Helen Reddy singer - heroic, Australian and feminist

Helen Lamond Reddy (1941-2020) was born in Melbourne to comedy actor-producer Max Reddy & sing­er Stella Lamond, and half sister to the famous performer, Toni Lamond.

In such a show-biz family, young Helen toured with her parents and nat­ur­ally went onto the stage (at Perth’s Tivoli Theatre). She left school early, already clear about working as a singer and actor. Her soothing vocals and warmth covered the range: blues, rock and jazz. Helen Reddy Sings was her own radio show, aired on the A.B.C.

The best event was when Helen won a 1966 talent contest on the nat­ion’s most famous musical programme from 1958-1972, Bandstand. Her prize was a ticket to the USA and a record audition in NY, which un­fortunately did not lead to a contract. Happily Helen got together with her agent with and the William Morris talent agency, Jeff Wald. They married in 1968 and went to Los Angeles.

In LA Helen made her debut singles One Way Ticket (1968) & I Believe in Music (1970). They must have been successful because Helen was soon signed to Capitol Records. Wald got Helen into 15 performances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), and the resulting attention earned her the first hit with I Don't Know How to Love Him (1972), peaking at #13 on the Billboard. This was from the rock mus­ical, Jesus Christ Superstar. 

Signed by Capitol Records, she enjoyed success during the early 1970s, with Delta Dawn (1973) and Angie Baby (1974). She was the world’s top-selling female singer in 1973-4, became the first Australian singer to win a Grammy, sold 80 million albums, had her own weekly prime-time television variety show and became a feminist icon in the women's movement's stirr­ing anthem for change. At the Grammy Ceremony in 1973 Helen Reddy, whose hit I am Woman became an anthem for the Women's Liberation Movement, accepted her Award for the Best Female Pop, Rock and Folk Vocal Performance. She, her family and all of Aust­ralia could not have been more thrilled, with both the giant money award and the endless fame.

In 1974 Helen took American citizenship in a bitter-sweet cere­m­ony, thankful to also keep her Australian citizenship.

She tried to extend herself into a film career and into TV series. But I never saw any of these appearances. In 1982, she divorced Wald and married drummer Milton Ruth. Helen participated in the concert and symphony orchestra events, as well as becoming a popular cabar­et and nightclub att­raction. Later she was in musical theatre productions in the USA and in Britain.

In 2002 retired from the stage. She moved home to Australia to work as a hypnotherapist and motivational speaker, but continued to travel. In 2017 Helen was hospitalised in a nursing home for ex-Hollywood talents in L.A.

Helen Reddy and Gloria Steinem, sharing the stage

Sydney Morning Herald 1973

In Dec 2018, Australian director Unjoo Moon filmed a bio-pic of the star Helen Reddy, naturally titled I Am Woman. It will be played on Stan from 28th Aug 2020. I haven’t seen the film so I will rely on Garry Maddox’s review.

The film tells a great Australian story: how a single mother with little money to her name arrived in New York and became the queen of 1970s pop. At a time when a marr­ied woman could not even get superannuation, Reddy overcame the entren­ched sexism of the American record industry to have three #1 hits and another dozen songs in the top 40.

She had a wide repertoire. A lot of people who saw the film said they didn't realise they were all her songs. Furth­ermore the songs she chose were really hard to sing.

Years ago Reddy and Moon spoke for two hours at a function; Moon, who grew up seeing the galvan­ising effect of I Am Woman on her mot­her, thought it must have been a great story waiting to be made. Moon set out to convince Reddy it was time to make a docum­entary. But Helen’s son-manager, Jordan Wald Sommers, want­ed a film. Moon spent another year with the singer, talking about the key factors in Helen’s life. The film starred Australian actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Henry Reddy and Evan Peters as her ambitious husband-manager Jeff Wald. She went from a growing reputation in Australia, to a worldwide me­ga success in the USA, to a quieter life lecturing, to long term illness.

A year before filming, Cobham-Hervey, 25, studied every video and interview of Reddy she could find. She went with Moon to a women's march in Los Angeles, and later learned to sing. When she was rid­ing home at night, she'd put in her ear­phones and sing really loud­ly to all the Helen Reddy tracks. Tilda Cobham-Hervey found it wor­ry­ing playing Reddy; women like the singer took on the world and changed so many things.. that Tilda’s generation has more freedom.

The film was mostly shot in Sydney, standing for New York and other American cities. At the end of film, Moon read the title cards detailing what Reddy, Wald and the Australian journalist Lil­l­ian Roxon had done. She noted that the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the US constitution, which feminists inspired by I Am Woman needed in the 1970s, had still not been passed. But so much has happened since then: Hilary Clinton’s loss, the chaos since Donald Trump's alarming el­ection win, the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter pro­tests and a pandemic that has changed the USA and the world. 

Helen passed away in 2020. Now we need to listen to the words on youtube, to remind ourselves of the words that inspired us back then. Hope­fully the film will inspire a new generation of strong young women.