Peggy Lee: A Thorny Road to Glory. Peggy Lee A topic that Peggy Lee didn't talk about

USA

In 1952-1956, Peggy Lee collaborated with Decca Records, where in 1953 she recorded her first album, Black Coffee. She later returned to Capitol Records, where until 1972 she released a new album almost every year. Lee also did a lot of songwriting, some of which appeared in the cartoon "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), where she herself voiced several roles.

Peggy Lee was most popular with her cover version of the song. "Fever" recorded in 1958 as well as the song "Is That All There Is?" in 1969, for which she received her only Grammy, although she was nominated 12 times.

In the 1970s, Peggy Lee performed the song of the same name, known to many Americans, for McDonald's (Peggy Lee - "McDonald's Theme Song"), the song was later featured in a McDonald’s television commercial.

After leaving Capitol Records, Peggy continued to record her albums at other studios, the last of which was released in 1993. In 1995 she was presented with a special Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Last years

The last years of her life Peggy Lee suffered from diabetes and moved only in a wheelchair. She died of a heart attack on January 21, 2002 in Los Angeles at the age of 81. The singer's family asked the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts to include her in the memorial list at the Oscars, but they refused, citing insufficient contribution to the cinema. Peggy was buried in Westwood Cemetery.

Albums

Capitol Records

• 1948 Rendezvous with peggy lee
• 1952 Rendezvous with peggy lee

Decca records

• 1953 Black coffee
• 1954 Songs in an Intimate Style
• 1954 White Christmas soundtrack | Selections from Irving Berlin’s "White Christmas"(with Bing Crosby and Danny Kay)
• 1955 Songs from Pete Kelly’s Blues "(with Ella Fitzgerald)
• 1956 Black coffee(12-inch version)
• 1957 Dream street
• 1957 Songs from Walt Disney's "Lady and the Tramp"
• 1958 Sea shells(recorded in 1955)
• 1959 Miss wonderful(recorded 1956)

Capitol Records

• 1957 The man i love
• 1959 Jump for Joy
• 1959 Things Are Swingin "
• 1959 I Like Men!
• 1959 Beauty and the Beat!
• 1960 Latin ala Lee!
• 1960 All Aglow Again!
• 1960 Pretty eyes
• 1960 Christmas carousel
• 1960 Olé ala lee
• 1961 Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee
• 1961 If you go
• 1962 Blues cross country
• 1962 Bewitching-lee
• 1962 Sugar "N" Spice
• 1963 Mink jazz
• 1963 I'm a Woman
• 1964 In Love Again!
• 1964 In the name of love
• 1965 Pass me by
• 1965 Then Was Then - Now Is Now!
• 1966 Guitars A là Lee
• 1966 Big $ pender
• 1967 Extra Special!
• 1967 Somethin "Groovy!
• 1968 2 Shows Nightly
• 1969 A natural woman
• 1969 Is That All There Is?
• 1970 Bridge over troubled water
• 1970 Make it with you
• 1971 Where did they go
• 1972 Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota

Other

• 1974 Let’s Love
• 1975 Mirrors
• 1977 Live in London
• 1977 Peggy
• 1979 Close Enough for Love
• 1988 Miss peggy lee sings the blues
• 1990 The Peggy Lee Songbook: There’ll Be Another Spring
• 1993 Love Held Lightly: Rare Songs by Harold Arlen(recorded 1988)
• 1993 Moments Like This

Famous songs

Filmography

• His Butler's Sister (1943) -
• Midnight Serenade (1947) - Peggy Marsh
• Mister Music (1950) - plays himself (uncredited)
• Jazz Singer (1952) - Judy Lane
• Lady and the Tramp (1955) - Darling, Si, Em, Pig (voice)
• Pete Kelly Blues (1955) - Rose Hopkins

Awards

• Grammy 1969 - Best Vocal Performance ( "Is That All There Is?")

Biographies

Autobiography

• Peggy Lee, Miss Peggy Lee: An Autobiography, 2002, Bloomsbury (UK), ISBN 0-7475-5907-4

Biographies of other authors

• Peter Richmond, Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee, 2006, Henry Holt and Company, ISBN 0-8050-7383-3
• Robert Strom, Miss Peggy Lee: A Career Chronicle, 2005, McFarland Publishing, ISBN 0-7864-1936-9
• Will Friedwald, Sinatra! the Song is You: A Singer's Art, 1995, Scribner ISBN 0-684-19368-X

Notes (edit)

Links

• Peggy Lee on the website Internet Movie Database
• Peggy Lee at Find a Grave
• Personal page

The real name of the famous singer Peggy Lee is Norma Deloris Egstrom. Born in Jamestown, North Dakota, USA. Peggy's grandparents are Norwegian and Swedish immigrants. The future singer was the seventh child of Marvin Egstrom, the stationmaster.

