About The Singing Rage, Miss Patti Page She was norn Clara Ann Fowler, November 8, 1927, in Claremore, Oklahoma. Her father worked for the railroad; married and divorced twice; children: Kathleen, Daniel (both adopted)

In the decade immediately following World War II, preceding the growing popularity of of rock and roll, a set of star vocalists rose to the top of popular music, displacing the big swing bands that listeners and dancers were the musical mainstay.

In the mid 1940's Patti Page was given a regular afternoon spot on KTUL radio. Jack Rael, a saxophone playing band agent, heard her singing on the air and offered his services as her personal manager. Rael devoted himself entirely to Patti Page's career, for 50% of what she made.

Page's first national exposure came when she moved to Chicago. After months of hard touring. She was almost destitute when she appeared on the ABC network radio show, The Breakfast Club. Her rise to stardom thereafter was swift. Only 20 years of age, Patti was signed by Mercury Records in 1948. Mercury in the late 1940s was the domain of legendary pop producer Mitch Miller, who later moved on to dominate Columbia. Miller was the king of electronic voice self-synch overdubbing, laying one track over another.

Thus, Patti Page sounded as harmonizing with herself on the records, her signature sound. Page, having grown up in Oklahoma singing country music, was comfortable with country-flavored material that Mitch also liked. Voila, The Tennessee Waltz, a super-smash.
(Continued...)

"Tennessee Waltz" was first recorded by a country band (would you believe, Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys?). It was composed by King and his lead vocalist, Redd Stewart. It was a minor hit both for King's group and for country vocalist Cowboy Copas. When Patti got ahold of the song, it sold more copies than the previous versions combined and multiplied by ten. In the ensuing years, over 500 cover versions of "Tennessee Waltz" appeared, and the song remains an indelible part of American popular culture. Page's career never quite reached such a peak again, but she remained one of the country's most popular singers through most of the 1950s, strongly identified in the public mind with country-tinged pop songs, such as 1950's well-received "Mockin' Bird Hill" and Page's personal favorite, "Old Cape Cod," from 1956. Another million-seller for Page was the novelty pet-shop ode "Doggie in the Window"; a widely enjoyed parody of the tune by the outrageous country comedians Homer and Jethro confirmed its near-universal familiarity. Throughout the 1950s, Page was a fixture of the television variety-show circuit. In 1957 she was offered her own host slot on The Big Record, a rock and roll-oriented musical program. But Page's laid-back style proved ill suited to the brashness of the rock era. Look magazine noted that "clinkers popped up in the program and there were changes in the staff" in an attempt to rescue it. But the show did not last; nor did a 1958 successor, The Patti Page Show.

Page moved from Mercury to Columbia Records (presumably moving with Mitch to sing along with Mitch) in 1962, and her new label gradually began to steer her in the direction of country music, with which she had been nominally associated all along. A series of country LPs in the late 1960s and early 1970s were moderately successful, and as late as 1981, Page cracked the country Top 40, with a single on Nashville's Plantation Records (Shelby Singleton's Harper Valley PTA Jeanie C. Riley one hit wonder label).

In the early 1990s Page lived near San Diego. The mother of two children she adopted during one of her two marriages, she still made regular appearances on the nightclub circuit. As a reviewer for Variety noted in 1990, "[Perhaps] the most surprising thing about watching and listening to a live Patti Page show is realizing how little her pipes have changed. The head tones are as clear and the chest voice as rich as in the golden Mercury Record days."

More recently, Patti Page has been a fund raising fixture at Public Television stations. Patti Page was the "singing rage" of her time, credited with fourteen million-selling records during the 1950s. .

FOR PATTI'S DISCOGRAPHY & TO CATCH HER TV PERFORMANCE OF
(How Much Is That) DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW
CLICK HERE

Top Secret, Science Fiction Theatre Were Among The Shows
That Kicked Off The TV Show Syndication Format. Read All About It Below!

Syndiwhat?At the emergence of TV's golden age in the 1950's, the average person on the street probably thought that a "syndicated show" was a mob rubout on the street. Then, most shows originated at the networks to be telecast on the networks. It was Jack Webb who probably pioneered syndication when he took Dragnet, the definitive cop show he starred in, produced, directed and owned (via his Mark IV Productions, clang clang), and syndicated reruns as Badge 714. Local, independent stations, dangling alone, clammored for programming and reruns went flying to them like the paper saucers in an Ed Wood sci-fi movie. Singers such as Eddie Fisher, Frankie Lane and Nat King Cole had their fifteen minutes of network time, Perry Como would burgeon to an hour, but many great singing stars were left out in the cold. Some entrepreneurs (a few ex Hal Roach execs) raillied around the Singing Rage, Miss Patti Page, Oldsmobile foot the bill, and Patti (after a brief stint on CBS) went into national syndication. Ziv Productions, best known for the Truman Bradley hosted anthology series Science Fiction Theatre and spy soaper Top Secret rounded out the syndie scene as we know it today.
According to TV World
The top 20 syndicated shows of the 1950's were:
1. The Perry Como Show
2. The Patti Page Show
3. Frankie Laine Time
4. Vincent Lopez & His Orchestra
5. The Nat King Cole Show
6. Country Music Jamboree
7. Lassie
8. Science Fiction Theatre With Truman Bradley
9. The Eddie Fisher Show
10. Arthur Murray Dance Party (summer replacement)
11. Journey To Adventure
12. Commander Cody & His Rangers
13. Jane Froman Sings
14. Winky Dink & You (Saturday kiddee show)
15. I Led Three Lives (Richard Carlson
16. Superman (George Reeves, syndicated after network bounce)
17. The Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahoney Show
18. Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle
19. Truth Or Consequences (would you believe, Bob Barker!)
20. The Ed Wynn Show

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