Voices of the Valley - Documentaries

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Joyce Murray	- 776k
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Lulu: This is Lulu McClellan––

Noah:–– Noah Poppelreiter––

Tom:––Tom Jones––

Gonzalo:––Gonzalo Barragan––

Mike:––and Mike Wellington, student historians from the North Coast Rural Challenge Network, Voices of the Valley project in Anderson Valley.
Lulu: We are here today with retired New York and Hollywood singing professional and Anderson Valley resident, Joyce Murray. Thank you very much, Mrs. Murray, for talking to us.

Mrs. Murray: Well, it’s so nice to be here and see all you people. I was here last year when my husband was interviewed, and it’s lovely to be here today, this year.

Noah: Mrs. Murray, where were you raised?

Mrs. Murray: I was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, back on the East Coast.

Noah: Was it a lot different than living on the West Coast?

Mrs. Murray: Yes, it is. We had rough winters with a lot of snow and cold and––and definitely four seasons, you know, but I enjoyed living there. We were raised that way, and that’s what we were used to.

Lulu: Did your music career start when you were young? Like did you start getting interested in music when––in your childhood?

Mrs. Murray: I came from a musical family. My parents were both musical; there was always piano playing and singing in our house. And my father sang, and he directed the church choir, and he would coach people who had to sing solos, you know, in various places. And my mother played piano for them, and she also sang. So, there was always music in our house and that’s where I learned most of my music; we just grew up with it.

Lulu: So, you had a feeling that you might––that might be part of your career when you were older?

Mrs. Murray: You know, you dream when you’re a kid. You go to the movies and come home singing the songs and doing the little dance steps. And I never thought I would get into it because I didn’t––I knew I didn’t have the nerve to go to New York and knock on doors and ask to audition because I’m just not that way, but I always wanted to sing. And I sang at home all the time, and sang in––you know how it is when you’re a singer––you join the high school glee club, and the choirs and all that. So, you just sing wherever you can. And then I took vocal lessons too, to produce my voice correctly, you know, sing properly.

Gonzalo: So what did you do for entertainment? What kind of stuff did you do?

Mrs. Murray: Now, here in Anderson Valley?

Gonzalo: No, before––

Mrs. Murray: Oh, before?

Noah: As a child or ––

Mrs. Murray:––as a child?

Noah:––as, like, teenagers?

Mrs. Murray: Oh, movies, went to movies all the time. Hung out with my girlfriends, you know, just the usual teenage stuff. Went to see the big bands when they came to Baltimore––played records a lot.

Lulu: So, how did you, like, eventually get into actually being professional?

Mrs. Murray: When I went to––when I took voice lessons, you have to produce your voice correctly or otherwise you’ll wear out your vocal chords, or you’ll ruin them. I went with my voice teacher––I was working during the day in an office in Baltimore, and I went with my voice teacher to a place in Pennsylvania called Shawnee, and it was run by Fred Waring. And he––Fred Waring––was very famous many years ago, he had a glee club and an orchestra. And he made records, and he––he did some movies, and he did a television show, and he did concert tours, and he also had this music workshop in the summer where school music teachers or choir directors could come up there, to Pennsylvania, and spend a week there and learn Fred Waring’s methods of producing a show, of enunciating, of singing correctly of his music, so I went up there with my voice teacher and while I was there, Fred Waring noticed me and asked me to audition for his New York television show.

Lulu: Wow!

Mrs. Murray: Yeah, like that, just like a movie. (Mrs. Murray and Lulu laugh). So, I said, oh, I’ve never done anything professional; I’d be too afraid to audition, so I went back to Baltimore, and I didn’t do anything about it. And their office called me, coupla weeks later, and they called me and said we still have you in mind, would you come––this time come to New York and audition for our television show, The Fred Waring Show. It was on every Sunday night at nine o’clock on CBS Television.
So I got on a train by myself and went up to New York––Baltimore and New York are not that far apart, about 190 miles––so I went to New York and went up to the office and, um, auditioned; I was so dumb I didn’t even take music, so I sang something that was on the piano like "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" and then one thing and another; the choreographer came in, said I want you to do a few steps and she said do this and do that and somehow I got through that and later on they asked me to come up and join––become a professional the following week––to come up to New York and be in show business. So I went back home, I finished my secretarial job on a Tuesday, I went up to New York Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning I joined the The Fred Waring Show. So, literally, on Tuesday I was a secretary in Baltimore and on Wednesday I was singing with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians in New York in show business, overnight.

