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From happy campers to Hollywood stars
By Paul Bannister • Bankrate.com
Millions of people from all walks of life have gone to summer camp
over the years, including many stars who got their start in showbiz
at campfire performances and grew up to be rich and famous. Perhaps
you shared the same pup tent or cabin with one of them.
Dustin Hoffman
Photo credit:
Lisa |
Dustin Hoffman went to the Perry-Mansfield
School of Theater and Dance in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and loved
it. Trouble was, his fellow campers were less than thrilled that
he wanted to be a drummer.
They persuaded him to stick with acting instead of
pounding out rhythms -- and a few years later Dustin became "The
Graduate" and earned the first of seven Oscar nominations.
Another happy camper who was an unpopular drummer
was Tre Cool, of the punk group Green Day. He showed up at
vintage comic/hippie Wavy Gravy's Camp Winnarainbow in California
with a complete drum set.
Fellow campers muffled his drums and forced him to keep civilized hours but Tre -- or Frank Wright III as he then was known -- still made an audible impression.
Bill Clinton
Photo credit:
Nancy Kaszerman |
Bill Clinton enjoyed his summer camp music,
too. The prez-to-be learned saxophone at the University of Arkansas
music camp in Fayetteville, and set an example for daughter, Chelsea,
who attended several camps herself two decades later.
The First Daughter didn't play sax, though. Chelsea
Clinton She attended academic camps at Sea World, Concordia
Language Villages and the U.S. Space Camp to hone her skills in
marine biology, French and astronomy.
Sports were favorites for many celebs. Fifteen-year-old
Charlie Sheen, or Carlos Estevez as he was known back then,
went to baseball camp in Miller, Mo., but privately opted to try
some late-night sports, too. He sneaked out of the Ozark woods retreat
and headed for town, but was caught off base.
"We gave him two choices," says Ken Rizzo, principal
of the Mickey Owen Baseball School. "He could go home or do extra
duty."
Charlie opted to scrape cafeteria trays, and earned
the nickname "Slop Boy" from his fellow campers. The baseball
skills he learned that summer didn't get him a pro career, but they
did help when he starred in "Major League."
Michael Jordan
Photo credit:
ZUMA Press |
Basketball legend Michael Jordan was just a
so-so player as a junior at Laney Hills High, in Pittsburgh. He
didn't even make the top 300 U.S. high school players.
Summer camp saw him blossom. When he went to the Five Star basketball camp in Pittsburgh, sharp-eyed coach Howard Garfinkel realized the youth's talent. "I saw him jump to take a shot, and he just exploded," said Garfinkel, who marked Michael down for special coaching. Jordan never looked back.
"Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus
went to Sidwell Friends tennis camp in Washington, D.C., and polished
her groundstrokes and service skills, while Candice Bergen
became a skilled horsewoman at age 11.
While Candice was in mid-ride on a 30-mile horseback
expedition at Orme Summer Camp in Arizona, her ventriloquist dad,
Edgar Bergen, drove up in his car to surprise her.
His treat: a wilderness command performance with his
wooden dummy, Charlie McCarthy, to entertain Candice and her fellow
riders.
Etiquette expert Letitia Baldridge summered
properly at Arcadia Camp for Girls in Massachusetts and President
George W. Bush attended the all-Texan Camp Longhorn in Burnet,
Texas. Robert Downey Jr. went to acting camp at Stagedoor
Manor in Lock Sheldrake, N.Y., as did Mandy Moore, Natalie
Portman and many others. And Bob Dylan -- who was then
Robert Zimmerman -- crooned his way through Herzl Camp in Webster,
Wis.
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