`Perhaps it’s something in the DNA, or the close relationships forged via familiarity and shared experiences; harmonies created by a family singing together are some of the sweetest sounds. The history of music is full of successful family groups – The Von Trapps, The Mills Brothers, The Andrew Sisters, The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees, Sly and the Family Stone, The Carpenters, The Osmonds, The Jacksons, and The Corrs come immediately to mind. But one of the most enduring, not to mention largest, of all family groups is The King Family. Spinning out of the successful vocal group The King Sisters, multiple generations of the family have found success in all aspects of entertainment. From the early days of radio to the current age of mass entertainment, members of The King Family have been both at the forefront and behind the scenes of North America’s cultural experience.
This year, actor and family historian Cam Clarke released a brand new book, Now They’re All Here: The King Family, available through Rare Bird Books, chronicling the legacy of his large show business family, and celebrating a century of music, memories, and achievements by a group once called “America’s First Family of Song.”
The roots of the family’s entertainment legacy go back to the Great Depression when The King Sisters got their first break on radio in 1931. Originally consisting of sisters Luise, Maxine, and Alyce, the group was soon joined by Donna and Yvonne when Maxine left early on in their formation. They were eventually joined by the youngest sister, Marilyn, in the early 1950’s. Initially hired by bandleader Horace Heidt in 1935 as a vocal group for his orchestra, the sisters would find greater success when Luise married guitar innovator Alvino Rey and she and her sisters joined his new band. By the beginning of the 1940’s, The King Sisters had become an important part of the American soundscape, charting 22 top 40 singles on the Billboard Charts and appearing in nine films between 1937 and 1945.
Maintaining a fan base through the 1950’s, the King Sisters had a successful second act in 1965 when Yvonne showed a tape of a benefit concert performed by her sisters and their children to producers at ABC-TV which led to their own variety show. Reestablishing The King Sisters to the mass audience, they were joined by their husbands and, most notably, their children, collectively called The King Cousins. Proving popular with middle-American families who craved clean-cut entertainment in the face of the changing culture of America, The King Family became a fixture on television sets for the next decade via two separate television series and multiple holiday specials.
More stars emerged from this new generation of Kings. The most notable was the formation of The Four King Cousins, consisting of daughters of the King Sisters, who became popular guests on various talk and variety shows during the era, and Yvonne’s daughter Tina, who became a national heartthrob and household name when she joined the cast of “My Three Sons” in the role of Katie Miller-Douglas. Meanwhile, young viewers at home watching The King Family with their parents had favourite King Cousins of their own.
Although the final King Family special aired in 1974, members of the family continued to make widespread contributions to the entertainment industry throughout the years to come. Possibly the most notable of the King decedents are Win and Will Butler from the Grammy Award-winning alternative rock group Arcade Fire, who are the grandchildren of Luise King and Alvino Rey.
Son of The King Sisters’ lead vocalist Alyce King and film actor Robert Clarke, Cam was just six years old when the first King Family television series was made, but it set him up for a lifetime in the entertainment industry. He established a successful career as a voice actor, primarily for animated features, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Masters of the Universe, Robotech, and many Disney productions. Cam also became the family’s unofficial historian when he began preserving and archiving the original King Family television broadcasts and sharing them on the internet. His work cultivated new interest in The King Family with modern audiences and secured their place on the cultural map in the current century. For his book, Cam Clarke combined decades of both professional and private family photos with family stories submitted by members of The King Family, including stories written by The King Sisters in their own words, many of which have never been previously published.
Having watched Cam’s King Family videos for over a decade, it was a great joy for me to finally talk with him about his book, his work, and his incredible family legacy. I hadn’t been born yet during The King Family’s reign on television, so it was the videos he posted that made me a fan of the family in the first place. Now, via his new book, Cam is ready to not only rekindle old memories of the generation who grew up with The King Family but also reach a younger generation interested in this incredible entertainment family.
Sam: You’ve titled the book “And Now They Are All Here.” It’s a bit of an unusual title. Where did it come from?