Lulu: Wow, um, so what other stuff did you do in your career? Like after that.

Mrs. Murray: I stayed with Fred Waring for four years and during that time we, as I say, we did this television show every Sunday night; we also made recordings and he made many recordings, hundreds of recordings. And when we weren’t doing that, we all got on buses and we traveled all over the country giving concerts. We went on concert tours. We were here in San Francisco, you know, back in the 1950s, and sang at the War Memorial Opera House and a lot of other places in the Bay Area. And then we would come back and do our television show.
And then I also could do recordings with other people. If I didn’t have a Fred Waring rehearsal and somebody called and said can you do a recording from seven to ten at Columbia, I could do that ’cause I was freelance. You’d go into a studio and they’d hand you the music, you would sight read it and you didn’t know who you would be recording with. It could be Arthur Godfrey or, you know, anybody. So that was another aspect of my career; I could do freelance recording work. And then––should I continue?

Lulu: Uh, huh.

Mrs. Murray: --I went––after Fred Waring––Fred Waring’s show was canceled on TV, you know all shows are eventually canceled––so I didn’t want to be on the road constantly, be on the bus forever and ever doing these concert tours. So I resigned sadly, but I resigned ‘cause I wanted to stay in New York and see what else I could do. So then I got work on many other shows: The Voice of Firestone, The Max Liebman Spectaculars, and then I was asked to join Perry Como, The Perry Como Show, and he was, as we’ve mentioned, he was a well-known singer, popular singer and he had a television show every Saturday night and so I joined his group, the Ray Charles singers on Perry Como Show. From there I went to The Garry Moore Show and did five years of The Garry Moore Show in a singing group and that’s where Carol Burnett got her start, if you remember Carol Burnett?

Lulu: Yeah.

Mrs. Murray: She became well known on that show. And then variety shows kind of died down, they were losing their popularity so-––this was all in New York by the way––then somebody said would you consider coming to California to do The Danny Kaye Show. Danny Kaye was a comedian and a singer and everything, he could do everything. So I said, yeah, I might as well go to where the work is. So 1965 I left New York and came out to Hollywood, out to California. And I stayed here, I’ve been here ever since. And so I did Danny Kaye and we toured with Danny Kaye; we went all over the country. And then I toured with Jerry Lewis as one of the Skylarks and I toured with Dinah Shore and I toured with Henry Mancini and I toured with Jim Nabors, you know, Gomer Pyle (everyone laughs), remember him? I toured with him. And then I joined The Carol Burnett Show––

Mr. Mendosa:––Andrews Sisters––

Mrs. Murray:––oh––I forgot the Andrews Sisters––then the Andrews Sisters, when one sister died, they were looking for a replacement, and someone recommended me, and I went over to sing with them, and they said, well, you sound just like our sister, so I toured with them for a couple years. We went to Europe, we went to Denmark––Copenhagen, Tivoli Gardens; we toured all over the U.S. and did a few television shows like Dean Martin––The Dean Martin Show and The Joey Bishop Show and a coupla others and then I joined The Carol Burnett Show. And by this time I wasn’t singing as much. I did some background singing on The Carol Burnett Show, but mainly I worked for the associate producer up in the production office, and I worked there for nine years. And during The Carol Burnett Show I met my husband, Ross Murray, at CBS, CBS in Hollywood, so that was a good thing.

Mike: When you joined the Andrews Sisters, was that like a big dream of yours that you wanted to join like this big ol’––like they were a big group, pop stars, and you really wanted to?