When Peggy Lee was 4 years old, her mother died and the girl was left in the care of her drunken father and her beating stepmother (Norma told about this in the song One Beating Day as part of the autobiographical Broadway show Peg, 1983).

"If you don't turn on when Peggy Lee sings, then you're dead, man." - Leonard Feather

Peggy Lee - biography, facts, photos

At the age of 14, Peggy began working: at the railway station where her father worked, as a milk delivery woman on a farm and, finally, performed on WDAY radio in Fargo, North Dakota, from which she began her career as a singer.

Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra

Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra

The station manager, Ken Kennedy, offered the singer the stage name "Peggy Lee", under which she performed throughout her life.

At 16, Peggy leaves for Los Angeles (largely influenced by quarrels with her stepmother), but due to health problems she returns to her hometown. The result of treatment and operations was a deep, hoarse voice that brought her fame.

Musical career

After moving to Chicago in the 40s, Lee begins singing at the Ambassador West Hotel, where she is noticed by "King of Swing" Benny Goodman, who was looking for a replacement for his vocalist Helena Forrest. From that moment on, Peggy performed with the Goodman Orchestra, in 1942-43 she recorded hits, including Somebody Else Is Taking My Place, after which she woke up famous.

American jazz magazine Down Beat in 1946 named Peggy Lee the best jazz performer, and her hits from the 1940s-1960s consistently ranked in the top ten.

In addition to acquiring the status of a cult jazz performer, Peggy Lee has established herself as a successful composer and songwriter. Most of her career, Peggy worked in collaboration with Capitol Records, which resulted in such popular compositions as I Don’t Know Enough About You (1946) and others.

Film and television

In 1948, Peggy, along with vocal performers Joe Stafford and Perry Como, became the co-host of the Chesterfield Supper Club music show, NBC radio station, and took an active part in the filming of The Jimmy Durante Show.

In the late 40s - early 50s, Peggy Lee began her career in cinema, voicing and acting in short films and playing cameo roles in TV series.

In 1952, the singer performed one of the main roles in the melodrama "The Jazz Singer" (the film received an Oscar nomination in the category "Best Soundtrack for Musical Pictures", but did not become a winner).

In 1955, Peggy's Pete Kelly Blues starred in a starring supporting role - the drunken blues singer Rose Hopkins, who earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

In the same year, Walt Disney's cult cartoon "Lady and the Tramp" was released, for which Peggy wrote 6 songs and voiced 4 characters.

Subsequently, Lee starred in several more episodic roles in TV series.

After the death of the singer, relatives turned to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts with a request to include Peggy in the memory list at the Oscar ceremony, but they refused, arguing the decision with the singer's small contribution to the cinema.

Personal life

The personal life of a jazz singer was not as successful as her career. In total, Peggy had 4 marriages, and all ended unsuccessfully.

Peggy Lee with her first husband Dave Barbour

Peggy Lee with her second husband Brad Dexter

Peggy's first husband in 1943 was the guitarist of Benny Goodman's jazz orchestra - Dave Barbour. Due to the fact that Dave, while still Peggy's boyfriend, violated Goodman's rule about relationships with the female half of the band, he was fired from the orchestra. Lee followed.

In November 43, their daughter Niki is born, the singer briefly leaves her career and devotes herself to the family. Together with her husband, he recorded several hits, including Mañana (1948).

The 50s are considered one of the most successful in their careers, but a disappointment in their personal life. As a result of Dave's addiction to alcohol and Peggy's heavy touring, their marriage fell apart in 1951.

In January 53, Lee married actor Brad Dexter, but they divorced in November. The next two marriages with American actor Dewey Martin (1956-1958) and actor Jack Del Rio (1964-1965) were slightly long, but no more successful.

Peggy herself adhered to the principle that experiences in her personal life should not interfere with work.

