Diahann Carroll, groundbreaking television and broadway star, dead at 84

Legendary Diahann Carroll, the captivating singer and actress who came from the Bronx to win a Tony Award, receive an Oscar nomination and make television history with her turns on Julia and Dynasty, has died Friday. She was 84. Carroll died at her home in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer.

I like to think that I opened doors for other women, although that wasn’t my original intention.

Diahann Carroll

Carroll was born Carol Diann Johnson in the Bronx, New York, in 1935. When Carroll was an infant, the family moved to Harlem, where she grew up. She took piano lessons regularly as a child and first began singing around age 6, as a member of the Tiny Tots choir in Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. At 10 years old, the musically-gifted Carroll received a scholarship from the Metropolitan Opera to study at New York’s High School of Music and Art, and was a classmate of Billy Dee Williams. In many interviews about her childhood, Diahann Carroll recalls her parents’ support, enrolling her in dance, singing, and modeling classes.

As a teenager she became interested in fashion and at age 14, she sent a picture of herself to the fashion editor at Ebony. She later was one of four teenage girls to win a modeling assignment for Johnson Publishing, Ebony’s parent company. She also began entering television contests, including ‘Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts’, under the name Diahann Carroll. A spot she won – which also allowed her to perform on the daily radio show.

After graduating from high school, she attended New York University, majoring in sociology, but she left before graduating to pursue a show-business career, promising her family that if the career did not materialize after two years, she would return to college. Diahann Carroll’s big break came at 18, when she appeared as a contestant on the DuMont Television Network program, Chance of a Lifetime, hosted by Dennis James. On the show, which aired January 8, 1954, she took the $1,000 top prize for a rendition of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein song, ‘Why Was I Born?’ She went on to win the following four weeks. Engagements at Manhattan’s Café Society and Latin Quarter nightclubs soon followed.

Diahann Carroll’s film debut was a supporting role in Carmen Jones (1954) as a friend to the sultry lead character played by Dorothy Dandridge. That same year, her big break came when Truman Capote chose her for a leading part in the Broadway musical ‘House of Flowers’, based on his short story and for which he wrote the book and lyrics. Carroll, who played a young sex worker in a Caribbean island bordello, had the best numbers, ‘A Sleepin’ Bee’ and ‘I Never Has Seen Snow’. In 1959 she played the role of Clara in a film adaptation of George Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’, starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge, but her character’s singing parts were dubbed by opera singer Loulie Jean Norman.

But in her early days at NBC, the Harlem native encountered a stark reminder of her groundbreaking status. In a 2014 episode of PBS’s ‘Pioneers of Television’, Carroll recalled that NBC’s makeup department did not have makeup for an actress of her complexion. “The studio had only dealt with the little American girls or European girls”, Carroll said. “How could you have a makeup department and you don’t have makeup for every skin in the United States of America?”

She made a guest appearance in the series Peter Gunn, in the 1960 episode ‘Sing a Song of Murder’, and starred with Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, and good friend Joanne Woodward in the 1961 film Paris Blues.

Not shy when it came to confronting racial barriers, Carroll won her Tony portraying Barbara Woodruff, a high-fashion American model in Paris, who has a love affair with a white American author in the 1959 Samuel A. Taylor and Richard Rodgers Braodway musical ‘No Strings’ about civil rights, marking the first time a African American woman had ever won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. Critic Walter Kerr described her as “a girl with a sweet smile, brilliant dark eyes and a profile regal enough to belong on a coin”.

 

Again for Preminger, in ‘Hurry Sundown’ (1967), set in rural 1940s Georgia, she played an elegant local schoolteacher who had gone north and been corrupted. Despite a terrible script, Carroll came off slightly better than her co-stars, Michael Caine and Jane Fonda, in this condescending melodrama on race relations.

