John Gary, Pittsburgh & Clearfield

John Gary was a curious fellow. Nice singer in that older style of relaxed tenor. He had his own TV show back in the 60's. It ran for a couple of seasons, if I remember rightly.
Easy to work with, and his material wasn't very demanding - simple arrangements, small band, straight-forward tunes; some of it rather nice folksy stuff (The Possum Song comes to mind).
And rather athletic in his own unusual way: he was a fine archer (world-class actually) and supposedly held some sort of underwater swim record for a while. He was also a qualified flyer and had his private pilot's licence.
But he had limited patience under stress, and wasn't the most mentally organized kind of guy.
I flew into Pittsburgh once to do a county-fair show with John (the show was actually in Clearfield Pennsylvania), and met him there, along with his SO of the time, and the piano player, who happened to be Eric Knight. John had rented a car for us to drive to Clearfield. OK, fine, all the gear was to be provided on-site, so one car was adequate. Except...
John couldn't get out of Pittsburgh. We left the airport, drove around and around and around, and ended up back at the airport. And again. And again. And again.
The fourth time this happened, John stopped the car, and proceeded to exit the vehicle. In the middle lane, in the middle of traffic, in front of the airport. He grabbed his lady from the passenger side of the front seat - Eric and I were sitting in the back - and announced that this was %(*^%^%#$ and that he was going to rent a plane and fly to Clearfield!
I was stunned. I thought - crap, all the way to Pittsburgh, and that's the end of this gig.
NoSir. Eric evidently was accustomed to this sort of thing, and promptly got out of the back, slid behind the wheel, and motioned for me to occupy the passenger's seat. And off we went, in John's rented car, while he and his lady vanished into the airport.
Eric and I drove John's rented car to Clearfield, and there was John, all prepped to rehearse. He had actually rented a small Cessna and flown there. Undoubtedly cost him more than the job paid. But that was John.
I'll tell about the actual show another time. Including the pigs.