my pet juliette biography

Our Pet, Juliette dies at age 91

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In 1940, Orpheum Theatre manager Ivan Ackery told big-band leader Dal Richards that he should check out a 13-year-old female singer.

“I said, ‘Ivan, that’s not the kind of image I want, thank you very much,’ ” Richards recounted in 2013. “He said, ‘Just listen to her.’ So I listened to her, and she sang, There’ll Always Be an England. This was wartime, and she brought the house down.”

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Juliette Sysak began singing with Richards at Vancouver’s top nightspot, the Panorama Roof, atop the Hotel Vancouver. And her career took off.

She would become Canada’s most popular female vocalist in the late 1950s and early ’60s, the host of a CBC-TV show that had the coveted Saturday night slot after Hockey Night in Canada.

From coast-to-coast-to-coast, she was known as Our Pet, Juliette.

In recent years she has been living in quiet retirement in a South Granville condo. This spring she moved into a care home, and Oct. 26, died at age 91.

“She had no major illnesses,” said her friend, Gordon Boyd. “She just simply slipped away Thursday night. It was really very peaceful.”

She was born Juliette Augustina Sysak on Aug. 27, 1926, in St. Vital, Man., and started singing early — at seven, she won a talent contest singing the depression-era ballad, Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?, dressed as a boy.

Her family moved to Vancouver when she was 10 and she grew up in Kitsilano. She made so much money singing with Richards that she bought a fur coat to wear to high school.

In 1943-44 she relocated to Toronto to sing on a national CBC Radio show hosted by Alan Young. After moving back to Vancouver, she appeared on the Burns Chuckwagon radio show with the Rhythm Pals, recording a trio of country and western 78s for Al Reusch’s Aragon label.

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Her talent and star quality led to interest from the U.S. via MCA, the giant talent agency and record company. But she opted to stay in Vancouver and marry musician Tony Cavazzi, who became her manager.

In 1954 she was approached by American big-band leader Harry James to be his singer for a gig at the Hollywood Palladium. James was a star — Frank Sinatra was one of his old singers. But she turned him down.

“There was lots of glory but no money, and work only on a week-to-week basis,” said Juliette, who was known for speaking her mind. “I just couldn’t see it.”

She wound up moving to Toronto, where she appeared on the CBC-TV show Holiday Ranch and then Billy O’Connor’s Late Show. In 1956 she was given her own show, Juliette, which ran until 1966.

A 1957 Province story by Ben Metcalfe, one of the founders of Greenpeace, says that she made $450 per week for her TV show, which was sponsored by Players Cigarettes. She also did live shows across the country, like a gig at an auto show in Winnipeg that drew 16,700 people to the Winnipeg Arena.

She was known for her dramatic entrances and glitzy gowns, and for the wholesomeness of her show, which she always ended by saying goodnight to her mother back in Vancouver.

Between 1969 and 1975 she was host of two CBC-TV talk shows, After Noon and Juliette and Friends, as well as the CBC Radio show Talent Scope. She moved back to Vancouver in 1972, but often went back east for work, telling The Vancouver Sun’s George Daacon in 1976, “if you’re not working in Toronto, you’re just not working.”

Sadly, her husband Tony developed Alzheimer’s and died in 1988. Several years later she started dating another former member of the Richards band, Ray Smith, who had become the president of MacMillan Bloedel. They were together for four years before Smith died in 2005.

She was named to the Order of Canada in 1975, and became a member of the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1994.

She rarely performed after the 1990s.

“The last time was at the Orpheum,” said Boyd. “She did a Remembrance Day celebration with Dal Richards several years ago.”

Many people asked her why she stopped performing. “Her expression was that was then, this is now,” said Boyd.

A celebration of her life will be held at a later date. For information, email [email protected] .

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“Juliette” Cavazzi Juliette (1927-2017)

Year Born: 1927

Year Died: 2017

Juliette, “Juliette” Cavazzi (1927- )

She was born Juliette Augustina Sysak in Winnipeg. Her married name was Cavazzi – she married musician Tony Cavazzi who was also her manager. But she used only her first name on stage from 1940 when she sang as a young teen with the Dal Richards band at the Panorama Roof at the Hotel Vancouver.

