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“The Real Story of Darryl Simmons” by David Theodore Richardson IIIOnce upon a time around the period piece, in 1956 New York City, there lived asingle parent (the mother) and her son, they were Olivia Eleanor Simmons andDarryl Alvin Theodore Simmons, Jr., who had just moved from Maplewood, NewJersey, which Darryl spent the exact five years of life there, so, they moved to athree-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn became their homeaway from home, and due to segregation, Darryl was home-schooledsuccessfully, due that his mother was a college graduate andmathematics/English teacher. Darryl excelled in both Math and English, includingSocial Studies, Science and Music, which he loved very much.In 1959, Darryl, who was now about eight years old, was enrolled at the NAACPPerforming Arts School, where he majored in Drama and Music, andScreenwriting, by this time, Darryl was receiving good grades in this school heloved going to, and nothing could ever stop him, not even, his self-respect,dignity, and pride. Darryl had an average allowance, $25 a week. He never spentthat money, and saved it to become very wealthy. In the school he went to, Darrylwas involved in several stage productions, and portrayed a music legend, DukeEllington, although he sung a classic from Louis Armstrong. However, at one of the talent shows, Darryl was discovered by Tamara Yvonne Tunis (Johnson), alocal talent scout/executive producer of an upcoming film,
The Angel inManhattan
, which Darryl was cast as the lead role, Kevin Bernard Dubois, Jr., anangel who never had bad luck and pretty much helped people out.Darryl’s mother, Olivia, agreed and this started the career of Darryl Simmons,who wanted to become an influential R&B singer/television actor. In
The Angel inManhattan
, Darryl co-starred with Idaho “Ida C. Bell” Belington, Natalie Gyrate,and Lloyd J. Palmer, and the film was released worldwide on March 3, 1961, andas this result, Darryl recorded a couple songs that was featured in the film:
Someday the Sky Will Turn Purple, Don’t Come Knocking at My Door, I Could Make History,
and
I Just Can’t Stop Seeing You (My Precious Love)
, two of thefour songs was released as singles in the spring-summer of 1961 (
I Just Can’t Stop Seeing You (My Precious Love)
and
I Could Make History 
), and reached onthe R&B charts, peaking at #1 and #8. The song “I Could Make History” earnedDarryl two Grammy Awards in February 1962 (Grammy Award for Best New Artistand Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance), when he was only10 years old.In September 1962, at just the age of 11, Darryl became a head-songwriter for Billy Isaacs and the Cool Groove Band, Oliver O’Dea, and Larry Liverpool Jr.,Darryl however continued songwriting for other upcoming R&B/Gospel/soulartists until the winter of 1965, when, at the tender age of 14, recorded his firstsolo album,
Touch the Sky 
, which was released on February 5, 1965, and sold1,859,798,942 copies in the U.S. alone, and spawned five top-ten hit singles fromthe debut album among them were:
Show Me the Way 
,
I Thought I was Cool 
,
It  Ain’t Easy 
,
Coming Home to My Baby,
and
Love at the First, Second and Third 
 
Sights
. Simmons’ debut album earned him six Grammy Awards in a single nighton February 15, 1967 (Best New Artist, Best R&B song, Best Soul Song, Recordof the Year, Album of the Year, Best R&B Male Vocal Performance).Towards the spring of 1967, Darryl established a new genre in R&B, Soul andPop music, named “Soulville” the blend of all three genres, this sparked acrossthe United States, as segregation was ending, and African-Americans gettingready to boogie down into the 1970s (three years towards disco), later that year,Executive Producer Tamara Tunis Johnson (after casting Simmons in “The Angelin Manhattan”), after seeing Darryl again, this time winning six Grammy Awards,decided to cast Darryl as Darnell Albert Robinson, Jr. in all—white sitcom,entitled
The Battling Couples
, which had focus on two white couples, one young,and one older, decide who could love the single black bachelor neighbor a lotmore. (Invite him to parties, get-togethers, baseball playoffs, etc.), Darryl, now 16years old, was uncomfortable, but agreed to it, and the series aired on NBCPrimetime on September 26, 1967, with a total run of 22 episodes, in the exactfirst episode, when Darryl appeared and before introducing his character, theaudience, which contained also 76% African-Americans, applauded him for about6 minutes.Darryl Simmons finally discovered he has the ability to make people laugh, andbecame the breakout star in the series. The series was renewed for the 1968—1969 season, which had a total of 30 episodes in production (Implying the seriespremiered on August 22, 1968 and ended its second season on May 11, 1969),by 1969, Darryl recorded a theme song to the series entitled “The Couples andthe Neighbor”, this version was quite long (its length was 3:56, but the TV versionwas 1:00), but the LP version (3:56), was released as a single in December 1969, and landed at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the R&B charts.Darryl’s career launched successfully, and he became a self-made millionaire,but in the fall of 1970, when taping its fourth season (which NBC ordered 27episodes), NBC moved the series to Saturday Nights, and the ratings dropped at#17), as this result continued, Darryl decided to leave the series, because of theseries losing 98.7 viewers, and NBC threatened to annulled the series to ratingsstarted to decline, but a change affected the four lead cast members when theystarted making racist comments to Darryl, which he threatened to have NBCeject the four stars in December 1970, but “they was too busy, and did not evenbother to care.” said Darryl Simmons in a Ebony Magazine Interview Issue for February 1971, so instead NBC firing the four lead cast members, Darryl decidedto write 18 episodes, and star in every single one of them, and have his scenesbeing taped before the four cast members shoot the episodes.This arrangement continued for almost a year, when at the start of the 1971—1972 network season, the cast harassed Darryl when he was writing, starringand filming his second blockbuster film,
The Man in Manhattan
(released on June26, 1972). Darryl threatened a lawsuit against the entire series and it lasted 61days (November 1, 1971 – December 31, 1971) and 127 hours. NBC was
of 00

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