Connie Francis: Her Tragic Life (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

[Music] this is Connie Francis one of the top female recording artists of all time Connie Francis was born Concetta Rosa Maria franca Niro on December the 12th 1937 in New York New Jersey her parents were George and Ida frakkin arrow George was a roofing contractor and the Franken arrows lived in the Italian Jewish neighborhood of Newark Connie learned to speak Yiddish and Hebrew at an early age and recorded many of her songs in Hebrew after becoming famous for the first three years her father had a little to do with his daughter but at the age of three he found that they had something in common their love for music he asked if she wanted to take piano lessons or accordion lessons Connie said my first mistake I said accordion George Franco Nero become the perfect stage mother encouraging his daughter to play the accordion and sang at all neighborhood festivals on September the 25th 1940 Connie's younger brother George Frank enero jr. was born he had little interest in music and performing therefore he received less attention from his father and by the age of four Connie was performing for veterans at the New Jersey Veterans Hospital from an early age she will form a bond with veterans years later performing for the troops in Vietnam and never missing an opportunity to support veterans activities also at age 4 in 1941 she performed at the Olympic music park in Irvington New Jersey playing the accordion and singing Anchors Aweigh as solo Mia in Italian in 1951 she attended Newark art high school and in 1953 the family moved to Belleville New Jersey connie attended Belleville high school and graduated in 1955 at the top of her class while still in high school Connie and her father went to the office of George shake who was hosting a weekly NBC children's variety show that was called Star time kids mr. Scheck said that he had enough kids that could sing and as they were leaving Connie's father turned around and said oh yes she also plays the accordion Sheikh said wait a minute that's different Connie will appear on Star time kids once a week through most of high schoo while appearing on star x she got an opportunity to perform on the author Godfrey children's Christmas talat special and by this time George Scheck who was now Connie's manager had told her to ditch the accordion which she was happy to do author Godfrey was having trouble pronouncing Connie's last name and suggested that she called herself Connie Francis instead of Connie Franklin arrow by now Connie was making demo records for songwriters that wanted to push their songs to well established artists Connie was still in school system and her father being a strict Italian father didn't allow his daughter to date now George Sheikh and Connie's father went to every record company that they could find trying to get a contract for Francis however nothing seemed to work ever label turned them down and finally when they approached MGM with a record called Freddy that Connie had recorded they signed her to a record contract in 1955 because the executive at MGM had a son named Freddie and was having a birthday and he liked the song near 1956 George Scheck was not only managing and trying to help honey he was also managing a young singer and songwriter by the name of Bobby Darin both Connie and Bobby were yet to have a hit record Bobby began writing songs for the 19 year old Connie Francis although it was a rocky start to begin with between the two they soon fell in love and when Connie's father got wind of the romance he began plotting to keep the two apart when they were apart they wrote letters to one another it was discovered years later after Bobby Darin surly dead from heart trouble at the age of 37 that he had kept the letters that Connie had written to him they were so serious about their feelings for each other that Bobby tried to get Connie to elope with him she said years later not marrying Bobby Dan was her life's biggest regret she should have listened to her heart instead of to her father who was so Stern he once even chased Bobby away with a pistol threatened to kill him if he seen him around his daughter again during this time Connie and was under contract to MGM and MGM gave Connie every opportunity that could to record a successful record around this time George Franco Darrow was contacted by two mobsters they told him that they controlled thousands of jukeboxes along the east coast and they could place Connie's record on every one of them if mr. Franco narrow accepted their offer he knew that he would lose control of Connie's career so he said no thanks we'll make it on our own many New Jersey families in those days especially unions and building contractors were approached by mobsters whether they wanted to be or not the Frank and Errol family was no exception after several record releases without much success MGM decided to release Connie from her contract they had one more recording session scheduled before the end of the contract her father had been trying for a year to get her to record an old standard written way back in 1923 called who's sorry now Connie didn't like the song and neither did MGM but at the end of the session with 16 minutes left Connie decided to record who's sorry now so her father wouldn't be bad at her when she got home that afternoon three months went by and nothing in November of 1957 National host of American Bandstand Dick Clark found a record that laid on his desk for several weeks he liked the