Steve Lawrence, the smooth nightclub baritone, television and recording star who, with his wife and partner, soprano Eydie Gorme, kept popular pop standards well past their peak and took the America in musical walks down memory lane for half a century, died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88 years old.
The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, said Susan DuBow, a family spokeswoman. He was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in 2019.
Billed as “Steve and Eydie” at Carnegie Hall concerts, on television and in glitzy Las Vegas hotels, the remarkably durable couple remained true to their pop style as rock ‘n’ roll took off. stormed America in the 1950s and ’60s. Well past the millennium, they were still performing songs like “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” “Just in Time” and “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) )” for an audience that seemed to age with them.
Mr. Lawrence, the son of a Brooklyn cantor, and Ms. Gorme, the Bronx-born daughter of Sephardic Jewish immigrants, met professionally in 1953 as regular singers on “The Steve Allen Show,” a late-night show evening show on New York’s NBC station which would go national the next year as “Tonight”. Their love story could have been the plot of a 1940s MGM musical, complete with quarrels, breakups, make-ups and lots of singing.
When they finally decided to marry, Mr. Lawrence and Ms. Gorme hit a roadblock, as they recalled in an interview in the New York Times dressing room at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas in 1992.
“The main problem was his mother,” Ms. Gorme said. “She said she’d stick her head in the oven if Steve married me.”
He rolled his eyes and tried to get a word in, but she continued: “Until the day his mother died, she said I wasn’t Jewish but Spanish. »
Later, the topic turned to the age of their audience.
Her: “Can I say something?
Him: “Could I ever stop you? »
Her: “All the people there tonight, or most of them, are our age. We play in front of people like us. The reality is that we are who we are. We can’t be anyone other than Steve and Eydie.
It was the kind of married-people repartee that went well with ballads and show tunes, and they used it on stage and off, clearly enjoying each other’s company. She played the role as emotional, talkative and frank; he was a laid-back crooner with gentle jokes about their sex lives. Many of their friends were comedians, including Johnny Carson, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles and Carol Burnett.
In addition to concertizing and touring with his wife, Mr. Lawrence has performed in Broadway musicals, appeared in television and occasional films (including “The Blues Brothers”), produced Television specials and dozens of recorded albums, with and without Ms. Gorme, and more than 60 singles. Her “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. Her version of “Go Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, reached No. 1 on the charts in 1963 and sold over ‘one million copies.
Record sales placed him at the forefront of American pop singers in the early 1960s, and despite competition from rock groups, his club and concert dates with Ms. Gorme remained extremely popular.
In 1964, Mr. Lawrence also had a hit on Broadway in the musical “What Makes Sammy Run?” ”, based on Budd Schulberg’s novel about a ruthless 1930s Hollywood mogul who succeeds through deception and betrayal, with music and lyrics by Ervin. Duck. It ran for 540 performances; Mr. Lawrence won a New York Critics Circle Award and was nominated for a Tony for his portrayal of Sammy Glick.
He and Ms. Gorme starred in “Golden Rainbow,” a Broadway musical that ran for nearly a year in 1968 and 1969. Its music included a cover of Mr. Lawrence’s single “I’ve Gotta Be Me.” 1967 (which was later a hit for Sammy Davis Jr.).
In the 1970s, as the magic of their recording faded, Steve and Eydie remained headliners at the Copacabana in New York, the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, the Eden Roc in Miami Beach and the Sands Hotels and Sahara in Vegas. Their 1975 television tribute to the Gershwins, “Steve and Eydie: Our Love is Here to Stay,” was Emmy nominated, and he won an Emmy as producer of “Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin” (1978).
The pair celebrated their 25th anniversary as singing partners with a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1983. “Of all the pop baritones who emerged in the shadow of Frank Sinatra, Mr. Lawrence kept his voice in the best form,” said Stephen Holden in a review for The Times. “Her ballad performances Saturday displayed the same velvety smoothness that characterized her singing in the mid-1950s.”
They joined Sinatra on his Diamond Jubilee world tour in 1991, traveling to Europe, Asia, Australia and across the United States. When Sinatra retired, he gave Mr. Lawrence his book of arrangements, and they were used on the 2003 album “Steve Lawrence Sings Sinatra.”
Steve Lawrence was born Sidney Liebowitz on July 8, 1935, in Brooklyn, one of three sons of Max and Anna (Gelb) Liebowitz. His father was a cantor and house painter.
The Liebowitz boys were all musically gifted. By age 8, Sidney was singing in a synagogue choir, and by age 12, he was composing songs. He dropped out of Thomas Jefferson High School before graduating to sing in bars and nightclubs.
He started calling himself Steve Lawrence, the first names of two nephews. He won Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts award at age 15 and sang for a week on Godfrey’s morning radio show.
In 1952, he signed with King Records and released a single, “Poinciana”, which sold 100,000 copies. (He and Ms. Gorme would both have some of their biggest hits with Columbia.) A year later, he was chosen from 50 applicants to be a regular on Steve Allen’s New York show; he gained greater attention when the show began airing nationally in 1954. He sang with the United States Army Band after being drafted in 1958.
Mr. Lawrence and Ms. Gorme were married in 1957. They had two sons, Michael and David. Michael died in 1986 from an undiagnosed heart condition. Ms Gorme retired in 2009 and died in 2013. Mr Lawrence is survived by his son David, a granddaughter and his brother Bernie. He had lived in Los Angeles for many years.
In the twilight of their lives, the couple cut back on the touring that dominated their schedule. But they continued to perform at the Stardust in Las Vegas, Foxwoods in Connecticut and smaller venues.
In 2004, at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island, where they have performed numerous times, they performed in a theater in the round, dressed to the nines, he in a tuxedo and she in a sequined white kaftan. Family photos were projected on big screens – Eydie as a baby, Steve in his military uniform, their wedding photos – and the crowd screamed and aahed like proud grandparents.
“For forty years we traveled all over the world, then worked at a riding school in Westbury,” Mr. Lawrence joked to a Times reporter that year. “If we were good, who knows? Maybe they’d let us play at Fortunoff’s.
Then they sang old familiar favorites, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Mam’selle” and “Where or When,” while the aging, captivated audience sang and hummed.
Alex Traub reports contributed.
