Mornin Bitches

From Dallas to Hollywood: Peggy Lohr's Inspiring Journey of Music, Love, and Overcoming Challenges

S.J. Mendelson Season 2 Episode 3

Have you ever wondered how someone breaks into the music industry, overcomes personal challenges, and finds true love along the way? This week, we sit down with the captivating Peggy Lohr to explore her journey from Dallas, Texas to becoming a successful singer in Hollywood. We discuss her early love for music, her second career as an elementary school teacher, and how the pandemic inspired her to put pen to paper for her memoir, Howdy Hollywood.

Discover how Peggy faced the struggles of the music industry head-on, including losing her hair due to alopecia, and how she uses her book to guide young people starting in the music business. We also chat about her mother's Pollyanna attitude and how it has helped her to find silver linings even in difficult times. This conversation is filled with fascinating stories and valuable insights you won't want to miss!

Finally, we delve into the various elements that have shaped Peggy Lohr's career, the serendipitous story of how she met her husband, and the importance of friendship in her life. Join us as we explore the life of this talented and inspiring artist – a conversation you'll surely remember!

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Speaker 1:

I'm so excited because I have Ms Peggy, or Mrs Ms Peggy Law, harry Hollywood, the girl singer herself. Oh my God, i just finished reading your book. Thank God it's on Kindle, because I don't. I hate, i don't go to books anymore. What a story. and I have to thank one of my best friends in the world, michael Hollingsworth, who I've known since 1976 when I moved here from New York and we became friends. But I'm so surprised that our paths never crossed. Well, they're crossing now. So let's talk about your book. Oh my God, and you're from Dallas, texas, or from Texas from Texas.

Speaker 2:

I'm from Texas, dallas, texas, born and raised here. Third generation Texas in my family. My dad was born in Texas, my grandfather born here.

Speaker 1:

Let me see if I can make this a little louder, because, like, you're a little low So, and I have a big booming voice, so I don't. I never that's. The only thing that I always have trouble with is the sound that you know. Input out, okay, output, input, let's see, okay, maybe, yeah, i don't know How's that, is that sound louder for you? Let me hear Hello, hello, hello. There you go, okay, go ahead.

Speaker 2:

You're from Dallas, okay, you're from Dallas from Dallas, born and raised in Dallas, grew up here. My mother lived in the same house for 55 years until she sold it to a builder and they tore it down. Nobody else ever lived in that house except for our family. Oh, and that's sweet. They found the very next day and they built a McMansion That's what we call them on top.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's we call them here, McMansions right, that's right.

Speaker 2:

They take up all of your yard. She used to have a very pretty yard. These big old houses, the young people don't want a yard. They don't want to take care of that. So a huge house on top of it. you know a little bit of yard, that's it, Wow.

Speaker 1:

So tell me about what made you decide to write the book Howdy Hollywood.

Speaker 2:

Well, i'm an entertainer and I sing and I still have all these years even though I did go to a second career for a while I still kept singing and I would tell these little stories and people would say, oh, you need to write a book. Those stories are so funny. Then I started obsessing with Facebook, especially during the pandemic, and I started telling some stories there and people would always say to me you need to write a book, girl, you need to write this. So the pandemic started. I had just retired from teaching for a few years and I'm like chicken little The you know. They said there was a pandemic. I said the sky is falling and I said, oh my God, we're all going to die.

Speaker 2:

So first I checked to see if I had toilet paper. Then I lucked out because I had a mask, because I use a mask when I vacuum. So I was all ready. Then I had all my you know Clorox wipes. So all that was good. Then I said I've got to write this. Now is the time to write the memory. You have nothing, no excuses, you're not working, you're at home, you can't leave, you can't go anywhere. Start writing. That's what happened. I started writing Three years ago I started writing this memoir.

Speaker 1:

Wow, how long did it take you to write it.

Speaker 2:

Well, the funny thing was I really had never written any of this stuff down. I had a couple of little journals that I'd kept funny things that my kids said, but I never had written these stories down. And so some of this I just had to remember it And I tell all my friends. you know, like Facebook was great because every time somebody famous would die I'd go, oh my God, i have a story about them And I'd go back to the computer and I'd write another story or something somebody would say to me would spark something. And then I just had to loosen up a little bit. My first draft was maybe 30 pages. I was surprised. I'm like, well, wait a minute, what happened there? You need to slow down. And I had worked as an elementary school teacher for about 17 years. That's what my second career was. I had that degree to fall back on.