Carroll was then nominated for a lead actress Oscar for the titular role in 1974’s ‘Claudine’, starring alongside James Earl Jones. The role of Claudine had been written specifically for actress Diana Sands, (who had made guest appearances on Julia as Carroll’s cousin Sara) but shortly before filming was to begin, Sands found out that she was terminally ill with cancer. Sands attempted to carry on with the role, but as filming began, she became too ill to continue, and recommended her friend Carroll take over the role. Sadly, Sands would not live to see Claudine. She died in September 1973; Claudine, starring Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones, was released in April 1974.

On top of her critical feature film and stage success, Carroll achieved critical acclaim on the small screen and groundbreaking notoriety for playing the titular role in the NBC sitcom ‘Julia’. The series, which aired from 1968 to 1971, saw Carroll play Julia Baker, a nurse whose Army pilot husband had been shot down in Vietnam. This role saw the first time a African-American woman had ever starred in a non-servant role on television. That role won – as the first African American – her the Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Actress In A Television Series’ in 1968, and the first African American woman to receive an Emmy nomination in 1969.

Diahann Carroll and Frank Sinatra

But the show was controversial amid the racial unrest that followed the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. An Ebony article that year noted that ‘for all its merits as a television ‘first’ ‘, the sitcom had drawn criticism ‘for not projecting a male head-of-the-family image’ and “for showing Julia and [her] son leading a happily integrated life among middle class whites”. In a 2008 interview with NPR’s News & Notes, Carroll said she was ‘very proud’ of that role, “I look back with great pride”, Carroll told host Farai Chideya. And in 2011, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

The Diahann Carroll Show is a series of four musical variety television specials, that aired on CBS in 1976. The show was a summer replacement for The Carol Burnett Show.  The series’ four episodes were taped over a period of five days.

Guests on the premiere episode included Johnny Mathis (with whom Carroll sang You Are So Beautiful) and with Telly Savalas and Sammy Davis Jr. (with whom she sang a medley of songs from Porgy and Bess). Other guests during the brief season included composer Marvin Hamlisch, Betty White, and Phyllis Diller. Carroll’s costumes were designed by famous fashion designer Bob Mackie.

Diahann Carroll & Johnny Mathis duet the song ‘You Are So Beautiful’ on her show, July 1976

Some of her earlier work also included appearances on shows hosted by Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, Judy Garland, and Ed Sullivan, and on The Hollywood Palace variety show. In 1984, Carroll joined the primetime soap opera ‘Dynasty’ as the mixed-race jet-set diva Dominique Deveraux, half-sister of Blake Carrington. Her high-profile role on ‘Dynasty’ also reunited her with schoolmate Billy Dee Williams, who briefly played her onscreen husband Brady Lloyd.

Her character, Dominique Deveraux, was shrouded in mystery when she joined ‘Dynasty’ in its fourth season. Carroll had sought out the role after falling in love with the soap. “I thought, ‘If this isn’t the biggest hoot I’ve ever seen, and the world is loving it,’ ” she said in a 1998 interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “Everyone was elegant, everyone was rich, everyone was traveling all over the world, and I said, ‘That’s what I want to do. That’s what I need to do”.

Carroll reached out to Aaron Spelling and suggested to one of the producer’s colleagues that ‘Dynasty’ – which had dealt, however controversially, with homosexuality and other hot-button issues – had tackled just about everything except racial integration. To do that, they first had to integrate the cast.

But nothing happened until Barbra Streisand invited Carroll to sing a song from ‘Yentl’ at the 1983 Golden Globe Awards. Knowing Aaron Spelling would be there, she dressed the part. After the ceremony, Carroll went to the private Los Angeles nightclub where Spelling and his colleagues were celebrating. Spelling later told People that after seeing Carroll, he and ‘Dynasty’ co-creator Esther Shapiro looked at each other and said, “My God, she is ‘Dynasty”.

Dominique Deveraux turned out to be the surprise half-sister of oil baron Blake Carrington. The role led to epic showdown with Blake’s vindictive ex-wife, Alexis (Joan Collins).

As the character owned a music company and was a successful singer, the soap also gave Carroll the chance to display her vocal talents, already apparent from her several albums and club appearances. Carroll, always a very classy lady, ‘Dynasty’ made her a true fashion icon, especially for the African American. She remained on the show until 1987, simultaneously making several appearances on its short-lived spin-off, The Colbys. She received her third Emmy nomination in 1989 for her recurring role as Marion Gilbert in ‘A Different World’.