Juliette was introduced to Dal by Ivan Ackery who heard her sing at the Kitsilano Showboat. He operated the Orpheum Theatre and had invited Dal to play for 45 minutes between movies. Dal asked Juliette to sing and she brought the Orpheum crowd to its feet with a standing ovation for There’ll Always Be An England.

Juliette and Tony moved in 1954 to Toronto where she had earlier appeared on the Alan Young radio show. Now she appeared as a guest on Holiday Ranch and sang on The Billy O’Connor Show on CBC-TV. There was friction as she built her popularity and in two years Juliette broke away from the show and took its Saturday time slot.

She was introduced by announcer Gil Christie as “Your Pet, Juliette” and her shows and songs were conservative and wholesome. Her set represented her living room and she addressed her audience as guests, greeting them with “Hi there, everybody,” and ending with “Goodnight, Mom.” Her popularity continued to grow. In early years the show included Bobby Gimby on the trumpet and singing, and male singers billed as Juliette’s escorts. From 1959 to 1965 the show included the Four Romeos – Rick Stainsby, Alex Ticknovich, Vern Kennedy, and John Garden – and from 1960 to 1964 the Four Mice – Diane Gibson, Sylvia Wilson, Angela Antonelli, and Carol Hill. The show’s final season was 1966, when Juliette was joined by the Art Hallman Singers. In the final year the show made an effort to attract a younger audience by also featuring performers appearing in current shows and concerts.

After 1966, Juliette made regular CBC appearances in specials and she returned for the 1974 season in a daily, half-hour talk show Juliette and Friends.

In 1975, living in Vancouver, Juliette Cavazzi was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

In 1999 she was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame which pays tribute to Canadian stars by placing their names on cement stars in the sidewalk in Toronto’s Theatre District.

Juliette Cavazzi died in Vancouver on October 26th 2017.

Canadian television pioneer 'Your pet Juliette' dies at 91 in Vancouver

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VANCOUVER — One of the pioneering performers on Canadian television in the 1950s and ’60s has died.

Friends and family confirmed to the CBC that Juliette Cavazzi — who performed professionally under only her first name — died overnight Thursday in Vancouver at the age of 91.

Cavazzi, born in St. Vital, Man., headlined the wholesome CBC musical variety program “The Juliette Show” for 10 years beginning in 1956, where she was introduced at the top of each episode as “your pet, Juliette.”

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The Canadian Encyclopedia called it “one of Canada’s most popular television shows” of the day, regularly ranking just behind “Hockey Night in Canada” and the national news, thanks in large part to Cavazzi’s “folksy pop style and easy rapport with an audience.”

“She was a warm lady. You couldn’t help but like her,” legendary disc jockey Red Robinson told the CBC.

“She made it at a time when we really didn’t allow stars in the Canadian broadcast system. And yet, she ended up with a show right after the NHL hockey games, and it became an outrageous success.

“Juliette really brought a lot to Canadian culture and it’s gonna be sad not having her around.”

She was named a member of the Order of Canada and was honoured on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Her career began in Vancouver, where she had moved with her family when she was 10, and continued in Toronto where appeared on CBC radio and television.

After the cancellation of “The Juliette Show,” Cavazzi hosted a CBC afternoon talk show in the 1970s.

She retired to Vancouver.

She once admitted that if she had a chance to do it all again, she would have chosen a career in the chorus instead of as a solo star.

“When you’re no longer front and centre, it hurts,” she told CBC talk show host Bob McLean in 1980.

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MLA 8TH EDITION
Schau, Ann and Alex Murray. "Juliette". The Canadian Encyclopedia , 30 October 2017, Historica Canada . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/juliette. Accessed 09 April 2024.
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Early Years

Juliette Sysak was born in suburban Winnipeg to Polish-Ukrainian parents. She sang at the local Ukrainian hall and won a number of amateur singing contests before her family moved to Vancouver when she was 10. After singing at the Kitsilano Showboat, she began performing with Dal Richards' s orchestra at the Hotel Vancouver at age 13, under the stage name Juliette. At 15, she made her CBC network debut on George Calangis' s radio program Sophisticated Strings .

