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Mimi Roman, at her Connecticut home, is sorting through mail on a fall day. She receives several fan letters each week, all including a photo of her and Elvis for her to sign. However, Mimi expresses her dislike for the particular photo, citing her outfit and bag as reasons. She wishes there was another photo available for fans to send her.
Even though her connection with a young Elvis Presley is often mentioned in her biography, Roman has her own significant role in country music history as one of the first successful female artists. She was also a part of the early rock and pop scenes. She experienced the emergence of rock’n’roll, rockabilly, and the refined “Nashville sound” in country music. She performed on renowned stages like the Grand Ole Opry and recorded demos for famous songwriters at New York City’s Brill Building during its golden era. However, in the 1980s, she left the industry to prioritize spending time with her family and eventually took on the role of an estate agent, later becoming an assistant to musician Michael Bolton.
During the lockdown, Roman was contacted by filmmaker Joe Hopkins while in her kitchen, leading to the creation of the film “Brooklyn Cowgirl: The Mimi Roman Story” which was released last year. This also led to an opportunity to perform at the Swelltune Records Bay State Barn Dance in Beverly, Massachusetts this year. In September, at the age of 89, Roman performed for the first time in 40 years. She states, “I always accept opportunities and never turn them down. If a door opens, I walk through it.”
We go to her living room where her guitar, which has been with her throughout her career, is kept in its case with her name engraved on the fretboard. Miriam Lapolito was born in 1934, the daughter of a Radio City Music Hall dancer and a bookmaker from the Bronx. When she was 10, her mother remarried and they moved to Brooklyn, where she took on the name Mimi Rothman. In the 1940s, Brooklyn offered open spaces, stables, and horseback riding trails, and Mimi joined a group called the Brooklyn Cowboys. She quickly became a skilled horseback rider and even won prizes. When the annual rodeo was held at Madison Square Garden, Mimi entered as Mimi Rohman because she had discovered that one of the judges was prejudiced against Jews. She ended up being named rodeo queen.
At the age of 16, she discovered her passion for country music when a friend played Jimmie Rodgers’ “Waiting for a Train”. The song’s simplicity and story immediately captivated her and she became enamored with the genre. She would stay up late at night, trying to tune into radio stations from places like West Virginia, Washington, and Texas. She eventually began singing and competing on television talent shows. During this time in Tennessee, she met the Everly Brothers before they became famous. While she unsuccessfully tried to convince them to add a female singer to their group, they became friends. When they traveled to New York, she tagged along with them. According to her, Phil was goofy and funny while Don was more serious, and she became friends with the former.
Roman received an invitation to appear on Cincinnati’s Midwestern Hayride television program and also created a fifteen-minute radio show with the pre-fame country band, the Willis Brothers. Mimi chuckles, “The amusing part was that I had to sing a hymn at the end. Can you imagine how many hymns a Jewish singer from Brooklyn knows? Not too many! But I learned on the job.”
Roman signed a contract with Decca and began working with Owen Bradley, a significant figure in the development of the Nashville sound. Bradley played piano on her initial recordings, which were produced in the unoccupied Ryman auditorium, known for being the location of the famous Grand Ole Opry radio show. Roman expressed that this experience had a significant impact on her, stating that it was more meaningful than any other performances she had done before. Having listened to the Opry on the radio for many years, Roman was familiar with artists like Hank Williams who had also graced the same stage. She would soon have the opportunity to perform on that same stage for WSMU’s radio broadcast.
During the rise of the Nashville sound, which aimed to replace raw honky tonk music with more refined and accessible arrangements featuring smooth vocals, piano, and often backup singers and strings, Mimi Roman emerged as one of the few successful women in the genre. Despite the preconceived notions of young women not being able to sell records or draw audiences, singer-songwriter Laura Cantrell, who discovered Roman while hosting a country music radio show in the early 90s, recognized her talent. In a time where there were limited role models for successful women in country music, Roman bridged the gap between the honky tonk era and the emergence of rock’n’roll, which would ultimately shift the industry towards a more commercial sound. According to Cantrell, Roman was a pivotal figure in this transition.
Decca, her record label, quickly changed her name from Mimi Roman to simply Mimi and she was now associated with Salinas, California. This change was followed by a flurry of activity, including opening for Johnny Cash and performing for a massive crowd of 100,000 at the annual celebration of country musician Jimmie Rodgers. It was during this time that she also met Elvis. At the 1955 country music disc jockey convention in Nashville, Elvis was named the most promising male star. Roman recalls, “He knew who I was, but I didn’t know who he was. I tried to avoid him, but he kept following me.” Their friendship blossomed when Elvis visited New York with his manager Colonel Tom Parker. Roman remembers, “He was such a handsome kid and he had that special quality. Some people are just meant for stardom.”
We frequently went out to dinner and to the movies. According to Roman, one of the films we watched was Helen of Troy. When I saw Elvis, I couldn’t help but think that he was even more attractive than the guy on the screen. He had a stunning profile, reminiscent of a Roman coin. Despite his youthful appearance, he was very handsome and a genuinely kind person. He made sure to call his mother every day.