In 1991, Carroll played the role of Eleanor Potter, the wife of Jimmy Potter, portrayed by Chuck Patterson, in ‘The Five Heartbeats’, a musical drama film in which Jimmy manages a vocal group. In this role, Carroll was a doting, concerned, and protective wife alongside actor and musician Robert Townsend, Michael Wright, and others. In a 1995 reunion with Billy Dee Williams in ‘Lonesome Dove: The Series’, she played Mrs. Greyson, the wife of Williams’ character. In 1996, Carroll starred as the self-loving and deluded silent movie star Norma Desmond in the Canadian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical version of the classic film ‘Sunset Boulevard’. In 2001, Carroll made her animation début in ‘The Legend of Tarzan’, in which she voiced Queen La, an evil sorceress and ruler of the ancient city of Opar.

On stage, Carroll broke barriers by playing roles traditionally considered for white actresses, such as ‘Same Time, Next Year’, ‘Agnes of God’, and ‘Sunset Boulevard’. In 2002, Carroll said of these roles, “I like to think that I opened doors for other women, although that wasn’t my original intention”.

Carroll continued to somewhat consistently work in film, television, stage – and even made a return to the nightclub world in 2006, at Feinstein’s at the Regency. In 2006, she appeared in the television medical drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ as Jane Burke, the demanding mother of Dr. Preston Burke. In December 2008, Carroll was cast in USA Network’s series ‘White Collar’ as June, the savvy widow who rents out her guest room to Neal Caffrey. In 2010, Carroll was featured in UniGlobe Entertainment’s breast cancer docudrama titled, ‘1 a Minute’, and she appeared as Nana in two Lifetime movies: ‘At Risk’ and ‘The Front’, movie adaptations of two Patricia Cornwell novels. In addition to being honored at Oprah’s 2006 Legends Ball, Carroll appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1987 and 2006, and led an Oprah’s Master Class in 2013. During her appearance on Master Class, she spoke about her initial 1997 breast cancer diagnosis, and reaching the decision to eventually share it with the world.

Diahann Carroll was present on stage for the 2013 Emmy Awards, to briefly speak about being the first African American nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She was quoted as saying: “Talented Kerry Washington better win!” Kerry Washington erroneously stated that Carroll was the first African American performer ever to be nominated for an Emmy. Actually, at least three performers were nominated before Carroll, who was first nominated in 1963. These performers include: Ethel Waters for a guest appearance on Route 66, in 1962; Harry Belafonte, nominated in 1956 and 1961 and winning in 1960; and Sammy Davis Jr., who was nominated in 1956 with Belafonte.

Carroll was married four times, first to record producer Monte Kay in 1956. Her father boycotted the wedding ceremony which was presided over by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. The marriage ended in 1962. The union produced a daughter, Suzanne Kay Bamford (born September 9, 1960), who became a freelance media journalist. In 1959, Carroll began a nine-year affair with married actor Sidney Poitier. She claimed that Poitier persuaded her to divorce her husband and he would leave his wife to be with her.

When Carroll got her divorce, Poitier did not keep up his end of the bargain, yet the relationship continued until 1968. Carroll dated and was engaged to British television host and producer David Frost from 1970 until 1973. In 1973, Carroll surprised the press by marrying Las Vegas boutique owner Fred Glusman. Several weeks later, she filed for divorce, charging Glusman with physical abuse. In 1975, Carroll married Robert DeLeon, a managing editor of Jet. She was widowed two years later when DeLeon was killed in a car crash. Carroll’s fourth marriage was to singer Vic Damone in 1987. The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, had a legal separation in 1991, reconciliation, and divorce in 1996.

A year later, Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. She said the diagnosis ‘stunned’ her because there was no family history of breast cancer and she had always had a healthy lifestyle. She underwent nine weeks of radiation therapy, and had been clear since. Carroll frequently spoke out about the importance of early cancer detection, and prevention, free screening for those who couldn’t afford mammograms, and the need for more money to be invested in research.

