Birthday Trifecta: Songbirds and Skates!

Is it just me, or is July especially rich with fabulous birthdays? Those long autumn nights certainly pay off nine months later...

Today we celebrate three remarkable ladies whose glory days were the 1970s. I wonder if they ever shared the stage on Merv, Mike, or Dinah?

First up, only 'cause I adore her voice so very much, the former Queen of the Disaster Theme, Miss Maureen McGovern.

In recent years, this particular Miss M. has reinvented herself as the Empress of the Supper Club, her voice still silvery perfect and her act surprisingly funny. And yes, she will still generally sing "The Morning After."

I have to admit with shame that until very recently, our next birthday girl was only a half-forgotten name from chilhood. Our dear TJB has recently definitively corrected that injustice, and now I go around humming "Here's your one chance Fancy, don't let me down!"


Bobbie Gentry decided not to pursue a public life and has been offstage for thirty years now, and more power to her. Thank goodness she had the career she did.

Finally, that Sonja Henie of the Leisure Suit Era, the lovely and talented Peggy Fleming, whose television specials were the original Must See TV chez mes grandparents when I was a tot ("She's so wholesome!" they would chorus. As opposed, I guess, to those troublesome Lennon Sisters...).

I include her mostly because she turns up in my Bosom Pal Professor Bob's most frequently repeated joke, mostly because he suffers from frequent colds:

What's green and skates?

Peggy Phlegm!

Maybe you have to be there.

In any case, many happy returns to all three, wherever they are. Wholesome, plain, or fancy, they don't let us down.