Bob Young was teaching elementary school when he decided he’d rather be running a cabaret.
So, with borrowed money and the help of family and friends, he and his wife, Frances Young, opened Bob Young’s Cabaret in tiny Cascade in 1968 and kept it going until 1994.
A tribute to Young, who died on June 15 of heart and diabetes problems, is planned for 6 p.m. today at the cabaret building, which is no longer a theater.
Many of the hundreds of people who acted, sang or danced in the melodramas at the cabaret will sing after the traditional service, Frances Young said.
Working at the cabaret “was a family thing,” said Betsy Acree-McClenahan, who had worked there as a performer.
When Acree-McClenahan, who was a sixth-grade student of Young’s, first started at the cabaret she had two small children. The only way to keep son David from running amok during rehearsals was to tie his walker to a piano leg, she recalled.
“Bob was a great guy,” said Acree-McClenahan, who did choreography. “He came off as big and tough, but we knew better.”
She is now owner of Attitudes Center for the Performing Arts, a performing arts school in Colorado Springs.
Young’s daughter, Jeanne Barron of Cascade, said she waited tables or whatever was needed. “No way did I ever get on that stage in front of people. I could control tables.”
She started in junior high school as the “bun girl,” taking rolls to each table.
Bob Young did the cooking, and wrote and directed the performances. His son, John Young, started out washing dishes and became a professional theater technician. Frances Young pitched in whatever was needed.
The cabaret’s first hire was Dove Johnson, who waited tables. She’d never waited tables or acted, but when one of the young female performers got the measles, she filled in on the stage.
Dinner theaters were popular in the 1960s when Young had the cabaret idea, his wife said. The two-hour-plus evening at the cabaret included a buffet dinner, the melodrama and the olio afterward. Then many customers wandered into one of the bars for drinks and singing around the piano, Frances Young said. The place, open year-around, could seat nearly 200.
Robert L. Young was born in Longmont on Nov. 1, 1931, and was raised in Erie. He graduated from high school there and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and elementary education from what is now the University of Northern Colorado.
He taught in Colorado Springs until he was drafted into the Army. While stationed in Georgia, he met Frances Sosebee on a blind date. They married in 1955. He continued teaching before opening the cabaret.
Young is survived by his wife, son and daughter.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
