Radio-TV mirror (July-Dec 1954)

Record Details:

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Name That Tune (Continued from page 64) she has to do well. But, instead of going to any big parties and meeting the right people — no, she was always coming home, visiting her folks, knocking around with old friends. And instead of dating men who might help her career, she wouldn't go out with anyone but Eddie Steck. You know, that nice young fellow who was studying to be a lawyer. It was such a pity about what happened! . . . As far as Vicki is concerned, the career part of it all started with Grandfather. He was a barber — but, more particularly, a happy Italian barber, and he couldn't help singing while he worked. "He's quite a character," Vicki says proudly. "Very jolly!" And, just thinking of grandfather, she can't help smiling. "His shop was always crowded with customers — all requesting their favorite songs. And then, the hospital used to send for him regularly to cut their patients' hair. They knew the value of a song there — or maybe it was just the tonic of a good laugh." Her parents also share this Italian passion for music. Vincent Melillo is in the real estate business, but he still plays the sax he played as a youth. And although Antoinette, his wife, was never a professional, she is still a fine singer. Before her marriage, she worked in a grocery store. One day, the White Rose Tea salesman happened to hear her sing, and arranged for her to go to New York to sing commercials on the radio. "Mother never went," Vicki says. "She got married instead. But she made a vow that, some day, one of her children would be a singer and make the trip to New York for her." As it turned out, all five of the Melillo children sing. But, of her three daughters and two sons, Antoinette soon pinned her hopes on the second oldest, born January 31, 1934. At sixteen, Carmella Marie had her own weekly radio show over Station WLAD — and "Vicki Mills," her professional name, was already well known in Danbury. Vicki used to enter every singing contest she could. But the one she remembers best is the Jenny Lind Contest, a yearly competition held among the hundred best lyric sopranos of Connecticut. "If you can imagine one hundred girls, all singing 'The Last Rose of Summer,' " Vicki remarks. But the reason she remembers that contest so well is that, every year, without fail, she came in second. r»ut that was enough for Mama Antoinette Melillo. She knew now that she* had been right to turn down that offer to sing White Rose Tea commercials. This was even better than she had dreamed — her own daughter, a lyric soprano. With a little training, who knows, she might become a great concert artist! In 1951, after high school graduation, Vicki enrolled in the four-year course at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. After one year, however, Vincent Melillo didn't see how he could afford to send his daughter back. Vicki promptly went out and got a job. During previous vacations, she had worked in a Danbury department store — once as a salesgirl in the lingerie department, once as a bookkeeper. But, this summer, she needed "big money" if she hoped to return to the Conservatory in the fall. "I got a job as an inspector in a ballbearing factory," she recalls. "At first, I thought it would kill my eyes — looking through a microscope at all those tiny bearings. But, after a while, I became good at it. I got so I could inspect from two thousand to three thousand a night, depending upon their size. They said I was the best of all the new girls on the job." Vicki smiled with honest pride, then continued: "I worked the night shift — from four-thirty in the afternoon till twothirty next morning. But I made all of forty-two dollars a week!" The proud smile suddenly vanished. "Only, with everything they take out, it came to just thirty-eight dollars clear." By October, however, Vicki had enough money to return to the Conservatory. Her father, feeling she had earned a holiday, took her to New York. And that's when it happened, so that Vicki never did go back to school. "Daddy and I had tickets to attend a radio broadcast of Name That Tune. I was one of the contestants and, when Red Benson interviewed me, he asked me all about myself. I told him that I was majoring in voice, and that I had been a winner one night on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Out of a clear blue sky, Red asked me to sing my favorite song." She chose "Summer Time." She still doesn't know why — it's not her favorite piece. But, after the show, Harry Salter, the producer, wanted to talk to her. June Valli, the vocalist on the show, was leaving to sing on Your Hit Parade. Vicki was invited to take her place. From the very start, the show has been fun for her, and singing in thirty different languages is a game, not a chore, particularly when the words are spelled out phonetically, and you happen to be what is known as "a quick study." 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