Cam: The title is actually the first thing I explain in the opening of the book. “Now They’re All Here” is the only line my Grandma ever said during the entire length of our shows or specials. It was on our Thanksgiving Special in 1967, and the family opens the show by singing “Over the River and Through the Woods.” The location scouts found this beautiful old Victorian house, and Grandma is sitting on the porch as the family all come down the dusty old road and up the stairs and they each give Grandma a kiss as they go in the house. Then the song ends, and there is a pause, and then my little cousin Adam, who would have been around seven at that time, comes running up the stairs because he was late, kisses Grandma, and runs in the house, and then Grandma says “Now They’re All Here.” It’s a goofy line, but it’s one that has followed my family ever since. Anytime the final person arrives at a gathering someone will say “Now they’re all here,” and we all know what that means. There are a lot of little phrases and sayings like that, which we’ve repeated through the years, but you wouldn’t understand their meaning unless I told you about them.
Sam: Well, in conjunction with that story, it’s really a sweet title. I also like that it seems to allude to the gathering of a large family, which is pretty much what every episode of The King Family was.
Cam: You know, a couple of my cousins thought at first that it was kind of a dumb title, and it’s probably not that catchy. But it’s the essence of our family.
Sam: So, you’ve been keeping The King Family legacy alive via social media and on the internet for a while now. I’ve been seeing your posts and videos for over a decade. What made you decide to do a book?
Cam: Well, the impetus for the book was inspired by the beautiful coffee table book that came out about Bob Makie a number of years ago. The King Family was his first series, so we were in the book. But in the book, the writer said, and I’m paraphrasing so this is not an exact quote, “After this show went off the air, this Bob Mackie costume-wearing clan went to the unemployment line.” That was the last line about us in the book, and it’s not even close to the truth. So, I got my ego bruised and I decided to do a book of our own. When I started out, I was just going to do a beautiful Shutterfly book, but then it just grew and grew, and it’s probably taken me about four years to bring it all together.
Sam: I know for the book you have used a lot of different sources and writings to create a narrative of The King Family story, including a lot of writings from members of your family who are no longer living to tell the story. What were some of the sources that you used to collect these stories, and where did they come from?
Cam: Well, my Aunt Luise wrote a book about the sister’s childhood, going from their days in vaudeville and up to their TV period, so I used some passages from her book. Meanwhile, when my mother was getting older and I just felt it was the right time in her life, I hired a woman to come and sit down with her and write down her stories. She came with her own questions, and she was good at asking the follow-up questions depending on what my Mom’s stories were. It was turned into a book that was distributed just to the family and arrived from the pressing place one week after Mom died. It was very timely, and I was able to use that book, which I am responsible for having been created. Now before she passed, Aunt Yvonne had written down her version of the family history. It was so fun to read. It was written in stream-of-consciousness style and felt like if you were on a long car trip with her and she was just telling stories. Also, someone had a legal pad with handwritten stories by my Aunt Marilyn, which had been compiled. My Aunt Donna had also written a memoir, and my Dad had a book come out about his life as a B movie actor, so I was able to use material from those. Fortunately, much of the older generation had taken to time to write down their memoirs.
Sam: So, a lot of the writing you are using has never been published before.
Cam: Yeah. My Mom’s was just for my family and there were only twenty copies made. One of the challenges of assembling the book was, since my book is chronological, I had all this material sitting in front of me and had to sift through it all to get a timeline down. But, there were also many stories that are the same, but have conflicting years connected to them. I’d have to choose which date I believed was more accurate. There is even one story that is told by my Aunt Yvonne and my Aunt Donna, where they claim that the story happened to them. The two stories are just different enough that I decided to use both versions in the book, which I print side by side for the reader to compare, which I think is one of my favourite parts of the book. Yvonne tells the story from when she was six years old, and Donna tells the story as an eighth grader. They tell this story about how it was the holidays – one of them says it was Thanksgiving and the other says it was Christmas – and in school, their class was making a gift basket for the poorest family in the school district. This was during the Depression, and all the kids in the class were to bring a can of this or a jar of that and it’d all be put in the box for the neediest family. Well, both Yvonne and Donna say that there was a knock on the door, and they were the one to answer the door, and this box shows up at their house because it is their family that is the neediest family in the district. There are some complex emotions that would go through you in this scenario, like you might be happy to get the packages, but also, it’d be an embarrassment, especially if you did not realize you were considered the poorest family. In your Hallmark brain, you might think charity is sweet and the poor people would just cry and be so grateful, but it’s a mixed bag. It is enough to hurt a fragile ego.
