Danny Romalotti

the early years

When Danny Romalotti arrived in Genoa City in 1981 he was a teenager struggling to make a living as a waiter, whilst dreaming of one day becoming a rock star. Danny came from a family of con artists and had run away from home, not wanting to be a part of the life of crime that had found his father and sister behind bars. Danny took a waiting job at the popular club named after it's owner, Jonas and became close friends with fellow waiter, Paul Williams. Paul became Danny's manager and Danny fell in love with Paul's sister Patti but she only had eyes for rich boy, Jack Abbott.

Danny's sister Gina arrived in town the following year seeking her brother's help in going straight. She shortened her name to Roma so that her bad name would not be associated with her brother's, as his career had begun to take off. When Danny realised what a wonderful voice his sister had he arranged for her to get a job singing at Jonas's club. Eventually with the financial aid of Jack Abbott, Gina was able to buy the club when Jonas wanted to sell and she turned it into an Italian restaurant and renamed it "Gina's".

Danny was beginning to make a name for himself and had caught the eye of Jack's younger sister, Traci Abbott. Traci had a crush on Danny but because she was over weight, thought he would never find her attractive. Traci's older sister, Ashley organised for Traci to become president of Danny's fan club and they became close friends. Traci would even join Danny on stage during his concerts as would Gina and Traci's college room mate Lauren Fenmore. Lauren also wanted Danny and a fierce competition arose between the two girls for the singer's attention. Lauren would taunt the insecure Traci about her weight, even belittling her in front of Danny. Traci went on a crash diet as a result of the hurtful insults and when that failed, she turned to drugs. Lauren had managed to win Danny's heart which had been broken by Patti Williams and the couple became engaged. Traci was flirting with danger as her life spiraled out of control

and almost turned to tragedy when she crashed the car she was driving and almost died. After her recovery Danny staged a concert and invited Traci to make a speech about her experiences as a drug addict in his war against drugs.

Danny and Lauren's singing partnership continued but their engagement was short lived as she fell in love with Danny's best friend Paul. An omen for an occurrence that would repeat itself almost ten years later.

Traci had ambitions to become a writer rather than follow her siblings footsteps into the family's cosmetics business. Danny encouraged her to return to school where she had an affair with Tim Sullivan, her English professor. In love with Tim, Traci was delighted when she discovered she was pregnant and went to break the happy news to Tim but walked in on him and another student in bed together. Shattered, Traci turned to Danny for support. Not wanting to see his friend raise a child alone and to give the baby a name, Danny did the honorable thing and married Traci. The two lived together in the Abbott home but the marriage was annulled after Traci miscarried, their union never having been consummated. They would always remain the best of friends but Traci had begun to notice Brad Carlton the Abbott's gardener and Danny had been introduced (by Cricket's request of Traci) to Jabot's teen model, Cricket Blair.

Shawn Garret was an obsessed fan of Lauren's. He managed to earn her trust and became her manager much to the disgust of her husband Paul. Shawn wanted to have Lauren all to himself and vowed to remove any obstacle he saw to be in the way of his desire. He managed to alienate Lauren from Paul and gradually slipped poison to Danny, which would cause him to lose his voice and force him to give up singing. Shawn's plan worked when Danny was rushed to hospital instead of performing in a concert with Lauren. As Doctors broke the devastating news to Danny that he would never sing again, his partner was being offered a solo career by talent agents that Shawn had invited to the concert. A miracle was to happen months later when Danny's voice returned during a Christmas Eve Church service.

Danny's father Brian Romalotti was released from prison and made his way to Genoa City. Gina welcomed the return of her father and tried to persuade Danny to do the same but he could not forgive him. Jill was scheming to con Katherine Chancellor and she spotted the homeless Brian on a park bench, cleaned him up, gave him a new wardrobe and a new name - Rex Sterling. Rex then proceeded to woo the unsuspecting Kay but Jill's plan backfired when Rex and Kay fell in love. When Danny heard about the impending nuptials he went to Kay and told her the truth about his father, that he was an ex criminal who had spent his life in and out of prison. Kay believed in Rex's love and went ahead with the marriage, in spite of Danny's warning.

