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An American singer and actress.
Of Jewish descent, New Yorker Julie's vocal skills were tapped into quite early. While participating in (and winning) a talent contest in the Catskill Mountains, the 12-year-old singing prodigy was spotted by producer/arranger Herb Bernstein, who would become her longtime friend, conductor, pianist, songwriter and mentor. It would not be long before the girl with the throbbing, powerful belt was dubbed "The Mini-Girl with the Maxi-Voice" and "The Young Barbra Streisand." Signed to a recording contract with MGM, she released her first album at age 13 with 1968's "Child o
An American singer and actress.
Of Jewish descent, New Yorker Julie's vocal skills were tapped into quite early. While participating in (and winning) a talent contest in the Catskill Mountains, the 12-year-old singing prodigy was spotted by producer/arranger Herb Bernstein, who would become her longtime friend, conductor, pianist, songwriter and mentor. It would not be long before the girl with the throbbing, powerful belt was dubbed "The Mini-Girl with the Maxi-Voice" and "The Young Barbra Streisand." Signed to a recording contract with MGM, she released her first album at age 13 with 1968's "Child of Plenty" and was pointed towards TV starting with Merv Griffin who was impressed after Bernstein sent him Julie's demo.
Steered for a time by Griffin after her 1968 TV debut on his program (she made about 40 Griffin appearances in all), Julie proceeded to become a regular fixture on the variety and talk show circuit -- "Della," "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Kraft Music Hall," "The Jim Nabors Show" (his first show), "The Carol Burnett Show," "The David Frost Show," "The Tonight Show" and "Entertainment Tonight". The teen phenom went on to serve as the opening act for such top entertainment icons as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Bill Cosby, Joan Rivers, George Burns and Liberace. Around this time Julie was asked to sing the title song for the film Living Free (1972), the sequel to the hit wildlife movie classic Born Free (1966).
While Julie has branched out on occasion into acting work both on stage and in film, she prefers "live" concerts where she can feel her audience. She did appear in Neil Simon's "They're Playing Our Song" and in the revue "Catskills on Broadway". As for film, she had a showy vehicle in the Disney film feature The Devil and Max Devlin (1981) co-starring with Elliott Gould and Bill Cosby in which she sang "Any Fools Can See" and, what would become her signature song, "Roses and Rainbows." While this opportunity led initially to a three-picture deal with Disney, the contract was canceled before it started when the company changed hands. Julie would not make another film until decades later when she played the minor role of a Brooklyn mother in Two Lovers (2008) which starred Joaquin Phoenix, Isabella Rossellini and Gwyneth Paltrow.
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