THE HOBBITS aka THE YOUNG'UNS featuring PAUL MACE and DON SCARDINO (1964-1967)

by Achille Brunet

This article was adapted from Vernon Gravely's work of research on Paul Mace, who kindly forwarded me his book as well as the acetate songs and pictures of the band. Useful links to his work can be found at the end of this post. Special thanks to Jake as well for the above acetate (his channel HERE).

New York, NY - 1964: the British Invasion strikes and an overabundance of teen bands immediately fills the air with guitar sounds and vocal harmonies. Young PAUL MACE, then a teen Broadway/TV actor and future co-star of The Lords Of Flatbush (1974) with Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler, is no exception...

Born on April 4, 1950, in New York City, Paul Nicholas Mace appeared at a very young age in TV shows. IMDb lists his first credited role when he was 12 years old but he had appeared many times before as a small boy on various TV shows, including with Zippy the Chimp. Everyone was immediately charmed by his ease and natural ability to act which soon propelled him to the stage.

10-year-old Paul Mace, rehearsing for

the Broadway play 'The Wall', circa Sept 1960.

Music was also deeply rooted in his family, his father being a professional voice teacher, and at the age of eight, Paul had become a member of the boys’ chorus of the New York Metropolitan Opera. In 1958, he made his stage debut in Tosca, singing the Shepherd Boy’s solo, leading him to appear in several Broadway shows in the early 1960s.

As well as singing and playing the violin, Paul had learned from his father to play the piano. Despite his family's penchant for classical music and the great composers, Paul also liked modern pop music. In 1962, he got rid of his violin, bought his first guitar and learned everything by himself.

Paul Mace, ca 1966 with The Hobbits

When The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, everything was turned upside down. Paul and his cousin Ed were amazed and immediately loved it. Ed recalled that Paul’s musical ear picked up their songs very quickly. Paul and Ed would see The Beatles at their return show at Shea Stadium in August 1966 and got to see supporting acts like The Cyrkles and The Remains.

As to ensure him a proper education in parallel of his acting career, Paul attended the Professional Children's School, where he soon befriended Barry Pearl, another Broadway child actor. Barry loved the Beatles as much as Paul, and learned guitar from him. 

Barry Pearl, 1969.

"Paul was a master guitarist," Barry recalls, "and he was self-taught, I believe. He taught me bar chords, for instance. The very first song was ‘And I Love Her.’"

Paul and Barry started to write some originals together, one of them called “Ezra Death”: “Live so long . . . Then you die / You can’t go on, I’ll tell you why / You pass above the earth, or be-low your mind / Until you realize that you’ve become EZRA DEATH.”

Don Scardino, ca 1967.

Barry soon started to play guitar in a band called The Mugwumps, formed by Don "Donnie" Scardino (guitar), and two other students of the Professional Children's School, Rod "Roddy" Hausen (bass), and Iano "John" Valentino (drums). Don's girlfriend's mother came up with the name when telling them about the 1800s political movement of the same name.

Don was already an accomplished teen actor and, around that time, had the opportunity to screen test for a show that would eventually become The Monkees (Screen Gems actually started holding auditions in New York City several months before they held the Los Angeles auditions that resulted in the final casting). Don brought The Mugwumps to the audition. They played a few tunes, and he actually got the job. Unfortunately, he was already under contract with another show that wouldn't release him, which prevented him from joining.

The Hobbits recording at Lynn Oliver studio, 1966.

Rod Hausen, John Valentino and Paul Mace.

Shortly after, Paul was brought in as third guitarist but the quintet didn't last long. Despite being the best of friends, Paul and Barry would often argue and fight, and Barry eventually decided to leave. In addition, it wasn't long until another New York band with the same Mugwumps name (featuring future members of The Mamas And The Papas and The Lovin' Spoonful) signed for a single with Warner Bros. in August 1964.

