Pat Suzuki

{{Infobox musical artist

|name = Pat Suzuki

|image = Pat Suzuki 1967.JPG

|caption = Suzuki in 1967

|background = solo_singer

|birth_name = Chiyoko Suzuki

|alias =

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1930|09|22}}

|birth_place =Cressey, California, United States

|instrument = Voice

|genre = Traditional pop

|label = RCA Victor

|associated_acts = Flower Drum Song (original Broadway cast)

|module = {{Infobox|child=yes

| header1 = Signature

| below = File:Signature of Pat Suzuki on a 4" x 6" index card, October 30, 1976 (cropped to signature).jpg

}}

Pat Suzuki (born Chiyoko Suzuki; September 22, 1930)According to Family Tree Legends (an online birth records database that documents California births between 1905 and 1995) the only "Chiyoko Suzuki" born in Cressey, CA (Merced County) was born September 22, 1930, not September 23, 1934 as it is often reported. [http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/39461?c=search&first=Chiyoko&last=Suzuki] is an American popular singer and actress, who is best known for her role in the original Broadway production of the musical Flower Drum Song, and her performance of the song "I Enjoy Being a Girl" in the show.

Early life

Suzuki is a Nisei or second-generation Japanese American, and was born Chiyoko Suzuki, to Chiyosaku and Aki Suzuki, as the fourth of their four daughters. Aki was a musician who played traditional Japanese instruments. When Suzuki was growing up, she was nicknamed "Chibi", which is Japanese for 'short person' or 'small child', as the youngest sister.{{IMDb name | 0840655 |Pat Suzuki |section=bio}} Suzuki lived with her family in Cressey, California.{{cite web |url=http://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/pat-suzuki/ |title=Pat Suzuki |website=Masterworks Broadway |author=Cross, Lucy E. |date=2018 |publisher=Sony Music Entertainment |accessdate=20 September 2018}}

In February 1942, a few months after the United States entered World War II, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Under XO 9066, the Suzuki family and more than 110,000 other Japanese American residents of the U.S. Pacific coast states were forced to evacuate their homes and enter American internment camps. The Suzukis were sent to the Merced Assembly Center and later, the Granada War Relocation Center in Colorado.{{cite web | title=Japanese American Internee Data File: Chiyoko Suzuki|url=https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=3099&mtch=334&tf=F&q=Chiyoko&bc=&sort=30043%20desc&rpp=50&pg=6&rid=83341&rlst=82148,82296,82436,82990,83615,83482,83341,83623,84343,85793|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration| accessdate=2019-08-18}}{{cite web |url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/podcast-order-9066 |title=A new podcast: Order 9066 |author=Sanefuji, Noriko |date=13 March 2018 |website=O Say Can You See? [blog] |publisher=National Museum of American History |accessdate=21 September 2018}} The Suzuki family left Granada to work on a sugar beet farm and returned to California after the war.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tX4eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RcoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=863%2C816029 |title=Pat Suzuki Returns To Show Business |author=Thomas, Bob |date=5 October 1963 |newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal |accessdate=20 September 2018 |agency=AP}}{{cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Pat%20Suzuki/ |title=Pat Suzuki |date=2018 |author= |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia |accessdate=20 September 2018}}

During the early 1950s, Suzuki attended five colleges, and graduated from San Jose State University,{{cite web |url=http://www.playbill.com/playbillpagegallery/inside-playbill?asset=00000150-aea3-d936-a7fd-eef752640009&type=InsidePlaybill&slide=7 |title=Who's Who in the Cast: Pat Suzuki (Linda Low) |date=February 1959 |work=Playbill |accessdate=21 September 2018}} earning teaching credentials for elementary and secondary schools. After deciding against a career in education, she decided to travel to Europe, but ran out of money in New York, so she obtained a part in a touring production of the play, The Teahouse of the August Moon.

