by James Gavin
This book owes a huge debt to Richard Morrison and his extraordinary research into the early life and career of Peggy Lee. Richard’s staggering generosity and his eagle-eyed fact-checking and suggestions made it possible for me to tell the story I set out to write. Likewise, Robert Strom, author of Miss Peggy Lee: A Career Chronicle, gave me no end of invaluable materials, insights, and encouragement.
I couldn’t have explored Peggy Lee’s childhood in such depth without access to the remarkable memory and perceptiveness of her best childhood friend, Artis Conitz Tranmer. Professor Kate Stevenson of Jamestown College and her fellow Jamestown resident George Spangler spent days showing me the North Dakota of Lee’s youth and leading me to its still-living inhabitants. Wes Anderson, curator of the Barnes County Historical Society Museum in Valley City, ND, shared fascinating oral histories that recalled Norma Deloris Egstrom. Composer Paul Horner and playwright William Luce, Lee’s collaborators on Peg, gave me countless hours of their time along with stacks of important documents and just as much encouragement. For my understanding of Lee’s court case against Walt Disney Productions, I owe special thanks to judge Stephen M. Lachs, Lee’s attorney David Blasband, and especially to Roy Reardon, Disney’s trial counsel, who went to the trouble of sending me hundreds of pages of court papers. Three of Lee’s secretaries, Dona Harsh Hutchinson, Betty Jungheim, and Jane David, contributed immeasurably to my understanding of the day-to-day life of Peggy Lee. So did Kathy Levy, Brian Panella, and Bruce Vanderhoff, who knew Peggy Lee as well as almost anyone.
To my collector friends Alan Eichler, Steve Gruber, Harry Locke, Michael Mascioli, Richard Norton, and Ken Williams, thank you for helping bring these pages to life with so many of your Peggy Lee–related treasures. Others who shared valuable materials from their archives include Peter Burke, Robert Foshko, Will Friedwald, Lee Hale, D. Michael Heath, Tad Hershorn, Bob Mardesich, David McMacken, Bill Reed, Robert W. Richards, Joe Sardaro, Peter Stoller, Lea Sullivan, David Torresen, and Elga Woodell Weisgram. My friend Jess Rand is a never-ending font of insider stories from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and an irreplaceable man who can’t do enough to be helpful. Author Richard Lamparski’s eloquence and pinpoint recall helped me to understand much about Lee and her world. Ken Bloom and Bill Rudman allowed me to hear their 1993 recorded interview with Lee—a gem of astute interviewing and in-depth knowledge.
I thank the public institutions that made this researcher’s life much easier—notably the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey; the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Warner Bros. Archives at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles; the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda, CA (Jon Fletcher, archivist); and the North Dakota State University Archives (John Hallberg, archives associate). Ivan Santiágo-Mercado’s exhaustively researched peggyleediscography.com saved me an enormous amount of legwork.
A lot of this book was written in the homes of friends who were kind enough to host me in my travels. For generously giving me so much space and support, my heartfelt thanks to Joel Thurm (Los Angeles), Yvans Jourdan (Los Angeles), Clark Bason (Palm Springs), Geoffrey Mark (Palm Springs), James Jarrett (San Francisco), Jim Key and Jim Walb (Fire Island Pines), Spider Saloff (Chicago), Patrick Summers and Beau Miller (Houston), Candice Dempsey (Jamestown, ND), Robert Green and Dook Supraditaporn (Sydney), Waluya, Sue, and Benny Dimas (Melbourne), Fred Sill (Rio), André Tavares (Rio), Frank Sonnek (Rio), Zuza Homem de Mello and Ercília Lobo (São Paulo), Juan Weik and Fernanda Koprowski (São Paulo), Affonso Barros da Cunha (Salvador, Bahia), and Paulo Vilara (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais).
