The One and Only Miss Petula Clark!
According to PetulaClark.net, Pet appeared on “Captain Kangaroo” in 1976. I looked through a book about the program my sister Jeanie Beanie gave me for Christmas some years back, and I found this.
Petula was 43 in this picture, and looked 30, while Keeshan was only 48 or 49, but looked 65.
Most serious comic book fans — that’s not a contradiction in terms — have read “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” by Michael Chabon, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the novel.
More recently, Chabon has a book of essays that I have not yet read, called “Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son.” Terry Gross interviewed Chabon about the book a few months ago.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JAN/FreshAirMichaelChabon.mp3]Most serious music fans know the name of critic Ben Fong-Torres, who was portrayed in the movie “Almost Famous.” Yesterday, he commented on something Chabon said in one of his essays.
He [Chabon] recalled a visit to a doctor’s office when he was 4, in downtown Phoenix. His mother promised a restaurant lunch afterward as a reward. He heard “Downtown” over the radio in the office. “Things will be great,” Petula Clark sang, and Chabon has never forgotten. “When I hear Petula Clark on the radio now,” he wrote, “I feel this wave of something old and powerful flowing through my chest and my belly, a bodily remembering of that crucial early-childhood compound of anxiety and the promise of a treat.”
Happy Birthday, Petula Clark!
Petula says she’ll continue to work and perform as long as there’s an audience. Judging from this appearance in France a few months ago, she still has an audience.
It was 40 years ago, on Petula’s birthday, that BBC One TV broadcast its first programme in colour. BBC Two had been transmitting in colour for some months. The first colour show on BBC One was, “An Evening With Petula.”
As I’ve said before, I feel that Petula Clark’s career is one of the most impressive ever in popular entertainment. She started as an endearing child star in England, developed into a sexy adult actress, then became an international singing superstar — which was where we caught up with her in the States — and she’s still going strong!
I’ve spliced together about ten minutes of Petula as Lee Nicholls, a perky and resourceful stewardess in a 1954 comic caper flick, “The Runaway Bus”. It’s not the greatest print, but at least it’s available in the U.S., including Netflix.
[MEDIA=49]
Oh, dear. Did I hear Pet ask for some uppers? No wonder she was so perky!
For a much more recent view of Petula, here’s a link recommended by David Moncur. Turn it up!
The A-side of this single by a British band went to #1 in the US in 1966, and it sounds nothing at all like the lovely little ditty on the B-side.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/WaitForMeBaby.mp3]D.F. Rogers says, “Needs more megaphone!” You are correct, sir! The song “Wait For Me Baby” is the flip side of the New Vaudeville Band’s megahit with a megaphone from 1966, “Winchester Cathedral”. I’m always amazed by how a 40+ year old piece of plastic that was beat on when new can sound so good. I doubt there were many original Rudy Vallee records from the 20’s that were playable in ’66.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/WinchesterCathedral.mp3]The YouTube player has the New Vaudeville Band performing the song, with the first tune, “Peek A Boo” being more interesting because it’s not familiar. (From there it’s an easy leap to Tiny Tim and to Robert Crumb’s Cheap Suit Serenaders.) Then Petula Clark sings “Winchester Cathedral” followed by a more familiar performance of her own hit, “This Is My Song.”
The original “Winchester Cathedral” LP, in my hands at this moment, doesn’t have “Peek A Boo”, so I had to find it elsewhere.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/PeekABoo.mp3]
The New Vaudeville Band, 1966
Petula Clark is going to Canada in September. She’s going to talk about the film “I Know Where I’m Going!” in which she appeared as a girl of twelve, as seen in this video clip that I first featured over two years ago.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/JAN07/IKnowWhereImGoing.flv 400 300]
In case the article at the link above loads too slowly, or if it disappears, you’ll find the text below. The website for the event is at this link. What fun!
Here’s something else that’s fun. Petula singing “Downtown” in German. I admit to having swiped this from the Keep the Coffee Coming blog.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUN/DowntownGerman.mp3]
Continue reading Petula Knows Where She’s Going!