Speaker 1:

Yes, i know that degree.

Speaker 2:

Of course, didn't we all, because I'm 75 years old honey, i know that degree, so yeah, so I started teaching at age 50. That's a whole nother story that I didn't really put in the book. That's another book. But I just needed to learn the craft of writing. I had taught writing to children for 17 years, but so I knew some tricks, but I needed to learn some things. So I started reading other people's memoirs. I took David Siddharis's master course online Some people that I enjoyed and learned some things here and there, and all of this produced a 300 page book. Wow, yes, wow.

Speaker 1:

Very proud of And you know what, and you should be proud of that book And I love the cover And I love Howdy Hollywood We are right. So tell us about your journey from Dallas. And I was like I'm excited. But for people who have never read the book, that might want to read the book. Let's talk about you. Know, i know I read that you were a singer from the time you were a young girl, a kid, you know.

Speaker 2:

You started singing right away, right, Yes, lots of music in my family. My dad had actually had dreams of being a singer. He sang professionally when he was a young boy, like he would sing at churches and things like that. But he, you know, he just didn't live in a time where he was able to do that because he had helped support his family and so forth his dad and his mom and all that kind of stuff. So he but he always played music. He played the piano in our house. He had this beautiful tenor voice. He'd sing. be my love for no one else.

Speaker 1:

and in this yearning, Oh, I love that song, Mariela. oh yeah, Enrico Caruso was the first one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so he. you know Mariela Lanza and Nelson Eddy, he would do all those voices, yes. So there was lots of music in our house. My mother couldn't carry a tune in a bag.

Speaker 1:

She couldn't carry a tune in a bag.

Speaker 2:

I love that, but she was always very funny. She was the comedy in our house, so and she loved music and she took us to all the music, all the Rodgers and Hammerstein music. You know we grew up in the best of times for musicals, right.

Speaker 2:

So we had all of that going on. And then my mother was a complete movie crazy nut. She just loved the movie, She knew all about him. She was a walking catalog of that And she would. We'd say, oh, there's such and such movies on all that stars so and so and so and so and so she'd sit down and watch them with us And Oscar and I was like a religious holiday in our house.

Speaker 1:

I saw you dress up. I saw you dress up. I saw you dress up. I saw you dress up. I saw you dress up. Pictures, oh my.

Speaker 2:

God, we dress up. We had our speeches about winning. You know we pretend like we were the movie stars And you know that was what I grew up with. It was just a delight. My parents were delightful, sweet people that loved the arts and encouraged us, my sister and I, to do anything we wanted to be. They thought everything we did was funny and everything we did was beautiful, and so I had. I had this great, you know garden in front of me of you know I planted the seed and they watered it.

Speaker 1:

Peggy is so lucky because there's so many people, including myself, that grew up in you know crazy, crazy families. So you're very lucky, peggy. So what brought you to Hollywood?

Speaker 2:

Well, Howdy Hollywood. So the first time I came to Hollywood was in 1976. I came out with a suitcase full of evening gowns and music charts And I was going to give myself about two or three weeks to get famous. Well, spoiler alert, that didn't happen, But it did give me a chance to see Hollywood and to kind of see if I thought that I could maneuver things, which at that point I couldn't. I didn't have hardly any connections. I knew a couple of musicians out here, out there, And and so I just kind of looked around. I went to hear Carmen McRae because I was a big fan.

Speaker 1:

Carmen McRae, an acquaintance of mine.

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, she was. I just thought she was. You know the cat's meow back then.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, she was.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I you know that first trip was just kind of a let me see what this is like and get my you know boundaries as to what every where everything was. But I went home because I didn't have the money to stay and I didn't have the connection And I had a gig in Dallas already set up. So I went back to Dallas. I had before that I had been in college in Austin, texas, and that's Austin's really where I started my career. So I started around there with a bunch of musicians that were young You know, we were all 20, 21 years old starting together.

