Heartthrob helps lacy launch of Calgary lingerie store
June 19, 2012 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Rex Smith is hoping to make it a lingerie store grand opening to take your breath away.
And the Calgarian he unknowingly fathered while singing at the Stampede 33 years ago is thrilled to have his one-time teen hearthrob dad’s support in selling bras and other undergarments.
Fifteen years after his dying mother revealed the identity of his famous biological father, Brandon Smith said his dad’s serenading customers at his SHE store in Bankers Hall is a natural evolution in their relationship.
“I’m just speechless and overwhelmed with pride,” said Brandon, 33.
The older Smith agreed, saying his past as a teen idol makes his appearance at SHE a fitting one.
“I know a few things about lingerie,” he said.
While singing at the 1979 Grandstand Show at the height of his popularity, Smith had a fling with Karen Lakey, a record company representative.
The singer and Broadway star said he wanted to continue the relationship with Lakey but it never happened and he only met his son for the first time in 1997 while performing in the Andrew Loyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard in Vancouver.
A 16-year-old Brandon had travelled from Calgary to Vancouver to meet his dad and did just that at an autograph session.
“I ran across the street and stood in line with everyone else,” said Brandon.
“I’m proud to say we’ve come a long way.”
Rex recalls first glimpsing Brandon from the stage that day, describing the teen’s eyes burning into him.
It was only later that he would come to understand the significance of the likeness his son shares with him.
“It’s a wonderful thing to witness — the acorn doesn’t fall very far from the branch,” he said.
“When he’s sitting across the room from me, for a nano-second, I’m wondering ‘what am I doing over there?’”
Long before their Vancouver rendezvous, Brandon was a child admirer of his dad’s work in the short-lived 1980s TV show Street Hawk.
Now the father, who’s preparing for a role in the reality TV show Senior Prom, is a fan of his son’s business acumen helping the three-store lingerie chain begun by Brandon’s wife, Lailina.
“If he’s not going to be a rock star teen idol, there’s no better way to be around beautiful women,” he said.
The older Smith is sure to reprise his late 1970s hit You Take My Breath Away at the Bankers Hall store starting at noon on Wednesday.
He’s also appearing Wednesday evening for Girls Night Out at Aussie Rules, 1002 37 St. S.W.
bill.kaufmann@sunmedia.ca
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