Mrs. Murray: Yeah, Mitch and I talked about this on the phone. When I was a teenager, the Andrews Sisters were very, very big. They had sooo many hit records––Apple Blossom Time and Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy and all these songs, and I just adored them and got all their records and played them at home. Little did I know that many years later I would be singing with the two of them after their oldest sister died. I mean, it was just something you never even thought about, and it was just another dream that came true, and that was fun.

Mike: So did the Andrews Sisters accept you as one of their…?

Mrs. Murray:––actually they were very, very nice to me. You know they were––you don’t know because you’re young, but they were very, very big in the ’40s. And they had a lot of hit records, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and Apple Blossom Time, and Pennsylvania Polka and just big, big records. They kept going into the ’60s, and then their sister, Laverne, died. She sang the bottom part, and they wanted to keep going, and they heard about me, and I was hired to sing the third part. And they were very nice to me, the two of them, very, very nice to me and accepted me, and there was never any problem. In fact, Maxene and I would go out; she liked to go antiquing, and during our off hours we would do things together and have fun. She was a nice lady, and she even came to visit us here in Boonville a couple of times. She passed away a few years ago and we went to her memorial down in L.A. Anyway, I just went out there and sang with them on the stage. The three of us just sang, and nothing was ever explained that I wasn’t a sister. I know some people recognized that I was not a sister, but we just sang those good songs. We had fun on stage.

Lulu: Were you on any of their records?

Mrs. Murray: I actually did not make records with them, but I did a lot of recording with other people, with Fred Waring, and Perry Como; I’m on Catch A Falling Star and Magic Moments, and I’m on the famous record by Ray Charles, Georgia On My Mind. I’m one of the singers on that and Frankie Avalon, (she sings) ‘Venus, if you will, please send a little girl for me to thrill.’ And the girls sing in the background––(she sings) ‘…ooh ooh ooh oh ooh oh oh,’ that’s the way we went then. And a lot of records, and that’s what I did on the side. Let me see, with Gale Garnett we did We’ll Sing in the Sunshine; I’m on that record. But the Andrews experience was wonderful; we had a good time.

Mike: Did you ever back up, like, Dean Martin?

Mrs. Murray: I backed up a lot of people, so many that I can’t remember–– Arthur Godfrey, Vaughn Monroe––so many that I can’t remember them all. Somebody would call––I mentioned before, since I was an independent group singer and somebody would call, a contractor would call and say, "Can you do a record date tonight or tomorrow night from seven to ten at Columbia Records?" and I’d look in my book, and, "Yes, I’m free," and I would go there, and you never knew who you were going to record with. They would hand you the music, and you would have to sight read it.

Mike: What was it like to tour?

Mrs. Murray: Touring is not easy. You’re always living out of a suitcase in motels or hotels and you’re always traveling, and once you’re at the spot, if you’re staying a week or two weeks, then you kinda sink into the routine, but, oh you’re always in airports and, you know, your luggage and all that stuff, but once you get there it’s okay. And we played Lake Tahoe; we played Harvey’s at Lake Tahoe three times, and we played New Orleans, the Hotel Roosevelt. We went to Canada; we played in Toronto and Montreal, so many places, you know, I can’t even remember them all. We played Cuba, too, not to mention all over the United States.

Lulu: What were your favorite places to go to, to tour?

Mrs. Murray: Favorite?

Lulu:--––your favorite places to tour––

Mrs. Murray: I loved coming here to San Francisco. New Orleans is fun; that’s totally different, you know, kind of a jazzy place. I don’t know, I don’t know what my favorites would be.

Lulu: So, can you tell us the story of how you met your husband?

Mrs. Murray: This was at CBS Television City in Hollywood, and Ross did all the sound. He was in charge––he was the head of the sound department, and he was hired to do Carol Burnett’s show. And anytime there was something in a comedy sketch, you know, like somebody falling down the stairs or whatever it might be, Ross did the sound in a microphone up in a separate booth––

Lulu: Uh, huh.