According to Walter Winchell, a prominent gossip columnist and radio host in the US, there were reports of an affair between them. Roman recalls their time together at the age of 19, stating that there was nothing romantic between them. He describes Elvis as a pleasant southern boy who found the attention surrounding him amusing, yet didn’t fully comprehend it at such a young age. After riding with Elvis to the airport following The Ed Sullivan Show, Roman realized that it may be the last time he saw him, as the number Elvis had given him was no longer in use and he had relocated to California by the time Roman played in Memphis.
She struggled to come to terms with the fact that the Elvis she once knew as a handsome teenager was now seen as a jumpsuit-wearing caricature. “When Elvis passed away, it was heartbreaking for me,” she recalls. “Back then, I would go wherever he wanted to go. But looking back, I realized he was trapped. That’s why I never aspired to be a big star. He had become a bloated version of the sweet kid I knew. It was a tragic transformation for such a nice boy.” Despite Parker’s attempts to take her on as a manager, Roman resisted. “I made it clear to my manager at the time that I wanted nothing to do with this guy,” she explains. “There was just something off about him – he seemed slimy. As a New Yorker, I could easily spot a con artist.”
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However, Roman had her own experience with fame in 1956. According to Roman, she and Patsy Cline both recorded during the same weekend. They had the same producer, Owen Bradley, who joked that Cline was a country singer attempting to sing pop, while Roman was a pop singer trying to sing country. Although they both received songs to record, Cline’s Walking After Midnight became a million-selling single and is now considered one of the greatest country songs. Unfortunately, Roman’s songs Honky Tonk Girl and We’re Taking Chances did not make it on the charts. Nevertheless, Roman does not dwell on what could have been. She believes that Cline’s success was meant to be and she was meant to be wherever she ended up. She never gave it a second thought. As she says, “Everything comes with a price.” If Honky Tonk Girl had been her song, Roman admits, she would have been on the plane that crashed and took Cline’s life.
During the 1950s, package tours became popular. In 1957, Roman became a part of the Philip Morris Agency’s traveling show, which featured some of the most well-known and beloved stars of the time such as Carl Smith, Goldie Hill, and Little Jimmie Dickens for a brief period. Originally planned for 13 weeks, the show’s success led to it running for 18 months. As the only woman on a bus filled with men, Roman made it clear upon boarding that there would be no tolerance for Jewish jokes. The job was grueling, with constant travel through the southern states on a bus without basic amenities such as a toilet or air conditioning. According to Roman, they even went through two buses due to the demanding schedule.
During the tour, a solution was found to bypass segregation. According to Roman, although the law prohibited seating Blacks and whites together, it did not forbid them from standing together. This arrangement was met with disapproval in New Bern, North Carolina, where the Ku Klux Klan drove by the building with hoods on while the show was ongoing. Despite the intimidation, the performance continued without interruption and after the show, the Klan and police accompanied the bus out of New Bern. Roman expressed fear and stated that if the Klan knew there was a Jew on the bus, they wouldn’t have stood a chance. The experience was frightening, and it ultimately led Roman to leave show business.
Roman’s touring life came to an end, which she describes as being the final straw for her. She returned to her hometown of New York and in the early 1960s, she had a daughter with songwriter Paul Evans. For the next ten years, she worked as a demo singer at Associated Recording Studios and 1650 Broadway, a popular hit-making factory. She would often collaborate with famous artists such as Burt Bacharach, Goffin and King, Lieber and Stroller, Doc Pomus, and Neil Sedaka, who would give her lyrics to sing over while playing the piano in the studio. Sometimes, Paul Simon would also join in for demo recordings. Roman’s memories of this time are hazy, as she recorded demos, commercials, and scratch recordings for popular musicals like Funny Girl and Chicago. She says she sang for many different songwriters in her neighborhood. Occasionally, if a publisher believed her demo was good enough, they would release it as a single. To broaden her appeal, Roman also performed under the name Kitty Ford, and her rendition of “Don’t Play Number 9” by Mann and Weill was covered by Ricky Valance.
After getting married again and moving to Connecticut, Roman stopped singing in order to care for her stepchildren. After her divorce, she worked as a disc jockey in Bridgeport and also performed with a local country band on weekends. When she got remarried in the mid-80s, she gave up music completely and became a real estate agent. She reflects, “Singing was a great experience, but it no longer fit into my life at that time.” She has no regrets and adds, “I never had a desire to be that famous. Even if I could have reached that level of stardom, I didn’t want to pay the price.” Her music career was in the past, as she explains, “I was married for 25 years and my husband never heard me sing.” Even her former boss, Michael Bolton, who she worked for as a personal assistant after he bought a house from her in the late 1980s, was unaware of her musical background. “I never brought it up,” says Roman.
Following Roman’s comeback performance in September, Cantrell has extended an invitation for her to join her band onstage in December for the Brooklyn show of her States of Country concert series. Cantrell expresses her admiration for Roman, stating, “I was drawn to her as a female musician who creates music from the heart. Her energy is infectious and she has captivating stories.”
Roman is pleased to have her accomplishments recognized, jokingly adding, “even if it was back in the 1950s!” She is content to receive recognition and take a moment to celebrate while still alive.
Source: theguardian.com
