A little showman is discovered!
- scarpaauthor
- Sep 24
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 25

…I had been “discovered” a good many years before. As a child, I was identified by a local scouting legend, Ed Strang, as having musical talent, and I began singing in Scout shows at the tender age of seven.
As a young man, Ed was credited with starting the first Cub Scout pack in the country.
My older brother was a Cub, and my parents and I would pick him up from the meetings. In the process, I sang along at the rehearsals Ed was conducting for the annual Scout Show.
This show, which continues to be an annual event in the Lower Naugatuck Valley literally after ninety-nine years was, at the time, known as a Minstrel Show, complete with endmen in blackface, but Ed would, within a few years, change its name to a “Gang Show” given the racial tensions of the civil rights movement, and the endmen would henceforth wear clown make-up instead of blackface. It’s pretty eye-opening to reflect on the fact that performing in blackface was conventional during my lifetime.

In those years, this man who would change my life, the man behind scouting in Derby, Connecticut, noticed me singing all the songs with the regular Scouts and asked my parents if I would sing for him. Ed, as everyone called him, including all Scouts, organized the show and served as master of ceremonies, or, “interlocutor,” as it was known in the Minstrel Show world. I wasn’t yet old enough to be a Cub Scout, and before I knew it, at only seven years old I was featured in the show singing a duet, “Little Brown Jug,” with the younger sister of one of the Cubs.
For the remainder of his life, Ed would call me the most talented boy who had ever performed in these shows – but don’t get excited. Most of the boys were not very talented.
Within a few years, I noticed a competitive spirit within me. Typically, Ed would have me open and close the show. When another talented boy on the program would sing, as I heard him receive a nice round of applause, I would think to myself, “I will be better than him! I will be better than him!”
My mother embraced the newfound discovery of my talent, practicing my songs with me and teaching me many of her favorites. As a young girl, she had shown singing talent herself, performing in local talent shows at the Commodore Hull Movie Theater in Derby. In the process, she hoped to be “discovered.”
I will never forget that some weeks after that first experience singing on stage, my second grade teacher, Sister St. Jude, told me she heard about my performance and asked if I’d like to sing a song to the class.
“What would you like to sing?” she asked.
I remember saying, “How about ‘The Birth of the Blues’ or ‘Swanee’?” Imagine! A seven-year-old singing those songs.
After my impromptu performance, Sister St. Jude said, “You have a beautiful voice, Gary. Where do you think you got such a lovely singing voice?”
“Well,” little me replied, “my mother helps me and so does my Scoutmaster.”
“Yes, I’m sure they’re very helpful,” she replied, “in learning your songs, but who gave you that voice?”
I simply repeated my first answer. To me, she seemed a bit dense.
Of course, the answer she was looking for was that God blessed me with my musical talent.
To this day, though, I still attribute my talent to my mother. With her guidance, I became quite a little showman.
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