Health problems that began at a young age affected Lee's body in the future. The last years of her life, suffering from diabetes, she could not move without a wheelchair. Peggy Lee passed away from a heart attack at the age of 81 on January 21, 2002 in Los Angeles, and is buried in Westwood Cemetery.

Awards

Peggy Lee was nominated 12 times for the Grammy Academy of Music Awards: for the first time for a cover version of the song Fever (1958), and the coveted and only award was brought to her by the composition Is That All There Is? (1969).

In 1995, the academy awarded Lee a special Grammy for Lifetime Achievement.

Peggy Guggenheim in her private museum in the Palazzo on Venice's Grand Canal. Around 1979 Photo: PL Gould / IMAGES / Getty Images

Any visitor to Venice, sailing the Grand Canal, will certainly cast a surprised look at the ambitiously conceived, but unfinished palazzo. The Venier family began to build it in the middle of the 18th century, but they only had enough money for a lush foundation and live garden lions. Then finances ran out, and soon the Venetian independence. The Palazzo Venier dei Leoni was inhabited by eccentrics and travelers; the Marquis Casati threw futuristic balls and painted bushes in perky colors, like the heroine of Lewis Carroll; during the Second World War, soldiers of the three occupation armies were standing there. In 1949, the palazzo was acquired by Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) for herself, her dogs and her collection, lived in it for 30 years and remained here even after her death. She is buried right in the garden next to the four-legged pets, and the house still houses the collection that has become part of the artistic empire of the Guggenheim family.

Russian-speaking readers are offered the latest lifetime edition of the memoirs of the Venetian princess Peggy. She began writing them in 1923, the first part was published in 1946, the second in 1960, and the current edition appeared in the year of her death. Here are the memories of a rich, impulsive, inquisitive, passionate and not very happy woman. Her ancestors were Jewish emigrants: one was born in a stable, the other traded on the street. Benjamin, Peggy's father, owned a company that built the elevators of the Eiffel Tower, and drowned on the Titanic. Relatives with their weirdness reminded Dickensian eccentrics. The Rockefellers, Stillmans and Grants were neighbors.

Art surrounded the heroine from early childhood and all her life. At the age of five, the ceremonial portrait of Peggy and her older sister Benita, who died early in childbirth, was painted by the Munich maestro Franz von Lönbach. Subsequently, Peggy turned the Georgia O'Keeffe painting four times to understand the abstraction, and photographed the obscene Pompeian murals for subsequent practical tests. Her first husband, Lawrence Weil, proposed at the Eiffel Tower and showed all the stones of Venice. Peggy wore a headdress made by Vera Sudeikina, and earrings - the fantasies of Yves Tanguy and Alexander Calder, and one at a time, because she equally respected surrealism and abstractionism. Calder had made a bed for her too, a fish and a butterfly stirring at the head. In Paris, her family lived in a small skyscraper built by Georges Braque. Peggy crossed the Sahara at the head of a luxurious caravan, "otherwise the desert could not be seen."

The theory of art history was taught to her by Samuel Beckett (a friendly nickname - Oblomov) right in bed, in the pauses between sex and champagne. The main postulate of his theory was: "Art is a living being." The Guggenheim began to collect and exhibit works of art with a noble goal: "To protect the art of its time." At the beginning of the Second World War, she adhered to the rule "buy one picture per day", which, however, was quite profitable.

Guggenheim P. At the peak of the century: the confession of an obsessed art / Per. S. Kuznetsova.
Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, 2018.256 p.

Not only paintings and statues were living creatures, but also their authors - friends, lovers and friends of Peggy. Wassily Kandinsky looked more like a broker than an artist. Yves Tanguy had a thin head of hair that stood on end when he got drunk, which happened often. Victor Brauner became a real artist after losing an eye. Pete Mondrian, 66, danced amazingly in nightclubs. In Constantine, Brancusi was equally divided between the cunning peasant and the deity. Alberto Giacometti carved Greek heads and carried them in his pockets. Marc Chagall was notable for stinginess. Jackson Pollock - a demoniac alcoholic - could have been an angel. Max Ernst, one of Peggy's husbands, listed his imprisonment camps like resorts, wanted to live in a house where 13 suicides had happened, and had an amazing gift for "predicting" the future.

Peggy opened her first gallery in 1938 in London; the emotions of the visitors to the "youngest Guggenheim" were such that blood splatters remained on the walls. A significant part of the collection was in France, and it was with difficulty that it was rescued from the occupation (boxes with paintings, covered with tarpaulins, stood at the Annecy train station for several months).

