Toni Harper - Toni (2004)

Toni Harper's childhood was made of the magic any aspiring adult artist would kill for: a platinum record, a performance at Carnegie Hall, evenings spent sharing a stage with such performers as Cab Calloway, and invitations to appear on television with Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Milton Berle, and Ed Sullivan. And all of the magic unfolded before she'd turned 12 years old.

The jazz vocalist, who now goes by the name Toni Dunlap, got her big break in 1945 when she went up against a couple hundred other kids at an audition held by choreographer Nick Castle. Harper, who had been a dance student of Maceo Anderson, passed muster as far as her dancing, but when she sang "Waitin' for the Train to Come In," she had the audition sewn up on the spot. Castle cast her in his production of Christmas Follies, which was staged at Los Angeles' Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Harper drew enthusiastic reviews and went on to earn a platinum record when she was eight years old with "Candy Store Blues." ~Linda Seida