Lisa Kirk

Actress/vocalist Lisa Kirk enjoyed an extended career primarily like a nightclub entertainer, although she also created featured tasks in Broadway musicals, acted on tv shows, made some recordings, and also worked anonymously like a Hollywood “ghost vocalist,” updating the tone of voice of Rosalind Russell within the 1962 film Gypsy. She was created Elise Marie Kirk in Charleroi, PA, on Feb 25, 1925, and elevated in Roscoe, PA. Her dad, George Kirk, sang in vaudeville and got his girl on-stage as a kid. As an adolescent, she researched music and dance in the Pittsburgh Playhouse. In 1944, she was a big-band vocalist with Jimmy Palmer & His Orchestra in Baltimore. After shifting to NY and getting careers in nightclubs and in the theatre, she was solid inside a presented part within the Broadway musical Allegro, compiled by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, which allowed her to sing probably the most unforgettable song within the display, “The Gentleman Is really a Dope.” Allegro had not been a success, starting on Oct 10, 1947, and shutting after just 315 shows on July 10, 1948. Nonetheless it produced Kirk’s name. She made an appearance on the initial Broadway ensemble record released by RCA Victor Information and quickly was ensemble in another main Broadway musical, obtaining the second feminine business lead in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate and performing the coy “Generally True for you in My Style” and “Why Can’t You Act.” The present opened on Dec 30, 1948, and went 1,077 shows, until July 28, 1951. Once again, Kirk made an appearance on the initial Broadway ensemble recording released by Columbia Information, a chart-topping strike. Kirk didn’t go back to Broadway for quite some time, but she contracted with RCA Victor Information in 1949 and have scored two chart strikes in 1950, “Dearie,” a duet with Fran Warren, and “The Aged Piano Move Blues,” a duet with Eddie Cantor. (Sepia Information later put together these as well as other pop recordings she produced between 1949 and 1952 for the unlicensed Compact disc PERSONALLY I THINK a Melody Comin’ On.) IN-MAY 1953 she participated in some 10″ LPs offering songs in one classic musical using one part, and music from another on the various other: Jumbo/Babes in Hands, Gal Crazy/Porgy & Bess, and Kiss Me, Kate/Anything Runs. She continued to become best nightclub entertainer through the 1950s, also producing appearances on Television variety series like the Colgate Humor Hour, The Jimmy Durante Present, The Walter Winchell Present, The Nat Ruler Cole Present, as well as the Dinah Shoreline Chevy Present. Her frequent performances on Chat of the city (later referred to as The Ed Sullivan Present) are sampled over the recording The Sullivan Years: An Evening with Rodgers & Hammerstein (TVT Information). She also produced numerous looks as an celebrity on such Television series as Studio room One, Kraft Tv Theatre, The Motorola Tv Hour, and General Electric powered Theatre. Her nightclub work was captured on her behalf just single LP, Lisa Kirk Sings in the Plaza, released by MGM Information in 1959. (Sepia Information later on released an unlicensed reissue from the recording on Compact disc with bonus paths including even more of her early-’50s RCA recordings plus some tv transcriptions.) Also in 1959, she produced yet another saving of Kiss Me, Kate, that one a studio room solid recording for Capitol Information. (The theory was to reconvene the principals from the Broadway creation, also including Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison, and redo the rating in stereo system.) Her dubbing of Rosalind Russell’s performing tone of voice in Gypsy (and, needless to say, for the soundtrack recording released on Warner Bros. Information) was among her few careers in feature movies. Another was a little onscreen part within the Mel Brooks humor The Companies (1968). She came back to Broadway as an alternative ensemble member within the 1963 musical Here’s Like. Also within the ’60s, she continuing to operate in range (The Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Present) so when an celebrity (Bewitched) on Television. Kirk was sidelined by way of a serious car crash in the past due ’60s, but she battled back again and came back to her normal pursuits in the first ’70s, relaunching her nightclub profession with an appearance on the St. Regis Sheraton Resort in NY in 1972 and going for a role within the Jerry Herman musical Mack & Mabel that went on Broadway in nov 1974, having a solid recording on ABC Information. (She re-created her overall performance of “Touch Your Troubles Aside” on Herman’s recording An Night with Jerry Herman, released by Laureate Information.) Her last Broadway appearance is at a revival from the Simply noël Coward humor Style for Living that ran from June 20, 1984, to January 20, 1985. She continuing to operate in cabaret in her old age, appearing, for instance, at the membership Rainbow and Superstars atop Rockefeller Middle in 1989. ON, MAY 21 of this season, she was highlighted within a concert creation of Porter’s Nymph Errant in London, that was documented for an record released by EMI Information. They were among her last shows. She contracted lung malignancy which was diagnosed just weeks before her loss of life at 65 on November 11, 1990, in NY.