Jill Corey
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Jill Corey
Music | Jill Corey, 85, Coal Miner’s Daughter Turned Singing Sensation, Dies
Jill Corey, 85, Coal Miner’s Daughter Turned Singing Sensation, Dies
The subject of a Life magazine cover story, she found early fame as a star of ’50s era television and drew comparisons to Judy Garland.
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Jill Corey, a torch singer who soared to fame as a teenage television star in the early 1950s, at one point becoming one of Columbia Records’ top vocalists, died on April 3 at a hospital in Pittsburgh. She was 85.
The cause was septic shock, her daughter, Clare Hoak, said.
Ms. Corey was irresistible to the mythmakers of the time. A stirring contralto with a pixie haircut, wide expressive mouth and enormous eyes, she drew comparisons to Judy Garland and had quite an origin story.
The youngest daughter of a widowed coal miner, she was born Norma Jean Speranza in Avonmore, Pa. When she was 17, a local DJ helped her record a tape singing unaccompanied, except for the sound of a train rattling as it passed by the studio. They then sent the tape to Mitch Miller, the bandleader turned hitmaker for Columbia Records in New York City. He invited her to audition in person and sent a plane ticket.
By the end of the day, she had a record deal, auditions with television show hosts and the attention of Life magazine, which decided to make her a cover girl next to the headline “Small Town Girl Gets New Name and a New Career.” A seven page spread with photographs by Gordon Parks, the article recorded (or re-enacted in some cases) her auditions, her leave-taking from Avonmore and her first night on television. She had just turned 18.
She earned a spot on “The Dave Garroway Show,” a Friday night variety series hosted by a low-key former radio host otherwise known as the Communicator. Mr. Garroway was a television omnipresence at the time, part of the team that hosted the “Today” show when it began in the early 1950s. He was the one who renamed her Jill Corey — a name plucked from the phone book. On that first Friday night, Life magazine reported, she sang the classic jazz standard “I’ve Got the World on a String.”
“An upturned face that’s cuter than a French poodle,” wrote Jack O’Brian, a television columnist for The New York Journal-American. “She sings like a warmhearted little angel.”
Silver Screen magazine said she had a “voice as lovely as a glass slipper, and a personality to match.”
Before the end of the decade, Ms. Corey had a spot on the “Johnny Carson Show” (a variety show precursor to his late-night talk show) and the NBC series “Your Hit Parade,” in which a regular cast of vocalists sang the top-rated songs of the week.
For a time Ms. Corey even had her own show, 15 minutes of song that followed the news once a week, a programming format that placed many popular singers in similar slots across the networks.
She recorded many records and performed at Manhattan nightclubs like the Copacabana and the Blue Angel. (Mr. Miller, in tight control of her career, turned down Broadway roles for her because her nightclub work was more lucrative.) And she was courted by heartthrobs like Eddie Fisher and Frank Sinatra (as he and Ava Gardner were divorcing).
She also made a “terrible movie,” in her words, called “Senior Prom” (1958) .
Ms. Corey was engaged to a Brazilian diplomat when Don Hoak, the third baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates, began a campaign to woo her. She had sung the national anthem at one Pirates game, and he had become smitten. He haunted her live performances — once sitting in as a trumpet player, at the invitation of her band, who colluded with him, and once walking onstage with a magnum of Champagne and two glasses. Finally she relented.
They married in 1961 , and she gave up her career. Their daughter, Clare, was born in 1965. Mr. Hoak died of a heart attack at the wheel of his car in 1969 while chasing his brother-in-law’s stolen automobile.
Ms. Corey returned to performing a few years later — “Jill Corey Returns With Voice Intact,” The New York Times declared in 1972 — and continued to work steadily at small nightclubs and in musicals around the country. But she never recaptured her early fame.
“Her voice has darkened and ripened,” Stephen Holden wrote in The Times in 1988, reviewing a performance at Danny’s Skylight Lounge on West 46th Street, “acquiring a vulnerable maturity that evokes an interesting mixture of Judy Garland and Rosemary Clooney.”
“I’d arrived a star and done it all,” Ms. Corey told a reviewer in 1972, “so I didn’t know how to knock on doors, but what else could I do? Since I was 4, all I’ve ever done is sing. When you have talent, and they won’t let you do your thing, it’s very crushing; especially when you’re used to the red carpet.”
Norma Jean Speranza was born on Sept. 30, 1935, the youngest of five children. Her father, Bernard Speranza, worked in a coal mine in Kiski Township, Pa.; when Norma Jean became Jill, she bought it for him, renamed the Corey Mine. Her mother, Clara (Grant) Speranza, died when she was 4.