In 2009, my soul sister, author Sheila Weller, introduced me to literary agent Elisa Petrini (then of Inkwell Management in New York), who brought me back to Atria Books for the second time. Thanks, Sheila and Elisa, for helping change my life. From there, David Forrer of Inkwell took over as my agent and has kept me truly happy ever since. I love working with you, David—as I do with my wonderful editor at Atria, Peter K. Borland, who has made me feel cared about, and has taken great pains to help make this the book I hoped it would be. I have been lucky to collaborate with Atria’s dedicated team: assistant editor Daniel Loedel and his successor, Daniella Wexler; copyeditor Anthony Newfield; production editor Isolde Sauer; managing editor Kimberly Goldstein; assistant managing editor Kristen Lemire; publicists Elaine Broeder and Diane Mancher; marketing specialist Jackie Jou; and interior designer Paul Dippolito. Collectively, they bring beautiful books into the world—the noblest of callings. Attorney Elisa Rivlin combed through the manuscript with utmost attentiveness and made the vetting process a pleasure. Jacket designer Anna Dorfman created a cover that gives me goose bumps. And Judith Curr, publisher of Atria, welcomed me back into her family of authors and has made me feel enormously proud. Thank you for having me, Judith.
My lawyer, Mark Sendroff, has been a true-blue friend and a port in many storms. Eternal thanks, dear Mark. The great Hollywood portrait photographer Michael Childers took a jacket photograph of which I am very proud, and has gone out of his way over and over to help me. So have my friends Darren Ramirez, the most debonair man in Los Angeles; Mart Crowley, whose way with words gives me something to aspire to; and film historian Tom Toth, a friend of limitless knowledge and generosity. Kristopher McDowell and Andrew Delicata of KMP Artists, who manage and book my personal appearances, have helped give me a second calling that I adore. Big gratitude to you both.
To my friends Cindy Bitterman, Lisa Bond, John Boswell, Tammy Faye, Adam Feldman, the late Jane Harvey and Bill King, Joe Kirkendall, Charles Michel, David Munk, Mark Murphy, Paul Pines, and Ann Ruckert, thank you for seeing me through various or all stages of this book and showing me in so many ways that you care. For Cindy Bitterman, a friend from whom so many of the best things in my life have sprung, there are no words to say thanks. Finally, to my parents, Viola and Jack: I would never have made it this far without you.
Prairie girl Norma Deloris Egstrom at Wimbledon School, ND, 1936. (COURTESY OF KATE STEVENSON)
To Norma, Minnie Schaumberg Egstrom—her stepmother, Min—was the fairy-tale embodiment of pure evil. Millarton, ND, ca. 1952. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Fargo, ND, March 1938: Norma leaves for the “promised land” of Los Angeles, California. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
The recently renamed Peggy Lee and organist Lloyd Collins entertain at Fargo’s hot spot, the Powers Coffee Shop, 1939. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Lee’s first glamour head shot, inscribed in 1941 to a member of The Four of Us, the quartet that backed her at a Chicago lounge. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Cinderella at the ball: Peggy Lee as vocalist with the King of Swing, Benny Goodman, in 1942. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
A staged moment of serenity in the grueling life of a band singer, 1942. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Goodman’s guitarist, Dave Barbour, was Lee’s Prince Charming, but his alcoholism—and her ambitions—tore her domestic fantasy apart. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Carlos Gastel, a gin-guzzling Honduran, managed the cream of the Capitol Records stable in the 1940s. (Left to right) Gastel, Nat King Cole, June Christy, Mel Tormé, Lee, Stan Kenton. (PHOTO BY GENE ROLAND)
Lee (right) and her indispensable Girl Friday, Dona Harsh, ca. 1950, on Horseshoe Bay in Vancouver, BC—a rare outing for the star, who stayed in bed as often as possible. (COURTESY OF DONA HARSH HUTCHINSON)
A motherly photo op in December 1950, when Lee, with daughter, Nicki, in tow, arrived in Chicago to join a patriotic but doomed touring revue, Red, White, and Blue. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Success had not brought much happiness to Lee, who in 1951 was bloated, drinking, and facing divorce. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
In the arms of married actor Robert Preston at Manhattan’s Stork Club, July 14, 1951. (STORK CLUB WIRE SERVICE; COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Newly signed to Warner Bros. in 1952, Le
e dreamed of Hollywood stardom. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
“I think I shouldn’t go through with this,” said Lee to bridesmaid Dona Harsh on January 4, 1953, when she married movie tough guy Brad Dexter. (Left to right) Lee’s spiritual guru, Ernest Holmes; Harsh; Hazel (Mrs. Ernest) Holmes; Nicki Lee Barbour; Lee; Dexter; his mother and brother; unknown. (PHOTO BY GENE ROLAND; COURTESY OF DONA HARSH HUTCHINSON)
As Doris Day’s replacement (and Danny Thomas’s costar) in The Jazz Singer (1953), Lee made little impression.