In 1987 Danny and Cricket Blair, joined forces to help two pregnant teenage girls, Mollie and Nina who had both runaway from their respective homes and had checked themselves into a shelter for unwed mothers. The unsuspecting girls were soon to discover that Rose DeVille, the owner of the home was running a black-market baby selling ring. With Cricket's help Molly was finally re-united with her mother but Nina lost her baby son. Danny and Cricket grew closer as they vowed to help the wayward Nina find her baby and one evening they shared their first kiss.

Danny no longer saw Cricket as just a kid and they began to date exclusively. Nina's attempts to steal the rock star from her best friend failed but she soon set her sights on Phillip Chancellor iii who had returned to his "grandmother" Kay's home, the Chancellor Estate. Phillip fell in love with Cricket but she only had eyes for Danny until one evening when Danny suggested that they should date other people. Danny was concerned about the age difference between them and the fact that Cricket was still very young, so he suggested that they should take some time and see other people, before they decided to make a commitment to each other. Very soon Danny was to regret his words when Cricket started to date Phillip and fell in love with the young heir to the Chancellor fortune. Phillip lacked self confidence and he turned to alcohol to boost his self esteem. One evening, whilst driving under the influence, Phillip crashed the car in which Cricket was a passenger. Cricket realising the serious implications of Phillip being behind the

wheel, swapped places with him and took responsibility for the accident, when the police arrived. Cricket was at risk of losing her top modeling job at Jabot Cosmetics as a result of the accident but Danny went to Phillip, who had no recollection of what really had happened, and told him the facts and that he should assume responsibility for his own actions. Cricket moved into the Chancellor home to help Phillip overcome his addiction but it was the beginning of the end of their romance. Danny and Cricket still spent time together as friends and one evening when Cricket was visiting Danny, Nina took advantage of the vulnerable Phillip, plied him with beer and seduced him. Cricket found herself the recipient of two marriage proposals when both Phillip and Danny asked her to be their bride. She chose Phillip so that she could support him in his alcohol addiction but their happiness was to be short lived when Nina announced she was carrying Phillip's baby as a result of their drunken night together. Chris stayed loyal to Phillip for as long as she could but eventually returned his engagement ring.

Danny and Cricket began spending more and more time together and she realised how much more stable her life was with Danny than it had been with Phillip and she started to have fun again. Nina was still in love with Phillip and wanted him to return her love and to spend time with his son but he wanted nothing to do with her. Despite everything she had been through as a result of Nina's shenanigan's, Cricket stood by her friend and started a campaign with Danny's assistance, to change Nina into a more sophisticated, likeable person, a person that Phillip could fall in love with. Cricket even persuaded Danny to let Nina and her baby move in to his spare bedroom and after a lot of hard work Nina won her man.

During the summer of 1988 Gina worked hard to get her brother to spend time with their father and to forgive him. Rex was a changed man and was still happily married to Katherine but Gina wanted her family to be re-united. A couple of days before Danny's summer concert, he was rehearsing alone when Rex surprised him with a visit. The father and son talked in a way they never had before and were able to put their past behind them and they hugged for the first time, since Danny was a small boy. Gina and Kay, unaware of the reunion, plotted to get Rex to escort Katherine to Danny's concert, hoping that he would be so proud of his son that he would confess to her that he was in fact Danny Romalotti and Gina Roma's father. Rex's pride was obvious but his fear that he would lose his beloved wife Kay and their life together was greater and he kept silent about the family connection. During the after show party at Gina's restaurant Danny was telling Gina the great news about his reconciliation with their father, when Rex arrived to confirm the family were reunited. This wasn't the only reconciliation to happen that night when Danny confessed to Cricket he had made a mistake the previous summer, saying they should date other people and the couple celebrated being back together.