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Jill's
professional career started at age thirteen, when she began singing with
the Johnny Murphy Orchestra in her hometown of Avonmore, Pennsylvania.
Her starting salary was five dollars a night, but she received a raise
to six dollars per night shortly before she left the band three and a half
years later to sign with Columbia Records and debut on the Dave Garroway
Show on October 2, 1953. Read
much more about Jill's early days as the Belle of Avonmore
by clicking here or on the image at left.
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Click
on the cover photo above or at left to view the entire feature article
on Jill Corey in the November 9, 1953 issue of LIFE.
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 this
.pdf file reproduction of the magazine article kindly
prepared for us by Mr. John Greenstreet.
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This
is the very first publicity photo of Jill issued by Columbia Records after
signing 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 in 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 in its entertainment section about her then two-month-old
television career. Click here
or on Jill's image at left to see the article.
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The
exact origin of this photo is unknown, but it apparently was featured in
a color newspaper supplement sometime during the run of the Dave
Garroway Show, on which both Jill and Canadian singer Shirley Harmer
were featured. The reporter responsible for the caption was not well
informed, since he misspelled the names of both subjects in the picture.
Click here or on the image at left to learn the
origin of the jeweled tiaras the ladies are modeling.
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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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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 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
is pictured here 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 the image for larger view and click
here for a potpourri of assorted pictures and stories from Jill's
career.
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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, Delaware for contributing this feature.
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During the summer of 1954, Richard Hayes, another young singer around 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 several publicity photos released
to promote the show, along with some original suggested captions.
Click here to see what else Jill was up to
on television in 1956 - her very own Jill Corey Show.
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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 and also a second picture of Jill joining
the Montalbans, Ricardo and wife Georgiana Young, at another club.
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Here are Jill and Jack Haley, Jr. out on another evening on the town! |
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Jill served as resident girl singer for a season on the Robert Q. Lewis Show, an afternoon musical variety program on CBS television that originated from New York. On the occasion of what appears to be Robert Q.'s birthday, Jill attended a party at his apartment in Manhattan. Click the image at left to see three informal snapshots taken at the party, as Jill participated in the festivities. |
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Click
here or on Jill's image at left for an entire portfolio of black and
white publicity stills of Jill released beginning in the fall of 1953 and
extending through the 1980's, when Jill capped her long career with her
one-woman show at Carnegie Hall.
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In September 1955, Columbia Records 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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Jill's biggest hit single record, Love Me to Pieces, was introduced on an episode of the same name on the television anthology Studio One Summer Theater during July, 1957. Jill had recorded the song the previous month, but she could not appear as part of the program cast because she was already committed to other appearances around the country that summer. Click on Jill's image at left and find a collection of sheet music covers featuring Jill and many of the songs she recorded for Columbia during the 1950's. |
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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 NBC 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. That serviceman
was actor Ben Cooper, and you can read his thoughts about this arranged
"date" by clicking here.
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While
we don't have an exact date for this photo, no doubt it is from 1957 or
1958, when Jill was a fixture on all the television network musical variety
programs of the era. Here Jill is on the set of the Steve Allen
Show with host Steve, Sammy Davis, Jr. and the legendary Orson
Welles.
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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.
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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.
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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. Click here
or on the Jill's image at left to see an enlarged version along with another
publicity photo entitled Jill on Stage.
Click
here to see Jill in performance on stage in several more venues so
far unidentified. Can anyone help provide background information
on any of these performances?
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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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Two
traumatic near drowning experiences in childhood left Jill with a life-long
aversion to the water. This did not prevent the enterprising publicity
photographer from using a pool setting at any opportunity to film Jill
and for very obvious reasons.
Second
picture added 02/23/15
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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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This
picture of Jill appeared in the July 1957 issue of a magazine entitled
Teenage Review, but we have no further information on the
publication.
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Two publicity pictures dated December 12, 1957 issued by the Americana Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida tell this story of the Tiny Team: Jill Corey, Columbia recording star, and Little Jackie Heller, emcee in Americana Hotel's Bal Masque, both hail from Pittsburgh. Their reunion on the Americana bill continues through Saturday. Two pictures added 03/08/13. |
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Jill
was one of the youngest performers ever to headline at New York City's
famed Copacabana. In this photo from 1958 Jill is attired in the
actual gown she wore for her opening night.
Click
here and read about Jill's appearance at a reunion of Copa stars in
2007.
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The
Sometimes I'm Happy cover of Jill's dual theme 1958 LP released
by Columbia Records. Click
here to learn all about the CD version of Sometimes I'm Happy,
Sometimes I'm Blue that was released in 2003.
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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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The month following the release of Jill's LP, Sometimes I'm Happy, Sometimes I'm Blue, Columbia Records paid tribute to their young star a with cover feature in the Columbia Records house organ entitled Insight. Included is a picture of Jill in the Bridgeport, Connecticut Columbia factory, where she accepts the first copy of the album coming off the production line. |
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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 just one of the many publicity stills promoting the picture.
Click here
or on the image at left 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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Don
Hoak and Jill Corey applied for a marriage license on December 21, 1961,
in Pittsburgh, and they were married there just six days later on December
27th. The photo at left was widely distributed in the press, and
clicking on the image will take you to an entire page of of photos from
their early years as a married couple, when Jill began to curtail her own
career to follow Don's career in baseball as a member of the Pittsburgh
Pirates and then the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Jill's
husband Don
Hoak first signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization 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
teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates and then 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 and Jill's entire
Theater Marquee.
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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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In
1976, Jill attended a reunion of members of the Pittsburgh Pirates and
New York Yankees who participated in the 1960 World Series. Pirates
team member Dick Stuart autographed this photo to his "old friend Jill
Corey." The names of Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle were added to
the photo by Dick and are not authentic autographs.
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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
in 1978 in the role of Irma La Douce.
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Friend
of this website, Ronnie Allen, has created a musical slide show featuring
sixty-one images of Jill and family, along with three songs from among
the many that Jill has recorded over the years. Click Jill's picture
at left to view this new feature. Java script must be enabled on
your browser in order to view the show, and pressing F5 on your keyboard
one or more times at any time throughout the display will change the song
Jill sings.
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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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