India Adams was a ‘ghost singer’, a voice double for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon (1953) and for Joan Crawford in Torch Song (1953). In The Band Wagon (1953), it was really Adams, not Charisse as ballerina Gabrielle Gerard, who is heard singing “New Sun in the Sky” and “That’s Entertainment,” the latter performed with Fred Astaire, Oscar Levant, Jack Buchanan and Nanette Fabray. Hollywood reporter Dorothy Kilgallen wrote in her column, ‘The biggest news around Radio City Music Hall is who is singing for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon?’” Adams recalled in a 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I wanted to phone her and say, ‘I did it.’ But I was afraid. So I didn’t.” her ghosting was kept under wraps for a long time, the actress having had to sign a gag order as part of her contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She later said “you had to swear on a Bible you weren’t going to tell anybody.”
In Torch Song, also released in 1953, Crawford’s character, Broadway star Jenny Stewart, is supposed to be singing along to a recording of “Tenderly” that she had made years earlier. Actually, it’s Adams’ voice on the recording. She dubs for Crawford on “You Won’t Forget Me” as well.
A year later, India dubbed Crawford’s singing again for the Republic western Johnny Guitar (1954).
India Adams had been singing or acting her entire life.
“My mother swears I hummed my first song when I was 9 months old,” recalled Adams “I always wanted to become a really big star but don’t believe it would have allowed me to have the fulfilling family life that I had. I’m content to be a little star!”
She began her professional singing career while in high school in Los Angeles.
“I had a friend in school who had a little three-piece band, and he said if I went out with him one night, he would let me sing,” she said. “I sang and the boss offered me a job, but he could only afford to have me for two nights. I said if I didn’t charge him for the other two nights, could I work there? [He agreed.] Then I just started working clubs in town.”
“I was appearing at a club, and someone from MGM asked me afterward if I’d be interested in dubbing,” she recalled. “I did ‘The Band Wagon’ first, and one of the songs for Cyd Charisse, ‘Two-faced Woman,’ was cut out but used for Joan Crawford in ‘Torch Song.’ It’s the only time in motion picture history that two different actresses have lip-synced to the very same track. In ‘That’s Entertainment III” (1984), they showed a split screen of Joan and Cyd with my voice dubbed in. It’s fascinating to watch.”
Her memories of the two actresses are very different.
“I worked a lot more with Joan than I did with Cyd, who was cold and reserved although part of it might have been that she was rather shy. Joan was very friendly and would invite me back to her dressing room. Most actresses probably resented having their voices dubbed because they wanted to sing themselves, and Joan actually recorded a bunch of tunes for ‘Torch Song’ since she was playing a musical star. She had a passable voice, but they really wanted someone to provide a more professional edge.”
In the mid-1950s, Adams lived in New York, where she starred in such musicals as Can-Can, The Most Happy Fella and Brigadoon and was a featured singer at the Latin Quarter and Radio City Music Hall.
Adams recorded several albums throughout her career, the most memorable being her first “Comfort Me with Apples” from 1959 with the singer posing for the cover in a bathtub soaking only in fruit which RCA Victor issued in 1959.
“We were batting around ideas for the cover. Since the title track was ‘Comfort Me with Apples,’ I suggested getting an old-fashioned bathtub and filling it with apples rather than bubbles. It was considered rather risque at the time.”
Adams moved to London in the ’70s, performed often on BBC Radio and counted among her numerous television appearances a Royal Command Performance. She also served as standby for Ginger Rogers in a yearlong London production of Mame in 1970.
“I was chomping at the bit to go on for Ginger,” she said, but never got the opportunity “no matter how many pins I stuck in my Ginger Rogers doll! But actually, I just loved her and she may have been the most charming person I ever met.”
Adams returned to Los Angeles in 1981, appearing in several West Coast venues and releasing the albums India Adams Sings and India Adams Sings Again.
In 1990, she assembled a vocal quartet, “Hollywood’s Secret Singing Stars”, teaming up with Annette Warren (who had provided the dubbing voice for Ava Gardner‘s singing in Show Boat (1951) and for Lucille Ball in Fancy Pants (1950)), former big band vocalist Jo Ann Greer (who had dubbed for Rita Hayworth ‘s singing in Pal Joey (1957), June Allyson in The Opposite Sex (1956) and Esther Williams in Jupiter’s Darling (1955)) and Betty Wand (vocal stand-in for Esther Williams in Pagan Love Song (1950) and Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958)). The act went on to perform at various West Coast venues and the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in New York.
By 2011 and now in her mid-80s, India still regularly headlined at the Catalina Bar & Grill jazz club on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, accompanied by her musical director, the pianist Paul Horner. She also made a few forays to screen acting in non-singing character roles, including a small part in the horror film Followed (2018), starring John Savage.
There is no anecdote behind her name “India.”
“All through the years I wanted to make up a really wonderful story about where the name came from, but there is none. It’s actually an old-fashioned name, and I guess my parents just liked it but never told me why.”
India Adams died in 2020 aged 93.
Appetizers
India Adams and Joan Crawford
