TV Blitz Proves Pet Now Big Girl
PETULA CLARK, singing favoite of millions via recordings, TV and films, stars in her own hour-long colorcast Dec. 9. It's a long hark back to her first appearance before a microphone.
. . .They were assembled in an underground radio studio in London while raiding Nazi bombers thundered overhead. It was a very young "Pet" who had gone to the studio to appear on a program in which youngsters were invited to speak to their relatives in the armed forces.
Before the show, the producer asked for a volunteer to sing a song to help soothe the apprehensive audience, with the blitz going on above.
"I raised my hand," Petula recalls. "They put a box up under the microphone and I started singing Mighty Lak a Rose, which my mother taught me. The people in the control room were astounded by my big voice. The orchestra picked up the melody and joined in. And they asked me to sing it again when the show went on the air."
"Pretty Pet," and "Little Pet" as she was known during the war years and after has been singing for the public ever since.
After Petula's unprecedented succsss on that '40s radio program, she was semt on tour of the army camps.
She would "come on comically with a dirty face and tell jokes." Pet recalls, "Then I'd change into an Alice-blue gown and sing sugary songs." She became the "Forces Girl!" until the war ended and then she became everybody's LITTLE girl.
ABOUT THOSE DAYS, she says "I was kept on a diet and in flat shoes. The boys were chased away. My
Petula Clark and the Everly Brothers sing up a storm in Pet's big television special, which will be presented Dec. 9.
She recalls once wearing an off-the-shoulder dress on her television program "Pet's Parlour," and receiving mail by the truckloads from outraged ladies. "When they saw me growing up, with they really saw was their own youth disappearing. So they wouldn't allow it to happen."
Finally, Pet broke away. She went to Paris, met Claude Wolff, with who she fell in love, and married. The Wolffs have two daughters, Barra, 8 and Katie, 7.
Pet's career started changing as soon as she met Claude. Songwriter Tom* [*presumably a typo] Hatch brought her "Downtown" In 1964 the song led the hit parade in every major Western European country and then made its way across the Atlantic.
The pop tune with a solid driving beat appealed to parents as well as their teenagers and Petula Clark became a sensation in America.
Her career expanded further when she made the film "Finian's Rainbow" with Fred Astaire in Hollywood and again, in London when she made the musical version of the film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
American television audiences first met the bouncy, petite singer with the incredibly big voice when she was introduced on The Ed Sullivan Show. Since, she has been a guest on most major variety programs and has been a top night spot attraction.
One of Pet's lesser-known accomplishments is her song-writing activities. She has written the lyrics to many songs, but always under an assumed name. "And the name I use," says Petula, "is one I absolutely refuse to reveal!" The songs have usually been sung by other top artists.
BUT ONE SONG, "Beautiful Sounds," is one that Pet will sing on her ABC special.
Guest stars are Dean Martin, Peggy Lee. David Frost and the Everly Brothers.
Major elements of the special include duets with Pet and her guests. With Peggy Lee, she'll sing "I'm a Woman" and then go to "Wedding Bell Blues." Later in the program they sing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
With Dean Martin. an old friend of Pet's, she mounts a horse and warns. "Detour, There's a Muddy Road Ahead," followed by "Hey Good-Lookin'." The comedy on the special is provided by David Frost, whose monologue is about the evils of pollution and the problems of ecology, which Pet demonstrates for the viewers.
The two Britishers do "Romeo and Juliet According to David Frost" and David and Pet switch roles, with Pet playing interviewer to David's being the cagey subject. The Everly Bros have a featured spot and with their hostess sing "Games People Play."
American television audiences first met the bouncy, petite singer with the incredibly big voice when she was introduced on The Ed Sullivan Show. Since, she has been a guest on most major variety programs and has been a top night spot attraction.
One of Pet's lesser-known accomplishments is her song-writing activities. She has written the lyrics to many songs, but always under an assumed name. "And the name I use," says Petula, "is one I absolutely refuse to reveal!" The songs have usually been sung by other top artists.
BUT ONE SONG, "Beautiful Sounds," is one that Pet will sing on her ABC special.
Guest stars are Dean Martin, Peggy Lee. David Frost and the Everly Brothers.
Major elements of the special include duets with Pet and her guests. With Peggy Lee, she'll sing "I'm a Woman" and then go to "Wedding Bell Blues." Later in the program they sing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
With Dean Martin. an old friend of Pet's, she mounts a horse and warns. "Detour, There's a Muddy Road Ahead," followed by "Hey Good-Lookin'." The comedy on the special is provided by David Frost, whose monologue is about the evils of pollution and the problems of ecology, which Pet demonstrates for the viewers.
The two Britishers do "Romeo and Juliet According to David Frost" and David and Pet switch roles, with Pet playing interviewer to David's being the cagey subject. The Everly Bros have a featured spot and with their hostess sing "Games People Play."
Turning studious for an intriguing musical number concerning ecology, Petula dons glasses above. Dean Martin is a somewhat gallant cowboy (pictures below in one of his scenes with Pretty Pet, but you'd never mistake him for a Western movie hero. The horse was calm.
