Local Musical Treasure Annette Warren Smith Celebrates her 100th Birthday! By Performer Michele Ayers
Local Musical Treasure Annette Warren Smith Celebrates her 100th Birthday!
By Performer Michele Ayers
MUSIC is the language of this very special woman. Annette has been surrounded by music since her mother called her to the piano at the age of five. From the moment she began taking lessons it became obvious to those around her that she had a special gift. Through her determination and support from her family and teachers she advanced from local fame to the National Scholastic Piano Competition for which she won first place! Her talents were rewarded with a full scholarship to The Julliard School! Yet, as you will discover. She didn’t GO! Why? Read on!
ANNETTE was singing in her early years as well and she became an accomplished performer on stage in New York as well as behind the scenes including vocal dubbing for Ava Gardner in the musical, “Showboat.”
NEW YORK to CALIFORNIA, CALIFORNIA to NEW YORK she led a bicoastal life at times for her career and family.
VOICE MASTER TEACHER in great demand. Opera Singers and Broadway Singers got their start with Annette at the piano as did many non-professionals who learned to sing “For the fun of it!” in her home studio.
I INVITE YOU to enjoy and discover the wealth and vast history of information on this wonderful woman which can be found online including, but not limited to: video recordings, biographies, and discographies. Simply enter “Annette Warren Smith” and enjoy!
ANNETTE continues to live a colorful life. She continues to sing and share her joy of books, music, and life itself! Her laughter is contagious and her smile a mile wide. Annette has invited me to share with you some things that cannot be found online, personal stories which shaped her and directed her career. Annette has always been open and honest with her thoughts, feelings, and opinions. She hopes you enjoy the stories she shares as well as the humor displayed in them.
Michele
When were you first touched by music?
Annette
While I was being born in a Catholic Hospital there was an electrical storm. I very powerful you know! All the lights in the hospital went out. The nuns ran around and got candles and stood around my mother’s bed. I was born by the light of blessed candles. The nun attending my mother said, “This child will have a special gift from God because she was born by blessed candlelight.” The special gift was music because when I was five years old my mom took me by the hand and said, “Come on honey. Let’s play the piano.” That was the beginning of my musical life. My mother taught me Every Good Boy Does Fine (E, G, B, D, F) and I latched onto the piano like I was born to do it. When I was 16 years old, I won the National Scholastic Piano Competition.
Michele
Did you like to practice? What kept you inside practicing while your friends were outside playing?
Annette
My mother would go to the door and the kids would be saying, “Annyyyyeette, come on out and play.” My mother would say to them, “Annette can’t play. She has to practice.” And she would turn to me and say, “The day will come. They’ll still be out on the street playing and you will be somebody.”
And my grandma, she was Lebanese. She had eleven brothers. She was not permitted to be educated and she was super brilliant. All my life she would say to me, “Remember grandma say, “You terrific! You gonna come outta the top and you gonna win!” She made me competitive with those words and I won everything that I entered. I have a brown thumb and I won the gardening contest, so you know that it’s magical because you know I’m not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination!
Michele
When did you start to sing?
Annette
Well, you know when I started to sing was the day that I learned to stop my father from hurting my mother. He was an alcoholic. I would start to sing, “Here’s the story ‘bout Minnie the Moocher. Minnie was a Lowdown Hootchi Cootcher.” Then they would stop fighting and start laughing hysterically. That was my birth of entertaining… how I became an entertainer.
Michele
I’m so sorry to hear that. You were such a young child.
Did your mother sing to you?
Yes, and she sang for the silent movies. My dad had an Irish tenor that was gorgeous. Brownie was my father’s name. He would sing, “My Wild Irish Rose” and of course I thought he was singing to me!
Michele
So, the nuns knew you’d have a gift, your mother and father sang to you and your Lebanese grandma was in your corner. Did any other relative help you or give you talent?
Annette
AUNTIE MAME was my mother’s sister. She went to Chicago Musical College, and they pronounced her a musical genius. I got my talent from Auntie Mame and my grandma.
Michele
Did you think from the very beginning you were going to be a concert pianist?
Annette
Yes. I have an affinity for the piano.
Michele
What was your first professional job?
