When I Met a Teen Idol in Baltimore City

When I was in high school, Rex Smith was a teen idol. We loved his song, You Take My Breath Away, which he performed in his TV movie Sooner or Later.

Sooner or Later was broadcast in March of 1979. Rex Smith plays a 17-year-old guitar teacher who becomes friends with a girl named Jessie. She is 13 years old. Uh-oh… Yup. She pretends to be older because she likes him. Gulp! It all comes crashing down when she finally reveals her real age. (If you want to relive it, the movie is available on DVD.)

Girls in my class talked about Sooner or Later at school the next day — Rex Smith was our heartthrob. One girl was upset because his character was angry at the heroine for not revealing her age. Another girl had to let her in on the concept of “jailbait” and explain that he could have gone to jail for being with her. (Another sign that sex education classes were sorely lacking back then — and probably still are lacking.)

Interesting side note: The director of Sooner or Later, Bruce Hart, was better known as a songwriter. He wrote the theme song for Sesame Street!

In 1979, Rex Smith’s song You Take My Breath Away was released. Among other things, it hit Number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It hit Number 1 in my school! Like many girls my age, I bought the album. Who could resist the gorgeous cover?

Seeing Him Live!

Around this time, Rex Smith appeared in Grease on Broadway as Danny. (He started out as the understudy and later…