During the war, the Guggenheim opened the Art of This Century gallery in New York; the interior was done by Frederic Kiesler. The surrealist hall had curved wooden walls, paintings were attached to baseball bats, and lights turned on and off every three seconds. In the hall of abstractionism and cubism, instead of two walls, there were ultramarine curtains, the space resembled a circus tent. The paintings hung on threads as if they were floating in the air; the sculptures stood on wooden platforms, also suspended. The floor was turquoise, and the windows were covered in rayon screens. In the corridor stood a spinning wheel with seven works by Paul Klee. To see reproductions of Marcel Duchamp, one had to peep through a hole in the wall and spin a spider-wheel.

In 1947, Peggy returned to her beloved Europe. Her choice fell on Venice. Friends-artists Emilio Vedova and Giuseppe Santomaso helped establish business ties with the leadership of the Biennale, and in 1948 the Guggenheim collection was exhibited in the Greek pavilion. A year later, she bought the very Palazzo Venier. The chandelier here was a dynamic sculpture of Calder made of broken porcelain and glass. Chairs and sofas were upholstered in white plastic. Francis Bacon's monkey was guarding the bedroom. Claire Falkenstein soldered the gate with her own hands from iron rods and pieces of Murano glass. In the garden sat a horseman with an erect phallus. Alan Ansen wrote mask plays for home evenings ...

Peggy Guggenheim was born at the very end of the 19th century, in the era of the late novels of Henry James, and was like his heroines, obsessed with love for art, the art of love, art and love.

NAME OF THE EPOCH. Peggy Lee

“Her remarkable talent must be explored by all vocalists; her royal presence is pure elegance and charm "- said about Peggy Lee... A product of the big band era, critics said about it.

The road from milkmaid to singer

Ancestors Peggy originally from Sweden and Norway, and the future celebrity was born in 1920 in Jamestown (North Dakota) in 1920 and received the name Norma Deloris Egstrom. She was the seventh of eight children in the family of Marvin Egstrom. Mom died when the child was only four years old. The father worked on the railroad, and the children learned arithmetic by counting lumps of coal.

The path from the North Dakota milkmaid to the group star Benny Goodman was not easy. She never studied music anywhere. And already at the age of 16, when it was 1936, Norma Egstrom went on her first tour with the orchestra. Jack Wardlow... Swing reigned in dance halls, clubs and hotel lobbies, swing played on the radio.

And that prompted her to go to work as a singer at the WDAY radio station in Fargo in her native North Dakota. The manager of this station - Ken Kennedy and christened the girl Peggy Lee... To earn more Peggy for some time I had to earn money at a local bakery.

Operations - For Luck Peggy Lee

Her career prospects became clearer when she headed to Minneapolis, where she began to sing in the dining room of the Radisson Hotel. At the same time she managed, as they say, "light up" in one of the radio shows, and join the group Seva Olsena... But three months later Peggy Lee dropped everything and went to California, taking on the road $ 18 and my father's pass. There she managed to get an engagement in the Jade Room at a restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. But Peggy didn't make much of an impression on the movie capital and was demoted to work as a waitress.

Unfortunately, the sea air did not have a very beneficial effect on the health of the future celebrity. Peggy more and more often angina bothered. Her health was deteriorating, and one night she nearly suffocated. The operation followed the operation. And so it went on for two and a half months. No one at the time could have imagined how successful the treatment would be. They gave Peggy Lee a completely new voice - deep and hoarse. Peggy I was simply amazed at the so-called "acquisition". It was this that helped her find the job she dreamed of.

Fateful meeting

With quick succession she sang with Sev Olsen, Will Osborne and performed at the Claridge Club in Palm Springs.

The next step was the chic Chicago Ambassador West hotel. It was here that I noticed her Benny Goodman, who was just looking for a replacement for his vocalist Elena Forrest... In this way Peggy and got the job.

At the same time, it frightened and alarmed the singer a little - at the age of 21, even her most ambitious desires came true. She could not even imagine this, because quite recently Peggy milked cows, worked in a bakery, and now in front of her New York and the first performance with Benny Goodman... But then something unimaginable happened: at the premiere concert, her voice seemed to freeze, she sang like a mechanical doll. That evening, the critics had something to profit from. They predicted a complete defeat for her, and the other members of the orchestra tried to convince Goodman to part with such a worthless vocalist.