Diahann Carroll was a transformative force for freedom. She identified with Dr King in the civil rights movement with a simple kiss. She brought down ancient barriers & built bridges. She left the world better than she found it.

Rev Jesse Jackson Sr.

She walked this earth for 84 years and broke ground with every footstep. An icon. One of the all-time greats. She blazed trails through dense forests and elegantly left diamonds along the path for the rest of us to follow. Thank you, Ms. Carroll.

Diahann Carroll died of cancer on October 4, 2019, in Los Angeles. Carroll is survived by her daughter Suzanne, and grandchildren August and Sydney. Our thoughts are with Carroll’s family and friends.

 

 

 

 

Johnny Mathis, the world’s most famous balladeer

Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas, United States, in 1935, the fourth of seven children of Clem Mathis and his wife, Mildred Boyd, The family moved to San Francisco, California, settling on 32nd Ave. in the Richmont District, where Johnny grew up. His father had worked in vaudeville, they were both professional cooks and cooked all these extraordinary things. When his father saw his son’s talent, he bought an old upright piano for $25 and encouraged him to play. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father. He spent most of my childhood with my father. He was a singer and played the piano and Johnny was fascinated with him, whereas his brothers and sisters weren’t that interested in music. They were busy doing other things but it was very important to him, he got involved early and extensively in singing in every capacity of my daily life. His dad taught him his first songs, took him fishing, hunting, a lot of outdoor activities, free activities; that was the main thing, it didn’t cost anything. His first song was ‘My Blue Heaven’ Mathis started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions.

Johnny Mathis (Click photo to enlarge).

When he was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for work around her house. Johnny studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical, and operatic singing. He is one of the relatively few popular singers who received years of professional voice training that included opera. The first band he sang with was formed by his high school friend Merl Saunders. Mathis eulogized him at his funeral in 2008, thanking him for giving him his first chance as a singer.

Mathis was a star athlete at George Washington High School in San Francisco. He was a high jumper and hurdler, and he played on the basketball team. In 1954, he enrolled at San Francisco State University on an athletic scholarship, intending to become an English teacher and a physical education teacher. The high jump record he set there was only two inches short of the Olympic record.

In San Francisco singing at a Sunday afternoon jam session with a friend’s jazz sextet at the Black Hawk Club, Mathis attracted the attention of the club’s co-founder, Helen Noga. She became Mathis’ music manager, and in September 1955, after Noga had found Mathis a job singing weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club, she learned that George Avakian, head of Popular Music A&R at Columbia Records, was on vacation near San Francisco. After repeated calls, Noga finally persuaded Avakian to come hear Mathis at the 440 Club. After hearing Mathis sing, Avakian sent his record company a telegram stating: Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. Send blank contracts.

Johnny Mathis (Click photo to enlarge).

At San Francisco State, Mathis had become noteworthy as a high jumper, and in 1956 he was asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic Team that would travel to Melbourne, Australia, that November. Mathis had to decide whether to go to the Olympic trials or to keep his appointment in New York City to make his first recordings. On his father’s advice, Mathis opted to embark on a professional singing career. His first album was released in late 1956 instead of waiting until the first quarter of 1957.

Mathis’s first record album, Johnny Mathis: A New Sound In Popular Song, was a slow-selling jazz album, but Mathis stayed in New York City to sing in nightclubs. His second album was produced by Columbia Records vice-president and record producer Mitch Miller, who helped to define the Mathis sound. Miller preferred that Mathis sing soft, romantic ballads, pairing him up with conductor and music arranger Ray Conniff, and later Ray Ellis, Glenn Osser, and Robert Mersey. In late 1956, Mathis recorded two of his most popular songs: ‘Wonderfull Wonderfull’ and ‘It’s Not For Me To Say’

Also that year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, signed him up to sing the latter song in the movie Lizzie (1957). Shortly afterwards, Mathis made his second film appearance for 20th Century singing the song ‘A Certain Smile’ in the film of that title. He had small acting roles in both movies as a bar singer. This early visibility in two successful movies gave him mass exposure. His appearance on the popular TV program The Ed Sullivan Show in 1957 also helped increase his popularity. Critics called him ‘the velvet voice’. Mathis also appeared during this period on Abc’s The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, as did fellow African-American entertainers Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey.