Career

While touring with the company, Suzuki took on gigs singing in nightclubs to cover her expenses, and ended up becoming a local celebrity at the Colony Club in Seattle in 1955,{{cite web |url=http://www.historylink.org/File/20213 |title=Pat Suzuki: The Seattle Years (1955-1958) |author=Blecha, Peter |author-link=Peter Blecha|date=29 November 2016 |website=HistoryLink |accessdate=21 September 2018}} appearing for three years and more than 2,000 consecutive performances. Bing Crosby attended one of her shows at the club in 1957. Her singing so impressed Crosby that he helped her obtain a recording contract with RCA Victor. She recorded several albums for RCA Victor, including her 1958 eponymous album, Pat Suzuki (also known as Miss Pony Tail, after the nickname she had acquired during the Colony Club years), and went on to win the Downbeat National Disc Jockey Poll award for "America's best new female singer" that year. She received national exposure after appearances on several network television programs, including her television debut on The Lawrence Welk Show, The Frank Sinatra Show on ABC and Tonight Starring Jack Paar (March 1958).{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19631009.2.78 |title=Pat Suzuki and Young Son Take Ride on the Tramway {{!}} Talented Singer Appearing Here Plays Double Role as Performer and Mother |author1=Christopher, Lee |author2=Porter, Julie |date=9 October 1963 |newspaper=Desert Sun |accessdate=21 September 2018}}

After appearing on Jack Paar, Richard Rodgers called Suzuki to offer her the role of Linda Low, one of the leads in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway production of the musical Flower Drum Song in 1958. She actually turned down the role at first ("I thought it was too big for me"), for which she later won the Theatre World Award for an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, in 1959.{{cite web |url=http://www.playbill.com/production/flower-drum-song-st-james-theatre-vault-0000004207 |title=Flower Drum Song (St. James Theatre, 1958) |publisher=Playbill |accessdate=21 September 2018}} Suzuki's rendition of "I Enjoy Being a Girl" is deemed to be the definitive recording. Suzuki's performance of the song inspired Christine Jorgensen, who described "I Enjoy Being a Girl" as her theme song and performed it on the nightclub circuit until at least the 1970s.{{Citation |title=Christine Jorgensen -- I Enjoy Being a Girl | date=26 September 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4auamhTAKqw |access-date=2023-09-12 |language=en}} Suzuki and Flower Drum Song costar Miyoshi Umeki were photographed by Philippe Halsman for the December 22, 1958 cover of Time.{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19581222,00.html |title=Cover |date=December 22, 1958 |magazine=Time |access-date=21 September 2018}}

{{quotebox |text=I was seven months pregnant at the time and I would have had some trouble playing a stripper. |author={{pad|1.0em}}— Pat Suzuki |source=on not playing Linda Low in the 1961 film Flower Drum Song, from a 1963 interview with Bob Thomas |align=right |width=25em}}

However, Suzuki did not appear in the 1961 film version of Flower Drum Song. Actress Nancy Kwan performed the role in the film and singer B. J. Baker dubbed her singing voice. Suzuki had married photographer Mark Shaw on March 28, 1960{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19600330.2.56 |title=Pat Suzuki Married |agency=UPI |date=30 March 1960 |newspaper=Desert Sun |accessdate=20 September 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826250,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623221323/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826250,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 23, 2008 |title=Milestones, Apr. 11, 1960 |date=1960-04-11 |work=Time.com website |publisher=Time, Inc |accessdate=2010-05-02}} and had given birth to their son David shortly before the film was being shot;{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871870,00.html |title=Milestones, Nov. 28, 1960 |magazine=Time |accessdate=20 September 2018}} in addition, Kwan had recently become notable for starring in The World of Suzie Wong.{{cite web |url=http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2014/9/11/dont-forget-pat-suzuki/ |title=Don't Forget Pat Suzuki |author=Komai, Chris |date=11 September 2014 |website=Discover Nikkei |accessdate=20 September 2018}}

File:Pat Suzuki Pat Boone Chevy Show 1959.JPG in 1959]]

In 1960 Suzuki was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category, for her album "Broadway '59". When Shaw was serving as the photographer for John F. Kennedy, the couple became close friends with the Kennedys, and Suzuki performed at Kennedy's inaugural ball in 1961{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/never-before-seen-kennedy-family-photos-released/ |title=Never-before-seen Kennedy family photos released |date=19 September 2012 |work=CBS This Morning |accessdate=20 September 2018}}{{cite news |url=https://www.thirteen.org/blog-post/the-lost-inaugural-gala-for-jfk-never-before-seen-performances/ |title=The Lost Inaugural Gala for JFK: Never-Before-Seen Performances |work=Thirteen: Media with Impact |publisher=PBS |accessdate=20 September 2018}} as a Hawaiian politician in a stereotypical accent, which Suzuki later described as "pretty corny."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/02/kennedy-201102 |title=From That Day Forth |date=February 2011 |author=Purdum, Todd |magazine=Vanity Fair |accessdate=20 September 2018}}

