Romi Yamada

I first saw her on Jack Benny's old show that was on YouTube. I knew nothing about her. She was very pretty, but the more notable figure, and certainly recognizable, was Jack Soo, who played her agent--at least in the comedy show. I saw this about a year ago and wondered what happened to her. Then a surprise. For some reason (knowing my tastes?), YouTube had on its right hand side a link a Japanese song sung by a Romi Yamada, who seemed familiar. I clicked and there she was. The woman I had seen on the Jack Benny Show, was now singing on that show:

I had to research her. There were more videos and more information that I came across. I saw she had been in two musical play tours in the States: THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG and FLOWER DRUM SONG. She had also been the previously mentioned JACK BENNY SHOW, and shows like THE DANNY THOMAS SPECIAL and the Oral Roberts Special from Japan. In her time in the States, she created some attention, but it wasn't enough to have a movie career, though back in Japan she did several films.

As I found out by perusing all the mentions I could find in the newspapers, she was born in Korea, but was Japanese. Her father became the manager of a TV station in Japan after the 2nd World War. Romi graduated from Sacred Heart School in Japan, and then went to Kunitachi College of Music. With obvious musical talent, Romi arrived in the US as an exchange student and studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston. But when the local pollen became too much for her, she went to the San Francisco Conservatory and then to the New York College of Music. There, she auditioned for Miyoshi Umeki's part in FLOWER DRUM SONG, as Miyoshi was leaving. She lost out on that, but was selected to go on tour with SUZIE WONG. Though the fictional story was not as morally pure as she may have wanted in reality, she accepted the role and felt emotionally connected with Suzie Wong. "Suzie makes me cry," she said at the time. "On opening day in Boston, I cried so hard in one scene that my eyelash it came off and fell on the floor." After the tour, she stepped into another tour--FLOWER DRUM SONG!

With Richard Rodgers and FLOWER DRUM SONG:

She did two TV shows after the American TV work in the early 1960s: "Guys 'n' Geishas" for a 1967 Danny Thomas special and a 1970 Oral Roberts special. The Danny Thomas one-hour show, his second special, had Thomas heading to Japan to have comedy and musical adventurers with guests Jonathan Winters, Jack Jones and, of course, Romi Yamada, who had stayed in Japan after her US adventure, appearing on Japan's TV and known as the "Julie Andrews of Japan." Jones sang "They Can't Take That Away from Me" by a Geisha house. Romi also sings "Cherry Blossoms."

The second TV appearance carried in the States was the Oral Roberts "Contact" special. One of the guests was Pat Boone. The special is from Expo '70 in Japan, and Romi sung several songs, including "Love is a Many Splendored Thing."

Romi Yamada still has a lovely voice from what I hear. In her career, she made several albums and sung numerous songs and is best known in Japan.

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