Twinkle, twinkle, ‘little star’
India Adams isn’t just a voice behind the scenes
India Adams has been singing or acting her entire life.
“My mother swears I hummed my first song when I was 9 months old,” recalled Adams from her Los Angeles home. “I always wanted to become a really big star but don’t believe it would have allowed me to have the fulfilling family life that I had. I’m content to be a little star!”
A nightclub singer and actress in musical theater for much of her career, Adams receives considerable attention in classic film circles for her brief work dubbing the singing voices of Joan Crawford and Cyd Charisse in films of the early 1950s such as “The Band Wagon,” “Torch Song” and “Johnny Guitar.”
“I was appearing at a club, and someone from MGM asked me afterward if I’d be interested in dubbing,” she recalled.
“I did ‘The Band Wagon’ first, and one of the songs for Cyd Charisse, ‘Two-faced Woman,’ was cut out but used for Joan Crawford in ‘Torch Song.’ It’s the only time in motion picture history that two different actresses have lip-synced to the very same track. In ‘That’s Entertainment III” (1984), they showed a split screen of Joan and Cyd with my voice dubbed in. It’s fascinating to watch.”
Her memories of the two actresses are very different.
“I worked a lot more with Joan than I did with Cyd, who was cold and reserved although part of it might have been that she was rather shy. Joan was very friendly and would invite me back to her dressing room. Most actresses probably resented having their voices dubbed because they wanted to sing themselves, and Joan actually recorded a bunch of tunes for ‘Torch Song’ since she was playing a musical star. She had a passable voice, but they really wanted someone to provide a more professional edge.”
Adams recorded several albums throughout her career, the most memorable being her first “Comfort Me with Apples” from 1959 with the singer posing for the cover in a bathtub soaking only in fruit (see www.indiaadams.com).
“We were batting around ideas for the cover. Since the title track was ‘Comfort Me with Apples,’ I suggested getting an old-fashioned bathtub and filling it with apples rather than bubbles. It was considered rather risque at the time.”
Aside from singing, Adams devoted much of her acting career to theater, with one memorable engagement as Ginger Rogers’ standby about 1970 in a London West End production of “Mame.”
“I was chomping at the bit to go on for Ginger,” she said, but never got the opportunity “no matter how many pins I stuck in my Ginger Rogers doll! But actually, I just loved her and she may have been the most charming person I ever met.”
As the story goes, Rogers adopted the name Ginger when her young cousins had difficulty pronouncing her given name, Virginia. But there is no anecdote behind “India.”
“All through the years I wanted to make up a really wonderful story about where the name came from, but there is none. It’s actually an old-fashioned name, and I guess my parents just liked it but never told me why.”
Now 91, Adams says her last public performance was about two years ago, but she hasn’t retired completely. “I just did a short, twocharacter film, ‘Benjamin,’ that was a sweet poignant piece.”
She also has just completed two other short horror films that were “so much fun to do.”
“Ah, entertainment,” she adds with a chuckle, “it’s a terrible disease!”