Early Radio and Television Career

After spending 1943–44 in Toronto , where she appeared on Alan Young's CBC Radio show and with Lucio Agostini 's orchestra, she returned to Vancouver and sang on many other CBC Radio programs, including Burns Chuckwagon (a country music show with the Rhythm Pals ), and Here's Juliette . She also appeared at Theatre Under the Stars .

She married musician Tony Cavazzi, who became her manager, and in 1954 the two moved to Toronto, where she co-starred with Gino Silvi on CBC Radio's Gino and Juliette . She was also a featured guest on CBC TV’s Holiday Ranch and a regular performer — introduced as “our pet Juliette” — on Billy O'Connor 's The Late Show (1954–56).

In 1956, Juliette became host of the long-running Saturday night music variety program, Juliette (1956–66), succeeding O’Connor’s Late Show on CBC TV. It was one of the broadcaster’s most popular shows of the day, regularly ranking behind only Hockey Night in Canada and the national news in viewership. As the program followed Hockey Night in Canada , it was often shortened or extended depending on when the hockey game ended, adding an extra layer of spontaneity to the live show. The wholesome, conservative program took place on a living room set and featured Juliette beginning each episode with “Hi there, everybody” and ending it with “Goodnight, Mom.”

Juliette was joined regularly on the show by other singers. In the 1950s, she was accompanied by a male singer, who was introduced as her “escort” for the evening ( George Murray , 1956–57; Roy Roberts, 1957–58; and Ken Steele, 1958–59). Later, her guests included the male vocal quartet the Romeos (1959–65) and the female vocal group the Four Mice (1960–64). The show's music directors were, successively, Bobby Gimby (1956–59), Bill Isbister (1959–65) and Lucio Agostini (1965–66).

Of Juliette's popularity, Antony Ferry wrote in the Toronto Daily Star : “Her specialty is being ‘just folks’... In a pop medium bedecked with tinsel and phony charm, Juliette retains at least the illusion of old home-body simplicity.” The Montreal Gazette added that, “Our Pet Juliette represents the last word in a plain, uncluttered, ordinary performing style — cheerful, happy ordinariness.”

Despite her popularity with the public, Juliette generally received little love from critics, who typically dismissed her as bland. The Globe and Mail ’s television critic, Dennis Braithwaite, wrote in 1965 that her show exhibited “an unexciting format, uninspired production, bad writing, unglamorous costuming and a drab image of wholesomeness.” Her show was still ranked in the Top 10 when it fell prey to a new CBC ratings system and was cancelled in 1966.

Later Career

After appearing in a number of TV and radio specials, Juliette hosted the CBC TV talk shows After Noon (1969–71) and Juliette and Friends (1973–75). She began winding down her career in the 1980s, retiring to Vancouver and performing at occasional benefits and nostalgia shows. As of 1999 she was still singing regularly with the Dal Richards orchestra in Vancouver.

Juliette recorded two 78s for RCA's “X” label and one with the Rhythm Pals for Aragon in the early 1950s. She later made three LPs for RCA Camden: Juliette (1968), Juliette’s Christmas World (1968) and Juliette’s Country World (1969). She also appeared on a recording of Dolores Claman 's musical comedy Timber! (1954) and the compilation album The Saga of Canadian Country and Folk Music (1972).

A version of this entry originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada .

Member, Order of Canada (1975)

Inductee, BC Entertainment Hall of Fame (1994)

Inductee, Canada’s Walk of Fame (1999)

External Links

Frank Ifield and Juliette duet 1968 A duet with Frank Ifield and Juliette in a vintage 1968 CBC "Show of the Week" clip. From YouTube.

Juliette A biography of popular Canadian television personality Juliette from the Manitoba Music Museum.

'Your pet, Juliette' revisited Watch a 1980 CBC TV interview in which Juliette talks about the early years of her show business career.

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Canadian television pioneer ‘Your pet Juliette’ dies at 91 in Vancouver

By The Canadian Press

Posted October 27, 2017 10:07 pm.

Last Updated October 27, 2017 10:40 pm.

This article is more than 5 years old.

