Shirley Harmer

Shirley Harmer (born 25 March 1933 She was named the most promising newcomer in Canadian television by the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists in 1953. For a time in the 1960s she used the stage name Vida Durinzi.

Early years Harmer was born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, and grew up there. In addition to working for General Motors, her father was a soloist in a church choir and sang on a radio station in Toronto; her mother played piano. When she was young, delivering newspapers provided her with a bicycle, which she rode six miles each week to a studio for singing lessons.

Career

1950s When Harmer was 15 years old, orchestra leader Boyd Valleau obtained her parents' permission for her to sing with his band for $2 per engagement. She performed with that group for about five years, primarily singing for school dances in the Toronto area. In 1951 she became a regular on a program hosted by George Murray, In the summer of 1954 she starred in a Hollywood Bowl concert with Whiteman and his orchestra, singing eight songs by George Gershwin before an audience of 20,000 people. She performed at all of Whiteman's major concerts in the mid-1950s. including Gershwin-focused concerts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and other cities. She sang with Whiteman's orchestra in Carnegie Hall and in Denver, "while 22,000 people sat through an open-air concert in the pouring rain to listen to her". and she went on to sing on the CBC's Four for the Show. At $750 per week, she had one of the highest salaries at CBC.

In September 1953 Harmer signed a contract with MGM Records.

One reviewer said of her second record that Harmer "voices sincerity and warmth" in the ballad "If You Love Me", while the other side, "Won'tcha' Love Me" was "a little too much on the hillbilly" for her style. Her 1954 recording of "Venezuela" was voted Favorite Canadian Record in a news service's survey of Canadian disc jockeys. A reviewer called her recording of "Secret Doorway" "a stunning vehicle for Shirley's fine voice" and added, "'Please Hurry Home' is a mighty pleasing affair, too". after which she became a regular on the series for the rest of the 1957-1958 season. Harmer and Murray considered her tryout for the Gobel show to be a gamble. She was initially scheduled only for the first episode, but both of them had quit their Canadian TV jobs hoping that the appearance would result in a longer engagement on the show. Harmer said, "I'd gone as far as I could go in Canada — and we hope I can go farther here." The tryout resulted in a season contract for Harmer. She had a dramatic role in the film, with no singing involved,

On October 17, 1959, Harmer made her first appearance as a nightclub singer in the Chaudiere Rose Room in Ottawa. She was concerned about adapting to the crowd activity of a nightclub, whether the chatter, laughter, and other sounds would bother her after she had "been pampered by television". She spent three months practicing the act, which was written for her. A reviewer noted the appreciative nature of the audience and added, "She was, in fact, a hit." In addition to a change of venue, performing in nightclubs was accompanied by changes in Harmer. She summed them up: "My hair is no longer blonde; it's torchy red. I now wear curvy dresses, knee-high and low-cut. I sing bouncy tunes with plenty of lift. I don't just stand there, singing — I move!" She said that in contrast to performing on TV, where the main emphasis was on production, the focus on singing in nightclubs had enabled her to "widen my range and material". Reworking her image, "she discarded the brassy role, shed her slinky dresses, stopped wiggling and finger-snapping and worked out a straight stand-up act". Nathan Cohen wrote in the Toronto Daily Star that Harmer's work on A Summer Night demonstrated that over the nine years since her TV debut she had "been improving herself as a performer ... without losing those qualities which made her worth noticing in the first place". His column said:These qualities are a buoyant naturalness (every time an attempt is made to turn her into a chanteuse or sexy type singer, one is embarrassed, not necessarily because she can't do it, but because it's so wrong for her to be that type), a luminous sweetness of expression centered around her eyes, a purity of being which informs us that her songs of love and the joys of love and the pleasure of wanting and béing wanted are as clear and unspoiled in feeling as spring water, for this is a specific emotion that no amount of experience can alter or corrode. on CBC. In 1962-1963, she was on the Wayne and Shuster Hour and was a guest on Parade, both on CBC-TV. In it, Don Hudson, producer of the Wayne and Shuster Hour called Harmer "a charming artist ... the most popular girl singer Canada has ever had".

In 1965 Harmer went back to the United States. Describing herself as "a homebody", she said, "I don't like the nightclub circuit." She moved with then-husband Allan Bertram to Dobbs Ferry, New York, as the couple's focus shifted from her career to his. While he was writing scripts for the TV shows Hullabaloo and Class of '66,

What was originally a one-week stay at the supper club in Caesar's Palace in Montreal in November 1966 was extended as a result of the way Harmer "charmed the ringsiders of the luxurious spot". By February 1967 she had become engaged to Damiano Durinzi, a partner in the operation of Caesar's. The engagement was announced by a journalist in his column in The (Montreal) Gazette. Her additional work in Europe included appearing on television and in nightclubs and touring with Josephine Baker.

1970s Following her time in Italy, Harmer returned to Canada and resumed performing in nightclubs using her original name. Her performance at the Skyline's Top of the Hill in Ottawa in June 1971 elicited contrasting opinions in reviews in two Ottawa newspapers. Dave Brown wrote in the The Ottawa Journal, "She never looked better. She never sounded better." He indicated that her wig, costume, and her style on stage made her more appealing than "the just-plain-girl" who was on TV a decade earlier. Stoneham said that the part of the act that featured Gershwin songs was the only segment in which "Miss Harmer's talents were fully realized". The review complimented Harmer's handling of a variety of styles of music in English, French, and Italian. It added that her act was "the kind of cabaret singing that will never really die so long as there are bars, booze, and the kind of people who like to sit in for a few songs and let themselves get turned on". The review complimented her performances with ballads but said, "In livelier numbers she was nimble, glib, but not in the least exciting, convincing or remarkable". Her full-time singing career included performing in Florida and doing concerts with Louis Nye in southern states. In 1978 she was "alternating residences in New York and Tampa Bay, still holding onto her Canadian citizenship".

1980s By 1980 Harmer was living in Los Angeles and performing on ocean cruises and in nightclubs. Her sister said, "Shirley gets standing ovations almost everywhere she performs and has won international awards for her singing, but for some reason they ignore her in Ontario. It hurts."

Personal life In October 1954, They had separated by May 1959 She was reported to have married civil engineer Damiano Durinzi in 1967, but in 1974 she said, "Damiano and I were never legally married." They lived together for five years, and when they split in 1972, she said, "It was like being divorced."

Recognition In 1953 the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists named Harmer the most promising newcomer in Canadian television. In 1956 the Canadian branch of the United Press wire service named Harmer the top female television personality.