Speaker 1:

By the way, excuse me, one of my crafts is using his litter box. in case you're so, all those people out there, you know I'm a cat lover, so he, he, the older cat, is like going crazy right now. So please, I don't add it. Anything on it? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's good. That's good to know. I'm glad it's the cat, because I would have worried that you were scratching something. No, okay, you're cute. Now we know who's scratching. Right, you and I can blame it on the cat.

Speaker 1:

That's what it is, i am blaming it on the cat Going crazy. Well, what can I say?

Speaker 2:

So anyway, i started out in Austin. The band that I worked with there to begin with ended up being Leonard Cohen's band. They were really great musicians. And then I went to Dallas and I stayed in Dallas from 1976 to 81. I worked at the Hyatt here in Dallas and two people that worked on the front desk I got to be friends with and I said you know, i'll tell everybody, if you ever get transferred to LA, get my band there. That's what they did. They got transferred to Hyatt and LA and they got me a booking at the Hyatt on Wilshire And that's actually what brought me to LA in January of 1981.

Speaker 1:

Fabulous.

Speaker 2:

So I know your show has to do sometimes with you, know the problems people have.

Speaker 1:

My book is a really positive book because I know it is a positive book So I love you know, some people talk about their problems most of the people you know. So you're my first really positive, you know. But the thing I do want to talk about is your little thing with alopecia. That's because I have a couple of friends who have had that and you know like their life really was upended because of that. All of a sudden they're losing their hair a male and female, and you know.

Speaker 2:

so that's an important thing I think to like talk about Absolutely, And I wanted to put some things like that in my book because, even though I do see the glass half full, because I had a mother that was Pollyanna and so I grew up with that There are plenty of things in my books that were hard. I just overcame them. It's not that I didn't have the tears, you know, and that I wasn't broke and that I didn't lose my hair, And you know there's a lot of things But I wanted that to be in the book in a way that I could tell young girl singers or people that are starting out in this business that, yeah, these things are going to happen to you, but how are you going to handle them? What?

Speaker 1:

are you going?

Speaker 2:

to do about it. Yeah, so the alopecia was inherited from mom and it started when I was about 21 years old. But you know, it was kind of one of those things that it started with one spot And you know you're looking in the mirror one day and it's, you know, luckily I can the back and you're kind of going whoa, wait a minute, did I just pull that out with the perm that I did, or did I, you know, first year, questioning that you're not going with the whole kitten caboodle? And so I started just with that, and so I was able to manage that for years just by doing different hairstyles. You know that would cover that. But by the time I got to be about 30, it started getting worse And plus I had to have the right person to cut my hair.

Speaker 2:

One time I was on a cruise line and I went to the hairdresser on the cruise line because I was singing on board. I was on an Alaskan cruise and they didn't know what they were doing And you know I looked horrible. I came out of this hairdressing situation like I'd been in a concentration camp. It was bad. And so when I got off the cruise line and then I went to a Sears there and I bought a wig, because that's the only place I got fine one, and I bought a bunch of scarves. All of a sudden I was the scarf lady. You know, scarf girl, scarf girl, that was my new thing And so you know that was the way it first started And then it got into. I had a hairdresser that had been a Vegas show girl and she knew some tricks and she told she turned me on to that GLH formula where you spray it on your head.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you know, little did I know. The first night I used it, i went to bed with it on and I woke up and you know, i looked like a pug dog with my husband. He was just like, oh my God, something's all over your face And I was like completely, completely brown. And yeah, i had to learn to use that. I put a towel down at night And so that helped me for a while and I still use that stuff. And then I started finding wigs and learning how to mess with them. You know Rock L Welch she's always her wigs are great. Oh my God, you have the.

Speaker 1:

Ava Gabor's wig. Did you wear it, ava?

Speaker 2:

Gabor, yes, those were wonderful wigs, Paula Young's wigs Wow, i got them all. I got all of them.

Speaker 1:

Really, do you have?

Speaker 2:

the wigs to put them on and line up. Oh yeah, they're everywhere.

Speaker 1:

What's her name? Like like Phyllis, jilly used to have the wigs all lined up in her closet, with all of the wigs on them.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, And I have a story about Phyllis in my book. She was at Tony Rumbas' barbecue and her wig flew off as she was dancing. That was one of my stories in the book. I had a heart for that, because you know my wig had flown off before too, so you know what the heck I love that.