VANCOUVER – One of the pioneering performers on Canadian television in the 1950s and ’60s has died.

Friends and family confirmed to the CBC that Juliette Cavazzi — who performed professionally under only her first name — died overnight Thursday in Vancouver at the age of 91.

“She was a warm lady. You couldn’t help but like her,” legendary disc jockey Red Robinson told the CBC.

“She made it at a time when we really didn’t allow stars in the Canadian broadcast system. And yet, she ended up with a show right after the NHL hockey games, and it became an outrageous success.

“Juliette really brought a lot to Canadian culture and it’s gonna be sad not having her around.”

She was named a member of the Order of Canada and was honoured on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Her career began in Vancouver, where she had moved with her family when she was 10, and continued in Toronto where appeared on CBC radio and television.

After the cancellation of “The Juliette Show,” Cavazzi hosted a CBC afternoon talk show in the 1970s.

She retired to Vancouver.

She once admitted that if she had a chance to do it all again, she would have chosen a career in the chorus instead of as a solo star.

“When you’re no longer front and centre, it hurts,” she told CBC talk show host Bob McLean in 1980.

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Juliette ( Juliette Augustina Sysak). was born in St Vital (Winnipeg), on Aug 26, 1927. She was taken to Vancouver at 10, was hired by and sang with Dal Richards’ Hotel Vancouver orchestra at 13, and made her CBC network debut on ‘Sophisticated Strings’ at 15. After a year (1943-4) in Toronto on Alan Young’s CBC radio show and with Lucio Agostini’s orchestra, she sang on many CBC Vancouver radio programs, including ‘Burns Chuckwagon and ‘Here’s Juliette’. She also appeared at TUTS. She returned to Toronto in 1954 and co-starred with Gino Silvi on CBC radio’s ‘Gino and Juliette’. She was one of the CBC’s first bona fide stars, a glamorous yet wholesome hostess who sang show tunes to viewers every Saturday night. From 1956 to 1966, Juliette greeted Canadians live on The Juliette Show after Hockey Night in Canada. Always attired in a beautiful dress, she signed off each week with the words “Good night, Mom.” As ‘Our Pet, Juliette’ she was a regular performer 1954-6 on CBC TV ‘The Late Show’. Juliette succeeded O’Connor with her own program ‘Juliette’ (1956-66), one of the CBC’s most popular shows of the day. After several seasons of TV specials, Juliette was host for the CBC TV talk shows ‘After Noon’ (1969- 71) and ‘Juliette and Friends’ (1973-5). Juliette recorded two 78s for RCA’s ‘X’ label and one with the Rhythm Pals for Aragon in the early 1950s and later made three LPs for RCA Camden (Juliette CAS 2223, Christmas World CAS 2279, and Country World CAS 2341). She also was heard on a recording of Doris Claman’s musical comedy Timber! Much loved Juliette continued to sing in CBC specials and perform in nightclubs before appreciative audiences for a number of years.

She was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1975.

Tags: Deceased , Inducted 1994 , Juliette , Music

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Singer Juliette Cavazzi was an early star of Canadian television

The glamorous vocalist with a girl-next-door appeal became one of the country's highest-paid performers

Juliette Cavazzi appeared on a live eponymous broadcast every Saturday following Hockey Night in Canada, an enviable time slot, but one requiring significant flexibility and improvisation.

This article was published more than 6 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

A warm voice and wholesome presence made Juliette one of Canada's earliest television stars, a household figure known throughout the land by only her first name.

She appeared on a live eponymous broadcast every Saturday following Hockey Night in Canada , an enviable time slot but one that came with an uncertain start time and a script needing improvisation on the fly.

As a harp was lightly strummed, off-camera announcer Gil Christie intoned, "And, now, here's your pet, Joo-oo-liette!" Onto the small, black-and-white screen strolled a singer with a stylish, blonde bouffant, a confident smile on her face, her form adorned in an elegant dress, the colour of which she was careful to describe to viewers. The singer, who has died in Vancouver at the age of 91, was flirty but never ribald. Despite the glamour, she performed without pretension, a girl-next-door sharing her talent for an adoring public with whom she had a relaxed rapport. She had her detractors, to be sure, and when one or two of the 50 letters she received weekly criticized her, she made a point of writing back.