song and he liked the voice on New Year's Day 1958 Connie Francis was at home with her family celebrating the new year her brother George jr. was watching American Bandstand as they usually did when Dick Clark announced a new song who's sorry now by a newcomer named Connie Francis it was a total surprise Connie was shocked and ran to tell her father who didn't believe it within five weeks who's sorry now sold 1 million copies and Connie Francis was singing on American Bandstand for this opportunity she was eternally grateful to Dick Clark and they became lifelong friends after her first hit the next thing is to find the right follow-up song connie was having a hard time too had already bombs so she was becoming desperate to up incoming songwriters by the name of how a Greenfield and Neil Sedaka began pitching her songs to Connie Nunn appeal to her to slow are just not right after nanny three songs they brought out finally a crazy song that they had thought was not right for her and told her so but she loved it stupid Cupid she told them is my next hit song and she was right the next year in 1959 Connie Francis will have a double sided hit now usually record companies would place a not so good song on the back side of one that they wanted to push they would indicate to the disc jockeys to push the a side however in this case Connie's record turned out to have to a sides with lipstick on your collar and Frankie achieve in two gold records also released in 1959 was my happiness and among my souvenirs in 1960 she will co-star in her first movie where the boys are with George Hamilton she will also sing the title song and that year Connie will record everybody somebody's food it became a number-one hit connie stated that one of the highlights of her career was her singing never on Sunday at the 1961 Academy Awards she will become a top nightclub draw and in 1963 she will appear in another movie follow the boys with Paula Prentiss throughout the next several years Connie Francis will have 16 top ten here for four years she'll be voted the best female vocalist of American Bandstand by their viewers the next year in 1964 Connie was star with Jim Hutton in her third movie looking for love also in 64 on August the 15th Connie Francis marries big Canlis who was a press agent and entertainment director at the Aladdin hotel the couple met in 1963 and dated for almost a year but unfortunately the marriage only lasted three months the couple divorced on November the 15th 1964 when asked why she got married 26 year old Connie stated I wanted to have sex in 1965 Connie starred in her last movie when the boys meet the girls Connie didn't care very much for the movie business and she said so she never felt comfortable with it and she liked the first movie where the boys are but she didn't care much for the other three in 1967 Connie was voted best female singer in Los Vegas one of the most memorable moments she said of her career was when she's saying god Bless America to the troops in Vietnam in 1968 with tears in their eyes the entire army of soldiers stood and sang with her on the 16th of January 1971 Connie Mary's eyes amiran it was a second marriage for both Merrin was a well-known hair stylist in Las Vegas they manned in the Catholic Church and also had a civil ceremony connie stated that she give up her career trying to make home fries his two children from a previous marriage there was a clash of personalities and Connie moved back to her parents home and the couple divorced after one year on February the 14th 1972 a year and a half after her divorce from Ozzie Connie marries Joseph Gore's Ella on 16 September 1973 three months later she will learn that her first love Bobby Darin has passed away during heart surgery at the age of 37 garzillo was a restaurant and travel agency owner connie said later that her husband made millions from his travel agency and that she had bank road during their marriage joseph encouraged connie to continue her singing career while on a comeback tour on 8th in november 1974 while performing at the Westbury music fair in Westbury in New York at the first stop of her national tour after her performance Connie was staying at the Howard Johnson Motel Lodge in Jerico New York her husband was out of town on business but he had left her to be looked after by her secretary and her Secretary's husband her room was on the second floor and their room was a few rooms down from hers they asked if she wanted them to move closer and she said no she'd be okay Connie liked the sliding doors to her room and went to bed sometime around 2:30 a.m. 3 hours later she was awakened by a young man standing over her bed with a knife it was discovered that by jiggling the sliding doors they would come open later it was found out that other rooms had also been broken into he held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her if she screamed or made a sound after the assault she was tied to a chair naked with her hands tied behind her back the chair was then turned over in a mattress stone on top it's believed the assassin had intended killer he didn't know who she was but after finding out that she might be famous thought that the police might try harder to find him he leaves with her jury and a mink coat she had actually talked him into sparing her life Connie tried for almost a half an hour working her way to the telephone she was taken to the County Medical Center and she had been beaten and in shock connie retreated to her home located at 58 Holton Lane Essex Fells New