Mrs. Murray:––and he did all kinds of real wonderful tricky stuff. One of my jobs on the Burnett show was to see that the VIPs got tickets and sat in the front. I handled all the tickets for the stars and the staff, and I would come down to the studio from the office and make sure everybody got their seats and they sat up front. And Ross was watching me, I guess––he was watching me, and he came over and started talking to me. I was standing at a railing and looking at people making sure they got their seats, and he came over and started talking to me. And the next week he came over and started talking to me again, and then he just asked me would I like to go out for a drink or something after the show, and that’s how it started.

Tom: So you performed on live TV? Did things ever go wrong?

Mrs. Murray: Yeah, one time I lost my balance and I almost hit the floor but––I was doing a dance number––and I almost hit the floor, but I caught myself and I remember I got up. But my cousin saw it; he reminds me of it every time he sees me (all laugh), but I never had anything terrible happen except that. And then after live television; then they went to tape––where you can do it over.

Tom: Yeah, that makes sense.

Mrs. Murray: Yeah. But, I don’t know, somehow it took the spontaneity out of everything, I thought. But in drama there are old stories, you know, somebody’s in a crime scene and in the background you can see the dead body crawling off.

Tom: (Laughs) No, really?

Mrs. Murray: Yeah, that has happened. The camera didn’t move correctly and the guy who was shot, you know, was crawling off-camera only the camera caught it. (All laugh). Lots of funny things happened in live TV.

Noah: Do you know if the Andrews Sisters are still alive?

Mrs. Murray: One is alive.

Noah: Do you still talk to her at all or write her?

Mrs. Murray: My best friend was Maxene and I kinda lost touch with Patty.

She was the lead, the blonde who sang. And I kinda lost touch with her and I don’t--––I am not in touch with her anymore. She lives down in the San Fernando Valley, you know, in LA.

Noah: Yeah.

Mrs. Murray:––but Maxene just passed away about three or four years ago.

Noah: Oh, that’s too bad––

Mrs. Murray:––she came to visit us in Boonville. She was here a couple times, in our house.

Noah: Wow! Have you kept up with anybody else you worked with?

Mrs. Murray: Yeah. I am in touch with a lot of people. Some people from ah…still some people from The Fred Waring Show and I saw them just this year. A couple of them came up to visit us, in our house up on the hill. Um, I am in touch with,––who else am I in touch with––a couple of people from The Garry Moore Show and many people from The Carol Burnett Show. We still call and I send letters…

Noah: Wow, that’s really cool.

Mrs. Murray: Yeah, I am still in touch with people.

Lulu: Do you miss like the attention you got as a star and all, like the privileges or as being someone well known? Do you miss that?

Mrs. Murray: Well, it took me awhile to come down off, you know, the peak of being in show business and being sort of famous, but, you know, like you come out of The Garry Moore Show and you come out the stage door and there is a crowd around, they want your autograph. Or after you’ve given a concert with Fred Waring they want your autograph and they take pictures and things like that. So there was that element. I went to The Carol Burnett Show and I started working in the production office of the show. There is a lot of work that goes on behind a show, paperwork, you know, contracts to be filled out, and letters to be written, and all the business part of it. So when I got into that I kinda just went back to normal life, and I was no longer a professional singer, just a little bit. You know I kinda missed it, but I got used to it. You have to. You have to go on, you know?

Noah: Yeah.

Lulu: So do you still sing?

Mrs. Murray: Yes, I sing in a quartet. Um, we sing wherever they ask us. We sing at your church, don’t we?

Noah: Ah, quite––well, not often enough.

Mrs. Murray: Well, Grace Notes. Yeah, Grace Notes is the quartet I’m in.

Tom: So what is special about the type of music you sang compared to today’s music?