However, Suzuki had largely retired from show business after David's birth. She returned to touring nightclubs in 1963 (including several on the Sunset Strip), and later performed on The Red Skelton Show in early 1964.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PfpEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AVcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7222%2C4568702 |title=Pat Enjoys Being A Girl But Not Singing The Song |author=Pack, Harvey |date=28 January 1964 |newspaper=The Evening Independent |accessdate=20 September 2018}} Reportedly, Shaw had returned home one day to the New York apartment they shared with their son and, after describing his exciting fashion shoot earlier that day, enquired about Suzuki's activities, prompting her to launch the nightclub tour. Suzuki and Shaw divorced amicably in 1965.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Lm9IAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nRAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7238%2C1877549 |title=Pat Suzuki, Mark Shaw Divorced |author=Wilson, Early |date=15 February 1965 |newspaper=The Milwaukee Sentinel |accessdate=20 September 2018}}

Throughout the 1970s, Suzuki appeared regularly on stage. She played the role of Ma Eng in the off-Broadway production of Frank Chin's The Year of the Dragon. She also appeared in Pat Morita's short-lived television sitcom Mr. T and Tina, the first sitcom starring an Asian American family.{{cite web |url=https://www.apmreports.org/pat-suzuki |title=Pat Suzuki |publisher=American Public Media Reports |accessdate=21 September 2018}}

In 1999, Taragon Records released The Very Best of Pat Suzuki on compact disc.{{cite web |url=http://castalbums.org/recordings/The-Very-Best-of-Pat-Suzuki-The-RCA-Vik-Recordings-Pat-Suzuki/13583 |title=The Very Best of Pat Suzuki: The RCA & Vik Recordings |author= |date= |website=CastAlbums |accessdate=21 September 2018}} The compilation album collected recordings originally made for her first four albums on RCA Victor, including a performance of "Love, Look Away", the torch song for the character of Helen Chao in Flower Drum Song (music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II), originally issued on her 1959 album, Pat Suzuki's Broadway '59.

Her original LPs are on display at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington.

Suzuki continues to sing and act on stage in small and major venues such as Lincoln Center. She has actively supported Asian American civil rights, and, together with Sab Shimono, hosted the 2018 podcast Order 9066, which detailed the history of Executive Order 9066 with first-person accounts.

=''How High the Moon''=

Suzuki's haunting studio cover version of "How High the Moon" (music by Morgan Lewis and lyrics by Nancy Hamilton) was released on her eponymous album in 1958.{{discogs master |master=391549 |name=Pat Suzuki |type=album}} The cover is anachronistically featured in the motion picture Biloxi Blues{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200013843/ |title=Biloxi Blues |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=21 September 2018}} during the opening credits and in a later dance scene between the characters Eugene Jerome and Daisy (played by Matthew Broderick and Penelope Ann Miller, respectively).

The same recording is also featured in the 1989 film Eat a Bowl of Tea.{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/eat-a-bowl-of-tea-2496238115.html |title=Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989) |author=Wang, Oliver |date=8 June 2003 |website=Pop Matters |accessdate=21 September 2018}}

Personal life

Suzuki married photographer Mark Shaw in March, 1960.{{Cite web|title=4 Apr 1961, 19 - Honolulu Star-Bulletin at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/270243468/?terms=%22chiyoko%20suzuki%22&match=1|access-date=2022-01-07|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}} The couple divorced in 1965.{{Cite web|title=23 May 1965, 132 - Honolulu Star-Bulletin at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/270575003/?terms=%22pat%20suzuki%22%20%22Mark%20shaw%22%20divorced&match=1|access-date=2022-01-07|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}}

Discography

1958 - The Many Sides of Pat Suzuki (Vik){{discogs master |master=383734 |name=The Many Sides of Pat Suzuki |type=album}}
1958 - Pat Suzuki (Vik)This album is also known as Miss Ponytail or Miss Pony Tail.
1959 - Pat Suzuki's Broadway '59 (RCA Victor){{discogs master |master=628361 |name=Broadway '59 |type=album}}
1959 - Flower Drum Song (Original Broadway Cast) (Columbia)
1960 - Looking at You (RCA){{discogs master |master=842363 |name=Looking at You... |type=album}}