Connie Francis

Trivia

• In 1974, after an appearance at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, she was raped at knifepoint at the Howard Johnson Motel where she was staying. She subsequently sued the hotel chain for failing to provide adequate security when she learned that a year after the rape occurred, the broken lock to her former room had never been repaired. She was awarded a reported $3 million.
• As a child she was asked by her father if she would rather have piano or accordion lessons. Since her father was an accordion player and often played to her, she chose the accordion, a decision she said she has come to regret.
• She previously dated singer Bobby Darin, who quickly ended the relationship once her father ran him off from one of her shows with a pistol.
• She originally did not want to sing her first smash hit, "Who's Sorry Now", since it was originally written in the 1930s. Her father convinced her otherwise.
• When show host Perry Como wanted her to sing the Italian song "Mama" on "The Perry Como Show" (1948), she was very hesitant as she didn't want to be labeled an ethnic singer. The performance gained such a positive response that she released several records in Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese and a number of other languages.
• When she first appeared on the scene she was written up in several magazines as being the new Judy Garland.
• Singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka was originally hesitant to offer her the song "Stupid Cupid", as he thought it was much too juvenile for her.
• She did not learn to drive until she was in her 20s.
• She has been trying to promote a possible follow-up movie to her 1960s hit Where the Boys Are (1960) since the early 1980s titled "Where The Men Are".
• She has appeared on "Toast of the Town" (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") a total of 26 times.

Quotes

• " Don't confuse me with the facts!"
• "He continued playing it until it sold a million. Without Dick Clark I wouldn't have stayed in show business. I was ready to go back to school to study medicine."
• "Well, they were yes men. They overlooked his excesses and the chemicals he was taking. For a Cadillac, they would say the right thing. I said, "God forbid that day comes that you die, Elvis. Red West is gonna write a bad book about you," and I was absolutely right."
• "He had the greatest sense of humor in the world. When he heard that I was getting married for the third time, he said, "Let me ask you a question", he said. "Don't you think it would be a good idea if you bought a drip-dry wedding dress?" I said, "Don't get cute, Georgie". Then he said, "Is Anita going to be my best friend? Is Anita going to be your Matron of Honor again?" I said, "Yes". He said, "It is a nice thing you keep doing for Anita. Everybody needs a steady job.""
• "In an interview published in the September 1991 issue of DISCoveries Magazine, Connie tells Jerry Osborne: One day in 1960 I was going through my collection of Al Jolson and Judy Garland records, and I played Al's "Are You Lonesome Tonight". I said, "Daddy, come listen to this. I could make it a No. 1 song". He agreed and I called Don Costa in to do the arrangement. I said, "I'm more excited about recording this song than anything I've ever cut." We were in the car on our way to New York when t
• "In an interview published in the September 1991 issue of DISCoveries Magazine, Connie tells Jerry Osborne: Irving Berlin had a fit when he found out I was doing it. He called my manager and said, "If that teenybopper louses up my beautiful 'God Bless America' the way she did poor Harry Ruby's 'Who's Sorry Now', I'm going to have a stroke". My manager said, "Please, Irving, relax. You'll be the first to hear it." "I just don't want it loused up with any of that 'Stupid Cupid' crap!", said Irving
• "Overseas, especially in England, I was an adult star before I was an adult star in America. But here, they didn't take me seriously until that night on "The Perry Como Show" (1948). I remember it was a Wednesday night, and I had a concert at Carnegie Hall the following Sunday and only 200 seats had been sold. Within 24 hours after doing "The Perry Como Show" they were scalping tickets to get into my show at Carnegie Hall."
• "I never paid for anything. There was never any recoupment for all the sessions I did. Not one penny. I had four people I hired to work for me on letters and on foreign releases. They paid for every photograph and I kept the photos. Travel, everything, was paid for. Even if it wasn't on MGM business, it was paid for. Gowns-bills were sent to MGM because I needed them for album covers. I bought them, and wore them. I could record where I wanted, however many songs I wanted, in whatever country, i
• "I didn't know anything about speed or diet pills, but they gave me these little red pills, like Benzedrine, that you can only buy in Mexico now."