Sunday, July 19, 2015

Blue Jean Blues


Sharon Strauss


Richard Kleiner-Jane Douglass White
Opportunity Music, ASCAP

Target EXP 503
If it's on TARGET it's a hit
1957


Sharon Strauss, 1962

Sharon Strauss was raised in Oceanside, N.Y., on the south shore of Long Island, though she spent summers with her grandmother in Danby, Vt., in the shadow of the Green Mountains.

Sharon Strauss, the daughter of  Mike Strauss, a winter sportswriter at The New York Times,  had appeared on Paul Winchell's TV show and was a junior at Oceanside Junior High School, when she recorded her first 45 for Jubilee Records in 1957.

In 1963, she married George Parker, a member of the family that owned the Concord Resort Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y..  Her mother-in-law told her: “Remember, you married a hotel.”  And the new Mrs. Parker gave up her ambitions to be an entertainer and instead became a hostess at the famous celebrity hotspot, greeting visitors as the manager of guest relations.

These were the glory days of the Catskills, and Sharon recalls: “It was pre-cruise ship, and this was like a cruise ship on land.  When people came down to dinner, they dressed.”   The dining room held 3,000.   Guests included the Rockefellers, Kennedys, singers, dancers, “and every famous athlete of the day.”

Discography
57    Jubilee 5275 : A Hole In The Fence / Matchin' Kisses
57    Target 503 : Blue Jean Blues / Rattlin' Around
57    Target 504 : (You're The) Purtiest Thing / Over & Over
62    ABC 10349 : Don't Keep Your Friends Away From Me / Don't Let Him Know (The Truth)

1 comment:

  1. Truly amazing how you get some updates on these performers... and photos to boot!!

    ReplyDelete