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Originally Posted by elly63
The episode I am posting (Beat The Clock ) is special because the guest star is the greatest Canadian talent of all time and someone many today have not heard of... Gisele MacKenzie.
No one has come close to the breadth of her talent. You've heard of a triple threat (sing, dance, act), she was a quintuple threat (sing (she had perfect pitch), dance, act, comedy and play concert level piano and violin)
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A little off topic...One of the most charming and talented stars to come out of television was Miss Gisele MacKenzie.
In her homeland of Canada, Gisele was named Canada's First Lady of Song, before crossing the border to star on Club 15 and Mario Lanza's Coke Time. Once 'discovered' by comedy legend Jack Benny, Gisele became a Saturday night fixture on NBC-TV for 5 years by starring on Your Hit Parade and The Gisele MacKenzie Show.
While starring on her own program,
Ralph Edwards surprised Gisele on Oct. 23, 1957, on his This Is Your Life live television show. Gisele's family and friends, along with Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and Bob Crosby participate in presenting Gisele's story. Look closely at the 25:14 spot where Gisele bites down on one of the charms on the bracelet that Ralph presented to her...to test the quality of the item.
Introducing Man'selle Gisele
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Miyoshi Umeki knew how to spend her first Saturday night after winning an Academy Award! She joined Gisele MacKenzie as a guest on
NBC-TV's Gisele MacKenzie Show.
Miyoshi was making a return appearance on Gisele's show, and the two repeated a fast paced duet of "Buttons & Bows" in English & Japanese, that left MS Umeki almost out of breath after singing all those Japanese lyrics!
After their duet,
Miyoshi presented Gisele with TV Radio Mirror's Best New Artist on Television Award, which was a forerunner to The People Choice Awards, then Gisele is joined by her four boy dancers, The Curfew Kids, for Shall We Dance from The King and I. This was live television at its best, and they got no better than the gifted Gisele MacKenzie!
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TV royalty Perry Como introducing Gisele.
In 1960 Gisele MacKenzie was promoting her new concert album, Gisele MacKenzie in Person at the Empire Room of the Waldorf-Astoria, on Perry Como's show.
Here Perry introduces Miss MacKenzie by singing a few bars of the theme from her 1958 NBC-TV series, and what follows is a breath-taking performance of a lovely folk song!
With perfect pitch this classically trained, dark-eyed Canadian beauty could handle any type of muisc, along with comedy...and was among the most popular, talented and gifted of all the wonderful singers that filled our lives with fine music in the 1950's and 1960's.
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