Donny Osmond Reunites With Tiger Beat Editor After 52 Years

Reunions are a tricky thing, especially when one person is behind it, the other has no idea it’s about to happen and it’s been 52 years since the last time you’ve seen each other. That was certainly weighing heavily on the mind of former Tiger Beat editor Ann Moses when she went to see Donny Osmond’s Vegas show back in February, despite the fact she had been so instrumental in his teen stardom back in the 1970s.

 “There was a period in the early ’80s, shortly after Donny got married, where he didn’t want anything to do with Tiger Beat,” explains Ann, who had previously reflected on her experiences with Woman’s World. “He had the feeling that Tiger Beat had just put him in a box as a teen idol and he couldn’t break out of it. So, he was very angry about being a teenybopper star and wanted to move on and progress.”

 Eventually, though, his feelings went through a bit of an evolution, a point driven home by the fact that he and his sister, Marie, signed on for a Las Vegas residency in 2008 that ran for 11 years, concluding in 2019; and he currently has his own at Harrah’s Las Vegas, which is running through November.

“What happened in the interim,” she adds, “is that he is filling up his Vegas showroom every night with fans from back then with women who are 50, 60, 70, 80. It isn’t ‘Puppy Love’ anymore; he has matured in every way and now is very grateful for how the whole family went through that very famous period.”

The VIP Experience

Which brings us back to that reunion, which took place at something called “the VIP Experience,” which is an informal and intimate hour with Donny where he might tell stories, sing happy birthday, take questions, sing a couple of songs, sign autographs and so on, all of which is very laid back.

 Points out Ann on her official website (where you can get autographed copies of her memoir, Meow!: My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat’s Teen Idols), “There was one seat left in the front row and I snagged it. The room was filled with a buzz of anticipation. I knew everyone there was feeling the suspense. Then Donny entered stage right and my hand was the first he shook, as he began shaking hands with all 22 guests. I could tell he did not recognize me, as I’m sure he does this at every VIP. I’m not saying he was mechanically greeting everyone. He looked each person in the eye and firmly shook hands. Was I disappointed? Of course not! This is what I expected.”

Eventually Donny took questions, which is when Ann raised her hand and said, “I’ve brought along a few memory pictures, like one of you on your 14th birthday party at my house in Hollywood.”

“Donny,” Ann writes, “stepped down from the stage and stood in front of me with a quizzical look on his face. He looked at me and said ‘ANN! She was the editor of Tiger Beat! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!’ as he hugged me. I’m hard pressed to explain just how I felt in that moment. He did remember me and the fondness in his voice almost had me in tears!”

Their friendship from so many years ago was rekindled in that moment, as was another element of the past: the kind of contest that they used to do all the time during the heyday of Tiger Beat’s popularity in the early 1970s.

 “He was tired after his incredible show,” says Ann, “but we chatted for a while and just before leaving, I said to him, ‘What if we had one of the contests from back in the day.’  We threw around some ideas, but then Donny suggested tickets for his show for the winner. We spoke again and I asked if we could ‘sweeten the deal,’ and we added a two-night stay at Harrah’s and for the VIP Experience to be an extended VIP Experience with Donny and I together, plus I added dinner with me and an autographed book.”

Learn much more about the Donny Osmond contest HERE.

Ann Moses and Her Osmond Connection

As Ann explains it, the bond she formed with Donny and the rest of the Osmond family happened very early on after she became a part of Tiger Beat in the mid-1960s. “They were a wonderful family and so genuine,” she comments.

 It’s her feeling that family matriarch Olive Osmond was both “a sweetheart and a business wizard,” and while patriarch George Osmond ran things to a certain degree, Olive was the one that made many of the decisions and protected the kids from being exploited.

 “Every time I would be around them,” she explains, “it was like you became a member of the family and Olive was especially kind to me, because Gloria Staver, the editor of 16 Magazine, had gotten Donny alone for a photo shoot and had taken a picture of him without his shirt on and they are devout Mormons. Modesty is very important to them and their entire religions, so Olive was furious. I never did that kind of thing, so she was very cooperative with me. Anything I needed to do, I could.”

One example she cites is when the Osmonds were appearing with Nancy Sinatra in Las Vegas and she was there taking photos for the entire day, from the time they were drinking orange juice in the morning until they were getting ready to go on stage.

“It made a wonderful feature,” she smiles. “Whenever I would interview them, they were just great — and surprisingly mature for their age. The thing I couldn’t get over was how intelligent and well-spoken they were. I’d read they were almost always educated on the road through correspondence courses and, of course, Mrs. Osmond worked with the whole family to see that they were getting their education.”

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These were not showbiz kids that never cracked a book, she realized: “This family was hitting all the marks. And they were tight. They continued being very religious and true to their teachings, yet they were just a delight to be around, because they’d all joke with one another and never a cruel word, just always fun.”

And it seems that the fun between Donny Osmond and Ann Moses will continue.

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