It was hard to believe that this striking blonde performer in the blue strapless gown on stage at Los Angeles’ cozy boîte, Upstair’s at Vitello’s, could have toured with Bob Hope in Vietnam several decades earlier.  But she had!  And she verified it with a video clip of her singing to—and vamping—a thrilled but shy GI, as thousands of his buddies in battle dress filled the ground in front of the stage for as far as the eye could see.  Looking now as she must have then, the glamorous Jan Daley opened the show with Hope’s signature song, “Thanks for the Memory.”

Nostalgia flourished as Daley offered a treasure trove of songs sung by Hope, or from one of his many shows. The selections included “It’s De-Lovely,” the Cole Porter tune introduced by Hope and Ethel Merman in Red, Hot and Blue, Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser’s “Two Sleepy People,” sung by Hope and Shirley Ross in the film Thanks for the Memory and Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin’s “I Can’t Get Started,” which Eve Arden and Hope introduced in his first Broadway musical, the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies.  Daley’s accomplished dramatic abilities, honed in theater and television, served her well. With a honey-sweet voice and a flair for effective interpretation, Daley intermingled anecdotes about Hope with loving renditions of classic songs from the American Songbook, plus a composition of her own, a heartening “A Time for Hope.”

Daley closed the show with a reprise of “Thanks for the Memory,” this version the one she sang at Hope's memorial service. To the familiar melody, her lyrics created a memoir of his life and his dedication to America’s GIs on wars’ front lines. All the Vietnam shows with Hope, Daley recounted, ended with a song and her prayer for the soldiers’ safe return. Pausing, as tears welled in her eyes, she revealed that her own father was a World War II pilot who lost his life in the service and never returned to his family.

Daley’s Musical Director and pianist was David Cohen, with Nate Right on bass and Larry Klein on drums. Trist Curless handled the lights and sound.

Jan Daley brings Where There's Hope to New York's Metropolitan Room Sunday, November 14th at 7:00 pm.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
September 29, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org