During the summer of 1958, Mathis left San Francisco with the Nogas, who sold their interest in the Black Hawk club that year, and moved to Beverly Hills, California, where the Nogas bought a house.

Johnny Mathis, back at San Francisco State Collegee to help pick ‘Most Beautiful Girl on Campus’.
Finalists are front (l-r) Sheila Shelly, and Diane Delgado; rear Carol Jean Childers, Mary Lou Ciranson and Judy Massie (March 1958)(Click photo to enlarge).

He was the first artist to release a ‘greatest hits’ album, Johnny’s Greatest Hits, pioneering the concept in 1958. The album spent an unprecedented 491 consecutive weeks through 1967 (nine and a half years) on the Billboard top 100 album charts, earning him a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Mathis had two of his biggest hits in 1962 and 1963, with ‘Gina’ (#6) and ‘What Will My Mary Say’ (#9).

In October 1964, Mathis sued Noga to void their management arrangement, which Noga fought with a counterclaim in December 1964. Mathis purchased a mansion in Hollywood Hills, which was originally built by billionaire Howard Hughes in 1946, where he still maintains a residence.

After splitting from Noga, Mathis established Jon Mat Records, Inc., incorporated in California May 11, 1967, to produce his recordings (previously, he founded Global Records, Inc. to produce his Mercury albums), and Rojon Productions, Inc., incorporated in California September 30, 1964, to handle all of his concert, theater, showroom, and television appearances, and all promotional and charitable activities. His new manager and business partner was Ray Haughn, who, until his death in September 1984, helped guide Mathis’s career. Since that time, Mathis has taken sole responsibility for it.

While Mathis continued to make music, the ascent of the Beatles and early 1970s album rock kept his adult contemporary recordings out of the pop singles charts, until he experienced a career renaissance in the late 1970s.

Johnny Mathis (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘Love Story’ (backside), 1971 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘I’m Comming Home’, 1973 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘The Heart of a Woman’, 1974 (Click photo to enlarge).

Mathis has released eight Christmas albums and his single ‘When A Child Is Born’ has been a hardy Christmas perennial ever since it went to No 1 in 1976.

Johnny Mathis & Diahann Carroll duet the song “You Are So Beautiful” on her show, July 1976

In 1978, Mathis recorded ‘Too Much, Too Little, Too Late’ with singer and good friend Deniece Williams. The lyrics and music were arranged by Nat Kipner and John McIntyre Vallins. Released as a single in 1978, it reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, number nine on the Canadian Singles Chart and number three on the UK Singles Chart. It also topped the US R&B and adult contemporary charts. ‘Too Much, Too Little, Too Late’ was certified gold and silver in the US and in the UK by the RIAA and the British Phonographic Industry respectively. It was his first number one hit since his 1957 chart-topping ‘Chances Are’.

Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams with their monsterhit album ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ (Click photo to enlarge).

In 1978, his hit duet ‘The Last Time I Felt Like This’ from the film Same Time, Next Year was nominated for an Acadamy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis and Jane Olivor sang the song at the Academy Awards ceremony, in his second performance at the Oscars.

Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams released a follow-up duet, ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’, peaking at number 47 on the Hot 100. The success of the duets with Williams prompted Mathis to record duets with a variety of partners, including  Barbra Streisand, Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Patti Austin, Josh Groban, Jane Oliver, Angela Bofill, Regina Belle, Stephanie Lawrence, Engelbert Humperdinck, Elaine Paige, Nana Mouskouri and his heroine Lena Horne, “She was the most gorgeous, enigmatic, provocative woman I’ve ever seen. I used to hang around at her concerts when I was a kid and after a while her husband started inviting me to her dressing room. I was probably bothersome to her but her husband was kind. He could see I was infatuated.” A compilation album also called ‘Too Much, Too Little, Too Late’, released by Sony Music in 1995, featured the title track among other songs by Mathis and Williams.

