Although she isn"t faster than a speeding bullet and can"t leap tall buildings in a single bound, Marilyn Maye doesn"t mind being called a "Super singer."
In fact, that"s the nickname the "King of Late Night Television" gave the veteran songstress.
"Every time Johnny Carson introduced me on 'The Tonight Show," that"s exactly what he"d call me," Maye said, recounting her nearly 80 appearances on Carson"s legendary talk show. "I think it"s more impressive than any critic"s rave review."
In July, Maye will be returning to the Inn at Okoboji for this her 53rd year performing at Lake Okoboji.
"This is the fourth owner I"ve worked with," she said, laughing. "Guess I come with the walls."
But Maye doesn"t mind it. She loves reconnecting with the friends made at Okoboji.
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"I have more friends there than I do anywhere else in the world," she said in a phone interview from her Kansas City, Mo., home. "That"s why I always love coming back."
A lifelong Midwesterner, Maye was born in Topeka, Kan., 81 years ago.
Naming her daughter after famed Ziegfeld Follies star Marilyn Miller, Maye"s mother Lyla knew the rambunctious girl had what it takes to make it in show business.
"Mom gave me singing and dancing lessons and started entering me into amateur talent contests by the time I was 7," Maye remembered. "Most of the time, I"d sing Marilyn Miller"s 'Look for the Silver Lining" and, most of the time, I ended up winning first prize."
The prize money came in handy for Maye"s family during the Great Depression as well as after her parents divorced. Maye subsequently moved with her mother to Des Moines and, as a teenager, became the star of her own radio series, "Marilyn Entertains," heard over KRNT, Des Moines" 50,000-watt radio station.
"I"d take requests from my listeners and sing whatever they wanted to hear," she said.
After that, Maye hit the road, playing nightclubs large and small throughout the Midwest until an album featuring her unmistakable voice caught the ear of comedian Steve Allen.
"Somehow Steve had heard this demo (record) of really bad songs that was being used to market a composer," she recalled, years later in a phone interview from her Kansas City home. "Steve wasn"t interested in the song writer. Instead, he told his producers to contact the girl who was singing the songs."
Appearances on Allen"s early "60s syndicated talk show led to an RCA recording contract which led to a record 76 performances on Carson"s "Tonight Show," more than any other singer, Maye proudly proclaimed.
"After nearly 30 years in show business, I became an overnight success!" she said with a chuckle. "I loved it!"
Since then, Maye has experienced career highs (recording the hit cover of "Step to the Rear" from the Broadway musical "How Now, Dow Jones") and career lows (the closing of her chief venues - nightclubs - due to changing musical tastes).
"Had I started recording earlier, I would have been better off," she speculated. "But there"s a reason they call show business a 'business." You can"t look backwards when you"re moving forward."
In Maye"s case, moving forward means constant touring.
"I just finished a week of shows at (Rancho Mirago, Calif."s) Tamarisk Country Club," she said. "I did a Frank Sinatra tribute show at the very country club Frank was a member. Isn"t that wild?"
After that, Maye said she"ll be performing with singer Michael Feinstein in New York"s historic Carnegie Hall"s Zankel Hall.
"How do you make it to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!" she said, chuckling. "Lord knows I"ve done plenty of that!"
As she prepares for her New York engagement, Maye said she knows she"ll see plenty of her peers in the audience.
"Bette Midler has been to my show," she mentioned. "So has Nathan Lane, Kaye Ballard and Lainie Kazan. Singers like to study other singers."
Still, such show business luminaries don"t touch Maye"s heart like the fans she"s made at Lake Okoboji.
"When I go to Okoboji, it feels like I"m coming home," she said. "It"s always a party and these people have truly become a part of me."
The secret to Maye"s success?
Singing to the audience, not at the audience.
"Whenever I perform, it"s personal," Maye explained. "At Okoboji, I"m singing to sometimes four generations of the same family. But each generation, each person, feels like I"m singly solely to them."
"And you know what?" she said softly. "I truly am singing just to them."
Marilyn Maye on ...
Johnny Carson: "Johnny was from Nebraska and I was raised in Iowa but our Midwestern roots were never even addressed. He just liked the way I sang and it didn"t matter where I was from. Before every show, Johnny would come to my dressing room and say: 'Hi Marilyn, thanks for coming back." And that would be the extent of our conversation until show time. He wanted to keep everything fresh and spontaneous for the broadcast so he didn"t do 'small talk." I think that"s why people thought him to be shy or aloof. He never seemed that way to me."
Ella Fitzgerald: "Ella was a dear friend of mine. Ella was doing Mike Douglas" talk show one night when she proclaimed me 'the greatest white female singer in the world." That just floored me!"
Singer Jack Jones: "Female singers should always try to emulate male singers and male singers, their female counterparts. I"m not saying they should imitate them vocally but just emulate their stage presence and presentation of songs. Even after all these years, Jack remains a master and I try to catch him perform whenever I can."
"American Idol": "I love watching those kids. Their bag is rock and roll, which isn"t mine. But talent is talent. Though the judges are pretty hard on "em."
Lake Okoboji: "After playing there so many summers, I decided to buy a boat that I immediately christened 'The Maye Day." Every July, my musicians and I would take that boat onto the lake, singing Christmas carols whenever we"d go by a house. Every year, we"d have our 'Christmas in July" boat trip. I"m sure everyone just thought: 'Hey, there goes Marilyn and her crazy musician friends again!" but we were hav
