TÊTE-À-TÊTE WITH THE LEGENDARY PAULETTE ATTIE

 

Q: On each of your radio shows, you sang a song by the guest being interviewed. That's remarkable. Even unbelievable, considering the great number of celebrities and stars you interviewed. Do you remember how many songs you had to learn? Any favorite (s)? 
PAULETTE:  In addition to singing songs by and with my guests, I sang songs depicting different eras of American musical theatre, from operettas and the revue form, to the great book musicals.  I sort of knew many of them, because songs from the musical theatre were "mother's milk to me," to quote Liza from "My Fair Lady."  Well, favorites are almost too numerous.  Cole Porter's "It's De-lovely" continues to be my opening number for many shows.   I sang "It's Better with a Union Man" with the song's writer, Harold Rome, playing and singing with me.  That was a special treat.

Q: Why did you do that? Strategy? Savoir-faire? Love for music? Prolific versatility or just fun? There is only one superstar radio personality who does what you did, years ago. Marianne McPartland from the National Public Radio.
PAULETTE:  Love for the music prompted me.  Probably I thought I was knowledgeable in this area, and it would give me a chance to sing weekly on the radio.  And I learned a lot more, especially about the songwriters, than I thought I knew. 

Q: You won the Silver Globe Award playing a French nightclub singer on TV's The Yanks Are Coming. How did you get the job? You are so sophisticated for that role. Was it good contact? Talent? Persona? The Femme Fatale aura of Paulette Attie?
PAULETTE:  I arrived early for the audition.  This is not usual for me, but it's a good lesson for all, myself very much included.  After the director heard my audition, he said, "she's the one," and no one came along afterward to convince him otherwise.  I'm not sure what you mean by "Was it good contact?"  I always say that on a scale of 1 to 10 as to what gets you the job, talent is number 11.  Still, it's the quality that most interests me.  It's what challenges the mind and soul of a creative person and gives the greatest satisfaction, when one taps into that well.

 

 

Maybe you mean that "good contact," is what gives an artist the opportunity to exhibit his or her talent...except there are some talents that cannot be denied.  Ahhh, Femme Fatales.  My sister Ariana always imagined that I was a femme fatale.  I've since come to think that we give the aura of being a femme fatale when we really have no need to be one.    

Q: And later you had leading roles on General Hospital, Another World, All My Children, Sesame Street, Mercy or Murder etc. So, Paulette, do you consider yourself a soap opera queen or "LADY OF THE STAGE"? There is a big difference here. Right or wrong?
PAULETTE:  In today's times, we're mostly allowed to be what and who we want to be.  When on the stage, I'm totally a stage performer, just as I loved playing the "femme fatale" voice of the French cat Mel Blanc's voice pursued in the cartoon, "Pepe le Pew." 

Q: You played the leading female roles in musicals and operettas: My Fair Lady, Gypsy, Can-Can, The Merry Widow, La Vie Parisienne and plays by
Neil Simon, Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward. How in heavens, one woman and one voice can fit in all these multivariate and multi-complex roles? This leads me to an adjacent question: Do you have a PAULETTE ATTIE's personal style. A style or genre you created, or simply you fit everywhere?
PAULETTE:  This gets back to your “talent” question, and to the matter of passion.  I LOVE talent in others and have a passion for finely written plays, songs, roles.  When working on “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” from Gypsy, for instance, I started dreaming about it, imagining what makes the singer, now me, have to sing these words.  I think about the phrasing, how the melody reflects the feelings of the character, etc.  The song becomes a part of my life. 

 

 

That song is now part of who I am, which alters and changes, so I sing it differently now than when I first performed it in the show.  I recently heard a well known standard given a lack luster performance.   “Wait a minute, that song deserves better,” I said to myself.  I’m now working on that song, “The Impossible Dream,” which I’ll be including in a future cabaret show.

Q: On your award winning weekly radio show, Paulette Attie's Musical Playbill  on WNYC  you sang songs by America's greatest  songwriters, who accompanied you on the air. Great names and legends like Lee Adams, Harold Arlen, Jerry Bock, Cy Coleman, "Yip" Harburg, Sheldon Harnick, (Although we’ve become friends, Sheldon Harnick wasn’t one of my guests.  You can include Gene Kelly, if you'd like or keep it just to the songwriters), Burton Lane, Cy Coleman, John Green, Dorothy Fields, Jimmy Mc Hugh, Arthur Schwartz, Mary Rodgers, Harold Rome, Charles Strouse and Jule Styne. How did you manage to bring all these fabulous people? Were they your friends? Did you work with them? I know you are a legend yourself, a world-class star, Your fame would attract the best of the best. So was it your fame which brought those legends to your radio show,
or simply, your producers had access to them?                           
PAULETTE:  I had help from a grand gentleman named Dr. Albert Sirmay, who was Chief Editor at Chappell Music, music publishers, and who had been a well known composer of operettas.  All the songwriters adored him.  If I said, as he told me to, that Dr. Sirmay recommended they be a guest on my show, they readily agreed.  Since I also functioned as the show’s Producer, I had free reign to choose my guests.  I had access to many of the greats through this wonderful man. I also convinced Dr. Sirmay to be a guest on my show, which he was reluctant to do.  He had a pronounced accent and hesitated a lot when speaking, while searching for the correct word.  He said he’d only allow his interview on the air if he approved of it. 

Continues on the next page.