Peter Allen (musician)

Peter Allen was born Peter Richard Woolnough on 10 February 1944, to Richard John Woolnough, soldier and grocer, and his wife, Marion Bryden (née Davidson) at Prince Albert Memorial Hospital in Tenterfield, New South Wales, a small Australian country town where his grandfather, George Woolnough, worked as a saddler. He had one sibling, a younger sister named Lynne. Allen grew up in nearby Armidale, and lived there from about six weeks of age until the age of fourteen. This is also where he first learned piano and dance. Allen's performing career began when he was eleven, playing the piano in the ladies' lounge of the New England Hotel in Armidale.[9] His father became a violent alcoholic after returning from World War II.[10] In November 1958, he committed suicide by gunshot when Allen was fourteen. Soon after his father's suicide, Allen left school with an Intermediate Certificate and moved to Lismore with his mother and sister to live with relatives.[11] His grandfather, George Woolnough, never understood or got over this devastating event. This tale is told in Allen's 1972 song, "Tenterfield Saddler".[9]

In 1959, Allen went to Surfers Paradise to look for work and met Chris Bell, an English-born singer-guitarist. Assisted by Chris Bell's father Peter Bell, and inspired by the Everly Brothers, they formed a singing duo called the Allen Brothers. He began performing as "Peter Allen" around the same time. Within a year, they were based in Sydney performing on the Australian music television program Bandstand.[9] In 1964, Mark Herron, the husband of Judy Garland, discovered the Allen Brothers while they were performing in Hong Kong. They became Judy Garland's opening act when she toured. Charmed by Allen, Judy served as a matchmaker between him and her daughter, Liza Minnelli. The Allen Brothers Act broke up in the spring of 1970.[2]

Allen started releasing solo recordings in 1971, but throughout his career achieved greater success through his songs being recorded by others. He scored his biggest success with the song "I Honestly Love You", which he co-wrote with Jeff Barry and which became a major hit in 1974 for Olivia Newton-John. Her single reached number one in the United States and Canada and won two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Newton-John. Allen also co-wrote "Don't Cry Out Loud" with Carole Bayer Sager, popularized by Melissa Manchester in 1978, and "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love", also co-written with Bayer Sager and popularized by Rita Coolidge in 1979. One of his signature songs, "I Go to Rio", co-written with Adrienne Anderson, was popularized in America by the group Pablo Cruise.

In 1976, Allen released an album, Taught by Experts, which reached number one in Australia, along with the number one single "I Go to Rio" and the Top 10 hit "The More I See You". The album also included the song "Quiet Please, There's A Lady On Stage" which was recorded by many artists including Jack Jones and Dusty Springfield. Although his recording career in the US never progressed, he performed in Atlantic City and at Carnegie Hall. He had three extended sold-out engagements at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, where he became the first male dancer to dance with The Rockettes and rode a camel during "I Go to Rio".[2] This performance was broadcast live and exclusively on subscription television service WHT The Movie Network.[12]

Allen's most successful album was Bi-Coastal (1980), produced by David Foster and featuring the single "Fly Away", which in 1981 became his only US chart single, reaching No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, Allen co-wrote the Patti LaBelle hit "I Don't Go Shopping", which reached the top 30 on the R&B chart in 1980.

Allen co-wrote the song "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Christopher Cross, for the 1981 film Arthur. The song reached number one in the US and the songwriters won an Academy Award for Best Song. One lyric for the song, "If you get caught between the moon and New York City", was adapted from an earlier song that he and Bayer Sager co-wrote. Allen and Bayer Sager also co-wrote "You and Me (We Wanted It All)", which was recorded by Frank Sinatra. A video of Sinatra singing the song at Carnegie Hall was included as part of the Sinatra: New York live performance box set, released in late 2009.

Allen performed on Australian television for many important occasions: in front of Queen Elizabeth II in 1980 at the Sydney Opera House, before Prince Charles and Princess Diana, once in Melbourne and again in Sydney in 1981, at the opening of the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1983, where he unveiled for the first time his Australian "Flag" shirt, and the 1980 VFL Grand Final in Melbourne. His "Up in One Concert" of 1980 was a big ratings success across the country. When Australia won the America's Cup in 1983, he flew to Perth to sing before an audience of 100,000. In 1988, he opened for Frank Sinatra at Sanctuary Cove, Queensland. In America, he appeared at the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. He returned to recording on Arista with an album entitled Not the Boy Next Door (1983). In 1990, he recorded his final album on RCA Victor, Making Every Moment Count, which featured Melissa Manchester and Harry Connick Jr. The song "Making Every Moment Count", a duet with Manchester, was co-written by Seth Swirsky, who also produced a number of songs he co-wrote with Allen, including Allen's last-released single, "Tonight You Made My Day".