Jersey she will seldom leave her house and will retreat to her bedroom for months at a time a few months before the attack she and Joseph had filed to adopt a baby two months after the attack the adoption came through and they were presented with a baby boy that they named Joseph garzillo jr. the baby will become Connie's entire world but she will still not be able to face the public two years later in 1976 she will file suit against Howard Johnson and company Connie will be on the stand for six days reliving the attack a police officer testifies that the room was easy to get into by jiggling the door he also testified that rooms have been broken in four times and that the motel had done absolutely nothing to secure the doors she was awarded two and a Half Men which she spent the biggest part on organizations to help rape victims in 1977 Connie had nasal surgery hoping to correct an allergy problem caused by sleeping in an air-conditioner room it took three surgeries to correct the problem however the unthinkable happened Connie Francis lost her voice and couldn't sing she's told that she may never sing again her depression is so deep she tries to overdose on pills and is found by the housekeeper the next she is still not able to be intimate with her husband even though four years had passed since the attack on the 1st of October 1978 Connie Francis and her third husband Joseph garzillo divorced on March 6 1981 seven years at the attack at the Howard Johnson and four years after she was told that she would never sing again her 40 year old younger brother George Franco Nero jr. whom she was very close to stepped out of his home located at five Cypress Avenue North Caldwell New Jersey while scraping ice off the windshield of his car in his driveway two mobsters from a Honda hedge shot and killed him later while appearing on the Larry King show Connie said that two mobsters were never caught she told Larry King that her brother had become an informant for the government against the mob this was their reprisal he had refused government protection and no she didn't know who the two gunmen were they were from out of town she said but she did know who was behind it King asked if she would reveal his thing she said no do you want to find me facedown in the river once while appearing in Las Vegas comedian Don Rickles while on stage began making fun of a couple that was sitting in audience it was a part of his act he would pick people out at random he would say such things as where did you come up with her add Sonny Liston has better-looking legs and she does and you should have kept the one you had here last night Rickles not knowing that he was making fun of a mobsters wife went to Connie Francis for help he was scared and said that he had received word that they were going to break his legs he wanted Connie to make a call to her she did and rickles was eternally grateful this is a photo of Connie when she sang at Victoria Gotti's wedding the daughter of mobster John Gotti the mafia boss is standing on the left eight months after the murder of her brother George Jr Connie Francis had not performed before public for seven years and suddenly as she had lost her voice she would gained it while walking down the street she began to realize that she was singing and for the first time in four years that sounded like her she ran to her car and began playing her songs and singing along exciting she called her father and then her manager and said book me somewhere I want to sing again she was booked of all places back in Westbury New York the same town where her last performance was made the crowd loved her she received five standing ovations two years after her tryouts returned in August of 1983 Connie's father and his daughter committed to a psychiatric hospital in Dallas Texas she was released after four days evaluation two months later in October he had her committed again in a mental hospital in Florida again she was quickly released Connie was diagnosed as a manic depressant her career would be placed on hold for the next four years she'll be in and out of hospitals seventeen times even her close friend Dick Clark will have to have her committed for observation he said it was one of the hardest things that he had ever done during this turbulent period in her life she managed to keep her sense of humor and to accomplish quite a bit in 1984 she wrote and published her autobiography who's sorry now it became a number one New York Times bestseller a year later in 1985 Connie Mary's for the fourth time she married Bob Parkinson a TV producer the marriage last eight months four years later in 1989 the doctors finally discovered the right combination of medicine for her depression however for years she suffered at the hands of doctors and institutions with the wrong diagnosis and gave her medication that cause depression and suicidal thoughts that they were trying to cure connie continued to perform but at a slower pace in december 2004 she Hedlund in las vegas for the first time since 1989 in 2007 she performed to sold-out crowds at the Castro theatre in San Francisco in 2010 she appeared at the Las Vegas Hilton and a show called the grand divas of stage in 2017 Connie Francis released her second autobiography giving full disclosure to her amazing life among my souvenirs [Music] you [Music] you

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 1,308,014

Rating: 4.8023582 out of 5

Keywords: Connie Francis, Bobby Darin

Id: 0eVB8LFzwdc

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2019