The kids were then forced to change name and opted for The Hobbits. The band rehearsed at Paul’s father’s mansion home on West End Avenue. Despite his dislike of modern pop music and guitars, Paul's father was very supportive. The band preformed mostly at high school dances, and were able to record some demos (likely in July 1966) at Lynn Oliver Studios, 250 89th Street, above a movie theater around the corner from Paul’s apartment. Lynn Oliver was a big band drummer. He founded the studio in the late 1950s and operated it for the next three decades.

Seven songs were recorded, including five originals: "Without Love" and "All in Vain" (written by Scardino), "Green Midnight" and "My Kind of Woman" (written by Mace) and "Happy Again" (written by Hausen). Two covers were also taped: "Thirsty Boots" by Eric Andersen and "You Don’t Have To Tell Me" by Peter & Gordon.

The line-up for the recordings was: Don Scardino (rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocals); Paul Mace (lead guitar, lead and backing vocals); Rod Hausen (bass and occasional backing vocals); and John Valentino (drums). Paul and Scardino shared the lead vocals, with Paul handling the lower parts and Scardino the higher. "All in Vain," one of Scardino’s songs, has a Zombies-esque feel to it, and though it sounds like an electric piano is heard, it's only Paul's guitar sent through a lot of reverb according Scardino. Other influences can be heard in Paul's "Green Midnight", a sweet, heartbreaking ballad in which the influence of the Byrds' "Here Without You" is strong.

When Don set to transfer his acetates to a digital format, "My Kind Of Woman" had been lost. And that's when the impossible happened: when Vernon Gravely contacted me about The Hobbits, the title of the lost track seemed to ring a bell. I checked my files, not hoping much for my guess. After all, so many song could bear that title... 

And yet the hunch was right: I actually knew someone who had found that acetate with the lost song, only three years ago! What makes it even more astonishing is that I made this connection on July 13, 2026—exactly 60 years to the day after the date found on the acetate: July 13, 1966!

However the acetate was credited to The Young 'Uns, a name Vernon had never heard before. Asked about it, Don recalled they had been called that way before becoming The Hobbits, though the other way around sounds more probable as Paul referred to his band as The Hobbits in a letter from January 1966 and the acetate was cut in July at Dick Charles; in addition, another Hobbits band, formed in 1965, started to make some noise in mid/late-1966 in New York, likely prompting Don and Paul's band to change their name again.

One way or the other, Don positively identified the recording as being the right one. Of all their songs, it's their most garage rock one, a sort of proto-psychedelic number with fuzz breaks in a "Eight Miles High" kind of way. Paul was then only 16, and his musical abilities are impressive. (I hope to include the song in a compilation in a near future.)

"It's Paul's song, music and lyrics," Don recalled, "he's singing lead and I'm singing harmony. It's also me playing the 'raga' guitar, all the rage for a moment back then, and Paul hitting a fuzz-tone pedal to play the corresponding riff. Fuzz was also the rage because of George Harrison's playing it on "Think For Yourself" on the 'Rubber Soul' LP. Great cut."

The Hobbits recording, 1966.

Paul and Don.

"I continued to do a lot of songwriting demos at Dick Charles." Don added. "It was a very busy place in midtown and I knew it because my Dad, who was a bass player (and later a band leader) did tons of recording there. A lot for the Don Kirschner stable of writers, I recall."

In a letter he wrote to his music teacher in January 1966, Paul tried to put words on what was happening musically:

I've been exploring the endless realms of folk-music, trying to seek out something that a vast number of teenagers as well as the other generation can latch on to and eventually understand the meaning behind the lyrics. [...] The Hobbits, my group, after a year and a half got hold of something different. I can't really explain it, but it was a kind of folk-rock, that wasn't played, it was felt. With every audience we played for, there was a weird rapport between the group and the audience, and we were no longer performing, we were conveying love and countenance through a groovy medium... our music. 

