There was a time in the 1960s
when you couldn't turn your radio or
television on without hearing the golden
voice of Winnipegger Lorraine West.
The popular singer was a fixture on CBC
radio and television.
"That was a wonderful time at the CBC,"
recalls Lorraine, from her St. James
home. "I had so much work it wasn't
unusual for me to do a live afternoon
radio broadcast then go straight from that
to a rehearsal for a television show
airing the following week. It was
just heaven."
Born Lorraine Boux in 1934 in St.
Boniface, Lorraine grew up in
Norwood. "We moved a lot," she says,
"because we didn't have a lot of money
back then like most people so I attended
several schools. I didn't finish
high school because I was too busy
singing."
Her professional career got its start
following an appearance on an amateur
talent show held at the Beacon Theatre
located at Main and Rupert (now the
Centennial Concert Hall).
"My mother kept bugging me about trying
out because I was always singing around
the house. So I went and won seven
weeks in a row. I was only 16 or 17
years old."
Fortunately for Lorraine, CKY radio
broadcast the show and the bandleader at
the Fort Garry Hotel heard her and invited
her to sing with his group. Lorraine
began singing with Ed
Emel's band at the Fort Garry in the
mid '50s. "They had supper dances
and it was all very formal so I had to
dress up in a long gown." She also
sang at the Royal Alexandra Hotel with
Irvin Plumm's orchestra.
The piano player in the Emel band had a
connection at CBC radio and encouraged the
local CBC brass to hire Lorraine.
"There were all sorts of locally produced
broadcasts on radio and then TV came
along. I was working all the
time." Besides a regional afternoon
radio series entitled Let's Meet
Lorraine, she appeared on a number
of variety productions.
"I did a lot of work with Neil Harris,
Mitch Parks, Bob McMullin, George
LaFlèche, all the local musicians.
The funny part was that I didn't read
music. With me it was all by
ear. I never had any problems,
though."
Guitar genius Lenny
Breau often backed Lorraine.
"Practically every show I did was with
Lenny as a side man," she recalls.
"He was already into the drugs then, but
was still brilliant. He was such a
nice, quiet, soft-spoken young man."
Another CBC regular was Len
Cariou who would go on to star on
Broadway. "I knew the Carious from
Norwood. Len used to hang around the
CBC and he finally asked me, 'Who do you
have to know to get to work here?' I
just told him to keep at it. He did
OK," she says with a laugh. Years
later the two starred in a CTV Christmas
special and sang Send in the Clowns.
With CBC work so plentiful, Lorraine
rarely went out on the road. "I had
three little kiddies at home. We had
our children (George, later the original
bass player with Crash Test Dummies,
Martine and Joe) pretty close
together. Twice I was asked by the
CBC to host my own national television
series and both times I had to turn them
down because I was pregnant. In
those days they couldn't show you pregnant
on television. They must have
thought all my husband and I did was have
babies.
One trip, however, remains
memorable. "We went up to Ellesmere
Island on the Arctic Circle with the CBC
to play for our troops. It was so
cold that they kept the airplane engines
running the whole time so they wouldn't
freeze up." From there the troupe
performed for 10,000 U.S. soldiers and
families in Thule, Greenland.
Lorraine was also a featured singer with
the Harry Levine Trio at the Airport
Hotel's Constellation Room in its heyday
in the early '60s. But by the late
'60s local radio and television production
dried up.
"CBC radio here went from music
practically 24 hours a day to no
music. Everything came out of
Toronto," she says. Lorraine moved
on to the Hollow Mug dinner theatre at the
International Inn where she appeared in
over 100 productions in 20 years.
"That was a wonderful experience because
you got to be a ham," she says with a
smile. "But you sure learned your
craft." Among her fellow performers
was a young Loreena McKennitt.
More recently Lorraine has sung at
seniors' facilities. "That was fun
because you'd get requests and get to talk
to people. I'd tell them I'm
scouting out the place for when I'm ready
to go," she says with a laugh.
John Einarson As published in the The Prime Times,
March 31, 2011
CKY
Production featuring Lorraine West.
Filmed in 1991 in Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada, Lorraine speaks about her career and performs two songs.