Annette
I was singing with the band at The Carter Hotel with the Charlie Wicks’ Orchestra. During the intermissions I played classical piano in the dining room. Tommy Dorsey’s vocalist, Anita Boyer (who was performing at the Hippodrome with the Tommy Dorsey Band) heard me singing with the band and she waited until I came out.
We were talking and the next day I was leaving for Julliard to become a piano major. Anita said, “Annette you need to sing for Phil Moore. He’s the greatest.”
So, Anita gave me Phil’s number. That was a Thursday night and Friday she said, “Call him” and I got on the plane Friday morning, and I called him. He said I could come, and he had fifteen minutes for me that night. I went to his apartment, and he played it very cool. He smoked a pipe. He would squint his eyes at me and push the tobacco down and go “Oh, so you want to play something for me on the piano, Annette?” and I said, “Yes, I’ll play Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude. He didn’t even know what the hell it was!”
SO, then he said, “Sing something for me.” He played for me. I said, “I sing “These Foolish Things in the key of B flat.” He wasn’t used to singers tell them what key they’re going to sing in. I sang, “…these foolish things……” I finished singing it and he picked up his pipe and he started puffing. “You know Annette, you don’t need to go to school anymore.”
Michele
THEN what happened? You called your mom? Your mom must have been shocked! You were supposed to go to Julliard the next day on a full piano scholarship! You had worked your whole life with piano as your goal!
Annette
I said, “Mom. I just played for this famous musician, and he said I didn’t need to go to school anymore. He wants to coach me. At that time, he was the number one guy in the country. So, she sent me 300 dollars which is what he charged for a week’s coaching. I lived at a place where show people live. He questioned me about my family and found out that my father was an alcoholic and that my mother was raising the three kids by herself, and I had two younger brothers. He gave me the 300 dollars back!
Years and years later, like 50 years later I’m back in Hollywood and he’s in Hollywood and he’s having a master class called, “For Singers Only.” He didn’t have a teacher to teach breathing. He called me and asked if I’d teach the class. I said absolutely. He tried to pay me 300 dollars a week and I said, no way, remember when you gave me the 300 dollars back to give my mother?
I got to pay it forward.
Michele.
Tell me about your “oneness with music.”
Annette
I LOVE music. With all due credit to my mother and grandmother, it was so totally accepted by every bone in my body that I was a musician. I just somehow knew it. It just flowed.
Michele
Tell me about some of your jobs?
Meredith Wilson discovered me when I was a baby practically. He was looking for a talent for his show, “Sparkle Time” and someone took me to him. He had me sing for him and play the piano. He told someone “I have never witnessed such a youngster with so much talent.” I won the competition!
Michele
But something unfortunate happened after you won this coast-to-coast contest just as you approached the microphone and were ready to sing across the country!
Annette
John Reeber, the VP of J. Walter Thompson wanted me to be his mistress. He wanted to set me up at The Waldorf Astoria where we would live together. I didn’t want any part of him. I got the vocal shot. Just before I was to sing, “Candy” coast to coast with the orchestra he came up beside me…I’m standing at the mic and he said, “IF you don’t become my mistress, I’ll buy you out of this show and you’ll never work again.” And I said, Mr. Reeber if I can’t do it on my talent, I don’t care anything about being famous.
Michele.
(Sparkle Time was the name of a program sponsored by Canada Dry. There was a sugar shortage in 1946 which causes the show to lose their sponsorship and thus the show ended)
Annette
I used to read the morning paper with my coffee. I got several good jobs out of that. One was the Mayan theatre which was a Burlesque House in Cleveland, Ohio (where she was born July 11, 1922). They needed a pianist for the Striptease dancers, and they paid $130. A week! I went down there, and I played Clair de Lune for my audition! He hired me on the spot! I needed to play St. Luis Blues for a stripper, and I had never played a popular piece in my life so I called my friend Phil Moore and wrote me an arrangement.
And then I said to him, (the owner) “Can I sing in the show?” and he said, “You gotta get me a piano player for you to sing.” So, I put together what I thought was the most elegant, fashionable…a cap, a pleated blouse with a Peter Pan collar…Imagine! In the burlesque! And a white pleated skirt and white shoes. I sang, “I’ll be seeing you”. I told this agent to come see me and that I was singing at the Mayan Theatre. SO, he came and was in the audience. He comes back and says, “Jesus Christ Annette! You look like a God Damn Milk Bottle Up There!
