[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JAN07/walkingbackwards.flv 400 300]
As promised, here is the start of a Petula Clark video retrospective. This brief scene is from 1948, with Pet at 15 in Here Come the Huggetts, the first in a series about the fictional Huggetts family.
Pet was England’s “Singing Sweetheart,” and she seems here to be a cross between Shirley Temple and Judy Garland. She carries it off, but having sifted through more than 30 video clips of Petula, it seems she had to be quite a chameleon to keep her career moving. I would conjecture the real Petula didn’t show herself until she was closing in on 40.
Yes, that kid does have that goofy, British Joe Jackson look. Come to think of it, I’ve been looking that way a bit myself the past couple of years.
Petula Clark, as I’ve already said, is a very interesting contrast to Julie Andrews, who was on Broadway in 1956. Pet’s career had more than its share of fits and starts.
As I’ll highlight, the English refused to think of her as anything other than their sweet and innocent Pet, and they resented her move to France greatly, compounded by her marrying a Frenchman. But for a long time France was the seat of her success.
In fact Pet was in Canada, performing in French, when Downtown hit the American charts. What a blessing it must have been to have her big break in America with no audience preconceptions to worry about. Although I’m sure some of the GI’s who had been stationed in England during WW2 remembered Pet, who had been their sweet little singing mascot. And little she is! Her official given height is 5-ft. 2-in.
Say, isn’t that a very young Joe Jackson they do a close-up of in the audience? Just kidding! It’s interesting how Pet doesn’t even LOOK like Pet except when she makes certain facial expressions. She kept the dimple into adulthood. I always thought she was a natural blonde, too. She has a lovely voice, better than Temple by far, but nobody will ever compare to the young Judy Garland for sheer, raw talent. What’s nice, though, is that Petula Clark never “went Hollywood” or “Rank Studios” or whatever the British equivalent was; she is still married to the same man and has three grown children (checked imdb.com). I have her “best of” tape somewhere; time to order the CD!