Lena Hilda Zavaroni (4 November 1963 – 1 October 1999)
was a Scottish child singer and a television show host. With her album Ma!
(He's Making Eyes At Me) at ten years of age, she is the youngest person in
history to have an album in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart.
Lena Zavaroni was born into an Italian-Scottish family at
Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute. Her father Victor, who had come from Genoa,
would sometimes play the accordion in clubs. She was discovered in the summer
of 1973 by record producer Tommy Scott, who was on holiday in Rothesay and
heard her singing with her father and uncle in a band. Scott contacted
impresario Phil Solomon, which led to his partner Dorothy Solomon's becoming
Lena's manager.
In 1974 Lena appeared on Opportunity Knocks hosted by
Hughie Green and won the show for a record-breaking five weeks running. She
followed this with the album Ma! (He's Making Eyes At Me), a collection of
classic and then-recent pop standards which reached number eight in the UK
album chart. At 10 years, 146 days old, Lena is still the youngest person to have
an album in the Top 10.
Lena also sang at a Hollywood charity show with Frank
Sinatra and Lucille Ball in 1974. Following this, Lena guest-starred on The
Carol Burnett Show. She also appeared on The Morecambe and Wise Show, the 1976
Royal Variety Show and performed at the White House for US President Gerald
Ford.
While attending London's Italia Conti Academy stage
school, Lena met and became long-term friends with child star Bonnie Langford.
The two starred in the ITV special Lena and Bonnie. On Wednesday 6 September
1978, the BBC broadcast Lena Zavaroni on Broadway. In 1979 Lena had her own TV series on the
BBC called Lena Zavaroni and Music, and from 1980 to 1982 she had a TV series
called Lena.
At 16, with a trail of appearances in variety, summer
shows and pantomimes behind her and a year back in Bute, she was rushed to
hospital in Glasgow with anorexia. Her weight had dropped to below five stone.
No longer the child sensation, and having difficulty finding an audience that
didn't mind not seeing "the bouncy little girl", Zavaroni spent years
in and out of hospitals and working spasmodically, although she did complete
her own BBC TV series.
After her parents split up in 1981, her father re-married
and he and Lena would occasionally sing in clubs together. In 1989, too ill to
work regularly - and often on anti-depressants - Zavaroni married her only
boyfriend, a computer expert named Peter Wiltshire. A few months after the
wedding, her mother committed suicide. The marriage lasted 18 months, until
Wiltshire said he was tired of eating alone and coping with Zavaroni's
reclusive behaviour.
By 1992, Zavaroni was living on the dole in a council
flat in Hertfordshire. Her weight had fallen to three stone and she had asked
doctors for a brian operation - she believed her anorexia and depression were
caused by a brain malfunction, even though scans showed nothing. Three weeks
ago, she underwent an operation in Cardiff to stimulate her appetite and reduce
anxiety.
In September 1999 Lena was admitted to University
Hospital of Wales in Cardiff for a psychosurgical operation. It was described
as "pioneering". After the operation, she appeared to be in a
satisfactory condition and after a week she was "making telephone calls,
cheerful and engaging in conversation," even asking her doctor if he
thought there was any chance that she would get back on stage. However, three
weeks after the operation, she developed a chest infection and died from
bronchial pneumonia on 1 October. She weighed less than five stone (70 lb, 32
kg). She was 35 years old. (Info edited from Wikipedia & The Guardian)
2 comments:
For “The Lena Zavaroni Collection” go here:
https://mega.nz/#!LINBQIAJ!zQHXb7MWBvdWcwwym740Z8IU9zedAFXNqb2BGfB4aSs
1 - Ma! (He's Making Eyes At Me)
2 - The End Of The World
3 - Swinging On A Star
4 - Help Me Make It Through The Night
5 - Cross My Heart
6 - My Mammy
7 - Rock-a-bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody
8 - Take Me Home, Country Roads
9 - Pennies From Heaven
10 - Love Can Make The World Go Round
11 - My Happiness
12 - River Deep, Mountain High
13 - If My Friends Could See Me Now
14 - Kiss Me Honey, Honey Kiss Me
15 - The Tennessee Wig-walk
16 - Rock And Roll Waltz
17 - What A Wonderful World
18 - Hands Off
19 - It's In His Kiss
20 - Music, Music, Music
21 - Tweedle Dee Dee, Tweedle Dee Dum
22 - Wheel Of Fortune
23 - You're Never Too Old To Be Young
24 - Stage Struck
A big thank you to espo @ luigis50s60svinylcorner.blogspot.co.uk for link
Thanks Bob I never realised she lived such a tragic life
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