.domonstrates astonishing . vocal ver- . 2, ENTERTAINMENT, THE HERALD, Wed. July 14, 1976 "Gloria Kaye seeks top of singing career — : mattered most, they seemed Seton = Gloria Kaye, at 20, has matured into an enormously exciting talent, as viewers of CBC-TV Variety’s new prime-time musical hour will discover this summer. She’s been honing her natural gifts of a big voice and a professional delivery since she was too short to reach the microphone, but what makes her special in the eyes of many-is a rare quality of interpretation of musical material communicates through the eye of a television camera. The Sunshine Hour, which _ got underway June 18 on the network for nine Friday nights at 9, reveals this and other. new facets of the Alberta-born, honey-haired, blue-eyed singer who this ‘past -season generally played the nice girl next’ door, as a regular on the Tommy Hunter Show, with a repertoire consisting mainly of uptown country tunes. On the summer series she an satility, performing musical numbers covering the entire contemporary spectrum of pop, fokl, orck, disco, easy- . listening ballads, biues, jazz. and, yes, even country. With varied song material distinctively tailored to her: fine voice, she belts out ~ upbeat Carole King num- bers of croons soft Joan Baez tunes with equal ease. Her hair cut - stylishly. shorter and her wardrobe contemporary and sleek, Gloria emerges as a fresh, - exciting talent--in a show ‘which, most important, displays that talent to good - advantage. oo Produced and directed before an audience at CBC Halifax studios by Jack. O’Neil, The Sunshine Hour. has already received ap- plause from the critics. Among them is Toronto Star staff writer Margaret Daly, _ who recently lauded the that - ‘ Bennet, for ul after sitting in on tapings ot “sophistication, the show this spring. professionalism and shéer RPM Weekly; a magazine intertainment: value far .widely-read by those in the beyond the level audiences Canadian radio and associate with summer recording industries, replacement shows.’’ agreed. “She has a ver: As for the comedy in the satile, professional deliver series: “It’s (said Ms. Day) -and a smooth swing whic more sharp-edged, more- should make fans of many’ urbane and. downright summer funnier than anything that viewers,"’ -commented has passed for humor on big columnist Alan Guettel. city Canadian TV in years.” —_ Under the aegis.of CBC- Sharing top billing. with TY Variety chief Jack Miss Kaye is singer- McAndrew, who chose her songwriter Tom Gallant, to co-star this summer, with a regularly featured Gloria Kaye’s future looks Nova Scotian balladeer of bright. A publicist for .the considerable wit named Jim network’s TV Variety and -and Toronto’s Music departments is taking Revue alumni -her ona tour this month to meet with news media people in six Western cities, -and co-ordinating national eight-piece band under. advertising promoting her musical director-arranger-* role in The Sunshine Hour. pianist Paul Mason, a The CBC's own internal Haligonian whose TV ex- ratings service will be perience includes closely monitoring — the: arrangements for the old results, and if public ‘Singalong Jubilee series. ; response is' as expected Some “of The Sunshine she'll be groomed with guest Hour’s guests ‘are famiilar to Canadian TV audiences, like Demonton’s Nebbie Lori Kaye arid New Brun- swick’s Marg Osburne, buy many are fresh faces in the . CECTYV Variety stable, such as Kornstock, a hilarious series for its Second City. -Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and Joe Q’Flaherty. Musical backup is by. an, ; variety’ . shows. Gloria has all the at- tributes necessary to make it big in the entertainment business--looks, talent and a dedicated professionalism, and something cise as well comed uartet from an anil rn on her Winnipeg.. Vancouver emotional depth before the vocalist Geanette Brantley, cold eye of the camera,” Toronto singers Jason King comments McAndrew. ; and Mary Ann MacDonald and, from Newfoundland, : singer David . Michaels. ‘Gloria Kaye’s individual ‘performance in the series, which has her doing two or . wality that reaches through e plastic screen to make the lyrics of her songs real to herself and -the viewer. She communicates.’’ three “solo spots each Recognizing that program, has drawn con- - television is only one siderable attention, ' “She element in the en- itv. ener tertainment. industry, and exudes mater : By. that the surest route to fame ingredient which manifests is through a hit record, 4 itself most in her often part of the long-term plar heart-rending in- involves making Gloria a terpretations of ballads,”: recording star. . wrote Gretchen Pierce of overtures from CBC, RCA’ the Halifx Chronicle Herald, . agreed to release a single by *— Gloria to coincide with the: ‘June 18 debut of the Sun- ‘shine Hour.. “E Tu” is the || “Where the customer j “For Takeout Sorvies, ‘name of the bilingual love ‘ballad sung in English and Jtalian on the ‘A’ side of the _ disc, with an uptempo rocker called ‘‘It’s a Crying. Shame” on. the flipside. The ‘record will be plugged on ~ CBC radio stations and heavily promoted to disc _ jockeys at private stations. - !" Gloria is pleased by the attention, but surprisingly serene and level-headed about __ itall. “The fame part may come . not then I won’t be upset. , I'm in no hurry, and .en- “ joying what I do. I just like _’. to sing, and wherever it : takes me I'd like to be one of ‘the best singers. Music is ‘one of the few things | everybody has in common.”