| Click on each of the thumbnail images below to view the entire feature article on Jill Corey in the November 9, 1953 issue of LIFE. If you would like to read the entire article just as it appeared in LIFE magazine more than fifty years ago, click here. (Adode Acrobat reader is required to view the .pdf file of the magazine article prepared for us by Mr. John Greenstreet.) |
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Jill's
professional career started at age thirteen, when she began singing with
the Johnny Murphy Orchestra.
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This is the very first publicity photo of Jill issued by Columbia Records after they signed Jill to a seven-year contract in the fall of 1953. The picture was taken that September and was to appear often on sheet music and magazine articles about the young star for the next several years. Click here or on the image at left for a larger view. |
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The November 23, 1953 issue of Tempo magazine, a pocket-sized news weekly, featured this picture of Jill on the inside of its cover page, along with a brief story of her then two-month-old television career in its entertainment section. Click here or on Jill's image at left to see the article. |
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At age eighteen Jill graced the cover of TV Preview, program guide for St. Louis area television stations for the week of April 17-23, 1954. Click image for larger view and click here to read the original caption. |
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During the summer of 1954, Song Hits magazine featured this photo of the 18-year-old Jill along with an article about her early success. Click here or on the image at left to read the article. |
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Jill along with Jack Haskell and host Bill Cullen on the set of the venerable Stop the Music during its last season on network radio in 1954. Click image for larger view and click here for an entire page of assorted pictures and stories from Jill's career. |
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The February 1954 issue of Inside TV magazine carried an extensive four-page article about our young star after her first six months in New York. Click here or on the Jill's image at left to read the entire story. |
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The September 1954 issue of TV Star Parade magazine carried a pictorial feature devoted to the young Jill Corey entitled Fancy Free. Click here or on the image to read the entire article. We wish to thank fan Betty Racine of Wilmington, DE for contributing this feature. |
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During the summer of 1954 Richard Hayes, another young singer about Manhattan, took Jill to the Copa to see the legendary Frank Sinatra. Click here or on the image to read the hilarious story of just how this one date led to Jill's long friendship with Old Blue Eyes. |
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The February 1955 issue of Woman's Home Companion magazine featured an extensive first person article by Jill in which she tells about her early days in New York City, when her career was just beginning. Click here or on the image at the left to read the entire article and see eleven more photos of Jill at nineteen. |
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Jill
was an international star. Even some of her earliest Columbia
releases were available on the Continent on the Philips label, and in Australia
Jill could be heard on the Coronet label. Sheet music for her popular
songs was published in both Australia and the U.K. Click
here or on the image at left for examples of both.
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During the 1955-56 television season, Jill was a regular on the Johnny Carson Show, Johnny's early comedy-variety show for CBS. Click here or on Jill's image at left to see two publicity photos released to promote the show, along with their original suggested captions. Click here to see what else Jill was up to on television in 1956. |
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During that 1955-56 TV season, when Jill was lead singer on the Johnny Carson Show originating from Los Angeles, TV Fan magazine ran separate articles on both Jill and Johnny in their April 1956 issue. Click here or on the image at left to read just how Jill identified and learned to cope with A Wolf on Every Corner. |
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Film and stage star Ricardo Montalban plays chaperone at the Harwyn Club for TV and record singing star Jill Corey and Jack Haley, Jr., son of the famed comedian. Jack and Jill have been going up that romance hill since she moved to Hollywood. That was the original caption supplied for this photo. Click on the image at left for a larger view. |
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Publicity
shot from the same session during which Jill was photographed for the cover
of the Philips recording shown above.
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In September 1955, Columbia released a cute novelty song by Jill called Ching Ching-a-Ling. It was part of a promotional campaign for a line of lingerie by the same name offered by Munsingwear for whom Jill then became spokesperson. While Columbia backed the recording with another novelty tune called Look! Look!, they provided Munsingwear with a special edition with Ching Ching-a-Ling on both sides of the record and this special protective sleeve. Click the image at left for larger view and click here to see Jill in the studio at Columbia records on the very day she recorded the song. |
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Sheet
music cover for Jill's third release by Columbia Records.
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Jill recorded
Wait for Tomorrow, her twentieth recording for Columbia Records,
on December 8, 1955, and the song was released on the 27th of the same
month. This sheet music shown here was published by Raymar
Music of New York.
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Sheet
music cover from Jill's hit single which she introduced on the Ed
Sullivan Show in January of 1957.
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Sheet
music cover for Jill's biggest hit single in 1957.
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Jill
appeared on the cover of the Chicago Tribune's TV Week for
the week of May 18-24, 1957.
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That
May 18-24, 1957 edition of the Chicago Tribune TV Week carried
this story of Jill's rise to stardom on its first page.
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Not
to be outdone by the competition, the Chicago Sun-Times also
featured Jill on the cover of its TV program guide, TV Prevue,
during the week of September 1, 1957, the week Jill debuted as lead singer
on Your Hit Parade.
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Jill was lead singer on Your Hit Parade, along with co-stars Alan Copland, Virginia Gibson and Tommy Leonetti, during the 1957-58 season, the final year the program appeared on network television. Click here or on Jill's image for a full page of photos and articles which chronicle Jill's life and career during that very busy period for her. |
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The July 1957 issue of Modern Screen magazine featured a pictorial on Jill and her date with a young serviceman on leave from the army. Click here or on the image at left for the full story. |
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Publicity
photo originally captioned . . .
