Australian musical-comedy actress Toni Lamond, 93, died on Nov. 29. The daughter of performers Stella Lamond and Joe Lawman, she was a star in the waning days of vaudeville, as well as musical-comedy and variety. She also appeared in a few films and TV series (including the US shows The Bob Newhart Show, Punky Brewster, Starsky and Hutch, The Love Boat, and Murder She Wrote). She starred in touring companies of Oliver!, Annie Get Your Gun, The Pajama Game, 42nd Street, The Pirates of Penzance, My Fair Lady, and Gypsy, and was a hit on the concert and recording worlds as well. Lamond told Neil Litchfield of Stage Whispers of her breakthrough hit, in Pajama Game: “Television started the year before, 1956 . . . They converted a piano factory into a studio, and the official opening night was to be a full-scale variety show. Frank and I were chosen to be the first act. That was on a Saturday night, and the following Saturday night we opened in Pajama Game. I couldn’t have written a screenplay to say that; that happened in real life. Then of course, we became this massive hit, but do you think [the producers] decided to use Australians the very next show? No! They brought out people from England for My Fair Lady, didn’t they. But it did pave the way.” Lamond was the half-sister of singer Helen Reddy, and the mother of singer and actor Tony Sheldon; she was married to dancer Frank Sheldon from 1954 till his death in 1966.
On Melbourne Tonight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDN6ad5XT9E
