Peggy Lee's Pre-recording Career, 1934-1941
Peggy Lee (born Norma Deloris Egstrom on May 26, 1920) began singing in public in 1934, when she was 14 years old. She was 21 years old when she "hit the big time," as vocalist with the nationally famous Benny Goodman Orchestra. In those seven years, Lee worked as a vocalist at every opportunity that she found. From the moment that she had finished high school, she had been assiduously pursuing a singing career. As detailed on this page, Peggy Lee's pre-Goodman period involved singing extensively, and in a variety of set ups: solo, with small combos, and even with big bands of lesser note.
According to the vocalist herself, singing had become her dream by the age of ten. She spent her early years in North Dakota, moving from Jamestown (1920-1928), to Nortonville (1928-1934), and then to Wimbledon (1934-1937). People who remembered her as a child, when she was variously employed as a farm hand and as a babysitter, would recall that she "sang all the time," and tried to write music, too. In her early teens, the budding vocalist's experience was limited to the church choir, the school's glee club, and assorted, special occasions -- such as the odd talent contest, recital, or PTA meeting.
A professional opportunity arose when she was 14, and was hired as the girl singer of a 5-piece college dance band, whose leader was named Doc Haines. In order to sing on weekends with Haines' band in nearby Valley City, without foregoing of her education, the young girl had to strike a deal with her school's superintendent, who allowed her to do make-up school in advance. The band performed both on parties and at Valley City's KVOC radio station, where Norma Deloris was also given a 15-minute sponsored radio show on Sundays. Lee writes in her autobiography that Haines used to refer to her as her "little blues singer" -- a moniker that may give an indication of early leanings toward bluesy and melancholy ballads.
Some biographical accounts state that, at the age of 16, Norma sang with The Jack Wardlaw Orchestra. Neither the singer nor banjoist Wardlaw are known to have corroborated this statement. If it truly happened, perhaps their involvement was too short to merit mention (maybe one or two performances when the traveling band that was passing through town?).
Norma graduated from high school in 1937, merely one day after she had turned 17, and promptly moved to the region's bigger city, Jamestown, where she had actually been born. Therein, she combined work as a relief girl at a coffee shop with more singing on radio. (The station, KRMC, was located in the same Gladstone Hotel where Norma did her job as relief girl).
Norma Deloris' next move was to an even bigger city, Fargo, where she again combined radio work with manual labor (this time as a bread slicer and as a waitress). Ken Kennedy, program manager of WDAY, hired the teenager on the same day when she auditioned. Since he also decided to put her on the air that very day, Kennedy immediately came up with a professional name for her: Peggy Lee.
The newly christened Peggy Lee was heard during WDAY's Noonday Variety Show. Along with the radio station's musicians, she formed a quintet billed as Four Jacks And A Queen. Still further, Lee also became part of the station's Hayloft Jamboree, a dance-barn spectacle that traveled around town on a weekly basis, and for which Norma assumed a farmgirl persona called Freckled-Face Gertie. On the Hayloft Jamboree shows, she sometimes sang with another local ensemble, which went by the name of Lem Hawkins and The Georgie Porgie Breakfast Food Boys.
In early 1938, Lee made an even more ambitious move, with mixed results: a trip to Hollywood. She initially found jobs only of the white collar type -- a short-order cook, a waitress, a carnival barker. Eventually, however, the teenager was hired as a singer at the Jade Supper Club in Hollywood Boulevard. Nevertheless, throat problems forced her to return to her hometown on the same year, and to undergo a tonsillectomy that, incompetently performed, caused hemorrhaging and required hospitalization.
Lee then spent about two years working for Fargo's WDAY again, and singing daily at The Powers Hotel's Coffee Shop, accompanied by a young organist named Lloyd Collins.
In 1939, Lee moved to another big city, Minneapolis, where she worked with the city's Sev Olsen Orchestra (a nine-piece band) on the Radisson Hotel's Flame Room, and at other venues. Lee was also heard on the city's KSTP station, on radio shows sponsored by Standard Oil.
When the nationally-known, touring Will Osborne Orchestra came to Minneapolis, Lee auditioned for them, and got the job. She and the band left town on the second week of November, 1939. During late 1939 and early 1940, the band and the singer performed regularly at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis.
In early 1940, while still in St. Louis, Peggy Lee received a job offer from Raymond Scott, who had just assembled a touring big band. (Best known as the composer of "Mountain High, Valley Low" and of oddly titled instrumentals --"Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals"-- Scott would go on to host the popular show Hit Parade and to become an inventor of various electronic devices. His music has become immortalized thanks to its use on Warner Brothers' classic cartoons from the late 1930's and 1940's.) Recurrent throat problems forced Lee to decline Scott's offer.
She was also forced to take a leave of absence from working with Osborne, in order to undergo surgery yet again. (This time it was, in her own words, "a lump in my throat.") By the time that she had recovered, Will Osborne's orchestra had temporarily disbanded.
Later in 1940, Lee went back to Hollywood, where she resumed work at The Jade.
From The Jade, she moved to the tonier Doll House, a dinner place in Palm Springs. Therein, she sang with the house's Guadalajara Trio. Lee claims to have developed her fondness for soft singing at this venue, where softness proved an effective approach to calm noisy audiences. Paradoxically, her relaxed and quietly sung vocals compelled customers to pay closer attention.
