FNM Exclusive: Bobby Rydell Says a Famous 'Mob Figure' Got Him Out of a Contract

A word of advice: If Bobby Rydell tells you he needs to cancel an appearance, you let him cancel that appearance.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Magazine, Rydell remembers the time that Angelo Bruno — the late mob figure known as "the Gentle Don" — helped him out of a jam in his early career. But before you assume to know how this story will end (i.e., in a blaze of gunfire), Rydell assures us that all parties made it out of the incident with their pinky fingers and kneecaps intact.

"I was supposed to work a club, a hotel in Miami," the "Wild One" singer tells Fox News Magazine. "I forget the gentleman's name who booked me there, but I called him and I said, 'Look, I have this opportunity to go to Australia and make a motion picture with Carl Betz and Nancy Kwan … If we can change the date, it can be better for me, better for you.'"

Unfortunately for Rydell, the hotel manager wasn't having it. But even worse for the hotel manager, Rydell's acquaintence Angelo Bruno was about to intervene.

"As far as I know, my father talked to Mr. Bruno," says Rydell, "and there was a phone call made to this particular gentleman in Miami. And I went to Australia and I made the motion picture."

Watch the rest of Rydell's interview about for the full story, then run out and rent "The Lady From Peking" to see if all the trouble was worth it.