Dear Vance: Have you ever written about the singer Leonard Graves, who had a Memphis TV program in the 1960s?
— D.C., Memphis.
Dear D.C.: No, I have never written about this gentleman, but since I’ve got the time, and a blank page (or screen) in front of me, I’m willing to do it now. There’s a lot to say about the multitalented fellow, but there’s one thing I can’t tell you, and — oh, just wait and I’ll get to that.
First of all, Leonard Graves was much more than a singer. He was also an actor, performer, dancer, announcer, narrator, and displayed other skills — and not just in Memphis, but on a national stage. In fact, he could possibly be one of the most famous Memphians that nobody has heard much about.
Until now.
Born in Memphis in 1927 at the old Lucy Brinkley Hospital, Graves attended Whitehaven High School, and first attracted attention as a soloist with the Second Church of Christ Scientist, which was then located at Union and South McLean. In his early twenties, the young baritone was featured on a WMPS radio program called Star Dust Time and starred as “The Wandering Minstrel” on WREC radio. According to old newspaper articles, he also garnered prominent roles in more than a dozen Memphis Open Air Theatre productions, held at the Overton Park Shell.
But then the lights of Broadway beckoned, and out of some 1,600 applicants, he landed the role of the Interpreter (also known as the Prime Minister) in the long-running production of The King and I, starring Yul Brynner, at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Now it’s only fair to say that Graves wasn’t entirely self-taught, taking voice lessons at the famous Julliard School and also studying drama whenever and wherever he could. A newspaper article noted that he “took to dramatic school to learn other tricks of the trade, and at school Leonard found more than he bargained for. There he met B.J. Barnes, a Georgia girl who was a pupil there. B.J. is now Mrs. Graves.”
Also serving as the understudy to the King, Graves finally got his big chance when the stage manager called him one day and said, “You’re on tonight, Leonard.” Talking later to a Memphis Press-Scimitar reporter, Graves remembered, “I wasn’t nervous. I just thought, ‘This is it,’ and turned to my wife and told her. And by the way, the day I got that news was my son’s birthday.”
Graves had many other opportunities to take the stage in the lead role — more than 100 appearances, by some accounts (one time after Brynner broke his nose after an accident backstage) — and eventually became the star when Brynner moved on to other projects. In 1952 the Memphis Press-Scimitar sent a reporter to cover one of these New York performances, and she observed “the lines of people forming backstage to meet the young Memphis singing actor who, until a few years ago, was a member of the Future Farmers of America in Whitehaven, milking cows on his father’s farm.”
It turns out quite a few residents from the Bluff City were in the audience that night, and Ernest Schumacher, president of the Real Estate Board of Memphis, had this to say about his fellow Memphian’s performance: “Before the curtain, several seemed to have misgivings about anybody else stepping into Mr. Brynner’s role, but they were all for Leonard before the show was 15 minutes old. He had to take four curtain calls. It was something for us all to be very proud of here in Memphis.”
His co-star, Gertrude Lawrence, presented Graves with an inscribed silver bracelet after one particularly fine performance, and Variety reported that the show’s weekly take of $50,000 showed no sign of declining even though Brynner had dropped out so he could take movie roles.
Graves himself also moved on, after a two-year run. He stayed with the Rodgers and Hammerstein show when it went on a national tour, at times co-starring with Betty White (yes, I’m talking about that Betty White) with sold-out performances in Pittsburgh, Seattle, Kansas City, and half a dozen other cities.
Then it was on to California, where Graves had stints with the Los Angeles Grand Opera Company and the San Francisco Opera. Obviously a very versatile actor, he landed the starring roles in Julius Caesar and Macbeth with the Opera Workshop at the University of California. At one point in the early 1960s, he was offered a scholarship to study in Zurich, Switzerland, but apparently turned it down because of so many lucrative offers here in the United States.
In 1954, Graves briefly returned to Memphis to star in a special production of The King and I staged at Ellis Auditorium. A local reviewer observed that the hometown boy “played a potent potentate.” Although the role actually demands very little singing, “his triumph is largely histrionic, and his is a sensitive as well as powerful portrayal of a king who thinks he should be, but doesn’t feel, infallible.” The role wasn’t a natural fit, since Graves was “by nature, a retiring, conservative person, but as the King he is called upon to be a bombastic, pompous character.”
There was another contrast as well. The actor’s naturally thick hair had to go: “The role requires him to keep his entire head smooth-shaven, so Graves had a set of six caps made to order, in suede and corduroy, to match his suits.”
The return to Memphis was highlighted by Mayor Frank Tobey proclaiming October 25, 1954, “Leonard Graves Day” in Memphis, and a special appearance on a WMPS-TV program called Interesting Persons.
Next came Hollywood, and Graves co-starred with Frank Sinatra and Mitzi Gaynor in The Joker Is Wild (1957), with Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), with Gregory Peck in Pork Chop Hill (1959), and had prominent roles in The Story of Ruth (1960), The Buccaneers (1958), and a few other films. His portfolio included roles and appearances on more than a dozen popular TV shows, such as Father Knows Best, Official Detective, This Is the Life, Behind Closed Doors, Men Into Space, and Peter Gunn. As I’ve said, he was versatile.
His wonderful voice provided other opportunities behind the camera, most notably serving as the announcer for all 26 episodes of the TV drama Victory at Sea, showcasing the U.S. Navy’s role in World War II, a performance that earned him the Sylvania Award for Narration. He also stayed busy with narration, voice-overs, and dubbing for other shows, such as South Pacific and International Airport, as well as TV commercials for products ranging from Old Gold Cigarettes to Alcoa Aluminum.
Graves returned to Memphis in the 1960s, and in 1968 was named manager of the Memphis Opera Theatre. In the University of Memphis Special Collections, I found a short clipping announcing that bit of news, which also told readers that Graves lived with his wife and their four sons in a nice house on Greenacres in East Memphis.
And that was it.
After all the constant press attention focusing on his stage and screen life, when he came back home, he assumed a much lower profile. If he hosted a half-hour television show here, I could find no mention of it. No more clippings, no more news. And so this is the thing that I can’t tell you, D.C. What happened to Graves? When did he die? Or, on a more positive note, is he still alive? His brief listing on imdb.com and other websites mentions his birth, but not his death. A Google search turns up no obituary. Born in 1927, he would be 90 today, and there are lots of active 90-year-olds — including his former co-star, Betty White.
Leonard, if you read this column, let me know how you’re doing.
Got a question for Vance?
Email: askvance @memphismagazine.com
Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine, 65 Union Avenue #200, Memphis, TN 38103
