Pat Suzuki

Pat Suzuki, born Chiyoko Suzuki on September 22, 1930, in Cressey, California, is an American singer and actress best known for originating the role of Linda Low in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical Flower Drum Song. A Nisei, or second-generation Japanese American, she was the youngest of four daughters born to Chiyosaku and Aki Suzuki. Her mother was a musician who played traditional Japanese instruments. As the youngest sister, she was nicknamed "Chibi," a Japanese term meaning "short person" or "small child."

In February 1942, following the United States' entry into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forced evacuation of more than 110,000 Japanese American residents from the Pacific coast. The Suzuki family was sent first to the Merced Assembly Center and then to the Granada War Relocation Center in Colorado, before leaving Granada to work on a sugar beet farm and eventually returning to California after the war.

During the early 1950s, Suzuki attended five colleges before graduating from San Jose State University with teaching credentials for elementary and secondary schools. Choosing not to pursue a career in education, she planned to travel to Europe but ran out of money in New York, where she secured a part in a touring production of The Teahouse of the August Moon. While on tour, she supplemented her income by singing in nightclubs, eventually becoming a local celebrity at the Colony Club in Seattle in 1955, where she performed for three years and more than 2,000 consecutive shows.

In 1957, Bing Crosby attended one of her Colony Club performances and was sufficiently impressed to help her obtain a recording contract with RCA Victor. She recorded several albums for the label, including her 1958 eponymous debut, also known as Miss Pony Tail, a nickname she had acquired during her Seattle years. That same year she won the Downbeat National Disc Jockey Poll award for "America's best new female singer." National television appearances followed, including her debut on The Lawrence Welk Show, The Frank Sinatra Show on ABC, and Tonight Starring Jack Paar in March 1958. Her 1958 studio recording of "How High the Moon," with music by Morgan Lewis and lyrics by Nancy Hamilton, was later featured in the opening credits and a dance scene of the 1988 film Biloxi Blues, as well as in the 1989 film Eat a Bowl of Tea.

After her appearance on the Jack Paar program, Richard Rodgers contacted Suzuki to offer her the role of Linda Low in the Broadway production of Flower Drum Song. She initially declined, later recalling that she felt the role was too large for her, but ultimately accepted. The show opened in 1958, and her performance of "I Enjoy Being a Girl" became closely identified with her; her rendition is considered the definitive recording of the song. Christine Jorgensen cited the number as her theme song and performed it on the nightclub circuit through at least the 1970s. Suzuki and her Flower Drum Song costar Miyoshi Umeki were photographed by Philippe Halsman for the December 22, 1958 cover of Time magazine. For her stage debut, Suzuki received the Theatre World Award in 1959 for an outstanding New York City stage debut performance. She did not appear in the 1961 film adaptation of Flower Drum Song; actress Nancy Kwan took the role, with singer B. J. Baker dubbing her vocals. At the time the film was being cast, Suzuki had recently married photographer Mark Shaw on March 28, 1960, and had given birth to their son David. In 1960, she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her album Broadway '59.

When Shaw worked as photographer for President John F. Kennedy, the couple developed a close friendship with the Kennedys, and Suzuki performed at Kennedy's inaugural ball in 1961. After David's birth, Suzuki largely stepped back from show business, though she returned to touring nightclubs in 1963, including venues on the Sunset Strip, and appeared on The Red Skelton Show in early 1964. She and Shaw divorced amicably in 1965.

Throughout the 1970s, Suzuki appeared regularly on stage, including the role of Ma Eng in the off-Broadway production of Frank Chin's The Year of the Dragon. She also appeared in Mr. T and Tina, a television sitcom starring Pat Morita and notable as the first sitcom centered on an Asian American family. In 1999, Taragon Records released The Very Best of Pat Suzuki on compact disc, compiling recordings from her first four RCA Victor albums, among them a performance of "Love, Look Away," the Rodgers and Hammerstein torch song from Flower Drum Song originally issued on her 1959 album Pat Suzuki's Broadway '59. Her original LPs are on display at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington.

Suzuki has remained active in both performance and advocacy. She has continued to sing and act at venues including Lincoln Center, and has been a vocal supporter of Asian American civil rights. In 2018, she and Sab Shimono co-hosted the podcast Order 9066, which documented the history of Executive Order 9066 through first-person accounts.