For Seniors : Maestro Coaxes Beauty from the Rough

He lives in a Hollywood neighborhood where people erect six-foot-high steel fences topped with spikes around their homes. It is in this grim setting, inside a house without a number on the front door, that Bob Mitchell can be heard playing “Going My Way” on his piano.

Six decades ago, Mitchell founded the Mitchell Boys Choir and they sang that song in the Bing Crosby movie of the same name. Since that time, Mitchell has been teacher, maestro, accompanist, disciplinarian and father to more than 600 boys. Some, like The Lettermen and The Sandpipers, went on to fame.

“There’s no reason for boys choirs anymore like there’s no reason for candles,” Mitchell said. “But there’s something romantic and spiritual about candles.”

And for Mitchell, after all these years, it’s something close to magic when, in his words, “these rough, uncouth little creatures open their mouths and make beautiful music. They turn into angels.”

The talent belongs to the boys, but the inspiration comes from Mitchell, who at 82 maintains a patrician bearing. Were it not for the surroundings, he could easily be mistaken for the headmaster of an Eastern prep school.

There’s no fee for the music education or the academic schooling, which is administered by a mother of former choir members. And the boys each receive $25 for every performance with the choir.

They meet every day in the music room that doubles as a one-room schoolhouse next to Mitchell’s residence. The entire back wall houses 60 years of sheet music. There are no computers--just a piano and two rows of desks. It is a pleasant atmosphere, open and comfortable. Still, it is one in which Mitchell demands discipline and courtesy. For instance, the boys stand when an adult enters the room.

Once the practice gets under way, Mitchell sits down at the piano to play a favorite of the choir: “Would You Like to Swing on a Star?” And the angels sing.

DeForest Kirkwood, 12, is the lead soprano. “I am really doing something I love, something for me. I have a bank account with the money I get, and someday I’m going to go to college and be a scientist,” he said.

DeForest’s mother, Jackie, studied music at USC on a scholarship. She works all day as a preschool teacher and is grateful for the personal attention her sons receive--son David is also in the choir.

“DeForest couldn’t learn in the public school he was attending because of the violence. Now he wakes up in the morning singing, and his reading and math are improving,” she said. “I’m glad there are people like Mr. Mitchell out there--he’s like a father to the boys.”

DeForest said his own father left home a long time ago and has never heard him sing.

John Clover, father of choir members Charles, 11, and John Carlo, 13, was a choirboy himself from 1958 to 1966. At age 13, he went on a world tour with the choir.

“I learned at an early age what it meant to be a professional,” Clover said. “Mr. Mitchell is a very strict person and sets high standards for the boys--they can walk into Buckingham Palace and chat with the queen and know what to do,” he said.

Right now, the choir is practicing Italian opera for a March 25 performance for the Bel Canto Opera Company’s “La Boheme.” “They have to learn how to sing in Italian,” he said.

Mitchell knows he’s not going to be around forever, so the future of the choir is very much on his mind. He wants to pass the baton to Vince Morton, 61, a choirboy in 1945. And except for the years he spent in the Korean War and as a student at the Actor’s Studio in New York, he has kept close ties, even taking the boys on several world tours.

Though he is honored by the idea of leading the choir, Morton said he has reservations about his ability to keep it going financially. “I would be pleased about leading the choir, but Bob keeps the operation going from his own income, and I’m not sure I could,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he’d ignore Mitchell’s request. “I would give it a try,” he said.

Meantime, the boys are available for singing engagements. Mitchell hopes to recruit five more members and has even relented a bit allowing some contemporary songs into the repertoire. The boys especially love this Whitney Huston tune--one that could be an ode to Mitchell:

I believe the children are the future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier

Let the children’s laughter

Remind us how we used to be