Sam: Beyond the first generation, how many of your cousins submitted material for the book?
Cam: Just about all of the cousins submitted something. Some people just sent me a couple of things, but others were huge contributors to the storyline. I asked for them to send me anything that they might remember. But what I realized later that what I didn’t ask them is what it was like to be fourteen or sixteen or seventeen, and then suddenly be on a national television show, and then on an insane cross-continental tour. Most of the kids weren’t really pursuing show business at that time, except for Tina who had been on an episode of Hawaiian Eye. I need to ask them next time some of us are all together.
Sam: I saw the promotional video that was made for the book, and it looks like a beautiful piece of work. What have been the reactions of the family members that have seen it?
Cam: For a long while I didn’t let anybody see it, although I did show it to Tina and Laurette. I wanted people to be surprised, especially when it was still a work in progress. I didn’t want it to get tired of looking at it and constantly making changes. But now that it’s been released, everyone has seen it and have said they love it. I am very proud of it and can’t wait for people to get a hold of it. I’m hoping that younger people who don’t really know us from their own lives will come across it and learn about the music of The King Sisters, Alvino Rey, and Buddy Cole and will find some of these deep dives of music history fascinating. Or perhaps fashion students will find something in it, because the photos of the wardrobe and the costumes are just ridiculous, whether they’re candid photos or professional pictures that were shot.
Sam: Well, there is the clothing, but let’s talk about the hair! The women in the King Family were famous for their blonde hair!
Cam: Oh, my goodness! The nine-foot-tall hair! I don’t know how any of them didn’t end up at chiropractor’s offices each week for carrying that pound of hair on top of their heads!
Sam: When did you take on the task of becoming the family historian, and how did you come into possession of all the great resource material you have shared with the public over the years?
Cam: Well, I couldn’t even tell you how many years ago exactly. Over twenty at least. My Uncle Jim had all these kinescopes of our first series languishing in some outhouse or shed or garage or somewhere, while my Dad had these two-inch tapes of our specials and such. Well, Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna were moving, and I came across the kinescope and said, “What are you doing with all of these?” Uncle Jim said, “We don’t have any place to put those.” so I said, “Well, I’ll take them.” I decided I would take these old, nasty kinescopes, and I would transfer them to a format where they wouldn’t just turn into a puddle of vinegar, as film can do. I was really the only one who had the disposable income at that point to spend on this project because it was not cheap to go to these transfer houses in Hollywood with these big huge fancy machines to run the film through and to clean it and then transfer it to Digibeta, which was the go-to format at the time. I then did the same with the color specials, which my father had. Honestly, had I not done all that, all of this footage would probably now be in a landfill and forever lost. But I was the only one who really had the resources at that time to save all this stuff. Everybody’s grateful I did now, but it wasn’t top priority on anybody’s list at the time.
Sam: I am fascinated with the idea of warehouses of media that hasn’t been seen in decades. During my research, I often come across shows or specials that were only aired once, and I wonder where the tapes are now. Do they still exist anymore? I believe there are stockpiles of stuff just like you saved still out there to be unearthed. For you to save it and get it out into the public again is a true gift.
Cam: Well, when I first transferred the shows, I made copies on DVD and sold them. I was just trying to make some money back from all my investment in transferring them.
Sam: Quite a few years have gone by since The King Family were staples on television. Who is currently your core fanbase?
Cam: Well, if you’re talking age range, our audience is basically my age or older. Whenever I do a social media post, people will check in and share their stories of watching the clips with their parents on television. They’ll say things such as, “I am so grateful you’re sharing this. I haven’t seen this since I was fourteen years old, and there’s no way to get a copy of this. I remember sitting in my living room and watching that with Grandma.” We have this cozy little group of people who remember these clips, despite not having seen them for decades.
Sam: I know what memories like that are like. They’re so valuable because they bring you right back to a place and time.ou can go back and envision everything about a moment. The right music and visuals can trigger long-buried memories. How old were you when you realized that your mother, and your family in general, were part of a bigger show business legacy?
