OPEN POST: Hooray! It's Monday Music At The Manor With Teresa Graves!

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Aren't you lucky! Tonight at Peckerwood's "Meat Whistle" after-hours club, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing Teresa Graves. Who, you may ask, is Miss Teresa? Before we get to that, watch her performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1971. And brace yourself. It's a wowza. 

Phew! Can you believe? If you're an old, you may recognize Teresa from "Get Christie Love," a groundbreaking 1974 TV series in which she played the namesake undercover agent. Teresa was only the second Black female actor to lead a series - and the first to star in a one-hour series - and though the show lasted just one season, that was enough to burn her image into the nation's consciousness. 

The show was hoping to ride the wave of sassy, sexy Pam Grier movies, like "Coffy" and "Cleopatra Jones," but it was perhaps too hot a potato for many, including TV critics, who regarded the show's premise of a Black female undercover agent as "preposterous," while others labeled the show "raunchy," though her character never once disrobed or wore sexy clothes. Draw your own conclusions. 

But there was so much more to Teresa, a multi-talented performer who was, as you saw on "Ed Sullivan," a powerhouse vocalist. She was only able to record one LP, "Teresa Graves," a soul album (Side 1) (Side 2) that barely hints at her talents, though it's still a winner. At the time, bills needed to be paid, and since singing - incredibly - wasn't bringing in the moolah, she mostly leaned into acting. In addition to being a regular "Mod Bikini Girl" on "Laugh In," she guest-starred on a number of variety shows and later co-starred with David Niven in the 1974 horror comedy, "Vampira." 

Unfortunately, as least far as showbiz was concerned, she became her own worst enemy. She discovered religion, became a Jehovah's Witness, and thereafter refused to do anything that might "conflict with biblical scripture." Unsubstantiated stories claim that this was the real reason "Get Christy Love" lasted only one season, since she started balking at the "sexy" clothes and violent circumstances her detective character found herself in.  

Whatever the truth is - it's probably somewhere in the middle, and the show had poor ratings from the start - I choose to remember Teresa in all her jaw-dropping glory on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Watching it, I'm reminded what real talent and star power are. 


Photo Credits: ABC TV; Getty Images

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