Mrs. Murray: I think it was more melodic, prettier songs, I think. I don’t want to put your music down, (all laugh), but there were pretty melodies, you know. There were some jump tunes, but I think the popular songs were something you could go home singing, or sing to your boyfriend, whereas today it’s more loud, isn’t it? Music, kinda loud…?

Tom: Mostly, yeah.

Noah: Yeah.

Mrs. Murray: I hear the cars shaking when we go by––boom, boom, boom. So I think there is a big difference in the music. Maybe it’ll get back to pretty songs again. What do you think?

Tom: Yeah.

Mrs. Murray: You think so?

Tom: We could try that.

Mrs. Murray: Yeah.

Lulu: So how did you end up in Anderson Valley?

Mrs. Murray: We went to a wedding down in Los Angeles and we ran into a friend of Ross’ from the movie business. When Ross was in the movie business, this man was a writer and producer. And Ross, you know, said, ‘Hi, How are you.’ And he said, ‘What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘We live up––we moved away and live up in a place called Elk, California.’ And so that started them talking and they were talking and talking. And this man invited us to come up the next time we were taking a little vacation or taking a trip, to come up and visit them. And so we had a vacation from Carol Burnett Show and we drove up here and it was just instant love. We just loved the scenery, how pretty it is here, and the redwoods and everything, and closeness to the ocean, and we visited these people and we said, ‘We’re going to come up again. And have a real estate man ready to show us some property because we really like it here.’ And so that’s what happened. We did come up again and we bought property right away and that was 1978. We were looking for a coupla acres and we ended up with forty.

All: Wow!

Mrs. Murray: But, we didn’t––----we weren’t able to move up here ‘til 1980, but we did buy the property in ’78 and we’re so glad we did, we just love it here. We just love it here.

Gonzalo: After living up here do you ever go back to Hollywood?

Mrs. Murray: Yes, we were down there this year; I think it was April. I sang in a group at a big tribute to Tony Bennett, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. He’s a popular singer, Tony Bennett, and it was a big gala affair, big banquet, and then singers and a lot of stars were there, and––no, no, no, no, I have that wrong. This year it was to Julie Andrews, Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music.

Lulu: Uh, huh.

Gonzalo: No, I don’t really listen to…

Mrs. Murray: Well, it was a big movie, and the last year we sang, it was for Tony Bennett. The same group gave a big tribute to Tony Bennett, and this year it was Julie Andrews. And a lot of stars were there: Dick Van Dyke, he performed, and James Garner, and whole bunch of people––Andy Williams––

Mr. Mendosa: Was that on television?

Mrs. Murray: No. It’s a charity, so you can’t televise it, otherwise they’d have to pay everybody.

Mr. Mendosa: I remember hearing about it, though.

Mrs. Murray: Yes, Society of Singers. It’s a group that helps singers in need, and they have these big productions once a year, and they raise a lot of money to help singers who are down on their luck or up-and-coming who need help––so, and that’s a big deal. It was really la-de-da; it’s in Beverly Hills, at the Beverly Hilton. So I got to sing with a lot of my old singing friends who are professional singers.

Gonzalo: Did anybody recognize you other than your friends, like, people?

Mrs. Murray: No, but my friends did. (Laughs). There are a group of people; there’s people that sing professionally for a living, that’s what they do. I mean, you know, they’re not on the screen or anything. They’re not Michael Jackson, but they sing in back of people, backup singers, or they do commercials, and that’s what they do. They’re not big names, but they do that for a living; some of them make a very good living.

Tom: So what was radio like when you were a kid?

Mrs. Murray: Well, since there was no television, all the families listened to the radio. During the daytime, there were these fifteen-minute soap operas that a lot of housewives listened to and then in the afternoon, after the kids got home from school, we had shows like Jack Armstrong and Little Orphan Annie and Tom Mix and we had kids’ programs up until supper time, then after supper the family listened to shows like Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Edgar Bergen Show, The Fred Allen Show, The Bob Hope Show and we listened to them all evening, that’s what we did for enjoyment ‘cause there was no TV then.
Noah: Which do you think is better, TV as it is today, or radio back then?
Mrs. Murray: Well, in radio you could use your imagination, in radio you made up the scenery in your mind of what they were doing, like Fibber McGee’s closet––he’d open the door and you’d hear these loud crashes, all kinds of things falling out of the closet and you’d have to imagine that and nowadays, they’d have to show it literally, they’d have to --show it--––you know, you’d have to have the closet open and the junk fall out so you could see it.

