PETER ALLEN

SONGWRITER, ENTERTAINER

An excellent songwriter, the Australian Peter Allen became such a popular all-round entertainer that he was named his native country's ambassador at large and the official personality of Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Born in New South Wales, Australia, in 1944, Peter Woolnough Allen began singing professionally as a child. In his teens he teamed up with a couple of other performers to tour Asia. In Hong Kong in 1964 their act was discovered by Judy Garland, who hired them to open her concerts. In 1967, Allen married Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli, but they separated in 1970 and divorced in 1974.

At first Allen sang in small cabarets in New York City, but eventually he was able to fill the 6,000 seats of Radio City Music Hall for concerts marked by flamboyant costumes, unusual entrances, and high-energy singing and dancing. He was the only non-member permitted to join the kick-line of the Rockettes at the Music Hall. His best-known song may be 1 Honestly Love You" (1974), sung by Olivia Newton-John, which won three Grammy Awards. He won an Oscar for the theme music for the film Arthur (1981), and wrote his own signature songs, "I Go to Rio" and "Quiet Please, There's a Lady on Stage" (a tribute to Judy Garland).

Unpretentious in private life, Allen was a dynamic showman whose fans included the Queen of England and the Mayor of New York City. In the public mind he ranked with Judy Garland and Bette Midler. Like the rock star Freddie Mercury (see card 35), he projected an aura of sexual ambivalence, but this did not disturb mass audiences. He died of AIDS on June 18, 1992.

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