This staff interview with Mrs. Miller, a novelty singer known for butchering songs such as “Catch a Falling Star” and “Downtown,” appeared on the Minneapolis Star’s TV/radio page. The adjoining TV schedule shows just four TV stations: WCCO-4, KSTP-5, KMSP-9 and WTCN-11 (whose weekday broadcast began at 10 a.m. with a program called “Learn to Live”).

Today’s pop quiz: Name one show in WCCO’s prime-time lineup that night.

TV-RADIO CHATTER

Mrs. Miller Frets
About Her Image

By FORREST POWERS
Minneapolis Star Staff Writer

Mrs. Miller’s singing voice has a strange effect on people. Many persons wince and shake their heads in disbelief as she struggles for a note, while others rush out to buy her record.

Some 282,000 copies of “Mrs. Miller’s Greatest Hits” have been sold since Capitol Records released the album – her first – this spring.

Mrs. Miller at the mike.

The person who is perhaps most surprised by the public’s response to the record is Mrs. Elva Miller herself. The 58-year-old wife of a retired Kansas rancher, Mrs. Miller also appeared to be concerned over the image she has created when I contacted her by phone at her home in Claremont, Calif.

“Someone started the story that I financed my own records, and that’s just not true,” she said. “I don’t want to be compared with the woman who hired Carnegie Hall so she could sing to an audience. I don’t have as much money as she. What I’ve done has been on a very small scale.”

Mrs. Miller said she began recording her voice as a hobby seven years ago in a little studio at El Monte, Calif.

“I paid $12.50 an hour for the use of the studio facilities,” she said. “Later I brought in a couple of guitars just for the fun of it. It was just a hobby – like some women play bridge or golf.”

Eventually Mrs. Miller moved to a larger recording studio in Glendale.

“While I was there, someone carried one of my songs to Capitol Records,” she said, “and a Capitol representative signed me to a contract. That’s how it came about; I didn’t try to advance myself.”

The album, Mrs. Miller said, was “just an experiment.”

“They wanted to see what would happen when a person with an operatic-type voice sang numbers that were popular with young people. I had done light classical and sacred songs in the past. I have studied music and respect good musicianship. I didn’t plan this and didn’t know it would cause all this excitement.”

The young people are her biggest fans, Mrs. Miller said.

“I just don’t believe what is happening,” she said. “It keeps growing and growing. I don’t know what to think of it. We live in a college community, and the students swarm around our house. Perhaps it’s because for the first time they are able to understand the words to rock ‘n’ roll numbers. Things have just gotten out of hand, but it is nice to be accepted by young people.”

Later this month Mrs. Miller will travel to New York for a round of television appearance, including a May 22 date on the Ed Sullivan show.

Some rather cruel comments have been made about Mrs. Miller’s singing voice. In some quarters is is referred to as “the rotten sound.”

“That doesn’t bother me at all,” Mrs. Miller said. “When I signed the contract, we agreed that I wouldn’t pay any attention to what was said. I was willing to try the experiment. My husband supports me very well, and I couldn’t care less. Novelty singing never stays popular very long. When it’s all over, I’ll still have my husband and my home.”

SMALL TALK: E.G. Marshall visits “I’ve Got a Secret” Monday … Ray Walston and Bea Benaderet play “Password” next week … A gorilla named Sam will be added to the cast of regulars on “Daktari” … Frank Gorshin signed for two more Riddler appearances on “Batman” … Petula Clark guests on the Red Skelton hour May 17 … KRSI will broadcast an hour of music and interviews from the Symphony Ball at Southdale Saturday evening.

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