Category: Music

Recently I went to PetulaClark.net and joined the International Petula Clark Society. Last week I received a copy of latest issue of Petula & Company. Among the interesting items in the digest magazine is Irene Seaton’s story about how she started the PETition to get Pet the title of Dame. At the moment there are 1,052 signatures. There’s only a month left to go!

Issue #134 of Petula & Company also has a photo I’ve never seen before, of Pet at age 25. Here it is, cropped. The full picture shows her in “her Microbat speedboat on the River Mole at Easy Molesey, Surrey.” How bizarre and fascinating! I’d love to know more about this. Was the boat given to her for promotional purposes?

And here’s a photo of Petula I took from a different source. She’s ten years younger here, only 15, and if you look quick you could almost mistake her for Shelley Fabares at the same age.

Dave Moncur has written to tell me the great news that yesterday the PETition to request Petula Clark be granted the title of Dame passed the 1000 mark! Thanks, Dave, and thanks to everybody who signed!

At the moment the signature count is 1010, and the list includes writer Alan Moore, creator of V for Vendetta, and other comic book stories that have been adapted into movies. His graphic novel from 20 years ago, Watchmen, superbly illustrated by Dave Gibbons, is currently in production. Moore can be seen in Jonathan Ross’s documentary for the BBC, In Search of Steve Ditko. You’ll find it in seven parts here on DogRat.com, starting at this link.

Something I’ve discussed previously about Petula Clark are the many styles and persona she has assumed in her career over the years. She suited herself perfectly in whatever the era was she performed. I like to think that Pet is more than merely versatile — she’s multi-faceted, even complicated. And for me that’s a big part of her appeal, because it’s always been there, enhancing her performances. It’s an understatement to say there’s always been more to Pet than meets the eye.

Here are a couple of pictures of Pet you can click to enlarge. She’s the picture-perfect wife next door, as if anybody could ever hope to have her living next door …

… and here Pet presents two other sides of herself. One more business-like, the other decidedly show business-like.

Petula was an adorable child star, then later she was an ingenue in film, but we knew nothing of that when she first appeared in America. In Paris she was sultry and sexy, and we didn’t get to see that either in America. Yet here in the States she fit in perfectly with the go-go fashions of the Swinging Sixties teen music scene, and from there she gracefully transitioned to a more adult audience, as seen in the Dean Martin shows, and her own TV specials. I would suggest that men of the adult married variety were particularly interested in her during this phase of her career. I consider Pet’s appearance in the video I posted here to be one of the sexiest, and most contagiously fun, performances I’ve ever seen.