One of his songs, '"I Still Call Australia Home", became popular through its use in television commercials, initially for National Panasonic and, since 1987, for Qantas Airways.[13][14]

Allen's most covered song is "I Honestly Love You"

Though flamboyant on stage, Allen was quite the opposite offstage. He once remarked, "I'm not the let's-tear-his-clothes-off type. I'm fairly quiet. The maniac only comes out when I hit the stage. I have to be a different person offstage. If I were to try to keep that up 24 hours a day, I would have a nervous breakdown."[19] Allen described his stage persona as "a much more interesting person than me. I think that's why I'm in show business, to get to be that other person."[20] He further depicted his stage persona as "someone much taller, much handsomer, with a better hairline."[21] Although Allen described himself as "so boring" when not performing, he enjoyed swimming; wind surfing; skiing; water skiing; sailing; collecting Hawaiian shirts; reading; cooking; and growing flowers, herbs, and vegetables.[19][22][23] He spent so much time working in his yard that he imagined his neighbors thought he was a landscape gardener.[19]

Allen owned a beach house in Leucadia, California (north of San Diego), a place he called a 'shack' in Oak Beach, Queensland, Australia, and a penthouse apartment in Manhattan.[24] While visiting Gregory Connell's mother in Leucadia in 1975, Allen learned she was selling her beach home and so bought his first house with the earnings made from his 1974 song, "I Honestly Love You".[25] The area was quiet and far enough away from Los Angeles that he did not get people dropping in because they were in the neighborhood.[23] He wrote the 1976 song "Puttin' Out Roots" about his move to Leucadia.[26] The living room of Allen's Leucadia beach house is featured on the cover of his 1979 album, I Could Have Been a Sailor.[27]

Allen met Liza Minnelli in London in October 1964, where she and her mother Judy Garland were performing together at the London Palladium. Peter and Liza were engaged a month later on 26 November 1964. They married in New York City on 3 March 1967, formally separated on 8 April 1970, and divorced on 24 July 1974.[2][3][28]

Allen became more comfortable with his homosexuality in the early 1970s.[29] He explained, "I was afraid as a teen, that if I acknowledged that I preferred my own kind, my family would stop loving me. We do tend to underrate our families."[30] Allen and Gregory Connell met through a mutual friend at the New York cabaret club Reno Sweeney in 1973 where Peter often performed.[31] Greg thought Peter was working too hard for the money he was getting and so helped him get his first band together, while Peter found him gorgeous, sweet, and good-hearted.[5][32] According to Allen's biographer Stephen MacLean, Connell was "Peter's big love."[33] Connell, a fashion and print model originally from Texas, attracted major clients such as Coca-Cola and did other lucrative print ads.[34] Moreover, he acted in community and dinner theatres and was a singer/composer who sang lead in a group called "Voice Six".[35] After they got together, Connell left his modeling career to support Allen's music career by becoming his lighting and staging director and tour manager. This arrangement enabled them to be together while Allen performed around the world. Connell also sang backup on Allen's 1976 song, "I Go to Rio".[36][37] He did so much work behind the scenes that Peter once remarked, "Gregory does everything but get up here and sing!".[38] After becoming ill in late 1982, Connell died from AIDS-related pneumonia on 11 September 1984, at their home in Leucadia.[39][40]

Although Allen wrote "Once Before I Go" in 1982 for good friend Ann-Margret to use as a closing song at her concerts, the song took on new meaning when he sang it. According to the song's co-writer Dean Pitchford, Allen asked him to personalise the last verse of "Once Before I Go" from "The air I breathe/My morning sun/You'll be with me in years to come" to "You are the light that shines on me/You always were and you'll always be" to reference Connell's role as Allen's lighting director.[41] Allen told Pitchford that "it was the one song he related most to Greg; that he thought of Greg as he sang it, Greg behind the lights at all of his shows."[42][43] Allen further told Pitchford that "after Gregory died, he would always look into the spotlight and imagine that Gregory was behind the light."[43]

