Bobby Rydell's Bay Shores Days

Bobby Rydell's Bay Shores

I looked up at the TV and there was a photo of Bobby Rydell, but I couldn't hear the sound, and somebody said he died. Then somebody confirmed it. Yea, Bobby Rydell's dead.

So I started thinking about writing his obit, and how he played at Bay Shores in Somers Point when he was just a kid, playing drums in a band Rocco & the Saints, along with his South Philly neighbor Frankie Avalon, who played trumpet.

The two would go on to become teen sensations, both with numerous hits, and Rydell getting a part in the movie, "Bye, Bye, Birdie," an Elvis in the Army takeoff.

But then, when I checked the news on the internet, nothing on Rydell dying, so he didn't die.

Then I got the reports from Philly that he drove his car, a classic, off the road, and was tested for DWI.

But he ain't dead, yet.

Here's two reports of the incident:

Cops await Rydell test
by Dan Gross

Philadelphia Daily News

LOWER MERION Police are awaiting the results of a blood test that Bobby Rydell took Monday afternoon after the crooner crashed his Bentley into the wall of a Main Line yoga studio.

Rydell, listed on an accident report under his real name,Robert Ridarelli, was briefly taken into custody but has not been charged. "Alcohol may have been involved," Bill Boegly, captain of operations for the Lower Merion Police Department, told us yesterday. Rydell told Action News Tuesday that he had "a couple drinks at lunch," but he didn't think he was impaired.

Boegly said that if Rydell's blood test shows that he was over the legal limit of .08 percent, he could face charges for striking the Jai Yoga Studio (727 Montgomery) in Narberth. Boegly said that Rydell is not prohibited from leaving the area, which is good, as he is working the Suncoast, in Las Vegas, this weekend.

Rydell declined to speak with us yesterday, although his wife, Linda Hoffman Rydell, said that she was glad nobody was hurt and wished that the incident had not become such a big deal. She said that Rydell told her that he had been trying to turn into the parking lot to get away from a car that had been following too closely behind him. She also said that there was no body damage to the Bentley in the crash.
In October 2005, Rydell readily admitted that he had had too much to drink when we called him about a report that he had fallen on the casino floor at the Atlantic City Hilton.

Inquirer Columnis Michael Klein reported, Thu. Aug. 20, 2009

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090820_Inqlings__Smerconish_scores_an_Obama_interview.html

Wildwood daze

Actor/teen idol Bobby Rydell gave a blood sample Monday afternoon to Lower Merion Township police after he drove his green 1969 Bentley into a decorative pole, shrubbery, and a landscape wall outside a yoga salon on Montgomery Avenue in Narberth.

Police Capt. Bill Boegly told me there was evidence of alcohol consumption, and Rydell told 6ABC the next day that he had had a "couple of drinks at lunch."

No charges were filed pending results of the blood test. Rydell, 67, was unavailable yesterday afternoon, but his wife, Linda, said he had been on his way to the Acme that afternoon to pick up potato salad when he pulled into the driveway of Jai Yoga to elude a tailgater. She said he turned too wide. There were no injuries.

Linda Hoffman Rydell said her husband had failed a field-sobriety test because police asked him to lift his leg. "He had a hip replacement and he was at the knee doctor that morning," she said. "He can't lift it on a good day."