabaret in our other dining room. I had no idea it was going to take off like it did. In 2002, USA Today rated us one of the top 10 cabarets in the country. That was huge! PGN: What gave you the idea? BE: When I bought my house here in ’85, a lot of celebrity buzz had died down. New Hope used to be the place for celebrities to live and hang out. In fact, Paul Simon would have been my neighbor had he not moved. In addition, we always had a lot of headliners in town performing at the Bucks County Playhouse. But in ’85 it seemed like that was all gone. It was like, where did the party go? I was into music and cabarets and used to go to New York to see a lot of up-and-coming performers. I thought, if we built it, I bet there would be enough people who didn’t want to drive to New York to see a good show who will come. I was very fortunate that, in my first year, one of my singers introduced me to Margaret Whiting. She was a popular singer from the ’40s and we became friends immediately. She introduced me to all the New York crowd and told everyone, “You must come down to PA and play!” She kicked it off by doing a show here herself. Odette’s caught on as a place where people would break in new material. It was the place to perform for 21 years until the big flood in 2006.
PGN: Who was an up-and-comer that went on to greater success? BE: Years ago, we had a benefit performance at Odette’s. A woman I knew asked me if her daughter could sing a song that night. I told her we already had a full program but asked her if the daughter was any good. She said, “Well, yeah, she’s pretty good. She’s starting to get noticed and we think she might get a deal with MTV.” So I thought, I guess she can’t be that bad, and let her sing one song, but I didn’t even play for her, I let the other piano player do it. If you watch the “E True Hollywood Story,” seven minutes into the story about Pink, they have a clip of me saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, our next singer is going to be a big star. Please welcome Alecia Moore!” which was her name back then before she started going by Pink. Of course I used to say that everyone was going to be a big star, but in her case it actually happened!
PGN: A funny moment at the club? BE: We had Judy Gold come and perform when she was also up-and-coming. It was about 18 years ago and the owner called me and said, “We have a bus group coming in and they want a comedy show during lunch.” They were from New York and I called Judy and asked her. She said, “A busload of adults coming from New York? That’s perfect, they’re probably all Jews, which is my crowd. They love me.” She was developing a show called “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother,” which she thought would be perfect. The day of the show, we were at Odette’s waiting for the bus and as it rolled in we read the sign on the bus: “First Baptist Church of York, PA.” It was a bus full of black, church-going senior citizens from the boonies of York, Pa. Pretty much the opposite of what we thought. But, the end of the story is that she went in and did one of the funniest shows she’s ever done. She was brilliant and they loved her.
PGN: What was your craziest moment on stage? BE: I was hired to play at a party in Atlantic City and was under the impression that I was just playing piano in the background. When I got there, they had the piano on a stage with a big spotlight shining on it. They expected me to do a Michael Feinstein type of show, which is not what I do. It was tough: I never sweated so much in one hour!
PGN: Tell me about the new business venture. BE: Odette’s had closed suddenly after 21 years. I’d spoken to the then-owner of one of the big hotels here in New Hope about doing a cabaret there and we were in the planning stages, but they got a new owner and it didn’t go through. A few years later, it changed hands again and I was asked to pick up where we’d left off. It’s now a Ramada and it was nice because they left me to create Bob Egan’s Cabaret Supper Club from scratch. We were able to plan it to be the ultimate performance space. PGN: Are you recreating the heyday of supper clubs like the Rainbow Room? BE: Exactly, a place where you can sit at a table and have dinner and enjoy a great performance. I want to redefine the word “cabaret” so that it doesn’t just mean old standards or Broadway tunes: It’s jazz and pop, folk and country, even standup comedy, but in a setting where the performers are accessible.
PGN: What’s Bob Egan Entertainment? BE: That’s my main thing. I kind of have three lives: There’s the supper club, there’s me the piano player and there’s my entertainment company. We provide entertainment for all sorts of events, from parties to weddings to community festivals.
PGN: Tell me about coming out. BE: I was probably in college. I don’t know: It’s funny [blushes], I’ve never really been officially … well, it’s an interesting story. I was in college and there were about 15 of us who were very tight. I remember one day there was a big fuss because two of the guys, Larry and Neil, got together. Everybody was gossiping about it at the table and one girl who was part of the group just looked at us and said, “I don’t get this, I’ve always liked Larry and I’ve always liked Neil. We all do, this doesn’t make me feel differently about either of them, just because they’re together. Why would you?” It made everyone realize that it didn’t matter, they were still our friends. And that’s kind of been my attitude ever since. My friends come from all walks of life. I don’t like to segregate myself, I usually work at places like Odette’s where everyone goes, not just all gay or all straight.
PGN: A song that makes you happy when you hear it? BE: The first song I ever connected with was Mama Cass singing “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” It was also my intro to old music. I knew the Mama Cass version and then found out that it was an old song from the ’30s and it made me realize that there were great songs from before my time, and it made me want to explore more. It still makes me smile.
To suggest a community member for “Professional Portrait,” write to [email protected].