In 1969, I had to listen to 16-year-old Mandy Patinkin sing Broadway tunes in his South Shore living room because his mother made me....

Who knew he was on his way to stardom?

Mandy and Marsha and their parents in their South Shore living room

My best friend Judy and I were very excited one night in the Spring of 1969. We were home for Spring break in Chicago, having left the dorm room we shared at the University of Illinois in Urbana for a whole week. And my mom loaned me her red ‘67 Camaro (with a stick shift yet) so my girlfriends and I could go out on the town.

But first we had to drive from Uptown on the north side to South Shore on the south side to pick up another good friend who also lived in our dorm—Marsha Patinkin, Mandy’s sister. Although Mandy wasn’t famous yet. He was just a kid from Chicago. Who was a little “affected,” as we used to say back then about kids who were really good in the school plays.

We parked the car on the street Marsha lived on in South Shore and we went to the door to get her. Her mother greeted us and told us Marsha wasn’t ready yet—and to please come in and have a seat on the couch.

So we sat down, all excited about leaving immediately and starting our night on the town.

“Girls,” said Marsha’s mother, “I want you to sit for just a few minutes and listen to Mandy sing a few songs. Just stay right here on the couch, it’s nice and comfortable and I’ll go get him.”

We did; and she did. And she got Marsha, too. Who sat down at the piano. And then…Mandy sang all the Broadway tunes he knew from every musical that was ever written for Broadway. Or so it seemed.

He went at least an hour singing songs from shows like Music Man, Oklahoma, West Side Story, ShowBoat and Carousel. And then, finally, Mandy’s mother let us leave with Marsha.

I don’t remember anything that happened that night on our college girls’ night out in 1969 Chicago. Except the musical prelude. And it wasn’t that many years later that Mandy became very famous.

Sadly, after college Marsha and I drifted apart. I went to grad school in Columbia, Missouri. Marsha at some point married and had three daughters and made her way to California. She died in 2004, a victim of Crohn’s Disease. Judy and I and our other college friends were well aware of the colitis she was afflicted with in college, which is often the precursor to Crohn’s.

When Marsha’s brother Mandy got very famous, I always had this interesting story (as it turned out) to tell. How us girls had to listen to Mandy before Marsha’s mother let us leave. Before Mandy was Mandy.

We were hostages. Our captivity ended. We girls went out. Life went on.

And Mandy Patinkin became a movie star.