CONNIE FRANCIS
G'day folks,
Welcome to the life of a superstar. Connie Francis is an American pop singer and the top-charting
female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although her chart
success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top
concert draw.
Synopsis
Born on
December 12, 1938, in Newark, New Jersey, Connie Francis won television's Startime
Talent Scouts at age 12 and signed with MGM Records. She performed
"Who's Sorry Now" on American Bandstand, and it became an
immediate hit. In 1974, Francis was the victim of a brutal rape in her hotel
room. Her lawsuit led to improved security measures throughout the hotel
industry. For years after she was assaulted, Francis didn't perform. She
returned to the stage in the early 1990s and released an autobiography Who's
Sorry Now, in 1984.
Singer
and actress Connie Francis was born Concetta Franconero, on December 12, 1938,
in Newark, New Jersey. The daughter of George and Ida Franconero, Connie won
first prize on Arthur Godfrey's Startime Talent Scouts television show
at age 12, and performed on the show for four years. Godfrey convinced her to
change her real last name to Francis after he had difficulty pronouncing it.
Francis
signed with MGM Records in 1955 after she was rejected by nearly every major
recording label. MGM released her first recording, "Freddy" because
the president of MGM had a son named by the same name. During the next two
years, she recorded a number of mediocre songs.
Francis
was all set to quit music and study pre-med at NYU on scholarship when her
father convinced her to record a decades-old tune, "Who's Sorry Now."
Dick Clark introduced the song on his Bandstand TV show in 1958, and it became
an immediate hit, selling a million copies less than six months after release.
She started working with songwriters Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield, and
recorded a string of hits, including "Stupid Cupid," "Lipstick
on Your Collar," "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," "My Heart
Has a Mind of Its Own" and "Don't Break the Heart That Loves
You."
Francis
is primarily known for her singing career, but she played the lead in a number
of films created for teenagers in the early 1960s. She starred in four motion
pictures, Where the Boys Are (1960), Follow The Boys (1963),
Looking For Love (1964) and When The Boys Meet The Girls (1965).
Sexual Assault
In the
late 1960s, Francis went to Vietnam to sing for the troops. Through the years,
she has performed charity work for organizations such as UNICEF, the USO and
CARE. Following a November 1974 performance at the Westbury Music Fair in
Westbury, New York, Francis was the victim of a brutal rape and robbery after
an intruder broke into her hotel room and held her at knifepoint.
She won a
lawsuit against the hotel for inadequate security, the result of which
influenced the hotel and motel industry to install deadbolts, viewing ports and
improved lighting. Francis was unable to sing for years after her attack, but
slowly recovered until she was again able to tour in the early 1990s. Her
autobiography, Who's Sorry Now, was released in 1984.
She was
married to first husband Dick Kanellis for just three months (1964-65) and to
Joseph Garzilli from 1973 to 1978. She and Garzilli adopted one son.
Clancy's comment: Another interesting career, and life.
I'm ...
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