August - September 2002 Edition 

Fair Lawn's TV Star   It started out small. Last Fall, Laurie Hochman (an eight year old at Radburn School) wrote a song based on the Pledge of Allegiance. Then, she began to perform her song. First, over the Radburn School's Public Address system. Then, at a High School concert that was broadcast on Fair Lawn's Channel 66. She came up with the idea for the Pledge of Allegiance song after the September 11th attacks, while she was brushing her teeth.  She said "I just started singing the first and last lines of the song. A few days later, I was at the Brunch Club with my Dad, and I put the rest of the Pledge to music."  Laurie and her father, Larry Hochman, produced the song in Larry Gates' Fair Lawn recording studio. Her song began to attract some attention and it was broadcast on a local radio station and she performed her song at theaters in Tenafly and Metuchen. Laurie had two things going for. First, she has a very talented father (see article) with a lot of friends in the music industry. Second, she could not have had better timing. Not only did the events of September 11th unleash a patriotic fervor, but then a California court recently ruled that requiring public school students to recite the Pledge with the words 'under God' was unconstitutional. The ball was rolling and Laurie was now off to Boston. In June, she performed at Symphony Hall in Boston (to standing ovations) and then on a Boston radio station. But, it gets better. On July 4th, she performed on national TV in front of a live audience of 300,000 people. She was a star, joining the Boston Pops with Barry Manilow and Miss America. Laurie performed her song with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the 85 musicians of the Pops. Asked what it was like to stand up in front of 300,000 people, she said "It was the most exciting thing in my life. Just like a roller coaster, although I've never been on one." And, what was it like hanging out with Miss America: "It was really exciting. Katie was really sweet." Her father said "Laurie wasn't nervous at all, which is remarkable.  Consider not only the live audience, the TV and radio audience but picture yourself 20 feet in front of the orchestra; the chorus far left and right; nothing but you in the middle at the front of an empty part of the stage. Seeing nothing but a blur of a crowd, blinding lights; nothing near you except a microphone, and a camera on an enormous boom right in your face!  My wife (Diane) and I were very nervous, but at least I had seen her in rehearsal on the morning of July 2nd and 3rd. But it was absolutely the most exciting moment in my life." Her July 4th performance was promoted as the World Premiere of her song. But her Fair Lawn friends knew better. She really had her premiere in October over that scratchy Public Address system in the Radburn School; right after a fifth grader announced the temperature and the cafeteria's special of the day.