Fan Memories

If you have a story about how you became a Kathryn Grayson fan, or a story about meeting her, or anything else pertaining to Kathryn that you would like to share, send it to Kayla at KathrynGraysonFn@aol.com.

I was about 14 years old when I started to be interested in musical from the old time. I was born in Europe, Hungary so it was difficult to see or get any classic movies. My favorites were Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. I didn't even hear about Kathryn, but one time I saw the movie "THOUSANDS CHEER" and I became a real Kathryn Grayson fan right away. Thank God we had TNT and later TCM so once in a while I had chances to see see some movies, and of course I recorded them. I think my favorite Kathryn movie is "That Midnight Kiss" and I saw it I don't know how many times. But anyway I think all of her movies are my favorites. :-)))
I always wanted to go to the States, but I always thought "It's not gonna happen." (that would be another story...) soooo I just watched those great movies and I made believe "I'm in the States somewhere and
maybe one day I'll have a chance to meet her." But it seemed impossible. LATER maybe after 10 years I got a chance to go the USA. I could hardly believe it. That was a dream just to be there. Years passed and I'm still
HERE in the States and live in LA. By accident 1 year ago I was surfing on the net and I found a Kathryn Grayson web site and it said something about a show. This show called "THE HOLLYWOOD COLLECTORS SHOW". I'm sure lots of people already heard about it but that was the first time for me. And I saw that she'd be there and selling her CDs...etc. I just couldn't believe it. I called my best friend and I told her everything about the show. So OFF WE WENT, we were there and that was the first time I met her. She was lovely, sweet and everything else a lady could be. I couldn't believe my eyes that she was in front of me and I could hug her and took a photo together. I got some tears in my eyes and I was really, really happy. That was a long way to go for me. After that there was another show in Orange County maybe 2 months later. She appeared over there too. I called my friend again and we hopped in the car and OFF WE WENT.... That was the 2nd time I saw her. It was just amazing. And one week ago I was in Vegas and she was there on a show it called "Star Struck In Las Vegas" That was the 3rd time I met her. I brought flowers to her and we took another photo together. It was just unbelievable . She was sweet just like always. I was really touched and after I left a the place and came out I got the same tears in my eyes just like at the the first time....... She made my day and I felt I'm flying.
I want to say thank you for her for everything for those wonderful movies
and thank you for just being KATHRYN!!!!!

Gaby :-) from Hungary/ but now from LA

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Hello, My name is Connie Parent. Back between 1980 and 1984, I went to see a live show in the Saint Petersburg, Florida area. Kathryn was starring. After the show, the lovely lady sat with me, my husband, and my mother and we all drank coffee together. I was very impressed with her friendliness and warmth. I am sitting in my living room tonight and watching 'It Happened In Brooklyn', starring Kathryn Grayson, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Jimmy Durante. I am enjoying Kathryn's gorgeous voice and the memory of that pleasant evening I got to sit and talk with her for about an hour. We all enjoyed her, very much.

Dear Kathryn, tonight I sit here at age 56, now disabled from a stroke and wishing so much, something great like that evening could happen to me again. I'm afraid I don't get out much at all any more, Thank you for a wonderful memory that still makes me smile. I wish the hard times you told us about had not happened to you. You are so nice and kind. I divorced and remarried since I met you that night. When we met, I was married to a man 25 years my senior. I remember looking at you and wondering if you noticed the great difference and if so, what you must have thought. Today I am married to a sweet guy, two years younger then I am, but, Kathryn, he is terminally ill. Odd how life happens at times. God bless you, dear lady and thank you for your gift of warmth that evening.

If you ever read this, I wonder if you will remember me and my family?

Love& Light,

Connie Parent

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In the summer of 1959 or 1960 Ms. Grayson was appearing in The Merry Widow in a music tent on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. While she was singing her big solo number, Vilia, a huge black beetle landed on the skin just above her strapless gown. She stiffened a bit and glanced down at the intruder but she kept right on singing while she casually brushed the insect away with a graceful movement of her hand in perfect time with the music. She got a standing ovation when she finished the song. They don't give out standing ovations easily in New England! She graciously sang the song through again. It was a wonderful evening of entertainment by an extraordinary performer.