Michele
I take it he didn’t become your agent
Annette
No, He didn’t.
Michele
Tell me about the Best Gig after studying with Phil Moore
Annette
THE BLUE ANGEL
The Blue Angel was the number one cabaret in the whole world!
Bart Howard was the master of ceremonies. He wrote “Fly Me to the Moon”
As a matter of fact, in my career he hired me three times at The Blue Angel. And then I sang at the Hotel Maisonette.
Michele
How did you get into singing for the movies? The voice of Ava Gardner in Showboat and Lucille Ball in Fancy Pants and the other two movies of hers?
Annette
Ok. I woke up in the kitchen I’m standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and reading the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Michele
Again, with a cup of coffee and reading the Cleveland Plain Dealer Paper?
Annette
MGM was looking for a voice to be the voice of Ava Gardner in Show Boat. I said out loud with my coffee cup, “That’s my job!” And I went to a party that very night. I was talking to someone. They pointed out Marvin Saltzman. They said, “Annette, talk to him. He’s an agent. He was the son in law of Alfred Fried, who produced Showboat. I went up to him and I said, “I would like you to get me an audition to be the voice of Ava Gardner.” He looked at me and he said, “How do I know if you can sing?” I said, “Well, you’ll just have to take my word for it.” And he gave me his card. Well, I went to the audition. He arranged it.
They had auditioned all kinds of girls, Dinah Shore, Lee Wiley, and Ginny Simms. all the leading singers wanted to get that job.
The entire cast of the movie came to my audition. That never happens in the annals of dubbing. The music department head listens to the dubber, but this was so important the entire cast was there!
Michele
Who were some of the people?
Annette
Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, William Warfield, Johnny Green
(the orchestrator), Gower and Marge Champion, Agnes Morehead
I sing, “Can’t Help Lovin’ that Man.”
Michele
One of the songs from Showboat
Annette
Yes. After I finished singing, the pianist stood up and walked over to Johnny Green and said, “Well. We’ve found her.” And Kathryn Grayson walks up to me, and she said, “My dear we could all learn so much from you.” Isn’t that the sweetest thing you’ve ever heard?
She gave me her entire pregnancy wardrobe! I was the best dressed pregnant lady in Hollywood!
The producer of the Lucille Ball movies heard me at the audition for Showboat and hired me to dub Lucille Ball for three movies! (Which can be seen online)
Michele
Did you dub for other singers?
Annette
Iris Adrian. I sang for her
She sang, “Give me that home cookin”..in a movie
Michele
Do you have a favorite song you like to sing?
Annette
I have a favorite song that I sing, “The Man I Love” by Gershwin
Michele
How did you meet your husband, Paul? Had you heard him play? How did the two of you become a couple?
Annette
I worked for a company called Starland Records. They solicited new songs from songwriters. Songwriters would pay to have their songs recorded. I got paid $20 per song. I did 20 songs an hour! I sightread them, timed them, and sang them. I did it on the first take. I never repeated anything!
Who was your accompanist?
Paul Smith.
I recorded 20 songs an hour and I left. I never saw the front of him! I only saw his back. He saw me but I had my face down looking at the music, singing, and timing the song.
It was 8 years later that I was singing at the Beverly Hills Club in Beverly Hills. And he said to himself, “I wonder what she’s like after all these years.” He knew me better than I did him because he was playing the piano for me and I was singing these songs. I didn’t even speak to him when we were recording together.
He walks into my dressing room and puts his arms around me and I asked him why he did that and he said, “Because you looked so vulnerable.” He was like I was for him and that was it there was no doubt about it. He took me by the hand and walked me out and we were married three months later.
Michele
What happened in New York? Weren’t you under contract?
Annette
I was in The Three Penny Opera playing Mrs. Peachum. Ed Asner played my husband, Mr. Peachum. I got lots of laughs! They wanted me to stay with the TPO and I had to make a decision. They begged me to stay. I said, no. I want to get married.
Michele
Where did you get married?
Annette
We got married in Las Vegas. We looked around in Las Vegas for a place to get married and the cleaning lady was the witness!
Michele
And now you’re living in Los Angeles.
Annette
Yes. And Paul had two children Lauri and Gary. And then came Jeffrey and Paul.