Her first performances, at school amateur hours, were not memorable: typically, enthusiastic Carmen Miranda imitations for which she earned last place. At 13, however, she won a talent contest sponsored by the Lion’s Club, the prize for which was a spot singing on local radio. The next year, she was hired by a local orchestra to sing standards, $5 a night, 7 days a week. For the demo she sent Mr. Miller, she sang a Tony Bennett song, “Since My Love Has Gone.”
She sang often at home, said Ms. Hoak, her only immediate survivor. Ms. Corey would sing her daughter to sleep — Judy Garland and Billie Holiday, mostly, and to such an extent that her daughter complained, “Don’t you know any happy songs?”
Ms. Corey’s voice remained distinctive, and she kept her flair. A few years ago, she fell in her home and called 911. When the fire department emergency team arrived, she received them with typical aplomb, a Scotch in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
The firefighters balked at the cigarette.
As Ms. Hoak recalled: “Mom told them, ‘Oh come on! You boys know how to put out a fire, don’t you?’ ”
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The Dave Garroway show auditioned for female singers and there was a premium on time and studio space. There was no piano and Skitch Henderson, the music director, had to accompany the young hopefuls on a celeste, and instrument, which despite its similarity to a piano is very difficult to sing with. Jill was very nervous during the hustle and bustle of all this, but Garroway reassured her and she won the audition. Jill was raised by an older sister after her mother had died and then began singing with a small band which played in towns near Avonmore for $5. a night. One evening when the band traveling to Pittsburgh, the manager of a LaTrobe radio station was in the audience. He was impressed with her and asked he to make a tape recording for him as he thought it would help her. The station manager sent it to a recording executive in New York and two days later she was signed to a recording contract. She later became the top female singer on the "Dave Garroway Show", and later the "Johnny Carson Show."
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September 30 ,
1935
in Avonmore, Pennsylvania, USA
April 3 ,
2021
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (septic shock)
Don Hoak ( 27 December 1961 -
9 October 1969) (his death)
(1 child)
GREETINGS,
DOLL . . . Pretty songstress Jill Corey buzzes friends from Idlewild on
her arrival here this morning from Hollywood, where Jill discussed an upcoming
movie contract. The studios started to "bite" after Jill was signed
to star on the new Hit Parade show this fall.
..
..
What
time is it here in New York?" asks pretty songstress Jill Corey after her
arrival via American Airlines from Los Angeles. Jill is in town to
run her disk jockey program for the College Radio Stations Network.
..
..
Jill's
professional career started at age thirteen, when she began singing with
the Johnny Murphy Orchestra in her hometown of Avonmore, Pennsylvania.
Her starting salary was five dollars a night, but she received a raise
to six dollars per night shortly before she left the band three and a half
years later to sign with Columbia Records and debut on the Dave Garroway
Show o n October 2, 1953. Read
much more about Jill's early days as the Belle of Avonmore
by clicking here or on the image at left.
Click
on the cover photo above or at left to view the entire feature article
on Jill Corey in the November 9, 1953 issue of LIFE.
To read the entire article just as it appeared in LIFE magazine
more than fifty years ago, click
here . Adode Acrobat reader is required to view this
.pdf file reproduction of the magazine article kindly
prepared for us by Mr. John Greenstreet.
..
This
is the very first publicity photo of Jill issued by Columbia Records after
signing Jill to a seven-year contract in the fall
of 1953. The picture was taken that September and was to appear often
on sheet music and in magazine articles about the young star for the next
several years. Click here or on the
image at left for a larger view.
..
The
November 23, 1953 issue of Tempo magazine, a pocket-sized
news weekly, featured this picture of Jill on the inside of its cover page,
along with a brief story in its entertainment section about her then two-month-old
television career. Click here
or on Jill's image at left to see the article.
..
The
exact origin of this photo is unknown, but it apparently was featured in
a color newspaper supplement sometime during the run of the Dave
Garroway Show , on which both Jill and Canadian singer Shirley Harmer
were featured. The reporter responsible for the caption was not well
informed, since he misspelled the names of both subjects in the picture.
Click here or on the image at left to learn the
origin of the jeweled tiaras the ladies are modeling.
..
The
February 1954 issue of Inside TV magazine carried an extensive
four-page article about our young star after her first six months in New
York. Click here or on the Jill's
image at left to read the entire story.
..
At
age eighteen, Jill graced the cover of TV Preview , program
guide for St. Louis area television stations for the week of April 17-23,
1954. Click image for larger view and to read the original
caption.
..
During
the summer of 1954, Song Hits magazine featured this photo
of the 18-year-old Jill along with an article about her early success.
Click here or on the image at left
to read the article.
..
Jill
is pictured here along with Jack Haskell and host Bill Cullen on the set
of the venerable Stop the Music during its last season on
network radio in 1954. Click the image for larger view and click
here for a potpourri of assorted pictures and stories from Jill's
career.
