Katie Keeps it in the Family
U.K. First Edition; NEWS; Pg. 13
August 6, 2005

NEW singing sensation Katie Cassidy wowed the crowds at the Los Angeles premiere of the kidnap thriller Red Eye.

Katie, 19, the daughter of Seventies heart-throb David Cassidy, has already released a cover version of one of her father's hits but has received much acclaim for her own work.

Katie also appears to have inherited David's acting skills. She has already made three films which will hit the big screen during the next year.

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Then & Now
The Times Union (Albany, New York)
By Tom Keyes (Staff Writer)
August 5, 2005

David Cassidy wanted to walk. He had tried sitting at a table outside a barn on the Saratoga backstretch, but people kept approaching. He couldn't get a moment's peace.

A racetrack security man intruded by asking, abruptly, what was Cassidy doing these days? Did he still sing?

Cassidy stood up and shook the man's hand. He smiled and acted as if he appreciated the man's interest.

"I'm an old guy," Cassidy said, smiling still. "I'm all washed up. But, yes, I still sing."

That's when Cassidy decided to walk.

He's 55, more than three decades removed from his days as Keith, the hip but non-freaky frontman of the family band in ABC's "The Partridge Family"; Cassidy's bio claims that, at the peak of his popularity, his official fan club was the largest in history even larger than Elvis' and the Beatles'. People still want to shake his hand, get his autograph, tell him how much he's meant to them and, inevitably, ask what he's doing now. Friendly and talkative, Cassidy almost always accommodates them.

At the moment, he was preparing his speech for the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame induction ceremonies Monday at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs. As a breeder and owner of racehorses, a summer resident of the city and a regular patron of Saratoga Race Course, Cassidy was asked to deliver the keynote address.

In a letter on his Web site addressed to "my friends and fans," Cassidy says that being asked to deliver the speech is "one of the highlights of my entire adult life and career. ... I'm proud to be able to articulate my passion for racing."

Cassidy bought his first thoroughbred in 1973, when he was 23, after flying from California to Maryland to watch Secretariat win the Preakness. He bought a broodmare and began breeding racehorses. He owns about 20 now, foals, yearlings, broodmares and runners at the track. He doesn't own expensive horses and most are New York-bred. He has yet to win a stakes race.

Walking from the barn at the track where he stables horses to his unassuming home nearby seeking temporary solitude Cassidy said that people become so consumed with their own lives that they don't realize, for instance, that Cassidy still tours and plays to capacity crowds. His wife, Sue, said that as many as 20,000 people jammed each show he did this summer with other 1970s stars in England.

People don't realize that the adult David Cassidy, ranked No. 1 by TV Guide as television's greatest teen idol, has starred on Broadway and London's West End and in Las Vegas, received an Emmy nomination for dramatic acting, recorded CDs and written and produced musical extravaganzas for the stage.

Now, Cassidy said, he is living his dream with Sue, his third wife, and their 14-year-old son, Beau. They reside most of the year in South Florida and spend the summer in Saratoga Springs. Cassidy occasionally accepts TV roles, will perform about 30 concerts this year and is hoping to perform on Broadway at least one more time. Mostly, though, he pursues his passion for breeding and racing thoroughbreds.

"This is what I always imagined life could be like if you worked really hard and if you were successful," Cassidy said.

And Cassidy, surely, was successful. According to his effusive Web site (http://www.davidcassidy.com), he became the world's highest-paid performer in 1971. He was 21. His image appeared on lunchboxes, bubble-gum cards, posters and cereal boxes. He sold out concerts in the largest stadiums and his biggest hit, "I Think I Love You," was the bestselling record of 1971.

"Nobody can know what it was like to be Lindbergh. Nobody can know what it was like to be David Cassidy," he said. "You can't explain it to people. It was life in a bubble. It was rare air indeed."

And to think, Cassidy didn't particularly want the part of Keith Partridge in the TV pilot originally called "Family Business." He wanted to be a serious actor, like his parents Evelyn Ward and Jack Cassidy.

"By the time I was 3 years old, I knew what I wanted to do," Cassidy said. "I'd gone to see a matinee of my father in `Wish You Were Here' on Broadway, and riding home in the taxi I was so excited. I told my parents, `That is what I want to do.' They always reminded me that I said that, but they always said, `OK, but not until you graduate from high school.'

That was no sure thing for Cassidy, who played rock 'n' roll in garage bands and got kicked out of high school twice for skipping classes. He finally graduated from a private school in California and promptly moved back to New York City, his birthplace. He began working part time in a mailroom for $2 an hour and pursuing an acting career.

He landed a part in a play, but after a few months returned to California at the invitation of a casting director to do a screen test for a movie. Cassidy didn't get the part but found work in shows such as "Ironside" and "Marcus Welby, M.D." Eventually, that failed screen test led to Cassidy's being cast as the 16-year-old singing star of a musical family that toured in a multicolored bus.

Cassidy was reluctant to accept a role in which his deepest line was, "Mom, can I borrow the keys to the bus?"

But he did, and became a colossal star. He was 20 when "The Partridge Family" began in 1970, and 24 when he quit the show in 1974. As Keith Partridge, he wore suits he'd never wear in public and said words he'd never say on his own.

"I hitched to the Haight in the Summer of Love," Cassidy said. "I was listening to Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, the Velvet Underground and Cream. In fact, right now, the first song on my iPod is `Crossroads,' Cream's live version. Clapton's solo is the greatest in the history of guitar playing."

Cassidy spent much of his life since "The Partridge Family" battling the misconception that he was the person he portrayed in the bubble-gummy series. But finally, he said, he has come to terms with it.

"I get a twinge sometimes knowing what path I was on, knowing what I was capable of doing," he said. "But in retrospect, would I change the way it went? No. You can't appreciate some things until you're older. You haven't lived enough days, haven't had enough heartache, haven't been through enough divorces, to know how sweet it really was."

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