Michele
When did you started teaching voice?
Annette
Mark H. got the part in My Fair Lady (at Palos Verdes High School) and my daughter Lauri was Eliza. Lauri said, “You need to go see my mother to learn how to sing” and that’s how it started!
Michele
That was in 1967 or 1968!
And you were my teacher in 1971! I remember BEGGING my mother to let me have lessons with you. She finally said, “YES.”
Annette
Music is the bridge for humans and for the brain. It couldn’t be more important.
Michele
If you had the power to make a positive change in the world, what would it be?
Annette
Loving Choices Day! For one day everyone could only make loving choices.
Michele
Speaking of Loving Choices Day how do you handle prejudice? You’ve seen a lot in your almost 100 years!
Anne
I can’t stand racial prejudice. I had a date one day in New York with a young man. Of course, those days I wanted to go to 52nd Street in New York because that’s where all the performers were: Art Tatum, Billy Holliday, Billy Daniels
Michele
And you heard all those people live?
Annette
Honey, I was raised on that! I wanted to go to 52nd street anytime I was asked out on a date! One time my date went to the men’s room. He comes out of the men’s room and a young black man is coming out at the same time. They collided and the fella I was with backed away from the young black man. I stood up and screamed at him. “You prejudiced son of a bitch. Take me home!” I won’t let anyone say one prejudicial thing against anybody.
A year later he calls me and said, “May I come by for a moment? “
I said “Yes.” I opened the door and he stood there, and he said,
“I just want you to know that I have learned differently.”
And I said, “Thank you” and closed the door.
Michele
Well, He listened to you! It only took him one year! That seems like a long time. However, if everyone only needed one year and we could erase racial prejudice worldwide, wouldn’t that be a miracle!
There is so much more to ask and for you to share! I’d like for us to do this again! I can’t wait for people to read more about you online and listen to your solo recordings as well as those you made with your husband, Paul. They can even ask ALEXA and listen to your songs from Showboat as well as the 71 other recordings you have! And your albums and CDs ARE available.
Michele
What an exciting life you continue to lead! Just a few years ago you flew to New York with your daughter, Lauri to perform at Michael Feinstein’s, Studio 54! Both you and your husband Paul recorded many albums as well as many together. He accompanied you as a soloist and you also played two pianos at the same time! Well, he played one and you played one! You’ve performed at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood, and I just found out you performed for a cartoon voice which was nominated for an Academy Award! (the show was nominated)
Michele THANK YOU ANNETTE!
Annette YOU’RE WELCOME!
Short Bio from online sources:
Radio Debut: October 4, 1946, Meredith Wilson’s Sparkle Time
Clubs and theatres in London, New York and Los Angeles
Bon Soir, Blue Angel, Ye Little Club, St. Regis Hotel, Maisonette
Three Penny Opera in New York and the musical, Livin’ the Life
Television
The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Liberace Show
Film
Midnight Frolics and The Devil’s Sleep
Vocal Dubbing
Lured 1947, Paleface 1948, Sorrowful Jones, 1949, Fancy Pants 1950
Show Boat 1951
Nominations
Rooty Toot Toot “Greatest Cartoons of all time”
Academy Award Nomination for Best Animated Short Film!
Recordings
Capitol Record, Verve Records, ABC Paramount Records, Outstanding Records 71+recordings
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 100TH BIRTHDAY ANNETTE!
Michele Ayers has been fortunate to live in the south bay all her life. Recently retired from teaching she has resumed her singing career. Formally trained in theatre and opera at UCLA she has had the opportunities to sing with a Big Band, Trios, as a Duo, and in a Barbershop Quartet! Wayfarer’s Chapel was a favorite in the 70’s where she sang for not only weddings, but Easter Services, and Chapel Anniversaries. She has enjoyed performing at the Norris and The Armstrong Theatre as well. Her forte is music from the 40’s-70’s, country/western, musical theatre, and jazz (The American Songbook). Michele is available for private concerts in your home or venue (with piano and/or three piece band). She also will lead a sing-a-long for you and your friends! You choose the music! “What’s in the Attic” is her one-woman musical show featuring a variety of songs, comedy, and south bay stories. For reservations and further information: Michele Ayers 310-809-1626 Email: micheleayers1@gmail.com.
