Artist: Polly Bergen
LP: Four Seasons of Love
Song: "September In the Rain"
[ listen ]
[ listen ]
On my weekly Wednesday evening visit to Scarecrow Video (it's 2-for-1 day) I passed by their R.I.P section and saw the collected works of recently-deceased actors like Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Joan Rivers...but I was surprised and saddened to see actress, singer, and all-around lovely lady Polly Bergen included too! She had passed away the Saturday before. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1930, Polly appeared uncredited as a singer in several films in the late '40s and early '50s, including THE MEN, starring Marlon Brando. She went on to appear in numerous movies and television shows over the following six decades. I especially like Bergen's film work in the early 1960s, when she and husband Gregory Peck are tormented by the ruthless Robert Mitchum in CAPE FEAR (1962), and when she's tormented by head nurse Joan Crawford in an insane asylum in THE CARETAKERS (1963). She's also terrific in MOVE OVER, DARLING (1963) as James Garner's randy and persistent new wife who is tormented by her husband's refusal to consummate their marriage. Garner has been stalling, you see, since his first wife, Doris Day, who he thought was lost at sea, suddenly reappears on the scene just after the wedding! This of course causes hilarious complications that involve both Don Knotts and a convertible in a car wash. Bergen's attractively packaged "Four Seasons of Love" LP was released in 1960. You can read all about her life and career on Wikipedia here and go here to read a nice obituary for Polly Bergen in the Los Angeles Times.
Polly Bergen
[ July 14, 1930 — September 20, 2014 ]
We will miss you, Polly.
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