But in Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955), her portrayal of Rose, an alcoholic gun moll and sometime singer, scored her an Oscar nomination. Director and star Jack Webb played bandleader Pete Kelly.
(left to right) Webb, Ray Sherman (mostly hidden), Herbert Ellis, Lee, George Van Eps, Matty Matlock, Wallace Ruth, Joe Graves. (ALL PHOTOS FROM THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
Jack Webb guides a nervous Lee on the set of Pete Kelly’s Blues. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
“We are Siamese, if you please”: Lee gave voice to two mischievous cats (as well as a dog and a human) in Walt Disney’s 1955 cartoon classic Lady and the Tramp. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
Rehearsing at Ciro’s, the Sunset Strip playground of the stars, 1960. Musicians include drummer Bill Richmond and harpist Stella Castellucci. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
At the first annual Audience Awards, Lee was named most promising new female personality in the movies—yet she never made another film. (Left to right) Lee, Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, Warner Bros. president Jack Warner, Jennifer Jones. Beverly Hilton, Los Angeles, December 6, 1955. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
“He was spectacular-looking,” but “kind of sharp, definitely moody,” said acquaintances of actor Dewey Martin, the third Mr. Peggy Lee. The stormy marriage began in Palm Springs in 1956 (above) and ended in Santa Monica divorce court in 1959 (below).
Jimmy Durante appears at Lee’s 1:00 AM “supper show” at Basin Street East, February 1961. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
“Well, I answer the phone. I sort of chauffeur my mother around.” Nicki Lee Barbour and Lee’s complicated relationship goes public on CBS-TV’s “Person to Person,” October 20, 1960. (COURTESY OF ROBERT STROM)
In the golden age of TV variety shows, Lee was a first-call guest.
On The Frank Sinatra Show with the conductor of her album The Man I Love, November 8, 1957.
Singing of hopeless love with Steve Allen at the piano. The Steve Allen Show, November 9, 1959.
Lee and Judy Garland’s I Like Men! medley. The Judy Garland Show, November 8, 1963. (ALL PHOTOS FROM AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
On The Merv Griffin Show, March 13, 1963, with (left to right) announcer Frank Simms, Vince Mauro, Carl Reiner, Merv Griffin, and Lee’s spiritual mother, journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns. (COURTESY OF VINCE MAURO)
Lee joins Tony Bennett on The Andy Williams Show, March 7, 1966. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
With Bing Crosby on The Hollywood Palace, January 13, 1968. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
Lee’s drunken performance at a White House state dinner “went over like a lead balloon,” wrote a journalist. (Left to right) Georges Pompidou (president of the French Republic) and wife, Claude; Richard M. Nixon; Lee; Mrs. Pat Nixon. February 24, 1970. (COURTESY OF NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUM)
Less than three weeks later, disaster turned to triumph when Lee won a Grammy for “Is That All There Is?,” the hit single that Capitol had planned to kill. Glen Campbell and Della Reese presented the award. Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, March 11, 1970. (COURTESY OF ROBERT STROM)
A new beginning: Paul McCartney produces the title track for Lee’s Atlantic album, Let’s Love. The Record Plant, Los Angeles, June 1974. (COURTESY OF BETTY JUNGHEIM)
Lee with Boston Pops maestro Arthur Fiedler on Evening at Pops, summer 1974. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
Lee, Vic Damone, and Lena Horne: three commercially faded but still-mighty pop titans united on the 1976 CBS special America Salutes Richard Rodgers: The Sound of His Music. (COURTESY OF RICHARD MORRISON)
“Together we will make Peg Broadway’s most incredible hit,” promised producer Zev Bufman to Peggy Lee. But a writer called this one-woman show “the heaviest magic carpet ride on Broadway.” Three days after it opened, Peg closed.
