A Page in History

Friday, Aug. 10, 2001 | 4:23 a.m.

OK, trivia buffs: What singing rage performed on the "Ed Sullivan Show" the same night as the Beatles when they made their American debut on Feb. 9, 1964?

That was Patti Page, famous for "Tennessee Waltz," one of the biggest-selling singles by a female of all time (10 million and growing). It reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts on Nov. 10, 1950 and stayed there for 30 weeks.

"Tennessee Waltz" was on the B side of a record released in 1950.

Another trivia question -- what was on the A side? Answer: "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus."

While "Boogie Woogie" bombed, Page (born 73 years ago as Clara Ann Fowler in Claremore, Okla.) survived the explosion with such classics as "Old Cape Cod," "Allegheny Moon," "(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window," "Cross Over the Bridge" and "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte."

Page is still a rage. She performs about 30 concerts a year and in January she released the CD "Brand New Tennessee Waltz" and is working on a children's Christmas album for release in December. She will perform Aug. 19 at Texas Station.

Page and her husband, Jerry Filiciott, split time between their home in Solana Beach, Calif., and their farm in New Hampshire, where they manufacture Patti Page's Maple Syrup.

During a recent phone interview from New Hampshire, Page talked about syrup, the Beatles and growing up poor, among other topics:

Las Vegas Sun: What was it like to appear on the "Ed Sullivan Show" at the same time as the Beatles?

Patti Page: It's kind of hard to remember because it was such bedlam. I just remember the stage door being jammed with young girls. I really don't recall all the circumstances of what happened, just that the audience was filled with young girls.

Sun: What did you sing on that show?

PP: I don't remember, and I'm sure no one else does either.

Sun: Did you realize at the time that the Beatles were going to have a major impact on the music scene?

PP: I didn't see the changes coming. I knew things had been changing for sometime, with Elvis and others, but I didn't realize to what extent it would change after the Beatles. I guess I just likened it to what I heard about Frank Sinatra in the '40s and how the girls swooned over him. I'm sure they're still doing it with Tom Jones.

Sun: You were very successful before the Beatles came along, and the success seems to have come quite easily. Was there ever a time when you had to struggle?

PP: I really didn't struggle because I wasn't one of those artists who had a great aspiration to be a star. Singing was just a way to make money. It was as good a job as any. I wasn't out there trying with all my heart to be a star. But I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Of course, there were many years that I didn't have anything.

Sun: What was it like to grow up poor in Oklahoma?

PP: My father was a laborer on the railroad. We lived in section houses -- the railroad gave section houses to the foreman and his crew. Sometimes they were good section houses and sometimes they were bad, but they were all poor. We had our own garden and my mother had a cow and a pig -- that's how we ate. We had meat with our Sunday dinner, but we had a lot of corn bread and milk for supper during the week.

Sun: You won an art scholarship to the University of Tulsa. Do you still paint?

PP: The scholarship came at the same time that a gentleman coming through Tulsa heard me singing on the radio and offered to take me to Chicago. I opted not to go to college.

I wanted to be an artist those first years when I started singing professionally, but I just never felt that I was that good, so I'm glad that I didn't pursue that.

I gave it up in the '60s, but just two weeks ago I got a sketch pad here at the farm, a perfect place for it. But the pad is still staring at me. We've had 10 grandchildren here this summer so we've been a little busy. We bring them here every summer. My husband calls it his summer camp.

Sun: Tell us about your maple syrup business.

PP: My husband has owned the maple farm since 1987. He and I have been married since 1990. We thought maybe we could capitalize on my name so we started a line of syrup and pancake mix, and now we have an organic pancake mix, which is unusual. We also have a syrup that sings -- there's a computer chip in the bottle's cap that is sensitive to light and when you take it off it sings the theme song for the farm.

Sun: Patti Page, appearing in bottle caps everywhere.

PP: Exactly. The cap works about 500 times.

Sun: You've been performing for more than 50 years. Is there still a market for your type of music?

PP: There seems to be a market for everything out there. I question whether there's a market (for my music) all the time, but there are always people who will show up.