"Oh, my husband would have loved this," she said.
The 57-year-old Richman, who has kept his day job as a stockbroker in Baltimore, took his wife's advice years ago and took a dozen singing lessons at Anne Arundel Community College. He discovered he had a voice to match his passion for Sinatra's music.
Through a chance meeting in 2004 with a cab driver named Kevin Muldrow, Richman found not only a musical soul mate but the second half of a mini-Rat Pack. Richman and Muldrow (whose version of Nat "King" Cole's "Unforgettable" was smooth indeed) became the house act Friday nights at Franco Zeppi's Italian Restaurant in Canton. Folks ate it up. It was like karaoke - but without the bad singing. Other gigs followed, and the duo stayed busy until Muldrow left for Arizona. Richman was left to expand his "Night at the Copa" brand. He remains an unrepentant showman.
Along with CDs and the radio show, Richman's troupe appears regularly at the Pikesville Hilton and at a couple of area restaurants, Gianni's in Arbutus and Germano's in Baltimore.
But there's only one McDonald's on their itinerary.
"Just think," said Eddie Applefeld, Richman's radio co-host, "Crosby and Hope started out this way."
Applefeld was joking, which is another thing that happens Monday evenings at the Pikesville McDonald's. People joke - and sing and dance or just relax - as Gary Richman and Steve "Flynnatra" Flynn together sing, "Me and My Shadow." Let all the others fight and fuss. Whatever happens, we've got us. Or if you stick around long enough, you'll hear Holly Richman sing, If you are ever going to kiss me, it better be tonight. That'll make you put your grilled chicken down.
"I hate to leave," says Leona Adleberg of Pikesville. She came for a sundae, but stayed for most of the show. "I have never seen so many happy people in one place."
rob.hiaasen@baltsun.com