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I can't really remember my first introduction to Kathryn Grayson. My Grandpa always loved Abbott and Costello movies, so I think that Rio Rita is probably the first movie that I noticed Kathryn Grayson in. I was about 15 years old when I first saw Kathryn Grayson. I started studying voice when I was 13 years old. My mom introduced me to Jeanette MacDonald and Deanna Durbin. I like singing Jeanette's songs, but then I heard Kathryn again. (Nothing against Jeanette). I really like Kathryn's voice best of all because of the lightness, and she never sounded like she was working to produce those glorious high notes, even though I knew they took lots of work. I went on to York College (in PA) with Music as my Major. For my senior Recital I included some of Kathryn's songs. (Un bel di from Madame Butterfly, Voci di Primavera, The Bell Song from Lakme, La ci darem la Mano and Wunderbar as duets with my husband.) After being in college so long without a break, (I did summers too, to get done faster), I really wanted a vacation. My husband and I decided that we would go with my parents and sister to Las Vegas, Nevada to visit family. My Mom really wanted to go to Disney Land for a couple of days too, so we decided to go to California as well. When I found out that we were going to go to California I told my husband that of all the things we did on vacation I would love to see Kathryn Grayson, ...sigh.... somehow. I had seen an address for her on ebay once and printed it. I looked at it and thought about writing... but what could I say. My husband kept prompting me to write, but I never got up the courage... besides I was busy working on college projects. Well, my husband has a lot more courage than I do, and he wrote. John, my husband, took a video tape of my Senior Recital and sent it to Kathryn Grayson with a nice note about how much I admired her and would love to take voice lessons from her, and that we would be in California for vacation in May. I had NO IDEA that my husband would do something like that! One night we came home from a chorus practice and there were 2 new messages on our answering machine. I got there first so I hit play. This lady's voice came on saying, "Hi John this is KG....." It took me a while to comprehend what I was hearing. It was Kathryn Grayson!!!!! She said that she had watched the whole video, that she would be able to help me with my singing, breathing in particular, and that she had cleared her schedule for the time that we would be in California on vacation!!! I couldn't believe it, I was totally floored. (Of course, when I realized how my husband had written her and everything, he got a big hug.) Needless to say I had a really hard time getting to sleep that night I was so excited, and nervous already.

I am 72 years old and am a great fan of Miss Grayson's. I think I have seen every movie she has made and the one I love the most is SHOWBOAT the music is fantastic and the supporting cast is first rate. I met Miss Grayson at the Yokota NCO Club in Japan in the mid 60's.Her daughter had convinced her to go on tour she admitted she was afraid nobody would remember her but she brought the house down with her rendition of MACK THE KNIFE I doubt if she ever cut a record of it but it was good. My wife and I went back to her dressing room and she was very gracious. She was and still is one of the greatest musical stars MGM ever had. I hope her tour brings her close to Phoenix AZ because I would sure like to see and hear her again- Ed Finnegan USAF-Retired

I really can't remember now which Kathryn Grayson film I saw first. I do remember, however, once I saw her paired with Mario Lanza I rented every Kathryn film I could find. After seeing more of Kathryn, I was enchanted by her persona and was saddened to find that there was only one website devoted to Kathryn at the time and little was printed about her. Being a web conscious person myself, I know that the presence of someone on the web really means something and helps to further their memory. Kathryn appeared to be nearly forgotten and when I started with my own website, I nearly added her into my tributes - but I thought Jim Johnson's page would stay up and chose to add stars that had no sites. Thankfully, Kayla started her site and the official site was also started.

I have learned so much about Kathryn from Kayla and when I found out Kathryn was going to be at a signing in Hollywood -- I wanted to meet her and I was going to try my best to get Kayla to come. No problem on that account, once she was informed she wanted to come. So, the day finally came when we met in person and a couple days later, we met Kathryn too. Kathryn was a lady and I loved listening to her speak and greet fans. Living in California, I have met a few stars like Mickey Rooney, Margaret O'Brien, and Jerry Maren. None of them spent as much time with me as Kathryn did with Kayla. None of them were as approachable, I felt and maybe I had gained a little extra courage to prod Kayla along, but I really thought she was a classy lady with a grand sense of humor. Not only that, she was extremely sincere and that's not something you find very often anymore among stars today.

I guess you can say Kathryn brought Kayla and I together in person and I'm grateful for that as well. :)

Thanks, Kathryn!

In 1954 I was stationed with a U.S. Army 12 man patrol unit along the then east German border. The army put us up in a large house and trucked in provisions once a week. Each week they sent us a newly released movie which we ran every Monday night. The other nights we went to the bar, or played cards, or read. One week the movie was Kiss Me Kate. And by unanimous request we ran it over for the next seven nights with 100 % attendance each night. In fact on the sixth night the only one of us who could run a projector was assigned a border post and wasn't available. We drew high card and my friend was sent to relieve him so we could watch Kiss Me Kate over for that sixth time. None of the other 20 or so movies that came to us that time were ever played more than once.

Harvey L

I was only 8 years old when I first heard about Kathryn Grayson. Being a fan of Musicals is difficult here in Mexico because you
hardly ever get to get classic movies, specially when they're not Mexican. I had loved The Wizard of Oz since I was three, so I also liked Judy Garland, One day I saw in the paper that a Musical-Film Marathon was going to be on TV and I saw that one of the movies they had was "Till the Clouds Roll By" and Judy Garland was part of the cast so I decided to watch it. I didn't like the movie very much but I remember I was totally impressed by the beginning of it specially by a lady who sang a song called "Make Believe". 2 or three movies after that, there was another film with that lady and the movie was "Kiss me Kate" (I remember the original name her was Besame Catalina) and it also had a great dancer, the same day I became fan of Miss Grayson and Miss Miller without knowing exactly who they were. Anyway I've loved to sing since I was really young and that song "Make Believe" was stuck in my head and I was singing it like all the time, my father noticed (he's a big film fan) and he asked me where I had heard it, and I said that in a movie. He told me the woman that sang that song was Kathryn Grayson and showed me her picture in a Film encyclopedia, he also talked about Showboat, it was the first movie he saw at the theatre when he was six (it was shown in Mexico in 1958). Today Showboat is my favorite film. I've been her fan since that day, and trust me, it is hard from here.

*Monica M* --Nolie--