GREETINGS, DOLL . . . Pretty songstress Jill Corey buzzes friends from Idlewild on her arrival here this morning from Hollywood, where Jill discussed an upcoming movie contract. The studios started to "bite" after Jill was signed to star on the new Hit Parade show this fall. (Click image for larger view.) |
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Another
publicity shot originally captioned . . .
"What time is it here in New York?" asks pretty songstress Jill Corey after her arrival via American Airlines from Los Angeles. Jill is in town to run her disk jockey program for the College Radio Stations Network. (Click image for larger view.) |
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Jill was the second popular singer from the 50's to be featured on her own Fleers Spins and Needles bubble gum card, when this one was issued in 1957. Click the image for a larger view and to read the brief story of Jill's career given on the back of the card. |
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Marle Becker of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania founded the Jill Corey Fan Club while he was in the seventh grade. This photo was on the membership cards he issued. Click the image for much more on the Jill Corey Fan Club. |
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Publicity
photo of our beautiful star released in the late fifties, when her career
was at its zenith. This photo was provided by Marle Becker, founder
and original president of her fan club. For
much more on the Jill Corey Fan Club, click
here.
Click here or on the Jill's image at left to see an enlarged version along with another publicity photo entitled Jill on Stage. |
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Mid-50's
publicity picture with Jill looking as if she had been photographed for
her high school yearbook.
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Publicity
photo released around 1957 with Jill appearing just a bit more sophisticated!
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The years 1957 through 1960 were the busiest of Jill's career, and during that period she appeared on literally dozens of television shows. Click here or on the image at left to see a sequence of screen snaps taken from Jill's actual television performances. Notice the variety of Jill's hair styles. |
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Jill
was one of the youngest performers ever to star at New York's famed Copacabana.
Here in this photo from 1958 is Jill attired in the actual gown she wore
for her opening night.
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The
Sometimes I'm Happy cover of Jill's dual theme 1958 LP released
by Columbia Records.
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Image
from the Sometimes I'm Blue side of Jill's original 1958
LP. Read the fabulous reviews of this recording on our Reflections
page.
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Jill
as the Toronto Star Weekly's "pin-up girl" in 1958.
Note that the caption incorrectly lists Jill's hometown as Allentown, Pennsylvania.
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Jill starred in the Columbia Pictures 1958 release Senior Prom. This is a publicity still from that year promoting the picture. Click image for larger view and click here for much more on Senior Prom. |
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Before there was Playboy, it was Esquire that was the leading men's magazine, albeit not nearly so risque as its successor. In their silver anniversary issue of October 1958, Esquire ran a pictorial feature entitled Modern Models of Great Artists' Visions of Beauty. In it photographer Bert Stern chose . . . "Jill Corey: seen as the sultry, sensuous dark-haired woman of the South Seas that fascinated Gauguin." Click here or on Jill's image for larger view. |
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In June 1959, Jill recorded a novelty song for Columbia Records called the President Song in which she recites the names of all American presidents in succession from Washington through Eisenhower. Click here or on Jill's image to view the equally novel sheet music. |
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Jill's husband Don Hoak first signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and spent eleven years in the National League. Click image for more on Don's career in major league baseball, along with the delightful story of his courtship of Jill. |
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Jill married Don Hoak in Pittsburgh on December 27, 1961, while Don was with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In April 1965, their daughter Clare was born. The couple enjoyed a blissful marriage entirely consistent with the Cinderella story that Jill had lived since her career began in Avonmore. Then one day in October 1969, Jill's beloved Don was taken from her after less than eight years in that marriage. Click the image at left to see a few pictures of Jill and Don at home. |
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After her marriage at the end of 1961, Jill began to curtail her public appearances as she accompanied Don to many of the National League cities where his team the Philadelphia Phillies were scheduled to play. However, she still had certain contractual obligations to fulfill, and in June of 1963, Jill appeared in the play Sunday in New York at Philadelphia's Playhouse in the Park. Click here or on the image at left to view the program. |
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The
family soon included Clare, an extraordinarily beautiful girl . . .
who grew up to be a very successful model.
Click here
to read how Clare's career as a model began.
Click on the image at left to view a full page of Clare's publicity photos
from her career as both model and actress.
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Jill's credits include many appearances in summer stock around the country, as well as in Canada. In 1960, she appeared in Sabrina Fair at the Cherry County Playhouse near Muskegan, Michigan. Click here or on the image at left to see the playbill from that performance together with another publicity still in similar pose taken about ten years later. |
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This
autographed photo dating from 1975 was found for sale on ebaY as
part of an estate sale of a serious collector of celebrity autographs.
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This
photo of Jill in her most glamorous pose was taken during the 1970's, when
Jill was rebuilding her career in musical theater and cabaret.
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This
photo of Jill with a slightly pixy-ish grin also dates from the 1970's,
when Jill was very active in cabaret and musical theater.
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Jill
enjoyed a very successful career in musical theater starting in the late
1950's and extending to as recently as 2003, when she appeared in a production
of Anne of Green Gables. At left Jill is shown on stage
during the 1980's in the role of Irma La Douce.
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Jill graduated from Bell-Avon High School on May 27, 1953, just weeks before her debut on national television as lead singer on the Dave Garroway Show. On August 1, 2003, Jill attended the the 50th year reunion of that Class of 1953. Click image for another full page of photos of Jill as the Belle of Avonmore. |
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Click the image and learn why one perfume company regarded Jill as their million dollar baby, along with many other interesting highlights and sidelights on Jill's life and career. |
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