Now, [Don and I] have been writing constantly. Our music is the kind Leonard Bernstein would dig; breaking away from standard progressions, etc. Our lyrics are seldom psychedelic, but often satirical. [...] The lyrics can be accepted easily by the pot-heads, and with a little more thought, by people when they are straight.

Paul also cites the lyrics of one of his songs, "Walls Of Blue", that remained unrecorded:

Is it hard to keep hold of the one you love,

When she's stumblin' 'round societys walls of blue.

Essence of my life is none that compares to you

Lying down in shades of love, and walls of blue

Wanting you and my battle will be won

Then you'll love me and we'll return to our walls of blue.

"It's not my better composition, but it is calm and tender; just what this society needs." Paul added.

The Hobbits were friends and more or less in competition with another band called The Live Wires, featuring Dennis Kirby (the son of Durward Kirby) on lead guitar. Both bands would often play together, as well as backing a girl quartet called The Young Darlings, which they would help put their shows together and played clubs in New York. All three bands were child actors, attended PCS or were linked one way or the other to show business.

The Hobbits aka The Young'uns disbanded at some point in 1967 as the members went in separate directions.

Besides his band activities (possibly prior), Paul also recorded a demo as a duo with another one of his friends, Harris Parker. It was a cover tune, though the title and recording are now lost in time. The guys had an acetate made and Harris recalled that Paul made a label up to stick on it: "Paul went around telling people he got a record contract. It was embarrassing as hell. It was like, ‘Everybody can see that you hand-drew the label, man – what are you doin’?’ But, that was Paul."

The Hobbits recording, 1966.

John and Rod.

It was also in the mid-60s that Paul got into the growing drug counterculture. He was introduced to marijuana and occasionally took LSD. It was unfortunately the beginning of a long and difficult period for Paul.

After the demise of The Hobbits and The Live Wires, some members of both defunct bands (but not Paul) gathered for a while as December's Children until they pursued other goals. 

Don Scardino put out a pop/bubblegum single called "Movie Day" on Kapp in 1968, produced by Al Capps. In 1970, he played the lead role in the movie "Homer" and one of his songs was featured in the soundtrack LP along with the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Lovin' Spoonful and Led Zeppelin. He would have a respectable career as an actor for several years before turning to directing and producing, mainly in theater and television, receiving an Emmy Award (producing) and nomination (directing) for episodes of the 30 ROCK series. 

Rod Hausen (1951-2004) would become an accomplished pianist, arranger and teacher, working with the likes of Tony Orlando, B. J. Thomas, Engelbert Humperdinck, Pat Benatar, Richard Belzer and Jamie deRoy. Not much is known about John Valentino, though Scardino heard several years ago that he had passed away.

Paul continued with acting, appearing alongside Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler and Perry King in The Lords of Flatbush (1974). Barry Pearl also stuck with acting, his best-known role being that of Doody in the movie Grease (1978). 

Paul Mace - 1966

Though he enjoyed a prolific acting and singing career from the ages of 8 to 22, Paul developed around 1968 a devotion to the Church of Scientology that put major strains on his familial relationships since Paul's father was gay and Scientology didn't approve of that. It also interfered with his acting career, causing him to take a five-year hiatus after The Lords of Flatbush. 

He returned to the big screen when Stallone offered him a role in Paradise Alley in late 1977, after which he relocated to California and pursued his show business career with renewed vigor. Sadly, any aspirations of making a living with his craft came to an abrupt end when he was killed in a motorcycle accident in August 1983 at the age of 33.

____________

Many thanks to Vernon Gravely, Don Scardino and Jake.

If you are interested in reading more about Paul Mace, you can find Vernon Gravely's very interesting and exhaustive book The Forgotten Lord: The Story Of Paul Mace HERE and HERE, either digital or paperback. Thanks for reading.

Paul Mace, early 1980s.

