In 1960, The Associated Booking Corporation ( Publicity Department ) - 745 Fifth Avenue, New York City put together the following publicity package for super star Norman Brooks!
" From Canada, a young man called Norman Brooks has come to the cities of America and has made the musical realm jump with excitement over his beautiful voice and unique style of singing. "
" Canadian born and reared, Norman began his career in the " Little Paris " of North America, Montreal. With a family right in the midst of a bustling show-business world, Norman as boy, often watched from the wings as his father a top vaudeville stage manager, worked in the famous Chateau Theatre. Endowed with an innate love for singing and show business, Norman was a late-comer into the field because he was plagued with an immense curiosity about the world. While he was traveling around Canada, exploring the northern bush country, the lumber camps and the uranium mines, his younger sister Annie, preceded him into the entertainment world, also as a singer. "
After he returned home to Montreal, a well traveled young man, he came to see his sister perform in a smart Montreal night club. Seeing him at his table, Annie called him up to the bandstand to sing a duet with her. he was such an immediate success that he had to sing several encores and finally after a few days, decided to give up his " Wonderlust, " and join his sister in show business.
Playing every large and small club in Quebec province, the young brother-sister act sang before every type of audience, ranging from well-dressed tourists up for the winter sports, to the " The Honky Tonk " Night Club patrons. " There isn't such a thing as a bad audience, " Norman remarked, " everything depends on being right... the orchestra, the singer, and especially the songs. In our act we sang both French and English songs - and song and dance routines. " All this work was a beginning for the two youngsters, especially Norman. He learned how to work with his audience, how to please them, and he learned the basic fundamental of show business, how to provide entertainment.
Annie and Norman soon parted to go their own ways. Annie became a popular vocalist over the Canadian Broadcasting System, and Norman heeded the advice of his friends from over the border and came to try his luck in the United States. In a short period of time he was sitting on top of the Hit Parade with his recording of " Hello Sunshine. " This record sold a cool quarter of a million copies and sent this handsome and personable singer to fame and fortune. Asinger that belts out his own songs with the zest and energy reminiscent of the old-timers, Norman is a throwback to those great days when vaudeville headliners shook the rafters of some of the top theaters in the country. He knows how to win his audience and hold them until the cheering literally drowns out his magnificent voice.
Riding high on a growing popularity wave, spurred on by thousands of fans who saw him both in the United States and in Canada, he played the Latin Quarter in Boston, the famous Copacabana in New York, and several big Hollywood night clubs. One night at the Mocambo, Judy Garland was sitting at a ringside table enjoying Norman's act. Dedicating the song " For Me And My Gal " to her, he came over to her table and sang it. To his surprise, she picked up the refrain and finished off the song with him as a duet.
In his early days, one half of his act was in French, but with the greater demand for American tunes, he quickly changed his material. Every so often, he gets requests from the audience for a French Canadian song, and he usually recognizes the fan as an old friend from Montreal.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
