Music and milestones

SUN CITY – Harriette Blake has sung, entertained, and shared a stage with some of the world’s biggest names, and now she lives and shares her golden voice right here in Sun City.

Sun Citians are glad that when she retired from a professional singing career a few years ago, she chose to come back “home” to the Chicago area and keep on singing.

She makes her third local musical appearance in the past three years on Aug. 24 at the “Harriette Blake Show with Ray Thomas” at 7 p.m. in Prairie Lodge’s Drendel Hall. Thomas is Sun City’s Idol Contest winner and a prominent soloist with the Prairie Singers and Prairie Voices choral groups.

“I sing songs people know; that’s how I connect with audiences,” Blake said in a pre-concert interview with Thomas last week. “Ray and I will sing two duets and separately we will do a whole bunch of songs people have known and liked for decades.” They agreed to reveal a few titles for this report: “Over the Rainbow,” “Play It Again, Sam,” and “Impossible Dream,” among many others.

A native of Chicago, Blake liked singing and gymnastics as a child. “We called it acrobatics back then, and I divided my time between the two,” she said. “I was injured in acrobatics, and I decided I’d concentrate on music. I had an older sister who played the piano for my singing, and she taught me a lot and encouraged me. When I was 12, I won a vocal contest sponsored by a bunch of schools in Chicago. There, I met Mayor Richard J. Daley, who especially liked the way I sang “My Way,” a French melody for which Paul Anka wrote the words. The mayor and I became friends, and he always called me “My Way” when we saw each other or he spoke about me to others.”

Her first big professional break came while she was still a teenager, when she did a show in Chicago with Lena Horne at Arie Crown Theater in Chicago. “I remember that Lena, already an established singing star, told me she was nervous before the performance. I told her I wasn’t nervous, because I didn’t understand what being nervous was. We shared a little laugh about it, but I soon found out that many performers kind of “learn” to be nervous later in their careers.”

This launched an ”opening act” singing career that brought her together with Bob Hope, George Burns, Liberace, Tom Jones, Danny Thomas, Art Carney, Johnny Carson, and Elvis Presley, among others. “I particularly enjoyed working with George Burns, Liberace, and Elvis,” Blake commented. “Elvis was a very sweet, nice man, Liberace loved to have several other performers on his shows and gave me lots of opportunities. George Burns and I hit it off very well later in my career. I had a paralyzed leg when I worked with Burns, and one time I asked him how my handicap would affect the show. He walked me onto the stage, sat me in a chair, and then without a word left the stage. The audience loved it. He always made me feel at ease. He was more than 80 years old then, and I, along with so many others, marveled at his longevity.”

She sang on cruise ships, and performed at the Playdium in London before the Queen of England. She also sang twice for an audience that included Ronald Reagan, once at Churchill Downs at the Kentucky Derby when he was governor of California, and later in Palm Springs when he was President.

In recent years, she has refused to let multiple sclerosis slow her down, and she performs while sitting in, or standing next to, a motorized wheelchair.

Thomas, on the other hand, owns a rich baritone voice and is largely self-taught. He is a native of Philadelphia and got his musical genes from his mother, a trained opera singer. “She taught me classical music when I was a child and taught me that music could be fun.” It has been an avocation for him as he pursued an information technology career with several insurance companies. But he studied music briefly in college and just kept on singing in college ensembles, military musical groups, and even as a soloist with symphony orchestras.

When he got to Sun City about five years ago, he quickly joined the Prairie Singers, which performs Christmas and spring concerts annually, and the Prairie Voices, a smaller group that performs gigs year-round at Chicago-area retirement communities, schools, churches, nursing homes, and Sun City neighborhood events. He burst into prominence in the Sun City area when he performed “Unchained Melody” with accompaniment and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” a capella at Stand Up and Sing and Sun City Idol contests, to rave reviews.

Thomas and Blake met shortly after she moved to Huntley, and the two immediately discovered they have similar musical styles and tastes. This is their second appearance on the same stage. They both performed at the Idols Encore concert in July.

Blake, a “retired” professional, and Thomas, a “retired” amateur, are making beautiful music together, as you’ll see and hear on Aug. 24.

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