Lulu: So did you enjoy radio more?

Mrs. Murray: I can’t say that. I like TV very much; I made my living on TV
(all laugh), but, you know, they’re two different things like apples and oranges. I like them both. You didn’t know any better when you were just listening to radio, that was kind of wonderful.

Gonzalo: Did you listen to the radio shows by yourself or––

Mrs. Murray: Well, the afternoon shows, after we got home from school, we kids would sit around the radio and listen to it and my mom would be in the kitchen getting dinner ready, but in the evening we’d all listen to it together; we’d sit around and mothers could even do their ironing while listening to the radio, so it was a family thing in the evening, we’d all listen to it; there were good shows.

Mike: So you listened to Jack Benny and then went to work with him?

Mrs. Murray: I actually did work with Jack Benny the one time he was on The Garry Moore Show much later and he came on as a guest, but The Jack Benny Show was in Hollywood and I was living on the East Coast then; I worked with him just that little bit in a number in New York.

Noah: So which do you think is better, the TV the way it is now or back when it was live and those little mishaps could happen?

Mrs. Murray: Well, that’s a tough question, nowadays they have all these sitcoms, these silly sitcoms, and I think some of the earlier TV was better, in my opinion. They had wonderful dramas and a lot of a variety shows with music and singing and dancing, and, of course, I liked that very much––nowadays it’s all mostly comedy except for some police shows, things like that. You know, I like Law and Order and West Wing. I like the good shows.

Tom: Didn’t you say yesterday that when you would make a mistake when it was live, you couldn’t fix it.

Mrs. Murray: No, you couldn’t, everybody saw it.

Tom: But now today you can fix that.

Mrs. Murray: Yeah.

Tom: So didn’t you say you liked it better when it was actually live?

Mrs. Murray: Well, it was more exciting.

Tom: Yeah.

Mrs. Murray: It was tough on performers ‘cause, you know, you had to get it right the first time, but, um, I guess in the long run it’s smoother when anybody can just fix it up and redo the scene that they goofed on, you know, they can redo it. But I don’t know which I prefer, its kind of exciting to be on live TV. You had to get it right, the first time.

Mike: Were there any, like, other funny like jokes like they put on Perry Como the other day, instead of singing they had the other guy sing, was there any other stories like that?

Mrs. Murray: Oh, I’m trying to think right now, I can’t think of anything else like that where they played jokes. That was kind of a nice joke, didn’t you think?

Mike: Yeah.

Gonzalo: Did you ever play an instrument?

Mrs. Murray: Yes, um, when I was in my teens I took saxophone and, ah, clarinet. And during the war I played in an all-girl swing band and we would play at the various service clubs for the servicemen. And, ah, I sat in the saxophone section with the other girls and there were the trumpets in the back of me and drums and piano. And, um, you know we’d play the first part of the piece, the song, and then I’d get up and walk to the microphone and sing the solo, and then come back down and pick up the sax and play the rest of the piece. So I did that for a few years during the war, and the guys in the service loved to see an all-girl band, naturally.

Gonzalo: So which one did you prefer, saxophone or clarinet?

Mrs. Murray: Saxophone. It’s easier. You don’t squeak like you do on the clarinet.

Lulu: You said you played in the war. Did the war have any other affects on you, besides giving you something to do?

