TÊTE-À-TÊTE WITH THE LEGENDARY PAULETTE ATTIE

Photo: (left to right) Peter Howard, John Wallowitch, Rod Derefinko, Frances "Frankie" Gershwin, Paulette Attie, Chuck Prentiss, Bertram Ross

I also enjoy making jewelry.  I mostly don’t take time to do it, but when I do, it’s a treat.  Adventures are always fun.  I find the best ones are not planned and are unexpected.  

Q: Do you follow fashion, trendy stuff, a particular diet?
PAULETTE: I enjoy looking at fashion magazines, to keep up with the latest trends, but I usually wear what’s classic and overrides trends.  My diet is semi vegetarian.

Q: What do you think of entertainers who accord so much importance to their wardrobes? Artists like Cher, Liberace, Aristide Bruant, etc...
PAULETTE: Good for them, if that’s what turns them on.  When asked how she created the role of, I believe Baby Doll in a Tennessee Williams play, Maureen Stapleton said, “Something happens to me when I put on those shoes.”  I love wearing beautiful gowns when I perform: In fact, I’ve a closet full of them.  I acquired a pair of chandelier earrings that Liberace gave to a friend.  They’ve very large, heavy, and gorgeous. I wear them whenever I can, but not when performing because they’re just too heavy.   

Q: Who are your favorites writers, poets, authors? 
PAULETTE: I’m kindly disposed to the New York Times reporters.  Most are articulate and care about content, syntax, and punctuation, thereby setting a good example for writers and readers.  Sharon Olds, a poet for today, Omar Khayyam, a poet for yesterday, William Shakespeare, a poet for all time.    

Q: The three favorite books you read in recent years?
PAULETTE: I read many books which served as references for my book, “The Seven Keys to Live a Masterful Life.”  Here are three that I especially enjoyed: 1-Essays by Albert Einstein from “The World as I See It”, 2- "Marie Curie A Life" by Susan Quinn, 3- "Singers & the Song" by Gene Lees.
 

 

Q: What are your favorite countries and cities?
PAULETTE:  Paris – a beautiful lady,  London – a handsome gentleman, Paramaribo, Suriname – a wild amalgam of cultures and creatures. 

Q: And your favorite hideouts?
PAULETTE: The Friars Club, the Donnell Library, A special hill in Central Park, the Universities and museums of whatever city I’m working in or visiting.

Q: And escapades?
PAULETTE:  Isn’t this a family publication? 

Q: Who do you hang out with?
PAULETTE: Lots of theatre folk, my brother and sister whenever I can.

Q: Are you a rebel or an easy going good girl?
PAULETTE: Appearances might belie it, but I’m a rebel.

Q: Have you ever rebelled against “something big”? 
PAULETTE: Yes!  Injustices in particular. 

Q: What makes Paulette Attie angry and mad?
PAULETTE:  Indifference.

Q: Do you make people mad?
PAULETTE:  I hope so, even though I don’t like it, or intend to do so. 

Q: How do you make them mad, what do you do?
PAULETTE: Break with tradition, think ahead, come up with new ideas.

Photo and caption by Suzanne Freeman: Paulette Attie runs the scales on a piano while students at P.S. 1 in New York City loosen up their vocal chords.

 

 

 WORLD ART CELEBRITIES JOURNAL called her "The Immortal". LA FEMME MAGAZINE's Louise de Chambertin wrote: "She is Glorious!". ART AND STYLE MAGAZINE saw in  Attie "One of the greatest American singers-entertainers of our time". Paulette made both the Jewish and International lists of the 100 most unusual and outstanding women of the year.  In just one single month, 7 magazines and newspapers in the United States and Europe wrote glowing articles about this legendary artist. And three times, her photo crowned their front page and covers! People use to say, legends are made not created. It is true to a certain degree. The ultimate truth is this: Legends are nor made, nor created. They are legends! They escape us. They are beyond our intellectual and emotional measurements. They transcend time and space. And since when, time and space are or were created? They were before us and will remain long time after we are gone. And this is WHY we call the best of us "LEGENDS". When a legend is born like Paulette Attie, we do not take note. When a legend like Paulette Attie enters the SCALA of our lives, the shadows and the lights of all understanding and confusion, the sublime and the absurd intellectualism, the beauty and the provocative, the time and space mingle, unite, begin to disturb us and confuse the hell out of us. We do not fully understand the magnitude of their talents and immense impact on us. We smile, we laugh, we admire them, we applaud them, we gossip about them, sometime we hate them and envy them...but almost all the time we call them "LEGENDS". If they have passed away, they become "LEGENDS". If they are still around, we call them "LIVING LEGENDS". And I have problem with this. Why LIVING legends? Why not simply LEGENDS, since we did agree that they escape time, space and the mind of those who naively taught us that we are bound by time and space. PAULETTE ATTIE is this sort of legend: TRANSCENDENTAL!

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