At the Doll House, Lee's performances were seen by a couple of visitors from Chicago, Freddie and Lois Mandel. They owned not only a Chicago department store chain but also the Detroit Tigers. The couple brought with them their friend Frank Bering, who co-owned Chicago's Ambassador East and West Hotels.
The West Hotel's Buttery Room specialized in romantic, intimate-sounding music. Bering asked Lee to travel to Chicago and work at the Buttery on a regular basis. Along with the quartet with whom she auditioned (The Four Of Us) Lee moved to Chicago in 1941.
At the Buttery, in the summer of 1941, Peggy Lee would be seen by a couple of well-known bandleaders who were playing in town. She was personally complimented by Glen Miller, for one. And Claude Thornhill (and/or his agency) wanted her to join Thornhill's band, too, but nothing came out of it. (Lee surmised that her managing agency had not approved of the idea, because Thornhill was signed to a different agency.)
[n. b.: Some of the above-given 1938-1941 dating might be slightly off. I have found different dates for the same events, and have used those who seemed more reliable and/or logical.]
Another bandleader who came to see Peggy Lee at the Buttery was Benny Goodman. In August of 1941, he offered her a job as his canary, and Peggy Lee immediately accepted.
It was with Goodman that Lee made her first recordings, and that she began her path toward national recognition as a singer. Lee herself has said that her years performing with big bands (Goodman's and, presumably, previous ones) taught her the value of discipline and training.
But, as detailed in this page (and contrary to a misconception found in a few biographical accounts), Peggy Lee's formative period had begun long before she joined The Benny Goodman Orchestra.
What's more, this discographer is inclined to believe that Peggy Lee's years with Benny Goodman, while enormously important for the progress of her career, were nonetheless a step backward in one aspect: the evolvement of personalized style of interpretation. Arguably, most of the work that Peggy Lee did with The Benny Goodman Orchestra reflects little of her individual style -- little of the intimacy and bluesiness that are said to have characterized her pre-Goodman approach, when she was singing at niteclubs, supper clubs, and smaller venues.
Peggy Lee's work as Goodman's canary should thus be deemed an adaptation to the demands that big bands and their audiences made on singers. Live audiences tended to expect a danceable tempo from most numbers, ballads included. Furthermore, vocals were secondary to the instrumental parts. "What's with all this balladry?," some concertgoers are said to have retorted, in response to the inclusion of the more romantic vocals in the Goodman orchestra's live concerts. Dave Weiner tells the following anecdote, which concerns events happening very late in December, 1942, or otherwise in the month of January, 1943:
[Quote]
My uncle saw the [Benny Goodman] band there [at The Paramount Theatre, in New York] and was unimpressed by [Frank] Sinatra, whom he had seen previously with Dorsey. He remembers that Peggy Lee sang a very slow "Where or When" with Benny Goodman, and was booed by some hecklers who yelled, "You stink!" Goodman stopped playing, stepped to the mike and told the audience to be quiet - then he swung into "Why Don't You Do Right" and cheers erupted for her and the band.
[End of quote]
During her period as Goodman's canary, Peggy Lee's own individual style is probably heard precious few times. The first of those times would be on December 24, 1941. On that date, Lee sang not with the full orchestra but with Goodman's sextet only. One of the resulting titles was her version of the aforementioned "Where Or When," which is still celebrated for its evocative, melancholic and intimate appeal. Also indicative of Lee's early stylistic leanings is a radio version of "These Foolish Things," from 1942, with Goodman's orchestra. This was the song that she had chosen years earlier, for her audition at Fargo's WDAY radio station, and the same song that she remembered singing at The Buttery Room, on the night when Goodman came to see her act.
Among the other songs that Lee recalls or implies singing before her days with The Benny Goodman Orchestra are:
Body And Soul (audition for The Sev Olsen Orchestra)
Deep In A Dream (frequent request, The Powers Hotel Coffee Shop, accompanied by organ)
I Can't Give You Anything But Love (audition for The Will Osborne Orchestra)
I Never Had A Chance (a favorite, as a child)
The Glory Of Love (amateur contest, ca. 1935)
Heaven (a favorite, as a very young child)
I Thought About You (implies to have sung it at The Powers Hotel Coffee Shop, and to consider it a favorite)
I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen (semi-classical Sunday matinee, Powers Hotel Coffee Shop)
The Man I Love (probably at WDAY; also as an audition for Frank Bering)
Moonglow (a favorite, as a child; with The Doc Haines Orchestra, 1934)
The Music Goes Round And Round (frequent request at The Powers Hotel Coffee Shop, accompanied by organ)
Solitude (a favorite, as a child)
" 'Tain't What You Do" (The Powers Hotel Coffee Shop, accompanied by organ)
These Foolish Things (audition song; see comments above)
Twilight On The Trail (amateur contest, ca. 1935)
Wishing (Will Make It So) (a favorite of hers; thus presumed to have sung it)
Would God I Were A Tender Apple Blossom (semi-classical Sunday matinee, Powers Hotel Coffee Shop)
You Oughtta Be In Pictures (audition for KVOC and The Doc Haines Orchestra, 1934)
Regrettably, no performances from this period are known to be extant. Peggy Lee's earliest-known performances date from her days as Benny Goodman's canary (1941-1943).