THE RESTLESS NATIVES - "Wilderness Of Monkeys" b/w "I Had A Spring" (Bantam Records — 3235, 1966)

by Achille Brunet

"Theme songs became the thing for the movies a decade or so ago and every multimillion dollar production had one. Now the same dodge is being tried in the book industry." 

So is introduced the article of the Philadelphia Daily News presenting "Wilderness Of Monkeys", one of the very few, if not the only example of a 1960s rock single actually issued to promote a novel. The thing had indeed become commonplace for movies or commercials, but for a book, that was unheard of.

First published in August 1965 by Dutton, Judith Paige Mitchell's book "A Wilderness Of Monkeys" tells the story of attorney Will Barrett, who's job is to prove that Jacques Gariura, a M.D. who set up a clinic in Leesburg, Virginia, has been slandered by his former perverted colleagues. He goes to Leesburg, uncovers abortion, miscegenation, and adultery. He precipitates a suicide, sheds a mistress, mixes it up pretty good with the ladies, and in the process wins his case.

Bantam's 1966 edition.

The reviews were positive, including in legal periodicals praising its realistic trial scenes and the book quickly became a popular success, though its approach of some daring topics got it to be banned in Memphis, Tennessee.

Judith Paige Mitchell aka Paige Mitchell was born Judith Paige Segel. A native of New Orleans, she lived in Jackson, Mississippi where she was married to Civil Rights attorney Alvin Binder. She worked as a medical artist, illustrating a textbook of physiology. She started to write her first novel "A Wilderness Of Monkeys" in 1963 and also studied law for a year only to strenghen its autencity. The book was published in 1965 and after divorcing, she moved to Los Angeles that year. She also turned to painting, ultimately adding music to the list with this single.

The single by The Restless Natives was made one year later for the paperback print of the novel in November 1966, a year after the first edition. Paige Mitchell was the one to come up with the idea. Her paperback publisher, the well established Bantam Books, was so impressed by the song she wrote that they went as far as establishing a new firm, Bantam Records.

"We at Bantam expect such great things from 'Wilderness' that we formed a record company just to promote the book," said Miss Margolis to The Register.

"They call it diversification" answered Mitchell to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"Wilderness Of Monkeys" is a fast upbeat rocker, sung with a powerful voice by a male singer, backed with female harmonies. Where the title of the book served obviously as an metaphor, the song has in fact nothing to do with the story told in the novel and instead refers to the actual wilderness, speaking of monkeys, fish, sand, hot rocks, oceans and so on. If that was metaphoric too, I didn't grasp it.

Take me where the fishes fly

Take me where all the monkeys cry

Take me (yeah) in the wilderness of monkeys

The flip side, "I Had A Spring", is a slow atmospheric ballad sung with harmonies by a female vocalist (probably the same singer who did backing vocals on the A side) and might feel at home on a Garage Girls compilation. (I'll make a better transfer than this one when I get the chance)

Paige Mitchell was probably the first author to write a rock 'n' roll theme song for her own book, at least Bantam representatives proudly presented her as such, but she wasn't making a stong case for it.

"One day when I didn't have anything in particular to do, I thought it might be amusing to write a song to go with my book. I don't know any music, but a tune comes into my head and I set it to lyrics." she explained to the Philadelphia Daily News.

After bringing the song to Bantam, the publisher most likely hired a studio band for the work. Since Paige Mitchell lived in Los Angeles, the Wrecking Crew and the likes obviously come to mind. However, Bantam Records was established in New York City. Either way, a local band might also have been hired for the job. 

(Cash Box - Nov 12, 1966)

Note: they mixed Allen and Paige's names in credits 

for "Once I Had A Spring". There is no "Miss Allen".

All articles refer to The Restless Natives as a "new rock 'n' roll group". The name was obviously made up in relation to the theme song. I didn't find any band touring under that name, I don't think any gig was done to promote the single either but the band might have had other activities under a different moniker. Articles gave no information on the band. If Bantam took care of it, Paige Mitchell herself may have not known much about the band and recording.