Speaker 1:

So what I want to ask you is so what advice would you give to young people who say, okay, i want to be a singer, what do I have to do? We've got about seven or eight minutes to talk about your career. Your career is just the fact that you did the demo records for Marilyn Allen Bergman. That's so good, that's a good name. Oh my God. So many things in your career.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I say a career is to me, working girl's singers careers is because of two or three things. Number one I'm a real friendly person. I don't mean a stranger, so, and everybody to me is either a contact or a customer or my best friend. I go to the grocery store, i tell people that I'm at Stoney's Wine Lounge next week, that kind of a thing. So be friendly, number one. Number two if you're just starting out, you need to go around and find out auditions.

Speaker 2:

These days you can look online and see there are music online places on Facebook where musicians are looking for singers. Singers are looking for guitar players. In my day we didn't have that, we just had to go by foot and word of mouth. So I'd go to a band. I'd say you know, i'm looking for gigs, i'm looking for band members. A lot of times I would book the gig So I'd get the restaurant gig. Once you have a gig you can find players. That's a gig because you've got a gig. So a lot of times I got out there and found the gig and then I found the musicians to do the gig with me.

Speaker 2:

But I think that my career was successful because I was friendly, because I did have talent, but there's an element of luck in it as well. The reason I met the Bergmans is because I sang at the Money Tree. The reason I sang at the Money Tree is because I met two guys in Dallas that worked for Paramount and heard me at the Hyatt And they you know me friendly me. They called me over to their table for a drink. They said if you ever get the Hollywood, we can help you. And I took their card. When I got the Hollywood I called them up and they took me to the Money Tree. Well, the Money Tree had all these industry people that would come by all the time, and so I befriended a table of people. Not knowing what their jobs were. I started going sailing with them. I went to their house for dinner. The girl ended up being the music contractor for Warner Brothers.

Speaker 2:

Now the other part of this. She thought I was talented And she introduced me to her boss, who was Danny Gould at the time, and I auditioned for him in his office And he, right away he said you'd be perfect for my friends the Bergmans. And I knew who they were because I'm a movie music nut since I was a child, right, and so when those names came up, i'm like, oh my God, they're like gods to me, and so we were a perfect match. I met them and I was already a huge fan of theirs. The biggest problem I had with them is that, thank God, they sent their tunes to me like a week early, because I'm a big cry baby. If something is really pretty, it's hard for me to sing it, because I did that.

Speaker 2:

So it would take me about a week where I wouldn't cry while I sang it, because you know I bark when I cry and sing. I'm like So that you know. so then I worked for them for many years and I still keep up with Alan and his secretary, pat, at this point. I'm also the kind of person that keeps up with everybody I ever knew, You know right.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's wonderful. Now let's talk. You know I do it a lot different things, because I'm at a show called Bubby's No Best. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, no, but I look it up. It's on Juice Lifetime Television Network. We're getting ready to film again how we match different people. So I'm all about love too, and I want to talk about how you met your husband and now long you've been married. That's, this is all positive.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I met my husband on a gig. He's very cute, though Gorgeous, He is very cute. He was the handsome guy in his class. What He was? the handsomeest guy in his class. There you go, And he hates for you to know that he's shy about that. He, yeah, he was on a gig that I was on. I was actually on the gig with another piano player named John Hammond, who was wonderful. John, one of John's claims to the fame's. He was one of the piano players on the track for Fabulous Baker Boys. So you know, John was a great player.

Speaker 2:

He had to take the first week off and and he said I'm going to get this guy, Bill Lorre. I said I've never heard of Bill. I've been around LA for about five years. At that point He said, well, you're going to love him. And that's what happened. I fell in love with him. But the funny thing about Bill and I was remember the time I told you I was in LA for just a minute in 1976? Yes, I met one musician while I was there in LA and it was Carmen McGrath's drummer.

Speaker 2:

And he was living with my husband at that time. But I didn't meet Bill for another nine years, wow. So that was kind of weird. And then Bill came. Bill worked with Lou Rawls for a long time And he had come to Dallas with Lou in late 1970s and came up to where I was singing at the Hyatt because the band members he was working with knew my band members. but I didn't meet him again him then either for another six years. So it was serendipitous. We finally met on this gig in Ventura, i mean in the valley on Ventura Boulevard.

