"It was 1955 when a then struggling Guyanese promoter met a young Trinidadian by the name of Francisco Slinger and on a whim decided to include him in his group that was about to tour the interior. That whim proved to be very profitable for the Guyanese as we all know that Slinger, better known as the Mighty Sparrow eventually became one of the best known names in the calypso world.
That Guyanese was Cyril Shaw who later became Sparrow's manager and went on many tours with him around the world. Shaw, who wrote an article chronicling Sparrow's journey from 1955 to 1985, describes Sparrow as a "brash lanky young man in his late teens" — 19 to be exact -- who was brought to Guyana (then British Guiana) by a Trinidad band leader/promoter with an entertainment after Carnival Troupe in 1955.
The bigheartedness of the man coupled with his shrewd business acumen was evident even at that tender stage of his life career as he lifted the morale of the other performers with his "don't quit" attitude, Shaw wrote of Sparrow."
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