TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1957)

Record Details:

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At 19, she was a has-been, or so she thought. She notes, "As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be in show business." She was born Betty Bonney in Norfolk, Virginia. She had a father, mother, older brother, grandmother and a dog named Fluff. "I've always had pets and somehow I've always been good for them. Fluff lived to be eighteen." Her parents and brother are alive. Not her grandmother. "Grandmother was quite a gal. Filled me fuU of old wives' tales and superstitions. Like, 'Fine feathers make a fine dress.' Or if a mirror broke, she predicted seven years of gloom. If I were wearing yellow, she'd call out, 'Yellow, yellow, catch a fellow.'" But no one in the family, including grandma, was in show business or did much more to music than snap their fingers. Her father worked for the Seaboard Railroad, yet he was largely instrumental in seeing that she got a start. At the age of three, Judy made her first bow to the public. The little girl next door was giving a piano recital and chose to have Judy sing while she played accompaniment. Judy's parents were at the recital, and were so impressed by their daughter that, from that day on, her father enrolled her in singing and dancing classes. At the age of nine, Judy had her own weekly radio program. When she was ten, her father walked her down to a six-pole tent show, headed by Gene Austen. He got her an audition. The summer she was 11, Austen remembered Judy and sent for her when his singer became ill. Judy, chaperoned by her mother, toured the summer circuit. At 12, she was singing with a college band. "I was big for my age," she says. "When I was twelve, I passed for eighteen. And it wasn't a question of my parents pushing me. I loved what I was doing. By the time I was thirteen I had the works— all kinds of auditions and tests." It was in Cincinnati that she and her mother were broke and stranded for the first time. A small-name band she was singing with was dissolved by the draft. Judy went over to Station WLW to audition and got a singing job with Jimmy James and his band. She was fourteen when she joined Les Brown for two years. Next came short singing stints with Jan Savitt and Frankie Carle. At sixteen, she married a musician. The marriage was unsuccessful, and when it broke up Judy's mother rejoined her to help care for baby Bonnie. "It was about then that I saw my first musical," she recalls. "As often as I'd been in and out of New York, I'd never had time to see a show. Then I saw 'Oklahoma,' and I decided, 'This is for me.' " For two years, she confined herself to Manhattan, studying voice, acting and auditioning for shows. She woimd up with the lead in the national company of "High Button Shoes." When the tour was over, she got a call from her agent to go down and see Sammy Kaye about a job. It was Kaye who changed her name from Betty Bonney to Judy Johnson. And about that time her parents had moved permanently up from Virginia into a house m Nutley, New Jersey, to be with Judy fia Bonnie. It was a good arrangement for Judy to know Bonnie was being cared for by her mother but it didn't really ease the hurt of being away from her child. And then, when Judy was singing at the Waldorf with Sammy, an agent from the Wilham Morris Agency saw her and insisted they could do something for her. For Judy it was a round of auditions again. Her big break came when she met producer Max Liebman, who was then putting together the famous Saturday Night Show Of Shows. "I'll^^ never forget that audition," she says. "The room was maybe as big as a coffee table. I did fifteen numbers for him and he didn't even smile. I was sure this man hated me." But this man didn't. He hired Judy. For three and a half years she sang and danced on the nation's first great TV program. She remembers, "We got to work every weekday at ten and put in a full day rehearsing. It was wonderful experience, and the spirit on the show was so great." When the program went off, Judy worked with Red Buttons, Fred Allen and, since October of 1955, she has been with Robert Q. Lewis. It was on the Allen show that she met Mort. Mort was there to substitute on piano for a very good friend, recording star Dick Hyman. Mort was no stranger to a TV studio. The possessor of a couple of musical degrees from Columbia University, Mort had worked as staff pianist for NBC, then as musical director at WCBS-TV. He played with many studio bands including Milton DeLugg's on Open House. The year he met Judy he was doing fourteen shows a week. He was even a deejay on the ABC network, as The Boy Next Door to Martin Block. "I knew I was going to marry Mort that very first summer, and I'll tell you why," Judy says. "I was going to Texas to play a club date, and Mort helped me work on the act. Then he gave me his own material. Of course, when another entertainer gives you his own material, you know it's love." When she got back from Texas, friends in Nutley told her of a house for sale. Mort bought it before they were married. It was the "haunted house" in the neighborhood. The windows were thick with dust. There was an authentic creak in the floors and a genuine oatter in the attic (squirrels). Well, the windows were washed and beige carpeting put to the floors, while an attempt was made to chase the squirrels back to their trees. The trees are magnificient, huge oak and horse chestnuts. The house itself is painted white with yellow trimmings. Today, it is a cheerful, pleasant home, outside or in. Uoth Mort and Judy have a taste for authentic antique furniture. Most of it is early American. The exception is the living room. The chairs and sofa are Louis IV, of green velvet and antique-white wood. Cocoa drapes hang from the window, and in the corner sits a handsome grand piano Mort has had since age ten. Right off the living room is the television room, and here the Americana is rampant, with dry sinks, a great-great-grandfather clock, and a cobbler's bench. The dining room is next, and is glassed on two sides facing the yard. Above the table hangs a real kerosene chandelier. To the side is a big kitchen and, qs often as not, the family eats there off a hutch table. Their bedroom has a handsome early American -styled bed, covered with a white nylon spread and canopy. "I always wanted a canopy bed," Judy says. "It's a wonderful feeling to look up and see that white sheath over you." The nursery is across the hall from the master bedroom. It is a conspicuously cheerful blue. The delightful floral decorations on the baby's chest were painted by Bonnie. Bonnie's own room is next door. She has a huge map on the wall that she requested for her birthday, so that she can locate daddy when he's on the road. ITiere are ballet pictures to inspire Bonnie in her dance study and, on one shelf, there is an autographed picture of Pat Boone. This was a personal gift from Pat. Mort has been Pat's musical director on the road during the past year. A couple of times luck had it that Pat and Mort worked the same oity as Judy. Once, when Pat was singing at Atlantic City's Steel m ^ w w 'w w I Can't Get Rid of I^Dark or Discolored Skin, freckles, Skin Spots?' HERE'S HELP! Mercolized Wax Cream 7 NIGHT PLAN Lightens. Beautifies Skin WhileYou Sleep Just follow the famous Mercolized Wax Cream 7 Night Plan to a whiter, smoother, lovelier skin. Smooth rich, luxurious Mercolized Wax Cream on your face or arms just before retiring each night for one week, You'll begin to see results almost at once . . , lightens dark skin, blotches, spots, freckles as if by magic! This is not a cover up cosmetic; Mercolized Wax Cream works UNDER the skin Surface. 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