Though it's not precised on the actual release, the copyright entry credits Paige Mitchell for the lyrics and Raymond Allen for the music.

Raymond Allen (miscredited Allan on the label) may have been the producer of the session and the one to find the musicians. He could also have been the male singer of the theme song, for all I know.

I couldn't identify him with certainty. Among the better possibilities in California, he could be Raymond L. Allen who co-wrote a song for the Allegro's in 1959. The Allegro's were from around Cucamunga, CA and the single was later picked up by a Los Angeles label. In the case he was more from the publishing world, there was also a publicity director by that name in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, and also a magazine publisher in South Pasadena.

If he was rather from New York, I have even fewer leads. There was a veteran actor from New York who performed actively in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and was also singer and dancer in a chorus for a musical in March 1966. But that seems unlikely.

With one man and one woman sharing credit on the 45, I first supposed Allen and Mitchell may have been the two singers heard on the single, but Paige, though often mentioning writing the songs, never said she sang them.

Anyway, as for Allen and the actual band, the mystery remains.

Paige Mitchell went on tour in various cities to plug the Bantam paperback edition of her novel. The book was successful but the record likely had nothing to do with it. It was already selling before that. 

Only a couple of newspapers found worthwhile to mention the record. Most articles have nothing to say about the music itself and rather praise Mitchell's versatility. One Pennsylvania article called them "lilts". In December, another journalist mentioned the record slightly more extensively and the description isn't very flattering:

"I took [...] her record and headed for home where I played the theme song to "A Wilderness Of Monkeys" on the stereo. [...] Paige Mitchell may be a talented novelist and painter, but when it comes to rock and roll songs, The Beatles don't have a thing to worry about!"

The record went way under the radar at the time. DJ copies were sent to radio stations at strategic points in the country in California, New York and Texas. Someone from Austin, Texas recalled his father who was in the DJ business in the mid-60s had given him the promo, possibly after playing it or renouncing to play it (I too own a promo copy). Stock copies were pressed and sales-tested in Dallas, Texas but since they are as scarce as DJ copies, I assume it wasn't very conclusive.

(The Register from Santa Ana, California - Dec 11, 1966)

"[Paige Mitchell] has a second book due out in the spring, 'Love Is Not A Safe Country' and has already cleffed the companion tune." (Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia - Nov 23, 1966)

The novel was indeed published in March 1967 (and in 1968 by Bantam) but as for the theme song, it unfortunately stayed in a drawer. "Wilderness Of Monkeys" would be the first and last attempt of this kind. Bantam Records never made anything else.

'Love Is Not A Safe Country' addressed topics that were very controversial in the South and articles report her move to Los Angeles, just before the publication, had something to do with it. 

"'My Jackson friends told me how glad they were I didn't write my [first] novel about the race question,' Miss Mitchell said. 'But my next one [...] IS about the race question.' So, before hardcover publication last year, the lovely 33-year-old author packed up household goods and 3 children and moved from Jackson, Miss. to Los Angeles, knowing she'd broken the code and would no longer be welcome at home." (Cleveland Plain Dealer - Nov 1966)

But that didn't stop Mitchell. Placing authenticity in the center of her work as a novelist, she went as far as taking flying lessons to research her third novel. Due to its popularity, "Wilderness Of Monkeys" was reprinted in 1968 by Dell. The paperback cover ventured into more sensual territory:

Paige Mitchell kept ties with music as in 1966-67 she collaborated with Leon Uris on the musical version of Uris' book "Exodus" planned for Broadway, and occasionally wrote song lyrics. 

She wrote several novels turned on topics of the era including integration and civil rights. She later worked in television in the 1980s as a writer and producer, with topics mainly focused on true crime.

Paige Mitchell passed away in Los Angeles in 2010.

Paige Mitchell in 1965.