In 1959 she opened for Sammy Davis jnr at the Melbourne Stadium,and the next year she moved to Sydney,where she worked her way up from beer-barns to nightclubs,only to return to Melbourne after marrying musician Kenneth Weate.
The short-lived marriage gave Reddy her first child,Traci (born in January,1963),and mother and daughter moved back to Sydney in 1964. A year later she entered a TV talent contest called the Bandstand Starflight International,the first prize being a trip to New York and the chance to record for Mercury Records. She won.
However,when she arrived in New York in 1966,it was to find that Mercury Records would not sign her. Without a green card she headed for Canada and a nightclub gig in Winnipeg. Back in New York she was befriended by expat Australian journalist Lillian Roxon and survived there a little longer,courtesy of a rent party at which she met her second husband,Jeff Wald. To finance the apartment that she,Wald and Traci would initially share she cashed in her return airfares to Australia. The die was cast.
Reddy married Wald and they moved to Chicago and then Los Angeles. With her career in the doldrums she briefly studied psychology and parapsychology at UCLA,before comedian Flip Wilson offered her a spot onThe Tonight Show while he was filling in for Johnny Carson.
Her appearance led to a contract to record a single for Capitol Records andI Don't Know How To Love Himresulted. This might never have charted because Reddy,not overly keen on the song,originally intended it as the throwaway B-side toI Believe in Music. A last-minute swap led to a hit and Reddy's first album.
International touring and further hits followed:Crazy Love,I Am Woman,Delta Dawn,Angie Baby Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) and more. If her voice was not especially distinctive it was certainly easy on the ear and came with an array of influences. Her second child,Jordan,was born in December,1972,and in May,1973,when collecting her best female vocalist Grammy Award,she famously finished her acceptance speech by thanking"God because She makes everything possible".
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In the same year she hosted eight episodes of the prime-timeHelen Reddy Show on NBC TV. At the height of this success she lost her mother,dear friend Roxon and father all within 10 weeks of each other. She found respite in becoming a qualified genealogist.
In 1974 she was a guest onThe Tonight Show at a time when Sinatra was receiving harsh treatment from the press in Australia. Reddy's defence of him was seen by Sinatra's daughter,Tina,who told Sinatra. The next day she received a dozen yellow roses from him. Later that year,she would share a stage with Sinatra and Gene Kelly. That was also the year she became an American citizen,to howls from the Australian Murdoch press – 11 years before Murdoch took the same step.
Her wealth was now such that when she played a Las Vegas season she commuted by private jet from LA each night so as to maximise time with her children. Her success led to film roles inAirport'75 andPete's Dragon,but no screen career of substance. She was an enthusiastic fundraiser for governor Jerry Brown during the 1976 presidential campaign,and served for three years as a commissioner of parks and recreation in California.
By the end of the 1970s her star was in decline. A move from Capitol to MCA failed to revive it,and meanwhile her marriage to Wald (and their business partnership) collapsed,ending in an ugly custody battle and whatPeople magazine called"Hollywood's dirtiest divorce".
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Following it all,she found herself heavily in debt and with her career in tatters. Feeling vulnerable,she entered a marriage with Milton Ruth that ended in divorce in 1995.
As Reddy's recording career waned,she returned to theatre,appearing in a series of musical between 1985 and 1997,as well as the play Shirley Valentine. Meanwhile,she continued to tour with a downsized band,and was the first Western female singer to perform in China.
Early in the new century she spent extensive time on Norfolk Island in an effort to address long-term health issues. After the dizzy success she had experienced,she found herself tired of show business. She studied hypnotherapy and,returning to live in Sydney,became patron of the Australian Society of Clinical Hypnotherapists.
In 2015,Reddy was diagnosed with dementia and had been cared for by family and friends at the Samuel Goldwyn Jnr Centre for Behavioural Health.
After a 10-year hiatus (during which time she published her memoirThe Woman I Am) she made a brief comeback to performing in 2012,and in January 2017 sangI Am Woman at an LA anti-Trump rally.
Her story was turned into the 2020 filmI Am Woman by director Unjoo Moon and writer Emma Jensen. Tilda Cobham Hervey played Reddy with Chelsea Cullen providing the singing voice.
She is survived by her daughter Traci,son Jordan and sister Toni Lamond.
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