Cam: Well, I was always aware of it, because when my Mom and my Aunts would go out on the road to perform, we would often travel with them. But, as a six-year-old, I didn’t know anything about the concept or the word legacy. I knew my family sang, but I sort of thought everybody who sings runs around on stage and tours. I didn’t know anything else. My Mom wasn’t a star to me. She was just Mom. Liza Minnelli once said, speaking about Judy Garland, that “She was always just Mama.” I think that’s a testament to a star when their child thinks of them as a mother first. Meanwhile, what we did on stage or on our shows was really just lifted from real life. Mom would have the sisters and their friends at these parties and quite often there would be singing. They had a Christmas party every year since even before I was born, and they always put on a program with songs and solos and spoken word, and everybody piled into the living room and watched as the family performed. That’s just how I grew up.
Sam: In the subtitle of the book you say that this is the 100th anniversary of The King Family.
Cam: Well, to keep it straight, there wasn’t a “King Family” till 1964, but 2024 marked 100 years of our family being in entertainment, if you start when The King Sisters literally went out for the first time and got paid as entertainers. Originally when they performed, they’d pass a hat, collecting quarters and dimes, and coming home from a show with around twelve dollars.
Sam: How old were the sisters when they started their careers as professional musicians?
Cam: Well, they were still young girls in a family band, and they toured with their Mom and Dad. My Mom and her sisters were huge fans as teens of the Boswell Sisters, which were an amazing trio from the early jazz days. When you listen to The King Sisters’ early recordings, you can hear how they were imitating the Boswells. I found parts in the different memoirs where my Mom and her sisters wrote in their own words about sitting around listening to the Boswell Sisters on the radio and tapping their feet to the music. Well, my Mom, Maxine, and Luise got a chance to replace the Boswell Sisters on radio in Oakland when the Boswells got a new and bigger opportunity. They were heard by Horace Heidt, who was a popular big band leader, and he invited them out to do a few weeks with his band at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. He liked them and said that he’d like to keep them as part of his group, so they spent the next six years working with The Horace Heidt Orchestra. But The King Sisters really weren’t fond of Heidt. They did not like him at all.
Sam: Do you know why they didn’t like him? What was the problem?
Cam: The story goes that Heidt had a crush on my Mom and she was not interested in his advances. The way she tells it in her memoir is that she had cut her hair and now had bangs. Heidt hated it and was angry that she didn’t ask him permission to cut her hair, and he fired her.
Sam: Really? I doubt it was really about her hair at all.
Cam: Obviously not, but he fired her, but did not fire the sisters. So the night before my Mom was going to go back home and no longer travel with the group, she was in the audience and a couple of the guys in the band got up and called to her and said “Hey Alyce, why don’t you sing a song before you go?” She was forbidden to go on stage by Heidt, but she got up anyway and performed “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone.” Well, Heidt was so furious that he almost got violent on the stage, and the sisters and a number of the boys in the band told him if he let Alyce go, they would walk as well.
Sam: That’s such a wonderful testament to how much people loved and respected your Mom, and how all the sisters had each other’s back.
Cam: Yeah, and my Mom was the lead vocalist for the group. She was the voice. And to hear her tell it, she was making more money than the other girls did because she did all the step-outs.
Sam: But if your Mom was the lead vocalist, and she had been fired, what would the sisters have done without her?
Cam: Well, they were always able to call on another sister, so I’m sure that would have been figured out. For example, when Maxine decided she didn’t want to be a singer anymore, they called, Donna, who was still in high school, and said, “We need you.” In her memoir, Donna wrote about how back in the 30’s there was a school that you could attend that was especially for working children. Donna did not want to quit school, and she wanted to graduate and get her diploma. So at age 15, she would get up at the crack of dawn to go to this school with these other working children, who would work at their parents’ grocery store or whoever kids worked back then, and go to school and then afterward would run over to the theatre and put on her gorgeous gowns and her beautiful shoes, and get her hair and makeup done and perform on stage with the sisters. But, in the end, she did get her diploma.
Sam: When did the King Sisters hit big?
Cam: Well, eventually they formed their own band with Alvino Rey, who had become Luise’s husband.
Sam: Was Alvino Rey already established in his career at the time that he met The King Sisters?