Mrs. Murray: Well, you know, we had rationing. You couldn’t get real butter. You had ration coupons for gasoline for cars. You couldn’t get nylon hose because that all went, I guess, for parachutes and a lot of things for the war effort. There were things you couldn’t get. But America was never deprived like they were in other countries, in Europe, for instance. I mean we all ate well. So we took––I mean, if you couldn’t get gas for your car, you took the streetcar. We had streetcars in Baltimore. And that was no problem getting around, but my dad used the few gallons of gas he got to go to work. But there were a few things we were deprived of, but it wasn’t critical. Most of us ate well. There were just things you couldn’t do. Sometimes there were blackouts. You had to pull your shades down.

Noah: So did you ever have any brothers in the war or drafted in the service or anything like that.

John: No, I had two brothers which I forgot to mention in the first part of this interview. I have two younger brothers and they where too young to go into the service.

Noah: Oh, that’s a good thing.

Mrs. Murray: Yeah, they were younger than I. And, ah, my brothers are named Jim and David. And Jim married a Danish girl so now he lives in Denmark, and David lives in Florida.

Noah: Wow, lucky guy.

Mrs. Murray: So, unfortunately, I don’t get to see them very often which is a shame. But I was their big sister. Our last name is DeYoung. When I was in show business, I was known as Joyce DeYoung.

Lulu: And you told us that you had a story about Eisenhower; could you tell us more about it?

Mrs. Murray: Yeah, this happened during the Fred Waring days, when I was singing with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, and this is in the ’50s. And Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for President of the United States, and he had been a five-star general in World War II. So Fred Waring asked our group to do several appearances to raise money for his campaign, so we traveled a couple of times in planes. And there were movie stars in the plane, people who, you know, who wanted to vote for Eisenhower. So then Eisenhower was elected president. After that, the Fred Waring group was asked to give a concert at the White House for the president and the members of the Cabinet. And my landlady––I was living in a rooming house––and my landlady said, ‘The Secret Service called today.’ (They laugh). They were checking on me. They have to check on everybody who went to the White House.
So anyway, we gave our concert in the East Room of the White House. That’s the biggest room. It has big chandeliers, and it’s very lovely. And afterwards, after the concert, we were asked to have a late supper in the State Dining Room of the White House. So President and Mrs. Eisenhower stood at the door, and all of us performers walked into the dining room one by one, and President Eisenhower and Mrs. Eisenhower shook hands with each one of us, which was very nice. And when I got up to him, President Eisenhower said, ‘I watch you every Sunday night on Fred’s show, his television show. You comb you hair like Mamie.’ That was Mrs. Eisenhower’s name, and she wore bangs, and I had bangs in those days. So, you could imagine it was a big thrill for me to have the President say that to me. That’s my little Eisenhower story, and we also sang for Eisenhower’s birthday later in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He and Fred Waring were friends and so we sang at both Eisenhower inaugurations, in ‘52 and ‘56 in Washington. So it was kind of a, kind of a big deal, I guess, to sing for the inaugurals, and to sing for the president.

Lulu: Well, getting back to the Valley, could you tell us, like, your perspective on how it’s changed since you’ve come?

Mrs. Murray: What I notice is more and more vineyards and just a few little buildings. I don’t think Boonville has grown that much, do you? I don’t; not that many more people here. Lots of people who come from the city don’t realize that you have to dig your own well; there’s no water system (all laugh). So, I just, I just notice the vineyards and a few more people coming in from the cities, which I think is wonderful. We’re meeting some fine new people; we have made a lot of new friends who have come in just like we have, only later. And we love the Valley. It’s just a great place to live, beauty and nice people.

Noah: Well, what was here before the vineyards?

Mrs. Murray: I don’t know, I didn’t live here––

Noah:––oh––

Mrs. Murray: We came in ’80, in 1980. But they were just fields, weren’t they, just fields, and then they put in lots of grapes, right? But nowadays, you just see grapes, don’t you? Which is all right, better than smokestacks, better than factories.

Lulu: Okay, well, thank you very much,

Mrs. Murray, for talking to us. I really enjoyed it.

Mrs. Murray: Oh, it’s my pleasure; I’ve enjoyed speaking with all of you. Good luck in your careers.

Everyone: Thank you.