Petula Clark Post-Downtown era
 Born to an English father and Welsh mother in Ewell, Surrey, England, she was christened Petula Sally Olwen Clark. Her father Leslie coined her first name, jokingly alleging it was a combination of the names of two former girlfriends, Pet and Ulla. As a child, she sang in the church choir; her first public performances were in Bentalls Department Store in Kingston upon Thames, where she sang with an orchestra in the entrance hall for a tin of toffee and a gold wristwatch. In October 1942, she made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father, hoping to send a message to an uncle stationed overseas. During an air raid, the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery audience, and Clark volunteered a rendition of Mighty Lak a Rose to an enthusiastic response in the theatre. She then repeated her performance for the broadcast audience, launching a series of some 500 appearances in programmes to entertain the troops. In addition to radio work, Clark frequently toured the UK with fellow child performer Julie Andrews. She became known as Britain's Shirley Temple and was considered a mascot by the RAF and the United States Army, whose troops plastered her photos on their tanks for luck as they advanced into battle.
With Sid Field in London Town, 1946In 1944, while performing at London's Royal Albert Hall, Clark was discovered by film director Maurice Elvey, who cast her as an orphaned waif in his weepy war drama Medal for the General. In quick succession, she starred in Strawberry Roan, I Know Where I'm Going!, London Town, and Here Come the Huggetts, the first in a series of Huggett Family films based on a British radio series. Although most of the films she made in the UK during the 1940s and '50s were B-movies, she did work with Anthony Newley in Vice Versa (directed by Peter Ustinov) and Alec Guinness in The Card.
Clark with Jimmy Hanley (left) and Edward Rigby (rear) in Don't Ever Leave Me, 1949In 1946, she launched her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show, Cabaret Cartoons, which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, titled simply Petula Clark. A second, Pet's Parlour, followed in 1949. In later years, she starred in This is Petula Clark (1966) and The Sound of Petula (1972-74).
In 1949, Clark branched into recording with her first release, a cover of Teresa Brewer's Music! Music! Music!, in Australia. Her father, whose theatrical ambitions had been thwarted by his parents, teamed with Alan A. Freeman to form their own label, Polygon Records, in order to better control her singing career. She scored a number of major hits in the UK during the 1950s, including The Little Shoemaker (1954), Majorca (1955), Suddenly There's a Valley (1955) and With All My Heart (1956). Although Clark released singles in the US as early as 1951 (the first was Tell Me Truly b/w Song Of The Mermaid on the Coral label), it would take thirteen years before the American record-buying public would discover her.
It was around 1955 that she became romantically involved with [Joe 'Mr Piano' Henderson]. Their relationship lasted a couple of years, professionally culminating in a BBC Radio series in which they performed together. Speculation that the couple planned to marry became rife. However, with the increasing glare of being in the public spotlight, and Clark's growing fame (her career in France was just beginning), Henderson — reportedly not wanting to end up as Mr. Petula Clark — decided to call the whole thing off. They remained on friendly terms, and in 1962 he penned a ballad about their break-up, called There's Nothing More To Say, for Clark's's LP In Other Words.
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