Singer, composer, actress, entertainer and publisher Connie Francis was educated at Arts High School and was a music student of her father. At age 11 she appeared on 'Arthur Godfrey' as a singer and accordionist. She has toured the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe, owned publishing companies, and has made many records. For a time she had her own television show, and has performed in nightclubs and in concert. Joining ASCAP in 1959, her popular-song compositions include "Senza Mama" and "Italian Lullaby".
Dubbed Jayne Mansfield s singing in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw .
11/6/74: After an appearance at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, she was raped at knifepoint at the Howard Johnson Motel where she was staying. She subsequently sued the hotel chain for failing to provide adequate security when she learned that a year after the rape occurred, the broken lock to her former room had never been repaired. She was awarded a reported $3 million.
As a child she was asked by her father if she would rather have piano or accordion lessons. Since her father was an accordion player and often played to her, she chose the accordion, a decision she said she has come to regret.
She previously dated singer Bobby Darin , who quickly ended the relationship once her father ran him off from one of her shows with a pistol.
She originally did not want to sing her first smash hit, "Whos Sorry Now", since it was originally written in the 1930s. Her father convinced her otherwise.
When show host Perry Como wanted her to sing the Italian song "Mama" on "The Perry Como Show" , she was very hesitant as she didnt want to be labeled an ethnic singer. The performance gained such a positive response that she released several records in Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese and a number of other languages.
When she first appeared on the scene she was written up in several magazines as being the new Judy Garland.
Singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka was originally hesitant to offer her the song "Stupid Cupid", as he thought it was much too juvenile for her.
She did not learn to drive until she was in her 20s.
She has been trying to promote a possible follow-up movie to her 1960s hit Where the Boys Are since the early 1980s titled "Where The Men Are".
She has appeared on "Toast of the Town" (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") a total of 26 times.
According to a broadcast on the A&E Biography channel, singer Elvis Presley attended one of her concerts and had to leave for emotional reasons once he heard her sing the song "Mama" as his mother had just recently died. The next day Elvis sent Connie two dozen yellow roses with a note apologizing for his abrupt exit.
When her first hit, "Whos Sorry Now", first aired on "Bandstand" (1952) , host Dick Clark stated, "Theres no doubt about it. This girls headed straight for the #1 spot.".
When she was first making demos, a New Jersey mobster approached her father and offered to place Connies songs in every jukebox along the East Coast. Mr. Franconero protested, stating that if his daughter was going to make it he wanted to see her do it on her own.
The news of President John F. Kennedy s assassination reached her on the set of her third MGM film, Looking for Love . She recorded the single "In The Summer of His Years" in honor of the fallen president and packaged it in a conservative gold sleeve with no photos. All proceeds from the song were donated to the family of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippitt, who had been shot and killed by alleged Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
1967" She was voted Best Female Singer in Las Vegas.
She was not allowed to attend her high school prom by her parents but was permitted to attend her schools weekly chaperoned "Beehive" dances.
7/3/63: She played a Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth II at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland.
1958: She earned her first million dollars, topped polls for Favorite Female Singer and received 5,000 fan letters a week.
Her first national appearance was on "Talent Scouts" .
Was advertised in magazines to appear in an MGM movie titled "The Girl with a Definite Maybe" in 1965 but the film was never made.
Received a scholarship to New York University to study medicine after high school.
Was the editor of her high school yearbook.
She was originally supposed to be born in Brooklyn, where her family lived at the time. However, her mother was visiting relatives in Newark, NJ, and attended an all-night dance when she went into labor.
Singer Gloria Estefan has been very vocal since the mid-1990s that she is interested in playing Connie in a movie about her life.
Stated that the two highlights of her career, thus far, were her performance of the song "Never on Sunday" at the 1961 Academy Awards Ceremony, and her performance for troops in Vietnam in 1968 in which she ended with the song "God Bless America" and the entire army of soldiers present stood and sang along, most of whom were in tears.
1961: Singer Allan Chase released a vinyl 45 record titled "Im In Love With Miss Connie Francis", backed with the song "Lonely Heart". The song gushes over her, often using titles of her songs in the lyrics.
One of the guests shown on the episode of "This Is Your Life" (1952) spotlighting Connie was her fourth-grade teacher. Connie said that she always appreciated her support over the years, as the teacher she had the year previous told her that shed never make it.
She and ex-husband Joseph Garzilli adopted a son, Joseph Garzilli Jr.(born 1974).
Close friend of Kaye Stevens and Neil Sedaka.
She was nominated for the 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame for her contributions to Arts and Entertainment.
She was inducted into the 2016 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Performance Arts category.
They were bubblegum songs. They were teenybopper songs. But I enjoy,seeing the reaction of people when I do them. [The Arizona Republic,Feb. 9, 2006].
