Charlo Crossley: Born To Be On Stage

All Photos:  Alan Mercer    Lighting:  Eric V.

Charlo Crossley is best known for being one of Bette Midler's back up vocalists known as 'The Staggering Harlettes.'  She replaced original member Melissa Manchester and stayed with Bette for seven years, performing all over the United States and on Broadway in the "Clams On The Half-Shell Revue."

She grew up in Chicago during the Sixties.  In the Seventies she toured in the road companies with 'Hair' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar.'  Along with Ula Hedwig and Sharon Redd, Charlo released an album titled 'Formerly Of The Harlettes' on Columbia Records produced by David Rubinson.  This album may finally see a CD release in the near future.

On her own she has also recorded with Luther Vandross, Chaka Khan and Barry Manilow.  She also guest starred on 'Married With Children' starring another former Harlette, Katy Segal.  She is featured in the opening credits of the film 'Sister Act' singing with Whoopi Goldberg. 

Recently Charlo had been working as a teacher's assistant at her son's school when she got the call to audition for the Motormouth Maybelle role in 'Hairspray.'  The role was a perfect fit and she toured with this road company for a couple of years and ended up closing the production in New York City. 

I fell in love with Charlo the moment I met her.  How can you not?  She has a warm and giving spirit, and so much talent.  It was a real pleasure to photograph and visit with her for this blog.  I can easily see her back on Broadway doing what she was born to do! 

AM:  Hi Charlo!  Why don't you tell me a little about the beginning of your career?

CC:  I grew up in Chicago and started singing in church when I was seven and I sang in the choir during high school.  Then I started doing community theater in South Chicago when I was fifteen at a Jewish Community Temple.  I met Mandy Patinkin when we did shows together.  I already knew that I wanted to be in show business. 

AM:  Did you move to New York as soon as you could?

CC:  I moved to Las Vegas first. 

AM:  You never wanted to do anything else did you?

CC:  No, I tried working in a hospital because there are a lot of nurses in my family.  I cried every day that I worked in that hospital.  I was a ward clerk who was logging in drugs in the narcotic book! 

AM:  Is your family from Chicago?

CC:  My parents both came from Mississippi and my mother had artistic aspirations.  My father and everyone on his side of the family were great singers. 

AM:  Did you have a job offer to go to Vegas?

CC:  I got cast in the Chicago version of 'HAIR' and I got traded with another cast member and I went to Las Vegas to do the show.  I was there for a few months and it was good to get out of Chicago.  This was 1970 and Vegas was a sleepy little town. 

AM:  Did you ever think you'd be a secretary or something not in show business?

CC:  I had been accepted into Southern Illinois University but being on stage was my college.  I didn't want to go to college because I went down there and people were just partying.  I thought to myself that this isn't exciting.  I wanted to get on with my career and living my fantasy.

AM:   How did you do that?

CC:  I went to New York for four months then I went to France and changed everything.  There was so much unrest in the United States at that time and I was sick of it.  When I was in high school I picked my side.   I could hang out with the Black radicals, although I had bourgeoisie leanings, which was very looked down upon.  Looking back I didn't really care, it was radicals or art kids.  I could hang with the radicals intellectually but it was all dribble.  It was just someone's diatribe.  We were all very idealistic!  This wasn't interesting enough for me.  I wanted to be on stage.

AM:  Do you wonder why you wanted to be on stage so bad?

CC:  There's something about being in front of those lights.  I knew this when I was eight years old being in plays.  I felt so good in my skin.  I just wanted to travel in Europe.  I feel like I grew up there.  When I came home I was not the same person.  My father said, "Now that you've got all of this out of your system, maybe you'll settle down and get a real job!"  I said, "What's a real job?"

AM:  How did your father react to this news?

CC:  He said I couldn't live at home unless I got a real job and I said I'm not getting a real job!   I'm not going to give up my dream to work at the post office where he worked.  There's nothing wrong with that except that it wasn't me.  I remember going to the unemployment office and back then people were so mean and hateful.  That was another defining moment for me.  I didn't want to be a part of any of this. 

AM:  How did you meet Bette Midler?

CC:  I stayed with 'HAIR' in Washington DC from January to August in 1971.  All the kids from New York kept telling me that I reminded them so much of this girl named Bette Midler.

AM:  Did you know who she was at this time?