. ‘. She adds frankly. tha - many Canadian talents go unrecognized .because of - Jack of promotion, an ac- _. «tivity: she -views. as “an essential . . part . of -showbusiness,” and ‘‘it is so often-not how good ‘you are - put ‘who you: know, . which ‘ makes a. career.”: ‘ wal ' ~ Phone 635-6184 jt) ' f prime-time ,star appearances on other | “She has that ‘special’ After ' : in time,” she muses, “but if - ‘Royal now, Gloria’s background and answers té an in- terviewer’s questions are the kind publicity men dream of: “‘The career has been good to me so far,” and ‘| come from Indian an moonshine territory.” That -would be the farming community of Frains,. 120 miles north of Edmonton. The youngest of five children of Ukrainian descent, Gloria was coaxed into singing at age 3 by brother Paul, who had run out of older sisters. By the time she was 4 she was harmonizing, and answered to both the name on her birth certificate, Slavka Kolmatycki, and the easier Gloria Kaye. Slavka, after all, means glorious, and ‘K’ was her original initial. At 4, she stood out in other way: travelling with Paul by bus from her parents’ “farm to try out for a talent show in Ednionton, she was outraged to find that the minimum age for those taking part was 5. When all the other kids had finished she marched up to the master of ceremonies and. told flatly: “I am going to sing.’”’ She did too, (the song was Doggie Heaven), . the audience went wild--and she won the contest. - Many a child who sings up. a stormat a talent contest is never heard from again, but Gloria kept going. Her first record, cut when she was 4, is ti] a hot seller in Ukrainian circles. An LP, recorded when she was 5, became a runaway hit in Prussia for reasons she still doesn’t understand. She finally broke into the business in a big way when she was 6 and sang ‘for an RCMP convention in Ed- monton. The Mounties’ wives were so impressed they raised $3,000 to help her career along. At 8, brother Paul was handling that career. When he sent a videotape of her ‘winning performance on a local talent show, Kikkies On Kamer, to The Tommy Hunter Show, the answer was “she should move to Toronto.”” And move they did from the 350-acre family nest, her farmer father and mother who is a psychiatric nurse, to seek her fortune in Toronto. Paul came to teach high school mathematics, Gloria to sing on the Hunter show. She ‘boarded at the home of Aft Snider and his wife, singer Jackie Allan, who was on Tommy’s Show. For the next three years she stayed in Toronto, at- tending grade school and managing also to appear in all the CBC musical shows of the day--Tommy ..Hunter, Juliette, It’s Happening, Show Of The Week, .Music Hop, Robbie ‘Lane-as well as radio, and some one-night shows at the York Hotel. But Gloria’s age told ainst her. At 11, night- clubs were .out and after. ‘she’s appeared on. all the available CBC. shows. she moved. back pore only to heh ‘find she had outgrown her | |, Unaffectedly “drawing 4. schoolmates. At an age put al ‘...-protrait of her life-up untilwhen the wearing of nylons songs. childish to her. And they’ were openly jealous of her: opportunities to travel and ' . learn about life in a different - way. a oo, “But [felt sorry for them’ recalis Gloria, who has no-— : regrets about missing 4- normal childhood ‘away’. from family with whom she is on excellent terms. ‘And the experience taught me to face responsibility at an early age.” Nevertheless, her teenag life wasn’t all ‘showbiz. There was school five days a week, ‘in Edmonton where her parents rented a house, and she still had time to play volleybal and act as a social convener for St. Patrick’s Junior High School. But it must have been a bit of a tight squeeze because she took jazz’ dancing on - Mondays, ballet on Tuesdays, drama on Wednesdays, piano and guitar on Thursdays and performed on weekends at : , top local hotels and others: outside the city. Later, at the urging of a- a year in Los Angeles former manager, she spent studying and recording, and — made an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show; the ‘better London, recording for EMI and being photographed by scandal sheets because she had sung the title song for the European edition of the shocker film Last Tango in Paris (‘‘a movie I was too part of a year in © young ‘to see at the time,”- laughs Gloria); and enough time to come back home to: complete high school at Edmonton’s St. Joseph's Composite (‘‘the same - school Robert Goulet went ot? returned to Toronto--where Shortly after, at 17, she | she now lives in the stately ~ Casa Loma district with brother profitable TV commercial work over the next few years for the manufacturers of beer and bonbons, pan- tyhose and pop~-but only as - a singer, not as a visible -face, because ‘‘I den’t want. to be labelled as a jingle singer.”’ In however, she was the Pepsi Girl of the Year. Paul—and did \ 1974-75, — This past season she has a been a regular on the Hunter show, ‘“‘a show which has been: very good to me,” contributing such freshness — and vitality that it led to her opportunity this summer to show what she can do in. various musical fields. “T want to be one: of the best singers out of Canada,” . she states simply. “I, just OS : enjoy singing. Iwanttosing,,- and [like pleasing people... ~ What really pays off in the - end is seeing that smile on people's. faces and hearing ‘the clapping. That two ‘minutes following a song is. a nice time. I want to show I : a sing other things beside — ing from — country — eve Streisand.to Dylan'to Baez. — | “To stay in'showbusiness, . | - | you have to do it for- the ~ - ‘sheer love: of ‘it. [t'll-drive. you wacky if you don’t:love it. Singing is my life; and I. : ee my feelings into my. 0 7: