January 08, 2026
Provided image/Dagmar Krajnc
David Bowie holds hands with fan Marla Kanevsky during a listening party inside Sigma Sound Studios for 'Young Americans.' Patti Brett, a fellow fan and Sigma Kid, is to the left and Luther Vandross sits behind them.
When Marla Kanevsky was 14 years old, she wrote David Bowie a letter. The teen had already seen the English glam rocker in concert at the Tower Theater — where, she swears, they made eye contact — and plastered every inch of her Pennwyn bedroom with pictures of him. She considered his 1972 album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" life-changing. But her five-page letter, which included traced and pasted renditions of his album covers, didn't start from a place of admiration.
"I wrote something like, 'When I first listened to Ziggy Stardust, I didn't really like it that much. But the more I listened to it, it just grabbed onto me,'" she recalled. "I thought that was so funny. And in retrospect, Bowie definitely loved honest opinions from people. That was probably what grabbed his attention."
The musician's management offered Kanevsky, now 67, a chance to meet Bowie for a "personal tea" when he returned to Philadelphia for another round of shows at Tower Theater in 1974. That tea never happened, but Kanevsky got something better. After camping outside the recording studio where Bowie recorded "Young Americans" with a small troupe of devoted fans, she was one of the first people to hear the album — and later danced along to the tracks with the singer himself. The lucky group of teens became known as the Sigma Kids, after the iconic bygone Philly studio where the album was born.
Bowie's storied relationship with the city began around the same time as Kanevsky's fascination with him. The late rocker, the current subject of celebration through the ongoing Philly Loves Bowie Week, had been steadily building a presence in the U.K. since his 1967 self-titled debut. But he didn't play in the United States until his 1972 international tour, which landed him at the Tower Theater in December. There, he played three consecutive shows. When he swung back around to the Upper Darby venue on another leg of the tour the next year, demand had only increased. He played seven shows over four days.
"Philadelphia was just a special city to him. Right from the beginning, he loved Philadelphia," Dore Weiner, the rocker's former booking agent, later told the Inquirer. "It was like a homecoming, a sort of magic."
Seeking to harness that magic, Bowie taped his first live album at Tower Theater and ultimately decided to record "Young Americans" at Sigma Sound Studios. The former recording studio at 12th and Spring streets cut countless examples of the Philly sound, a type of soul music pioneered by the legendary songwriting duo Gamble and Huff. The O'Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the Trammps and Dusty Springfield had already recorded there before Bowie waltzed through the doors in 1974.
Diehard teen fans like Kanevsky were already well aware of Bowie's studio plans at that point and acted accordingly. The devoted group — which also included model Gia Carangi and Doobies bar owner Patti Brett — would gather outside his temporary home at the Barclay Hotel, waiting for a glimpse of their idol. Then they'd race over to Sigma Sound Studios and repeat the process, staking out the block well into the night and early morning until Bowie reemerged.
Kavensky was lucky to have "very cool parents" who didn't stop her, though she admits they might not have known just how late she was staying out in Center City. The behavior was nothing new for these fans, who had already camped out for tickets to Bowie's shows at Tower Theater.
"I'm sure the police came along at some point, but we were good kids. We weren't causing trouble," Kanevsky said. "I remember we would camp out at 22nd and Lombard ... where the tickets were sold. I think we camped out there once for almost two weeks in the dead of winter. And we were bundled up with blankets and sleeping bags, and then neighbors started bringing us coffee."
The group had fleeting conversations with Bowie as he traveled to and from the studio, and struck up a friendship with his guitarist Carlos Alomar. At 23, he was a bit closer in age to the Sigma Kids and started sharing updates with them.
"He was the one that would tell us, we're gonna be leaving the hotel," Kanevsky said. "And he would give us all this little information that we just thought was so great. I used to write things down that they told us, and I put them in envelopes and mark them secret information. I still have them."
The Sigma Kids pretend to sleep outside Sigma Sound Studios hours before they were invited inside to hear 'Young Americans.'
The intel gathering and late-night hours paid off handsomely on a rainy summer night. Bowie promised his teen disciples he'd have a "surprise" for them if they were still outside when he wrapped. They stayed glued to the sidewalk until they got an invitation inside to listen to a rough cut of the album he'd been working on, "Young Americans."
"I think I was in shock probably for the first hour of it," Kanevsky said. "And then, yeah, we sat there silently. We were listening and taking it all in. It was just like a dream. He had been working, we were standing outside for almost two weeks and then to be invited in to hear it was just iconic. ... Who's ever done that before or since?"
After the reverent first listen, the fans demanded they play it again. That broke the silence. The whole group, including Bowie, started dancing and socializing. Kanevsky proposed marriage to the singer, who laughed and suggested she take it up with his wife.
The secret listening session made the news, turning the teens into the envy of Bowie's fandom overnight. It also inspired Philly filmmaker Anthony Crupi's documentary "The Sigma Kids." The film has become a staple of Philly Loves Bowie Week, the annual tribute started in the wake of Bowie's death in 2016. Kanevsky and Brett both share their stories in the documentary, which will be shown at the Upcycle Fitness & Social Club in Collingswood on Saturday night.
"All these outsiders, and I know both Patty and Marla speak about it in the film, just being outcasts and kind of the weirdos in school, Bowie made that cool," Crupi said. "He brought everybody in. It's the party that everyone was invited to. Everyone's welcome. And that's the biggest thing. I mean, the music is great, but even if the music wasn't as great, everybody wants to feel like they're a part of something."
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