Cam: Well, he was established, but he wasn’t a star yet when he married Luise. Everybody knew who he was. He was a musician’s musician, but he wasn’t a headlining musician yet. He was certainly being hired as a musician, and he played with bands, including Horace Heidt. But in 1941 they were appearing at The Rustic Cabin in New Jersey, which they’ve always said was a bit of a dive, and one morning, they got a call from Dinah Shore’s manager, and apparently Dinah had lost her voice. She had absolutely no voice, and she couldn’t even whisper, and they needed someone to take over for her at The Paramount Theatre in New York City. I have no idea how many people he called first, or if he went straight to the sisters, but he said, “We need you down here.” I guess it was close enough that they could literally throw on their clothes and get down there immediately. Well, that was what the sisters considered to be their first big break. But when you’re a star on radio, you don’t really know what your fan base is like until you do the live shows. The first time they played the Hollywood Palladium, all these screaming teenagers rushed the stage when they came out. It was supposed to be a dance concert, but nobody danced. They all just rushed the stage like a mosh pit and all the kids just stood there facing the sisters and watched. After a few songs, they tried to leave, but the stage manager came running back downstairs and said “You got to get back on there girls. They’re not done and they’re not going to leave until you guys come back.”
Sam: How old were you when the King Family’s TV period started?
Cam: When we did the pilot in 1964, I was six years old.
Sam: Do you remember doing it?
Cam: Well, I remember doing the series. I don’t know that I specifically remember doing the pilot, but I do have amazing shards of memories from the theatre where we taped our show.
Sam: I’ve read that there were 49 different family members involved in the series. How did all of those people come together, and what did it take to get everyone on board and keep them all organized?
Cam: Well, The King Sisters were asked to do a benefit concert at Brigham Young University.
Sam: That’s in Utah, isn’t it?
Cam: Yes, that’s in Utah. Well, my Aunt Yvonne just got this idea that wouldn’t it be wacky if we did a show with all the kids instead of just The King Sisters, and the university’s film department just happened to film it, and she took the raw footage to someone she knew at ABC and went, “Hey, I got a show that you just might like,” and that crude footage was basically the pilot. Then it was a matter of, “How soon can we get this on the air?” But, to answer your question about us kids, again, this is how we grew up. We were told we were going to sing with our Moms, and we said “Okay.” It was almost like someone saying “Guys, we’re going to Disneyland,” or “Hey guys, we’re going on a road trip to see Grandma.” It’s kind of just what we did, and nobody blinked at the idea of it. Also, my older cousins and siblings were already in the business because of our parents. They were the “go-to” kids in Hollywood whenever children’s voices were needed for established artists.
Sam: That makes sense because everyone had amazing voices.
Cam: Yeah, but when they were kids, my cousins were the kids’ voices on Frank Sinatra’s “High Hopes,” and they sang the teenager parts of the chorus in “Bye, bye, Birdie,” and they sang with Doris Day and Glen Campbell and The Chipmunks and so on. If someone needed kids, our kids were on it. Donna’s husband, Jim Conkling, who was a huge record producer, would come home for dinner and literally say “Okay, girls, right after school tomorrow you’re needed at the studio for Tex Ritter,” and the girls would say “But, Dad, I’m supposed to go to Susie’s house to do our homework together,” and Uncle Jim would say “Well, you can go over there after you sing with Tex.”
Sam: In regard to The King Cousins, I’ll admit I just love the “Top 20” segments from the original series. I love seeing the different cousins step up, and some of the song selections are really interesting. I mean, seeing The King Cousins sing Bob Dylan is just….
Cam: Isn’t that just frightening?
Sam: Well, it’s definitely unexpected. Did any of the cousins get to choose some of their personal favourites to sing on the show?
Cam: That’s a good question. They might have been able to, but I’ll have to ask one of the older cousins that. What I do know is that my older brother Ric, at age 17, approached one of the producers and said, “You know, our show is so women-heavy, I thought maybe the female fans would like to see a little more boy action.” So, one day he walked in with his guitar and sat down, and one of the producers – I don’t know which one exactly – said, “Come on into my office, Ric, and show me what you got.” Well, Ric played him a couple of songs and that’s how he became the main male soloist.
Sam: Ric did a wonderful version of Randy Newman’s “Just One Smile,” which became the B-side to the first King Cousins single. His version of it predates Gene Pitney’s hit recording of it by about a year.