Juliette's repertoire included standards and show tunes, so by the mid-1960s, she seemed an anachronism to the entertainment brass at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The Juliette Show , still high in the ratings, was abruptly cancelled, although the singer continued to perform on variety-show specials for many years afterward. She also hosted an afternoon television talk show called Juliette and Friends .

"If I had to do it all over again, I would probably prefer to be a group singer in the background of a show where you don't have to be front and centre all the time," she told the CBC's Bob McLean in 1980. "Because when you are no longer front and centre, it hurts."

She was invariably described as "our pet Juliette," a moniker she came to resent for its patronizing quality. She was not one to allow male directors to run roughshod. Known in her heyday for being a problematic and troublesome figure on set, she is more properly regarded as a performer who insisted on taking charge of her career.

To be Juliette was to play a role, one that she relinquished only on death. She never appeared in public without hair coiffed and makeup on. Even in retirement, she possessed a room-stopping star quality on entering a classy restaurant. A daughter of Polish-Ukrainian immigrants and from a working-class family, she succeeded in spending her adult years as a diva.

Juliette Augustina Sysak (pronounced SIZE-ack) was born on Aug. 27, 1926, at St. Vital, which has since been amalgamated into Winnipeg. (Some sources give a birthdate making her 364 days younger, an error she was in no rush to correct, according to her friend Lynne Triffon.) Juliette was the second daughter born to Anna (née Kolbuck), who was born in Poland, and Fred Sysak, who emigrated from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Mr. Sysak worked as a cook for Canadian Pacific Railway.

As a girl, Juliette was a tomboy who repeated songs she heard on the radio, impressing her mother with her ability to remember lyrics. "I was a show-off from the time I could speak," she said in a 2002 biographical documentary. She won a neighbourhood contest by singing the popular Depression tune Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? while dressed as a boy urchin.

The family moved to Vancouver when Juliette was seven. Her older sister desired a singing career and the parents encouraged both daughters in pursuing their dream. By 13, Juliette was performing patriotic songs at the Kitsilano Showboat, an outdoor venue at a Vancouver beach.

One who caught her act was Ivan Ackery, manager of the downtown Orpheum Theatre. When he soon after hired band leader Dal Richards, the King of Swing, to perform music between screenings, he suggested he hire the undiscovered singer. Not wanting to be a nursemaid, Mr. Richards balked. Mr. Ackery insisted. The band leader changed his mind after witnessing her bring down the house with a rendition of There'll Always Be an England . He then added her as a vocalist for his band's performances at the glamorous Rooftop Panorama at the nearby Hotel Vancouver, suggesting, according to his 2009 memoir, that she drop her Slavic surname, leaving only the romantic appellation by which she would forever after be known.

The girl vocalist cycled to late afternoon practices, the uniformed doorman parking her bicycle. For evening performances, a band member picked her up by car and then delivered her home. A correspondent for Downbeat magazine caught her act, noting "she's got more natural-born charm than most chirpers twice her age." By the following winter, she was making more money than her father and wearing a fur coat to classes.

After two years, she was replaced by another singer, whom Mr. Richards would marry. ("I'm the only singer Dal had that he didn't marry," she later quipped. " Au contraire ," he responded. He only married two of a dozen.)

At 15, she made her national network debut on CBC Radio, then spent two war years performing in Toronto. The summer the war ended, she was the star singer backed by Doug Raymond and his orchestra at the Happyland Ballroom on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition. It was there she met her future husband, Tony Cavazzi, a musician born in Kamloops, B.C., and the son of an immigrant Italian labourer. They married on July 7, 1948, at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, a venue selected for having the longest aisle for her bridal procession.

A longstanding gig at the Palomar Supper Club, where patrons purchased ice and mix to be topped up with brown-bagged liquor, and regular appearances on CBC Radio made her a hometown star with a devoted following.

Once again in Toronto, she launched her television career. She was a guest on Holiday Ranch and a featured singer on The Billy O'Connor Show , which aired following Hockey Night in Canada . She proved such a success, despite tensions with the host, that she took over the time slot within a year.