Johnny Mathis ‘The Best Days Of My Life’, 1979 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘The Best Of’, 1980 (Click photo to enlarge).

During 1980-81, Mathis recorded an album with Chic’s Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, ‘I Love My Lady’, which remains unreleased in its entirety, though three tracks appeared on a Chic box set in 2010 and a fourth, the title track, on Mathis’ Ultimate Collection in 2011 and the Chic Organization’s ‘Up All Night’ in 2013

1983 Johnny Mathis With Special Guest  Natalie Cole Unforgettable A Musical Tribute To Nat King Cole (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘A Special Part Of Me’, 1984 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘Right From The Heart’, 1985 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘Christmas eve with Johnny Mathis’, 1986 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘Better Together’ The Duet Album, 1991 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis ‘Because You Loved Me’, 1998 (Click photo to enlarge).

Johnny Mathis has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame Grammy Hall of Fame for three separate recordings, in 1998 for ; Chances Are’ in 2002 for ‘Misty’ and in 2008 for ‘It’s Not For Me To Say’

In 2003, the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded Mathis the Lifetime Archievement Award. This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy’s National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artist significance to the field of recording

Mathis returned to the British Top 30 album chart in 2007 with the Sony BMG release The Very Best of Johnny Mathis in 2008 with the CD “A Night to Remember” and again in 2011 with “The Ultimate Collection.

He doesn’t set out to just sing ballads or romantic songs. He was thrilled when his country album ‘Let It Be Me, Mathis In Nashville’ was nominated for a Grammy in 2011.

Singing isn’t work it’s part of me. I don’t do it for any reason other than that I love it. How lucky does that make me?

Johnny Mathis

On June 21, 2014 Johnny Mathis was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall Of Fame along with Linda Rontadt, Shirley Jones and Nat King Cole (his daughter Natalie Cole accepting the award on his behalf). The awards were presented by The Center for the Performing Arts Artistic Director Michael Feinstein. Defined on their website, “Conceived as an enduring testament to the Great American Songbook, the Hall of Fame honors performers and composers responsible for creating America’s soundtrack.

He has sung for presidents (Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan) and royalty (Prince Charles, Princess Diana and HH The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan who was vèry fond of his voice and music). His CV is undeniably illustrious. He should be cock-of-the-walk confi-dent but he does not come across that way. “As a child all I knew was that people kept asking me to sing and because I liked to please I would sing. It wasn’t until my dad told me that my singing made him happy that I began to think my voice might be good.” When was that? “When I was about 23”.

 Nobody can deliver a romantic line quite like the silken-voiced Mathis as his record sales of more than 350 million will attest. When he sings Misty he could melt an Iceberg (Click photo to enlarge).

In an interview in The Guardian (2014) he said: “I think I am as close to some friends as I am to my brothers and sisters. And they are my family. I think it’s important to cultivate as many people as you can to see which ones you jive with. And it makes you happy. If one dies you have another one. So living is a process that you have to do by yourself, and if you can learn a few little goodies along the way that might make it easier for you, so much the better. I’ve found that the more friends I have, the luckier I am!”

I’ve had the privilege to meet Mr. Mathis a couple of times. Not only his beautiful voice impressed me, but certainly his humor, and his kindness. September 30, and over 60 years after winning his first recording contract he is still selling out concert venu, Johnny Mathis has his 80 birthday today, …

May all optimistic things will be yours!

by Jean Amr

Diahann Carroll with the BMW i8, a plug-in hybrid, high-performance electric vehicle

Legendary singer/actress (and fashion icon) Diahann Carroll with the new BMW i8, a plug-in hybrid, high-performance electric vehicle, during the 2014 Crystal + Lucy Awards® fundraising dinner, in support of Women in Film, Los Angeles held on Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City.

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