Cam: It was supposed to be the A-side but, and I don’t know where or how, it became the B-side in favour of Kathy’s “Today I’m in Love.”
Sam: Well, I think “Today I’m in Love” by The King Cousins is possibly one of the best records from the 60’s that never became a hit. I can’t understand why it didn’t go to the top of the charts and hasn’t become a standard of the era. Kathy’s vocals on that are so good, and it has one of the best backup hooks of all time. It’s just such a banger. I absolutely love that song.
Cam: Yeah. It’s a favourite of mine too, and I’ll share this with you. In the early 80’s I submitted a video of myself to Star Search, but I wasn’t chosen for the show. In my video, I did “Today I’m in Love,” but my version of it was like if someone from the British new wave invasion had done it.
Sam: The 45 rpm of that record is very difficult to find, and when copies of it come up on Discogs, it isn’t cheap. It’s the top single on my “want list,” but I’ve yet to find myself a copy.
Cam: Now speaking of lost things, in 1969, when we had our second TV series, The King Family recorded an album for Capital that had some really cool arrangements which never got released. It had Ric and Liza singing “If I Were a Carpenter,” and The Family doing “MacArthur Park,” and Alvino doing “Classical Gas.”
Sam: Oh, man. That sounds really interesting. Wow.
Cam: A girl who was a school chum of mine is married to a man who is a huge producer, and he looked into it for me, and it still exists at Capital. It hasn’t been tossed in the incinerator. He told me that he said that he was representing the family of the people who did the recordings, and someone said “I do see it in our records. Apparently, it’s in Pittsburgh,” but that’s as far as we got with that. I just don’t know anybody powerful enough to be able to just walk over to the end of the hall, go into vault C and pull these recordings out. How’s that for random? If any of your readers are big, powerful record executives who can help with this, please call me.
Sam: Do you have any idea why this album never got released?
Cam: I’m too young to know, and I didn’t even know it existed until long afterwards. You know, we pursue things depending on how old we are at the time and where our life is taking us. I mean, I remember them recording it, but I don’t even recall if any of the children were on it. I’ve always known there was this record that was never released, but when I was in my 20s, I didn’t really care. It’s terrible to say, but it was not on my radar. It wasn’t probably until I was in my 40s that I went looking for it, which is when I think nostalgia hits a lot of people’s brains.
Sam: Considering how much exposure they had on television, I am surprised that The Four King Cousins only had one album released in North America. They only released Introducing…The Four King Cousins in 1968, and that was it.
Cam: Yeah, they did a lot of TV. The girls would do Carson, and they did Barbara McNair and Andy Williams, but their album didn’t do any business. I was a child, so I don’t know why it didn’t get any airplay. Maybe it was management. I don’t know. I always thought that the girls sounded a lot like Abba. The girls would have kicked ass on some of those songs. I listen to “Waterloo,” and I swear it’s my girls.
Sam: Introducing…The Four King Cousins is another difficult album to find, with a higher price on it. I paid a lot for my copy when I had mine shipped from Seattle to Canada at a fairly high cost.
Cam: Now, you know that Alvino Rey was a popular jazz musician, but did you know he also recorded under the name Ira Ironstrings and did all this goofy novelty stuff and parodies? It was really interesting!
Sam: What? I’ve never heard about any of this.
Cam: Yeah. You need to look into Ira Ironstrings.
Sam: Now, there is a clip online of you and your Mom singing “Just in Time.” It’s pretty special because your father introduced it. In the video description, it says it was the only time that you two sang together on film.
Cam: Yes, but I think that the song we should have sung was a song from Mame called “My Best Girl.” It’s the song the nephew sings with Mame. It’s a gorgeous song, and as a grown up I would sing it with my Mom whenever we were singing at some party or a church or event. I also got to sing it to The Four King Cousins when they did their revival concert dates a few years back. They had me come up on stage, and I sang that. On the same episode that I sang “Just in Time” with my Mom, I also sang with my brothers and Mom for the only time. We sang, “Daddy Sang Bass.”
Sam: By Johnny Cash and the Carter Family.
Cam: Yeah, Very good, Circle gets the square.
Sam: Now The King Family eventually disappeared from television in the 70’s.
Cam: Yeah. The last special we did was in 1974.
Sam: Why did that happen?
