Kitty Kallen, American singer, Died at 94

  Actor, Music

Kitty Kallen was born on, May 25, 1922, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died on January 7, 2016.

Birthname was Katherine Kalinsky

She was an American popular singer.

Kitty’s career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s—to include the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-WWII pop scene and the early years of rock ‘n roll.

Kallen was known for her 1954 solo recording ‘”Little Things Mean a Lot” — a song that stayed at the U.S. number one spot for nine consecutive weeks, charted in the U.S. for almost seven months, hit #1 on the UK singles chart, and sold more than two million copies.

One media entity called the recording a “monster hit”, and music historian Jonny Whiteside said the song “ably characterizes Kallen’s impressive, and graceful, transforming from classic big band swing to modern post-war pop”.

She was Voted “most popular female singer” in 1954 in both Billboard and Variety polls,

Miss Kallen lost her voice at the Palladium in 1955 at the top of her career and left singing for four years, suffering paralyzed vocal cords.

She has performed at numerous prominent live venues including Manhattan’s Copacabana, Morris Levy’s Versailles, the Capitol Theater, the Maisonette Room at the St. Regis, the Cafe Rouge at the Hotel Pennsylvania and the Plaza Hotel’s Persian Room.

Kitty also starred on Broadway in Finian’s Rainbow; in the 1955 film The Second Greatest Sex and on numerous television shows including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Big Beat with singer-host Richard Hayes, American Bandstand, and Fred Allen’s Judge for Yourself.

Kitty Kallen appeared with Buster Crabbe as the Queen and King of Winter at the Lake Placid resort, in 1951.

During the highlights of her career, three imposters billed themselves as “Kitty Kallen”.

On February 8, 1960, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard at #7021), and in 2009, she was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

She was married to Clint Garvin, which was annulled, then she married Bernard “Budd” Granoff, a publicist, agent, and television producer, until his death in 1966.

They had one son, Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute and Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law.

Kitty Kallen passed away at 94 yrs old.