‘Our Pet’, Juliette was the Queen of Canadian television in the 1950s and 60s. But beneath the glamour was a tough-minded trailblazer who became a nightclub singer at the tender age of 13.

The set was made to look like a living room. Music was provided by the trumpeter Bobby Gimby and, later, the Bill Isbister Orchestra. Her backup vocal groups included the Romeos, an all-male quartet, and the all-female Four Mice. Guests included singers such as Robert Goulet, baton twirlers, ventriloquists, Ukrainian dancers, Hawaiian orchestras, the impersonator Rich Little and the comic duo Wayne and Shuster.

By the early 1960s, she was earning $50,000 a year, making her one of Canada's highest-paid performers. Her husband handled the finances, but she managed her own career.

Rehearsing even as the hockey game was being aired, she completed a streak of 173 consecutive performances before an attack of pleurisy sent her to a sick bed. In the summer, she toured the land, performing at such venues as the Rancho Don Carlos in Winnipeg, billed as "Canada's most lavish theatre restaurant."

Not surprisingly, the same homespun qualities that earned Juliette her large fan base also alienated more sophisticated critics. Variety magazine thought her music insipid enough to describe her as the Florence Welk of Canada, while Toronto Star critic Dennis Braithwaite bristled at what he considered a lazy, inoffensive show. "A healthy girl who can sing," he wrote in 1959, "Juliette personifies the wholesome sex-appeal that us corn-fed Canadians are supposed to go for." Chatelaine magazine published an article headlined, Everyone hates Juliette but her fans.

After a decade, she was an institution, but soon after the end of the 1965-66 hockey season, the CBC announced it was cancelling the show. Her fans were promised the star would soon return with special programs, although these would be fewer than expected.

In 1968, Juliette served as host of the hour-long variety program Show of the Week , a CBC response to such American musical pop variety programs as Shindig! and Hullabaloo. She was joined by the Good Company, a troupe of singers and dancers dressed in lime-green suits (men) and burnt orange dresses (women). The set design and pacing borrowed from Laugh-In without the laughs. On one show, the host's introduction went: "Guess what? From my hometown, Winnipeg, my special guests, the Guess Who. Oh, that's no joke. That's their name." The lame effort to give Juliette a hipper vibe was not a success.

Her holiday album that year, Juliette's Christmas Special , was a seasonal blockbuster for RCA Victor in Canada.

Meanwhile, she continued to barnstorm the country, appearing on an Arctic tour with the Guess Who and in her birthplace with Bob Hope. In 1970, Juliette sang the national anthem at the inaugural NHL game for the Vancouver Canucks at the Pacific Coliseum. (Her performance inspired an opera singer named Richard Loney to try out for the job, which he would hold for four decades.)

She found a niche audience as host of the daytime television talk shows After Noon and Juliette and Friends , while also hosting the occasional 60-minute variety special. Even as television work dried up, she continued to perform for favourite charities.

Her husband died in 1988 of Alzheimer's. She later enjoyed a romance with Raymond Smith, a widower and retired president of forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel, who had once been a member of Mr. Richards's orchestra. Mr. Smith died in 2005.

Juliette died on Oct. 26 at a Vancouver rehabilitation centre, where she was staying after suffering injuries from a fall. No cause of death was announced. She was predeceased by her sister, Suzanne Maya Elsyveta Price, who died in 1994.

The singer was named to the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame as a founding inductee in 1994. Her sister, a vocalist who also was known professionally by her first name, is also a member of the hall, whose members are honoured with a Star Walk along the sidewalk on Granville Street in Vancouver. Juliette was also added to Canada's Walk of Fame, in Toronto. She was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1975.

The folksy manner which won her show legions of fans included urging her backup singers with an enthusiastic, "C'mon, fellas." She'd offer a "Hi, honey" to a guest vocalist. Her best known catchphrase came at the end of each episode, when she'd look into the camera to offer a heartfelt signoff: "Goodnight, Mom."

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Canadian television pioneer ‘Your pet Juliette’ dies at 91 in Vancouver

By News Staff

Posted October 27, 2017 7:07 pm.

Last Updated October 27, 2017 7:40 pm.