Gisele MacKenzie

Biography

She was born Gisèle Marie Louise Marguerite LaFlèche in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and studied violin and voice at the Toronto Conservatory of Music (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) in Toronto, Ontario. She had at least two Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio programs, Meet Gisèle, where she played hostess to Jack Benny, Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Fred Astaire, James Stewart, and others, and Gisele and Mr. Cable. She moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1951 to replace The Andrews Sisters on CBS Radio's daily program, Club Fifteen, starring Bob Crosby, where she alternated as regular vocalist with Jo Stafford. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1955.

MacKenzie recorded albums and singles on various record labels, most notably Capitol and RCA, Everest, Mercury, Liberty Sunset, Cricket Playhour (Pickwick). In 1953 she reached #6 in the UK Singles Chart, with her rendition of "Seven Lonely Days".

Her biggest selling song was "Hard To Get" in 1955. She was also an accomplished classical violinist, who studied at The Toronto Conservatory of Music and performed many comedic musical duets with mentor Jack Benny. In an often-played clip, she and Benny perform a violin duet of "Getting to Know You", in which she breaks their synchronization several times to add some extra musical flourishes, to his mock irritation. Finally, he breaks in with a lengthy (and stereotypically mediocre) flourish of his own, and evokes audience laughter with mock indignation: "Fool around with ME, sister!"

She was a guest on such shows as The Jack Benny Program, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, The Bell Telephone Hour, The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Eddie Fisher Show, The George Gobel Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. She acted in Justice. She appeared frequently in Las Vegas venues and in numerous North American concerts. She did a European tour with Benny.

In the U.S., she replaced the Andrews Sisters as a regular vocalist on "Club 15" and her guest appearance on Mario Lanza's "Coke Time" resulted in Lanza inviting her to join his show's cast every week. Bob Crosby and Mario Lanza. She also hosted a radio show entitled Airtime at the same time she was appearing on TV's Your Hit Parade.

In 1952-53, she toured with Jack Benny, who recommended her for Your Hit Parade. During her 4-year tenure on that show, "Hard to Get" became a hit. She announced in 1957 that she would not be returning to the show for another season. She went on to star in her own Saturday night NBC variety program, The Gisele MacKenzie Show, and hosted such guests as Benny, Boris Karloff, Ronald Reagan and folk singer Jimmie Rodgers. She returned to television in 1963 as Sid Caesar's 4th television wife on The Sid Caesar Show, in which she did comedy with Caesar and sang a song each week. 1959 saw the release of her first of a series of children's albums, "Gisele MacKenzie sings Lullaby and Goodnight". The album sold very well and resulted in two more for Cricket Play Hour Records (Pickwick)

In 1986, she was temporarily recast as Katherine Chancellor on the Soap Opera The Young and the Restless. Starting in 1955, during her summer breaks from Your Hit Parade, she added musical comedies to her resume musical theater by starring in such classics as Annie Get Your Gun, The King and I, and South Pacific. She expanded her acting credits in the 1990s, making guest appearances on television series including Murder, She Wrote, Boy Meets World and MacGyver.

MacKenzie has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 1601 Vine.

Singles

This list is incomplete.

Marriages

MacKenzie was married to her personal manager, Robert J. Shuttleworth (February 24, 1958 - August 12, 1966) and to Robert F. Klein (May 10, 1975-????); both marriages ended in divorce. She was survived by her two children from her first marriage. Her daughter is contemporary jazz artist Gigi MacKenzie.

Death

MacKenzie died from colon cancer, aged 76, in 2003 in Burbank, California.