India Adams (5* March 1927 – 25 April 2020) was among a stable of American singers hired by Hollywood studios to dub the singing voices of dancers or comediennes who lacked the vocal talents to record on film.
She was born Patricia Sue Perlin on March 8 1927 and brought up in Los Angeles. Singing by the time she was 10, she turned professional in her teens, combining her studies with a weekly nightclub residency, performing with a three-piece jazz band. She was auditioning to perform at a nightclub when spotted by an MGM scout and was soon under contract to MGM Studios where she recorded an album with Walter Gross, a pianist.
She then provided the singing voice for Joan Crawford in her Technicolor musical debut, “Torch Song,” as well as for Cyd Charisse, in one of the most popular musicals of all time, “The Band Wagon,” which featured India’s vocals on “New Sun in the Sky” and the classic Hollywood anthem “That’s Entertainment!” which she sang with Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan and Oscar Levant. A recording contract with RCA Records ensued, yielding India’s debut release, “Comfort Me With Apples.”
After moving to New York, India had starring roles in several musical shows including, “Can-Can,” “The Most Happy Fella,” and “Brigadoon.” She performed extensively in nightclubs in Manhattan as well as the Catskills, and was also the featured singer at both The Latin Quarter, and Radio City Music Hall.
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| Adams with Joan Crawford |
Having relocated to London in 1965, India became a regularly featured artiste on BBC Radio and Television, performing on hundreds of occasions, as well as on radio broadcasts, nightclub appearances, and television commercials throughout the U.K., Europe and Scandinavia. She has been the featured entertainer on numerous cruise ships, including transatlantic crossings of the SS United States, and the QE2. She performed during a televised Royal Command Performance, and was standby to Ginger Rogers during her entire run in the lead role of “Mame,” at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London’s West End. She lived in London until 1981.
After returning to Los Angeles, India released India Adams Sings and India Adams Sings Again . By 1990 she teamed up with two other singers known for dubbing the voices of famous actresses in films, Annette Warren and Betty Wand. The result of this collaboration, a sparkling review called “Hollywood’s Secret Singing Stars,” received unanimous critical and public acclaim.
“Hollywood’s Secret Singing Stars” has played at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the Norris Theatre in Palos Verdes, the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the Annenberg Theatre in Palm Springs, the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the Smothers Theatre at Pepperdine University, and the Alex Theatre in Glendale. “Hollywood’s Secret Singing Stars” were the featured entertainment at the 1992 Academy Award Presentations for Scientific and Technical Achievement.
India has performed her own show several times at the Gardenia, in Hollywood and has also headlined sold-out performances at The Catalina Bar & Grill on Sunset Boulevard.
During the 2011 Turner Classic Movie (TCM) Festival in Hollywood, India was a featured artiste on the celebrity panel, “Voice Doubles: They Sang The Songs That Made Movies Famous.” In 2013, India was featured in Southern dysComfort, an award-winning independent feature film. She is also the subject, along with Rita Moreno and Marni Nixon, of a new BBC 4 documentary, “Secret Voices of Hollywood,” about the “ghost” singers who provided the singing voices of famous stars of important movie musicals.
She performed into her eighties in supper clubs across California, and worked with a musical improvisation group, the Spring Chickens, as well as taking several acting roles, including the short The Gestapo vs Granny (2014). Her last project was a guest role on the series The Roommates, which stars Bruce Davison and Barry Bostwick; she also sang as recently as 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter.She died on 25 April 2020 at the Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Los Angeles following a short illness, she was 93 years old.
(Edited mainly from the Daily Mail) (* some sources give 8th March as birth date)