Cam: Who can really say why someone is famous and then they are not, while someone else goes on until they’re in the grave?
Sam: Well, many members of your family stayed in the entertainment industry, in one way or another, be it behind the scenes or otherwise. A prime example is that Arcade Fire, who have been incredibly successful, are part of the King Family lineage. Explain where they fit into the family legacy!
Cam: Will and Win Butler are the grandchildren of Alvino Rey and Luise King. Will wrote a wonderful piece in the book as a tribute to his grandfather. Alvino’s death was part of the inspiration for their debut album, Funeral, which was a huge success for them. A lot of people might not realize their connection to The King Family unless they were doing a deep dive into the band.
Sam: But that just shows that the family musical legacy keeps continuing right into the current generation of kids.
Cam: Yes. Another one of the current generation of kids that has had a great success is my niece, Rachel Coleman. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her show Signing Time, which is a children’s show about sign language. She also wrote and sang all the songs on the show, and she had quite the following herself as a singer.
Sam: Out of all the stories in the book, which is your personal favourite?
Cam: When we were on our way to perform that first big show in Salt Lake City, which was used as the pilot for our TV series, we took the train because my Mom hated flying. I’m so glad she had a fear of flying because most people my age don’t even have overnight train stories of having a cabin and dining cars with linen tablecloths and all that. Anyway, we were sitting in the back car, and my Mom was telling me stories about how during the depression my Grandfather couldn’t pay rent on the house, so in the middle of the night they packed up their stuff and, as she said it “We snuck off just like thieves In the night.” Well, I’m six years old going, “No, you were thieves in the night.” Well, my Mom continued to tell me how fun my Grandfather was, and that once the family went camping and they stayed out all summer, and Grandpa made little furniture out of fallen logs, and they planted vegetables, and even brought a cow with them. Again, I’m six years old, and I’m thinking that it must have been a really long camping trip. Well, at our first big family reunion in the 1980’s, which we had after we all hadn’t been together in a while, a bunch of us were sitting around and all the King Sisters were all together in this circle, and my Mom shares this wonderful story about how they all went camping that one summer and how grandpa brought the cow. Well, my Aunt Maxine sits up and goes, “Alyce, we were not camping. We were homeless.” Everybody started just laughing as my mom, nearly 70 years old, twisted her face up as if something did not compute. Mom was probably seven or eight, and Maxine would have been thirteen. It just encapsulates so much of how their father would try to keep the fires burning and tried to shield his family from what was really going on during the Depression.
Sam: On television the producers of The King Family Show really made it seem like the family was a really tight-knit group, but I know that time, distance, and other factors can really change dynamics within a family. How close is The King Family today? Do you all stay in touch?
Cam: Well, I mean, some people are a little bit further away than others. But, as for the core performing troupe, I say we are basically in contact. I’m mainly in contact with the ones that are my age – Suzanna, Laurette and Adam, as well as Tina and Cathy and Jamie and Xan. We all have a constant thread of messages on our phones. But a part of that connection is that we have a shared experience that most people wouldn’t understand. I was just doing a Comic Con in Detroit, and I had to get from the “green room” out to the convention floor and to get there I had to go through the kitchen. As I entered the kitchen I just got hit with this wave of nostalgia, because in so many of the nightclubs and casinos that our mothers sang in, the kitchen was how we’d get to the stage. So, I took a video, and you hear my footsteps as I walk through the kitchen, past the giant ovens and stoves and refrigerators and all the staff are grabbing this tray and that tray. At the end of the video, as I open the door to go to the convention floor, I simply say “Does this remind anybody of anything?” I sent it out to my cousins and immediately the texts started flying in and all saying the same thing – The Sahara in Vegas! It is things like this that very few people share in their childhood memories. A tour of a hotel kitchen can remind us of a sort of memory that others reserve for “the best Christmas ever.” Who would have thought that walking through a hotel kitchen would spark warm fuzzies? Shared experiences like that uniquely tie our family all together.
I just loved talking to Cam Clarke, and with all the different pop culture rabbit holes that we ran through together, I could have talked to him for hours. A truly delightful man, his unique perspective of the entertainment industry through his family legacy is a gift of its own. Now There All Here: The King Family is currently on sale via both Rare Birds Books and via Amazon.
