Barbara Cook

A singer with a warm, light soprano, Barbara Cook became a successful Broadway musical performer in the 1950s and '60s. In the '70s, she moved largely into cabaret singing, at which she was equally successful. Born Barbara Nell in Atlanta, GA, on October 25, 1927, she took an early interest in singing and appeared in kiddie shows as a child. At 14, she won the ten-dollar prize at an amateur-night contest at the Roxy Theatre in Atlanta, singing "My Devotion." In February 1948, accompanied by her mother, she moved to New York to pursue a career in musical theater. The composer Vernon Duke, after hearing her sing at an audition, recommended that she perform at Camp Tamiment, a summer resort in the Poconos, and in the summer of 1950 she was seen there by Max Gordon, who with his partner Herbert Jacoby ran the Blue Angel nightclub in New York. She made her professional debut at the Blue Angel shortly thereafter. As a result, in 1951 she was cast in a featured role in Flahooley, a Broadway musical with songs written by Sammy Fain and E.Y. Harburg . It opened May 14, 1951, and closed after only 40 performances on June 17. But it was recorded for an original Broadway cast album by Capitol Records, Cook's recording debut. After the closing of Flahooley, Cook took a second booking at the Blue Angel. On March 9, 1952, she married actor David LeGrant. (They divorced in 1965.) She returned to Broadway in a revival of Oklahoma!, a limited engagement at the City Center, playing the featured role of Ado Annie. It opened August 31, 1953, and ran 40 performances until October 3, then went on a national tour. Cook returned to New York for another City Center revival, this one of Carousel, in which she played the featured role of Carrie Pipperidge. It opened June 2, 1954, and ran 79...