Peggy Lee’s feverish love life
A new biography reveals what made the singer terrifi ed of being alone, how she got through four husbands and why she hated Barbra Streisand
a bigger embarrassment came several years later when she performed for President Richard Nixon at a White House state dinner. The alcohol kicked in and although she had been told not to approach the president she kissed him on the cheek.”
As the disco era pushed Lee aside in the early 1970s she slipped into Valium addiction. “Her assistants found bottles of pills stashed all around the house,” says Gavin.
Lee tried to fi nd solace in sex and needed a man to ease her solitude. When she plunged into a shotgun wedding to Benny Goodman’s guitarist Dave Barbour in 1943 while two months pregnant Hollywood insiders wondered if Goodman was the father.
Her second marriage was to hunk Brad Dexter who was one of the Magnifi cent Seven. “He complained she wouldn’t let him out of the bed their entire honeymoon,” says Gavin.
Her third husband was toyboy actor Dewey Martin following a whirlwind romance. But he was abusive and Lee told friends: “Instead of a wedding veil maybe I should have worn a crash helmet.”
Lee’s daughter Nicki grew up wanting for nothing except her mother’s attention. She was mostly raised by servants as her mother worked.
Undeterred by three divorces Lee plunged into a fourth marriage with bongo player Jack Del Rio. “Even as she was getting married she knew it was a mistake,” says Gavin. “He moved out after only three months.
She also held grudges relentlessly. Lee was delighted to sign a $ 250,000 contract to perform at a Las Vegas casino but soon horrifi ed to fi nd that Barbra Streisand has signed a $ 1million deal at the same venue. “Peggy hated the ground Streisand walked on,” said a friend.
She famously wrote and sang songs for Disney’s animated 1955 classic The Lady And The Tramp but three decades later sued the studio for video royalties, fi ghting doggedly for three years to win a $ 2million settlement. And when fi red in 1978 from her long- standing gig performing at New York’s Waldorf Astoria, Lee seemed to slip walking through the hotel. She then sued the hotel for millions.
GAVIN ADDS: “She enjoyed a grandiose lifestyle but barely had enough money to support her luxurious tastes. She spent lavishly and even in her fi nal months in hospital she demanded a luxury suite and around- the- clock security.”
She suffered a massive stroke in 1998 aged 78 that left her barely able to speak yet she hung on to life for four more years.
“Peggy Lee lived in a dream world,” says Gavin. “From an early age she created a fantasy life to cope with reality, always feeling abandoned and rejected. She saw herself in many ways as Cinderella. She created the evil stepmother who forced her to scrub fl oors and beat her, the emotionally unavailable father and the Prince Charming who swept her off her feet in the shape of her fi rst husband Dave Barbour.
“She had great success and acclaim but in the dark of night she knew that much of it was a façade. She wanted her life to seem like a fairytale but for Peggy Lee there was no happily ever after.”
To order Is That All There Is? The Strange Life Of Peggy Lee by James Gavin ( Simon & Schuster, £ 19.99), to be published on November 20, call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562310. Or send a cheque or postal order to: Peggy Lee Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 4WJ or visit expressbookshop. com. UK delivery is free.