America’s Little Darlins Ted Kowalski-Born May 16, 1931 / Died August 8, 2010. Before entering the University of  Toronto, he worked for Odeon Theatres as a booker. It was while at U. T., he met students Phil  Levitt and Stan Fisher and started singing together. Ted suggested to add a bass singer he  knew and that completed their group. That singer was Bill Reed. This quartet started to get  serious about their singing and a chance meeting with Dave Somerville in the hallway of the  Canadian Broadcasting Co., resulted in Dave becoming the lead. Ted came up with the name  Diamonds and was the tenor from 1953 to 1958, leaving to return to U. T. to get his Engineering degree. Approximately 1974 or 75, Ted started singing with a men's group named The Invictones. About 40 members  strong, this group included people from in and around the Toronto city and area. He met three other men who  incidentally had the 3 different voice types, bass, baritone and lead singer. In 1980, Ted left the Invictones and with his new friends started a new group with a small band. Because the band members where so much younger than  the quartet, they called themselves the Generations. From only entertaining once in a while at a hospital or such,  they ended up doing gigs almost every week-end for dances, parties, and cruises through the Caribbean. It wasn't  until he joined this group that anyone knew he was once, in fact, the original Diamond's tenor. This suited him fine.  The Generations sang together for about 18 years. They couldn't keep up with the demands for their music  because they enjoyed themselves so much kibitzing, laughing, joking and every once in a while being serious that  everyone wanted them for their affairs.   During that time Ted also sang with a big band "The Tom DeMoraes Big Band" which was a local group who  played music from the Big Band era (Miller, Dorsey, etc.). Ted was the vocalist along with a female singer, they  played for many of the City's conventions, etc. About 2001, the Generations decided to call it quits due to illness. They were, after all, in their 60's and 70's, but  you wouldn't know it to hear the group. These men were really great in their presentation, etc. and Ted felt he was  a lucky person to have been with them. Now days his singing has consisted of going to the various Hall's of Fame, i.e., Vocal Quartet Hall of Fame, Doo  Wop Hall of Fame, Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Canadian Juno Award. This is, of course, for the  Diamonds, not only Ted. Ted passed away Aug 8, 2010. See Andrew Merey 2009 article on Ted.