A final encore

Visalia woman who sang with Sinatra leaves a treasure of collectibles, but
no living relatives.

By Tim Sheehan / The Fresno Bee
05/14/07 05:35:55

A long-gone era of Big Band music is being revealed — record by record and
antique by antique — as conservators prepare to auction the estate of a
Visalia woman who once shared the stage with Frank Sinatra.
Evelyn Tashjian, a singer whose successful career was largely forgotten by
the world, died Oct. 25 at 85. She left behind a treasure of collectibles and
belongings, but no living relatives.
Instead, her estate will be sold at auction this weekend and the assets
divided among 11 beneficiaries named in her will.
A peek at her collections shows that Tashjian once lived a high life that she
discussed only sparingly in later years.
"Music was a big part of her life that I only became aware of as she
occasionally mentioned things when we’d go through things in her home," said
Pat Dicken of Visalia, a court-appointed conservator for the estate.
Auctioneer Larry Parker, whose Fresno-based Cobb Ranch Auctions is handling
the estate sale Saturday, says that while he believes some artifacts in the
Tashjian collection will draw bidders from far and wide via the Internet, he
expects intense interest among local bidders who seek to keep at least part of
her legacy in the Valley, where she was born and raised.
"Evelyn had a very interesting history, and part of it was this music career
she had," Parker said last week, as he and his auction crew sorted and marked
hundreds of pieces for Saturday’s sale.
Tashjian sang for some of the biggest acts of the World War II and pre-war
era, including bandleaders Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, and
later went on to record movie soundtracks. Her collection encompasses sheaves
of sheet music she sang and dozens of big-band albums on vinyl and old shellac
78 rpm records — including her own performances.
Tashjian was born on her family’s farm near Cutler — an 80-acre piece of
land now farmed in tree fruit that is also part of the estate — and was raised
in the area. Her family was active in the St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church
in nearby Yettem.
"She loved music and sang in her church," Parker said.
Neither Parker nor Dicken know precisely the path that Tashjian’s singing
career took.
But through whatever twists of fate govern such things, the talented Armenian
girl from the Cutler farm came to the attention of famed bandleader Tommy
Dorsey, and by age 18 she was a singer for his orchestra, performing,
broadcasting and recording with the band into the mid-1940s.
"She did talk about her earlier years singing on the radio — that’s even how
she met her husband," Dicken said.
Martin Tashjian of New York — not related to Evelyn despite sharing her last
name — was training at the Army Air Corps field north of Visalia in 1942
and heard Evelyn, then 21, performing live on a local radio station, Dicken
said.
"Evelyn said he called the radio station and asked for her name and address;
he looked her up, they began dating and fell in love and got married," Dicken
recalled, remarking there’s no way such information would be given out about
a performer these days.
The couple married and, within a couple of months, Martin Tashjian was
shipped overseas to fly B-17s on bombing missions in Europe. In April 1943, on
his first mission over Germany, Tashjian and his crew died when their bomber
was shot down.
Evelyn and Martin Tashjian had no children, and Evelyn never remarried,
Dicken said.
She continued her singing career with Dorsey’s orchestra, even sharing stage
time with a skinny Italian kid who would later hit it big — real big.
"That’s her, behind the drummer, right next to Frank Sinatra before he became
a solo star," Parker said, holding a picture of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
from about 1941. Sinatra, who sang with the Dorsey band from 1940 to 1942,
made his first solo records in 1942.
As the Big Band era faded in the post-war years, Parker said, Tashjian’s
career focus shifted to Hollywood movie studios, including Disney, for which
she sang in movies including "Cinderella" and "Peter Pan."
"She was in Los Angeles for many years — that’s where she did a lot of
singing and performing," Dicken said. "Evelyn did background singing for
movies, and she sang on cruise ships for a while, too, before she came back to
the Valley."
Parker said Tashjian passed on her own shot at stardom, turning down a
contract to perform with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra.
Norma Zimmer, who was hired by Welk in 1960, gained fame on the bandleader’s
long-running television show as the band’s "Champagne Lady." It was a job
first offered to Tashjian, Parker said.
"She competed with Norma Zimmer and won out," Parker said, "but then her
mother became very ill and she chose to stay home and take care of her mother.
… So Norma became the ‘Champagne Lady’ and Evelyn was a backup for Norma."
Details of her life after returning to the Valley are scant. She apparently
had enough money that she didn’t need to work, and ended her days in an
assisted-living facility. Though she had no living relatives, she chose 11
people or institutions — whom conservators decline to name — to receive
proceeds from her estate.
Dicken said Evelyn Tashjian always loved music, even after her voice faded in
later years.
"She was telling me about some of her past one time and I said to her,
‘Evelyn, I’d love to hear you sing,’ " Dicken said. "She said, ‘Honey, I’d
love to hear me sing, too!’ … She was very proud of her accomplishments in
music and a proud woman as far as what she had achieved."
Besides the considerable array of music memorabilia, Parker will be
auctioning off a houseful of furnishings that includes fine art, antiques,
appliances, china, furs and what the auctioneer described as an "outstanding"
collection of hand-cut glass expected to be a highlight of the sale.
He hefted a broad, faceted plate called an ice-cream plate as a prime
example.
"This is American, brilliant-cut, 1914 or 1917, in that era. It’s a $2,000 to
$3,000 piece, easily, so I expect the bidding to be lively on this," Parker
said.
Tashjian had actually given the glass collection to the beloved St. Mary
Church in Yettem where she sang as a child. But Parker said so many church
members clamored for a piece of the collection, the priest approached him and
asked if it could be included in the auction — with the church getting those
particular proceeds.
"This turns out to be an absolutely great way to do it," he said. "That way
everyone in the church gets a chance to own a piece of her glass and at the
same time the church benefits from it."
The reporter can be reached at _tsheehan@fresnobee.com_
(mailto:tsheehan@fresnobe e.com) or (559) 622-2410.