Eydie Gorme

Although most of her career was conducted during the rock era, traditional pop singer Eydie Gormé carved out a place for herself in several areas of entertainment. For 20 years, from the mid-'50s to the mid-'70s, she consistently scored in the pop charts, with a parallel place in the Latin pop field from the 1960s on. She appeared on television and on the Broadway stage. And she was a major nightclub entertainer, headlining in Las Vegas showrooms and around the U.S. For most of her career, she worked both solo and in a duo with her husband, Steve Lawrence. Gormé was born Edith Gormezano, the youngest of three children of Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents (her father was a tailor from Sicily, her mother was from Turkey), in the New York City borough of the Bronx on August 16, 1931. Spanish and English were spoken in her home, and she grew up fluent in both languages. She showed an interest in singing early and made her radio debut at the age of three. By the time she was in high-school, she was singing with a band led by a friend named Ken Greengrass. After graduating from high-school, she got a job as a Spanish interpreter with the Theatrical Supply Export Company and attended the City College of New York at night. Soon, however, she determined to try to become a professional singer, and Greengrass became her manager. In 1950, she was hired by bandleader Tommy Tucker and toured with his group for two months. She then spent a year with Tex Beneke's band before going solo. In 1952, she was signed to Coral Records, which released a series of singles, beginning with "That Night of Heaven." In September 1953, she became a regular on the late-night talk show Tonight!, hosted by Steve Allen, which at that time was only broadcast in New York. Already on the show was singer...