Speaker 1:

I live in Noho.

Speaker 2:

Okay, no, that's where I used to live. I had a little bungalow at Lancasham and Vine. Oh my God, violent, violent. That's it, lancasham and Vine. It was unfortunate, do you remember? A lot of times I couldn't hear any more.

Speaker 1:

unfortunately, the little bungalows and everything. So what happened?

Speaker 2:

Tell me more, Tell me more, tell me more, tell me more. So we met on the gig. It was the old Montaliones. It became the Valley Stake Block right in Encino, right at Valvoa, and he kept coming back every night and I couldn't tell if he was coming to see me or the bass player, because he also fell in love with the bass player's music. And eventually I went over because I could have babies and the bass player couldn't.

Speaker 1:

He could have babies with the bass player.

Speaker 2:

Yep. So it was quick. Two months later I was telling him I loved him first, because that was just the way it went, and he said well, i'm going to marry you. And I said wait a minute, is that a proposal? And he said I guess. I said, can I call my mother? I have a Jewish mother. Can I go? I'm in my 30s. My mother needs to hear this. Right And so yeah, he said I guess call your mother. I said, okay, call mom up. I said I think I'm engaged. Well there you go.

Speaker 1:

I married, now 40 years 30 years.

Speaker 2:

We are married since 1986, so you know I always have to do the math in my head. This is three Yeah 13-6. This will be a 37 years.

Speaker 1:

Wow, now I So. We're about to end in a few minutes, so I want to say bullet points of like Talk about where they people can find your book.

Speaker 2:

Okay, people can find my book on Amazoncom. It's called Howdy Hollywood And it is the journey of a girl singer from Texas to Tinseltown. That's what. That's where I came up with that title, and so it's on Amazoncom. It's a Kindle book. It's on Kindle unlimited and You know, i'm all over the web. I'm. I have we have a page called lore music comm if you want to read about us. Yeah, we're on you, we are on YouTube. You can hear us all these tracks. We have made a couple of CDs and I Even made a CD from Michael. Michael wrote a bunch of beautiful songs.

Speaker 1:

I know, i know let's talk about Briefly, because he's now both our friends, michael Hollings, or if he's the caterer to the stars, oh, he is. I guess I came here in 1976, so as well.

Speaker 2:

So, he is. I can't believe we didn't meet through Michael.

Speaker 1:

I'm surprised You know I'm more of like I did do singing, cabaret singing. I never sang in the, in hotels and stuff, but I did voice. I'm more like an actor singer, so boys over his different things and But that's a. Well, that's my story and I'm. You know I've talked about it a lot.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm glad you said that. One of the other pluses for me is that I already had my sag aftercard when I got. I had done commercials in in Texas right.

Speaker 1:

So when I got to LA I had that meet, that all important union card That was important and I could talk about the strike, but I'm not going to do that right now because this is A Howdy Hollywood by Eggy Law. So read it, you will. And the pictures I love the pictures. Oh my god, you're as beautiful in those pictures as you today. So I just want to thank Michael Hollings. Worth saying you've got to interview my friend eggy law because and read a book which I'm suggesting everybody read. And you know, you never know. Being friendly is a very important thing to people and never lose your friends. So, peggy Law, if nobody told you they love you today, i love you because you are you, and it should go up in about probably 10 or 15 minutes. I got to make sure everything's done, it may be a little bit unspotified.

Speaker 2:

I love you too. I have a feeling if we live near each other, we'd be best friends also.

Speaker 1:

I know that a girl. What sign are you? I'm a Libra Me too. When's your birthday? October 21st? Oh, on September 26th, so we're like a month apart. but Anyway, they have see like what. what signed your husband? I love signs.

Speaker 2:

My husband is a Pisces.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's my whole band were Pisces. That's my favorite sign. My brother, my brother, god rest his soul. He was a Pisces. That's the best sign for relationships, for a little Boom.

Speaker 2:

All right, y'all, i love you. I love you. Just one advice so quickly. Thank you so much. Bye, bye, bye.