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Lucia Pamela

 
Artist: Lucia Pamela

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Formal Connection With:

Irwin Chusid
  • Died: July 25, 2002, Los Angeles, CA
  • Active: '60s
  • Genres: Rock
  • Representative Songs: "Walking on the Moon", "Dear Me", "You and Your Big Ideas

Biography

For aficionados of Incredibly Strange Music, Lucia Pamela is a gift from God: a senior citizen who made a totally unknown, crudely recorded album in the late '60s that sounded like a garage nursing-home band. Pamela was a former Miss St. Louis and veteran entertainer with several decades of experience under her belt by the time she recorded Into Outer Space, although there seems to be no reliable way of compiling accurate biographical data. Like the much more famous Mrs. Miller, Pamela couldn't "sing" well in the conventional sense, but sang with the confidence of one who knows she is one of the best. Into Outer Space sounds like a time-warp '20s swing band, fronted by a wedding-party guest who's downed too many stiff ones. Most of the material comes from the pen of Pamela herself, who devised nursery rhyme-like ditties about walking on the moon, Indian alphabet chants, the year 2000, and only slightly less cockeyed love songs. The whole affair made its inevitable transition to CD in the 1990s Pamela faded into obscurity again after the re-release of her album, and died at the age of 98 on July 25, 2002 in a hospital in Los Angeles. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Lucia Pamela
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Lucia Pamela (May 1, 1904 in St Louis, Missouri – July 25, 2002, Los Angeles, California) was an American musician, bandleader, and eccentric. She is remembered today largely for an album and coloring book concerning an imaginary trip to the moon.

Pamela studied at the "Beethoven Conservatory of Music and Voice" in Germany. She joined Flo Ziegfeld's "Broadway Follies" after her return to America. She was voted Miss St. Louis in 1926.[citation needed]

She was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not for memorizing a record 10,000 songs. She led the all-girl orchestra and Odeon Theatre house band the Musical Pirates, said by some to be the first all-female orchestra, and hosted radio programs including The Encouragement Hour, Kansas City, and Gal About Town, Fresno.

She produced only one album, Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela (circa 1969, Gulfstream and later on L'Peg), whose songs are mostly about an imaginary trip to the moon. The song "Flip Flop Fly" was featured on the radio by Bob and Ray in 1973, but the album was all but forgotten before being reissued in 1992 (record label: Arf! Arf!, recorded from a vinyl source and produced by Irwin Chusid) to greater acclaim.

She also produced a cartoon coloring book, Into Outer Space with Lucia Pamela in the Year 2000. In 1994, the pop group Stereolab recorded a tribute to her, "International Colouring Contest", on their album Mars Audiac Quintet; the intro of the song includes a voice sample of Pamela herself ([1]).

She died in 2002, age 98, in Los Angeles.

Later that year, Tony Kushner wrote a short play about Lucia Pamela called "Flip Flop Fly." The play imagines Pamela meeting Queen Geraldine of Albania (who also died in 2002) on the moon.

Family

Her daughter was Georgia Frontiere (1927 - 2008), owner of the St. Louis Rams.

External links


 
 
Learn More
Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 2 (1995 Album by Various Artists)
Rock-It to Stardom (1984 Album by Legendary Stardust Cowboy)
The Arf! Arf! (El Cheapo) 2-CD Sampler (2001 Album by Various Artists)

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Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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