CC:  I had seen Bette Midler on 'The Tonight Show' when my sister and I stayed up late one night.  She was on TV in a black leather jacket sitting at a soda fountain singing 'Leader Of The Pack' and I said nobody is doing this.

AM:  Did you like her act right away?

CC:  I was so smitten with her.  When I got on tour everyone kept telling me I needed to meet her.  Everyone kept telling me I had to see her show and that we were so much alike.  So I went to New York and it was a dirty, gritty monster.  I found a place to stay downstairs from Bill Hennessey, who gave Bette the Miss M persona.  He nurtured it and she took a hold of it.

AM:  Is this how you met her?

CC:  Our company managers name was Clayton Koontz and he invited me to a cocktail party because he wanted me to meet someone.  Soon this couple comes in the door and I recognize the guy because we were in 'HAIR' together and he says Charlo I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Bette.  I play in her band.  I didn't think anything about it and kept on talking, then I asked her if she was on 'The Tonight Show' and she said yes.  Then I said, "Oh my God!  Everyone keeps telling me I have to meet you."  That was the beginning of our friendship.

AM:  Were you close right away?

CC:  I started going to see her shows and there was nobody doing what she was doing.  We became good girlfriends and did everything together.  What a great friendship it was.  She was the first new friend I made after going to New York.  I was doing 'Jesus Christ Superstar' at the time. 

AM:  Did you have to audition to be a Harlette?

CC:  No I didn't.  I did 'Superstar' for a year and a half and kept going to see Bette, hanging out and being a devoted fan.  I left 'Superstar' and was doing a show called 'Tricks' that didn't go anywhere and the day before it opened Bette came to me and asked me to join the Harlettes to replace Melissa Manchester.  Bette was getting ready to launch a big tour and I said yes, not knowing that 'Tricks' was going to close. 

AM:  So you are on the second Bette album?

CC:  Yes I sang on the second and the third albums.  I'm on a few of them. 

AM:  I know you worked with her for a while so what happened to end it?

CC:  There was so much going on.....

AM:  You obviously did the Harlettes album at this time.

CC:  We did that album while we were still working with Bette.  Barry Manilow was our encouragement.  Barry signed with Arista and had to fight like hell.  He was there from day one with Bette.  We had the same fight to be able to open the second act.    

AM:  Did you like working with Barry Manilow?

CC:  We clicked immediately.  He was like a brother to me.  I saw him in Vegas last summer and he is phenomenal.  I'm so proud of him. 

AM:  Now back to Bette....

CC:  I can't pinpoint when things started to change.  I could blame Aaron Russo who's not with us anymore, but I think people make choices.  It depends on how badly you want stardom and recognition.  Bette wanted it more than anybody I ever knew.

AM:  Was it just all hard work?

CC:  What she demanded of us at the time was total and complete absorption into her world.  When you walked into her world of "Divadom" it's all about her.  I was struggling with a lot of my own issues at that time.  I didn't know how to deal with them properly.

AM:  Can you give me an example?

CC:  I didn't understand why when I came off the road I'd be an emotional wreck.  I'd have very little to show after being out on the road.  I would go to Long Island and hang out trying to figure out who I was and it took a long time.

AM:  When did you start figuring it all out?

CC:  I turned 25 in 1976 and I got turned on to myself being beautiful because I felt like a warhorse.  We were all just getting turned on to how to live life.  We were learning how to bring style and quality to our lives.  I was looking at the quality of my life and I didn't like it.

AM:  What did you learn about yourself at this point?

CC:  I realized I liked living on the road.  For years I didn't unpack.  Working with Bette was an incredible experience to be in the company of so many show business legends and meet everyone of my childhood fantasies.  We all worked so hard and struggled the same so we had that in common.  It's not like now where everyone is kind of half-assed.

AM: What is your opinion of the younger artists today?

CC:  This new generation doesn't have any poise or decorum.  They are not grateful and that bothers me, but I'm grateful.  I decided when I was seven or eight years old that I wanted that kind of excellence.  I knew what it took to make it and you had to be excellent.

AM:  What do you want to do now?

CC:  I want to go back to Broadway.  I loved being back on Broadway in 'Hairspray.'  I closed out the New York show.  It was great going back as an A list Actor.  They gave me my own apartment.  It was a prayer answered.  It's always been about the quality of life and it went up!  I live in California but I want to be back in New York because that's where the appreciation is.  That's where the acknowledgment for your body of work is.  This is where you have to earn your place.  I want to go back to Broadway, do my nightclub act and make some records.