But Benny was not one of those who are afraid of the first impression, and then he was not mistaken. In a few days Peggy Lee showed what she is capable of, and critics instantly became her fans. They then wrote that Peggy looks like something icy. Her skin is like a gardenia petal, deep blue eyes and white and gold hair. And she sings like a slowly exploding fireworks.

In its performance Peggy connected two singers whom she especially admired - this Billie Holiday and Maxine Sullivan... In July 1942 Peggy Lee recorded the first hit "Why Don't You Do Right?"... The disc sold more than a million copies and brought the singer unprecedented popularity.

She was Cinderella, who worked until she became the vocalist of the best orchestra in the country. Peggy started acting in films and gained an army of enthusiastic fans. “I learned everything about music from the men with whom I worked in orchestras, they taught me the discipline and showed the true value of rehearsals,” she said Peggy Lee... Critics predicted a great future for her, but she stopped for a while ...

Peggy Lee's family happiness

There were two reasons for the lull in their careers. Peggy... This is a marriage to a guitarist Dave Barboer in 1944 and the birth of their daughter Nicky. Home life pleased Peggy like music. She flourished in the role of wife and mother, and looked at the past without regret.

Then they lived on the West Coast. At this time, the couple composed several songs, which instantly became popular. In addition, she was seriously interested in lyrics, music for films and other creative activities. Pianist and accompanist and Peggy Lee, and, Jimmy Rawls so defined the singer's talent: “ Peggy Lee lives in music. She sings, filling the songs with feeling and emotional experiences, she has a wonderful phrasing and a wonderful sense of rhythm. "

And critic George Hoefer of Downbeat magazine called her “the biggest jazz singer ever since Mildred Bailey". In 1946, Miss Lee was voted America's Best Female Vocalist by two popular American magazines.

Mrs perfection

Another major career milestone Peggy Lee was an appearance at the Philharmonic Hall of the Lincoln Center in New York in 1962. Only those who were recognized as a real creator were allowed to perform in this prestigious institution. Miss Lee researched and wrote the Jazz Tree program, which traced the origins and development of jazz as a formative Native American art.

The original presentation of the program was scheduled for December 1962, but it was delayed by six months to give Peggy Lee enough time to prepare. She was characterized by the approach of a discerning person to her work. She perfectly polished every aspect of the concert program - hairstyles, outfits, lighting, music, ins and outs - Peggy left nothing without attention.

Her cultivation habit probably originated in collaboration with Benny Goodman, who always demanded only the best from the performers. Rejecting the improvisational approach of most jazz singers, Peggy Lee planned every detail of the performance in advance, including even the movement of the hands.

Such a strenuous work schedule had a serious impact on health. She was hospitalized twice in three years with viral pneumonia. Thereafter Peggy Lee reduced her gig roster, limited to six weeks of performances a year in New York and Las Vegas, several TV shows, and two charitable programs. But she does not stop acting in films, including the film by Michael Curtis "The Jazz Singer".

A topic that Peggy Lee didn't talk about

Family life Peggy did not work out, although she continued creative cooperation with her husband. What caused the breakup of the marriage is not known, and Peggy Lee all my life I avoided questions on this topic. In 1955 miss Lee married film actor Brad Dexter. But less than a year later, the couple parted. The third marriage was also unsuccessful. Peggy Lee with actor Duay Martin. About the fourth marriage, it is only known that the next chosen one of the singer was the head of the jazz orchestra, Jack Del Rio. The marriage lasted until 1965 and ended, like all the previous ones. At the same time, the legendary singer never tired of repeating: "Do not let personal problems interfere with your work."

Peggy Lee was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in Pete Kelly's Blues, in which she played a singer suffering from alcoholism. In 1955, the famous vocalist participated in the creation of music and the soundtrack for Walt Disney's cartoon "Lady and the Tramp". However, in order to receive a fee for their work, Peggy Lee it took 35 years.

In the late 90s, the singer suffered a stroke, and since then suffered from heart disease and diabetes. Legend jazz singing - Peggy Lee- died in 2002 from a heart attack. The singer died at her home in Los Angeles and at that moment only her daughter Nicky was with her.

FACTS

The singer's family applied to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts to be included in the Memorial List at the Oscars, but were refused due to the actress's insufficient contribution to the cinema.

Updated: April 13, 2019 by the author: Elena