Allen dedicated his 1985 album, Captured Live at Carnegie Hall to Connell and sang songs in his memory at AIDS benefit concerts.[44][45][46] After Connell's death, Allen poured himself even more into his work. He spent several years getting his musical Legs Diamond on Broadway (it premiered in 1988), recorded his final album Making Every Moment Count in 1990, and continued performing in concerts and doing various benefits until his death in 1992 at the age of 48.[47][2]

On 26 November 2005, an extension of the Tenterfield Library was opened and named the "George Woolnough Wing", named after Allen's paternal grandfather who was memorialized in his song, "Tenterfield Saddler".[39]

Allen's last performance was on 26 January 1992, in Sydney, and he was diagnosed with throat cancer shortly after. He spent his final days at his beach house in Leucadia.[48][39] He died at Mercy Hospital, San Diego, on 18 June 1992, from an AIDS-related throat cancer.[49] A private memorial service was held on 21 June 1992, at his home in Leucadia, where his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean within sight of his house.[50]

A documentary titled The Boy from Oz about Allen was produced after his death, featuring clips from his performances as well as interviews with performers who worked with him.[51]

A stage musical based on his life, also titled The Boy from Oz, opened in Australia in 1998. Using his largely autobiographical songs, the production starred Todd McKenney as Allen and Christina Amphlett of the rock group Divinyls as Judy Garland. In 2003, the musical opened on Broadway, becoming the first Australian musical ever to be performed there. In this production Allen was played by Hugh Jackman, who won a Tony Award for his portrayal in 2004. Jackman performed this role again two years later when the show toured large arenas in Australia under the title The Boy from Oz: Arena Spectacular. A TV mini series, Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, was broadcast in Australia in 2015 with Joel Jackson playing the adult Allen and Ky Baldwin playing him as a youth. Supporting roles were played by Rebecca Gibney as Marion Woolnough (Allen's mother), Sarah West as Liza Minnelli and Sigrid Thornton as Judy Garland.[52]

Allen was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1993.[53]

During the closing few moments of the final episode of The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, during a video/photo montage, Allen's "Once Before I Go" played in the background

Don Lane performed "Once Before I Go" on his last ever episode of "The Don Lane Show".

In the 1979 film All That Jazz, Allen's live rendition of "Everything Old Is New Again" is danced to by Ann Reinking and Erzebet Foldi for Roy Scheider's character Joe Gideon based on dancer Bob Fosse.

In the 18th episode of season three of Glee, actor Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel performs “The Boy Next Door” for his initial audition to NYADA, eschewing “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera in favor of the unconventional choice. While he's initially rejected, the song lays the groundwork for a second audition.

Hugh Jackman's performance of Allen's "Once Before I Go" (from The Boy from Oz) was featured in a montage dedicated to Alex Trebek in his final episode of Jeopardy! which aired on January 8, 2021, two months after Trebek's death from stage IV pancreatic cancer on November 8, 2020, at the age of 80.[54][55]

La Casa Azul's song Terry, Peter y yo makes reference to Allen, Judy Garland, and Liza Minnelli:

Peter Allen sang
As Judy came back to life at Christmas
Decadent and stellar
Peter Allen danced
As Liza flashed
At the Sunday Night
Peter Allen sang nonstop
No one listened to him
Peter Allen danced alone
And got all sentimental
But there was no one else...

Sources

• MacLean, Stephen (2015). Peter Allen: The Boy from Oz (EPUB). Sydney: Momentum. ISBN 9781760301484.

• David Smith and Neal Peters, Peter Allen: Between The Moon and New York City (Delilah Press, 1983; ISBN 0-933328-57-5)
• Stephen Maclean, Peter Allen: The Boy From Oz (Random House Australia, 1995; ISBN 0-09-183052-4)
• Frank Van Straten, "Peter Allen AM 1944–1992" (Live Performance Australia – Hall of Fame, 2007)

• Peter Allen at IMDb
• Peter Allen at the Internet Broadway Database
• Peter Allen bio and recordings
• Peter Allen Exhibition Website
• Peter Allen Collection, including his personal archive and costumes, at the Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne