A few interesting facts to go along with a Happy Birthday to Petula Clark:
She has sold more than 70 million records worldwide, making her the best-selling British female vocalist in history.
She turned down leading roles in the films Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Airport (1970) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972).
In 1968 Clark and singer Harry Belafonte were singing a duet on her show when she touched Belafonte's arm. A representative for the show's sponsor, Chrysler Corp., saw it and ordered the director to have them re-tape the duet and not to have Clark touch his arm, the rationale being that viewers in the South would be outraged to see a white woman touching a black man, and the South was a big market for Chrysler's cars. Clark redid the scene, but when she found out the reason why, she and her husband - the show's producer - stormed into the control booth, ordered the director to destroy the second take and keep the original one. As expected, when the show was aired a few weeks later, many stations in the South wouldn't show it, and Chrysler received many letters from outraged Southerners saying they would never buy a Chrysler product again because of the company's sponsorship of the show.
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