Bufman and Lee, New York, September 10, 1982.
Backstage with stylist Vincent Roppatte and the show’s composer, Paul Horner. (PHOTO BY MARIANNE BARCELLONA)
The final dress rehearsal, December 1, 1983, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
“They didn’t have to do any retouching!” marveled Lee about a publicity photo by Hans Albers, ca. 1982.
By the late 1980s, she had recast herself as an angel ascending.
Though riddled with illness and barely able to walk, Lee sold out a two-week engagement at the short-lived Club 53 of the New York Hilton. Backstage with Liza Minnelli, August 1992. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
The tribute of a lifetime: Lee is fêted by the Society of Singers at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills. (Left to right) Assistant Robert Paul, Lee, secretary Jane David, and S.O.S. cofounder Ginny Mancini. May 11, 1994. (COURTESY OF JANE DAVID)
Lee’s last big night on the town: the twentieth wedding anniversary of Frank and Barbara Sinatra. Malibu, July 11, 1996. (COURTESY OF JANE DAVID)
At home in Bel Air. (COURTESY OF JANE DAVID)
Discography
The following is a listing of Peggy Lee’s original albums and selected compilations, including years of recording. For anyone seeking additional information, Iván Santiago-Mercado’s website, peggyleediscography.com, offers comprehensive details about Lee’s recorded history.
ALBUMS
Black Coffee (1953/1956)
Selections from Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Trudy Erwin) (1954)
Songs from Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp (1954)
Songs from the Warner Bros. Film Pete Kelly’s Blues (with Ella Fitzgerald) (1955)
Sea Shells (1955)
Dream Street (1956)
Miss Wonderful (1956)
The Man I Love (1957)
Jump for Joy (1957–1958)
Things Are Swingin’ (1958)
I Like Men! (1958)
Beauty and the Beat! (1959)
Latin ala Lee! (1959)
Christmas Carousel (1959–1960)
Pretty Eyes (1960)
Olé ala Lee! (1960)
Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee (1961)
Peggy at Basin Street East (recorded by Capitol in 1961 and first issued in 2002)
Blues Cross Country (1961)
If You Go (1961)
Sugar ’n’ Spice (1962)
Mink Jazz (1962–1963)
I’m a Woman (1962–1963)
In Love Again! (1963)
In the Name of Love (1964)
Pass Me By (1964-1965)
Then Was Then, Now Is Now! (1964–1965)
Happy Holidays (1959–1965)
Big Spender (1965–1966)
Guitars a là Lee (1966)
Extra Special! (1960–1966)
Somethin’ Groovy! (1967)
2 Shows Nightly (1968)
A Natural Woman (1969)
Is That All There Is? (1969)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
Make It with You (1970)
Where Did They Go (1971)
Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota (1972)
Let’s Love (1974)
Mirrors (1975)
Peggy (1977)
Live in London (1977)
Close Enough for Love (1979)
Miss Peggy Lee Sings the Blues (1988)
Love Held Lightly: Rare Songs by Harold Arlen (1988)
There’ll Be Another Spring: The Peggy Lee Songbook (1989)
Moments Like This (1992)
COMPILATIONS
Peggy Lee & Benny Goodman: The Complete Recordings 1941–1947
