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Doo-Wopp concert to benefit Prowse
Farm
By Jeffrey Cattel
Citizen Staff
The Friends
of Prowse Farm will be holding a benefit concert featuring five
Doo-Wopp bands and artists on Saturday, September 13 on their
property on the corner of Washington Street and Blue Hill River
Road in Canton.
The Royalty
of Doo-Wopp & Rock ‘N’ Roll Concert will feature Gene Pitt and
the Jive Five, a group from Brooklyn, New York that had numerous
national hits. Their song “My True Story” climbed to the top of
the music charts in 1961.
 The event
will also feature the Tune Weavers, which had a nationally known
song, “Happy, Happy Birthday Baby,” in 1957, and Ron McPhatter,
son of Clyde McPhatter and Ruth Brown, who are both members of
the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame. McPhatter will perform songs
sung originally by his father and the Drifters. As a second act,
McPhatter will perform a salute to the late musician Tony
Williams.
Also
performing at the concert will be Brian Best, a nationally
touring Buddy Holly tribute artist, and rounding out the list is
Robbins Royalty, a local group that has performed at numerous
Doo-Wopp venues, including an annual Boston-to-Bermuda Cruise by
Norwegian Cruise Line. The band includes Harvey Robbins, a
Massachusetts native and president of the Friends of Prowse
Farm.
Robbins and
the other members of the Friends organization came up with the
idea for a concert as a way to raise funds for the museum they
are creating on the property of Prowse Farm.
“The idea to
have a benefit concert was simple to me,” said Robbins, who also
owns his own production company that produces concerts
throughout the New England area. “It blends two of my biggest
passions: Doo-Wopp music and Prowse Farm.”
The museum,
which is three-quarters complete, will celebrate the history of
the property itself and also its significance to national
history. The property includes the location where the Doty
Tavern stood before it was destroyed in a fire in 1888. The
tavern was the location where the Suffolk Resolves, the
precursor to the Declaration of Independence, was signed on
August 16, 1774.
A
centerpiece of the museum is the original sign that stood in
front of the tavern when the Suffolk Resolves were signed. The
Friends purchased the sign, which they had been searching for
since their inception in 1975, at the Skinner Auction House in
Boston for $28,440. The proceeds from the concert will go to
defray the cost of buying the historic sign.
Other
completed exhibits in the museum include a Native American Room
and the J. Malcolm Forbes Room. The Native American Room
includes various artifacts from tribes that lived in the Canton
area hundreds of years ago. The Friends received assistance from
The Order for the Preservation of Indian Culture (T.O.P.I.C.).
The J.
Malcolm Forbes room includes memorabilia of the standard-bred
racehorses that lived on the property at the turn of the 20th
century. At the time, the farm was known as Forbes Farm after
its owner, and only changed its name to Prowse Farm after it was
maintained by Martha Peabody Prowse beginning in the 1920s.
Tickets for
the event can be purchased in advance by calling Harvey Robbins
at (978) 256-6472. Advance tickets are $49 for VIP, which
include reserved chairs, and $39 for regular tickets. Tickets
can be purchased the day of the concert for $54 VIP and $44
regular. Regular ticket holders are asked to bring their own
lawn chairs or blankets.
August 28, 2008
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