..
The
September 1954 issue of TV Star Parade magazine carried a
pictorial feature devoted to the young Jill Corey entitled Fancy
Free . Click here or on the
image to read the entire article. We wish to thank fan Betty Racine
of Wilmington, Delaware for contributing this feature.
..
During
the summer of 1954, Richard Hayes, another young singer around Manhattan,
took Jill to the Copa to see the legendary Frank Sinatra. Click
here or on the image to read the hilarious story of just how this one
date led to Jill's long friendship with Old Blue Eyes .
The
February 1955 issue of Woman's Home Companion magazine featured
an extensive first person article by Jill in which she tells about her
early days in New York City, when her career was just beginning.
Click here or on the image at the left to
read the entire article and see eleven more photos of Jill at nineteen.
..
Jill
was an international star. Even some of her earliest Columbia
releases were available on the Continent on the Philips label, and in Australia
Jill could be heard on the Coronet label. Sheet music for her popular
songs was published in both Australia and the U.K. Click
here or on the image at left for examples of both.
During
the 1955-56 television season, Jill was a regular on the Johnny Carson
Show , Johnny's early comedy-variety show for CBS. Click
here or on Jill's image at left to see several publicity photos released
to promote the show, along with some original suggested captions.
Click here to see what else Jill was up to
on television in 1956 - her very own Jill Corey Show .
..
During
that 1955-56 TV season, when Jill was lead singer on the Johnny Carson
Show originating from Los Angeles, TV Fan magazine
ran separate articles on both Jill and Johnny in their April 1956 issue.
Click here or on the image at left
to read just how Jill identified and learned to cope with A Wolf
on Every Corner .
..
Film
and stage star Ricardo Montalban plays chaperone at the Harwyn Club for
TV and record singing star Jill Corey and Jack Haley, Jr., son of the famed
comedian. Jack and Jill have been going up that romance hill
since she moved to Hollywood.
That was the original caption supplied for this photo. Click on the
image at left for a larger view and also a second picture of Jill joining
the Montalbans, Ricardo and wife Georgiana Young, at another club.
..
Here
are Jill and Jack Haley, Jr. out on another evening on the town!
Jill
served as resident girl singer for a season on the Robert Q. Lewis
Show , an afternoon musical variety program on CBS television that
originated from New York. On the occasion of what appears to be Robert
Q.'s birthday, Jill attended a party at his apartment in Manhattan.
Click the image at left to see three informal snapshots taken at the party,
as Jill participated in the festivities.
Click
here or on Jill's image at left for an entire portfolio of black and
white publicity stills of Jill released beginning in the fall of 1953 and
extending through the 1980's, when Jill capped her long career with her
one-woman show at Carnegie Hall.
..
In
September 1955, Columbia Records released a cute novelty song by Jill called
Ching Ching-a-Ling . It was
part of a promotional campaign for a line of lingerie by the same name
offered by Munsingwear for whom Jill then became spokesperson.
While Columbia backed the recording with another novelty tune called Look!
Look! , they provided Munsingwear with a special edition with Ching
Ching-a-Ling on both sides of the record and this special
protective sleeve. Click the image at left for larger view and click
here to see Jill in the studio at Columbia records on the very day
she recorded the song.
Jill's
biggest hit single record, Love Me to Pieces , was introduced
on an episode of the same name on the television anthology Studio
One Summer Theater during July, 1957 . Jill
had recorded the song the previous month, but she could not appear as part
of the program cast because she was already committed to other appearances
around the country that summer. Click on Jill's image at left and
find a collection of sheet music covers featuring Jill and many of the
songs she recorded for Columbia during the 1950's.
Jill
appeared on the cover of the Chicago Tribune's TV Week for
the week of May 18-24, 1957.
..
..
That
May 18-24, 1957 edition of the Chicago Tribune TV Week carried
this story of Jill's rise to stardom on its first page.
..
Not
to be outdone by the competition, the Chicago Sun-Times also
featured Jill on the cover of its TV program guide, TV Prevue ,
during the week of September 1, 1957, the week Jill debuted as lead singer
on Your Hit Parade .
..
Jill
was lead singer on Your Hit Parade, along with co-stars Alan
Copland, Virginia Gibson and Tommy Leonetti, during the 1957-58 season,
the final year the program appeared on NBC television. Click
here or on Jill's image for a full page of photos and articles which
chronicle Jill's life and career during that very busy period for her.
..
The
July 1957 issue of Modern Screen magazine featured a pictorial
on Jill and her date with a young serviceman on leave from the army.
Click here or on the image at left for
the full story. That serviceman
was actor Ben Cooper, and you can read his thoughts about this arranged
"date" by click
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