Rebecca Heal won the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour at the age of seven and claims it’s been downhill ever since. Her fans might disagree. Nearing the end of her third decade as a member of the now legendary “Saliva Sisters,” she and her two partners in crime have accumulated an adoring and loyal, if somewhat deranged, following.
Delighted audiences regularly roar their approval of the twisted sisters’ renditions of such spicy standbys as “You Love the Wind Beneath my Skirt,” “I Peed My Pants at Costco” and “I Do Adore the Bidet.” They’ve emerged singing from jumbo-sized birthday cakes, garbage cans, flatbed trucks, limos and helicopters, and have been the featured attraction at surprise weddings and bull castrations. For Heal, it’s been a wild ride so far.
Heal was born in Chicago and moved with her family to St. George, Utah, when she was a toddler. Her singing career began at age seven when she and her older sister were catapulted from childhood anonymity to relative fame in the span of a few months.
“My mother decided to enter us in a local Kiwanis Club talent show,” Heal explains. “She grabbed me and my older sister off our tricycles, took us into the house and taught us a Harry Belafonte calypso tune. We sang it at the contest and won. We kept winning contests in the St. George and Cedar City area and ended up winning the Eugene Jelesnik Talent Showcase, a Salt Lake television talent show back then.”
The family moved to Salt Lake City a few months later and the diminutive singing duo, dubbed the Terry Sisters, were put under contract with Jelesnik. “He and his wife were the most exotic human beings I had ever seen,” recalls Heal. “Virginia, who we nicknamed Mugsie, wore platform shoes and a mink stole with the heads still attached!”
She met Ted Mack when the legendary talent scout and television host came to Utah to judge the Midvale Harvest Days talent show. “We won the contest and he invited us on his show, which was broadcast from New York City. It all happened so fast.”
Winning the naturally broadcasted show meant future commitments. But their parents didn’t think the girls would win, so they promised to take them to Disneyland afterward. Heal recalls her disappointment. “When we won and Mr. Mack called us up on stage, I started crying and he asked me why. I said, ‘I don’t get to go to Disneyland now,’ and everyone laughed.”
Returning home, the Terry Sisters continued performing in the Salt Lake area throughout their school years. They became regulars on the church dinner circuit and traveled overseas on USO tours.
“We went on a 19-week USO tour to southeast Asia when I was a senior in high school,” says Heal. “I got mononucleosis and spent two week in a hospital in Japan. That’s where I learned to wear wigs and multiple pairs of fake eyelashes. It came in handy later in my career,” she deadpans.
Heal graduated from Murray High School in Salt Lake and attended the University of Utah. Her pursuit of a degree in nursing was cut short when the lure of the stage lights beckoned once again. “In college, I went on another USO tour with a singing group called The Sunshine Delegation gag me with a spoon,” she jokes.
“After that tour I joined a new group that was forming called Westwood. It included singers from The Young Americans, The Kids Next Door and The Doodletown Pipers, all pretty famous groups in the ’60s. We toured all over the country for three years. That’s pretty much how I spent the tumultuous late ’60s and early ’70s, deluding older people about the wholesomeness of the young.”
When Heal returned home to resume her studies at the university, she joined Sound Column, a
popular regional band at the time and, later, the long-lived Joe Muscolino Band. “While I was in Joe’s band I heard of a group that made my mouth water called The Saliva Sisters,” Heal recounts with her tongue pressed firmly against her cheek. “They were fellow ‘chick-singers’ who sang one song, one time, wore garbage bags and were instantly famous.”
“I was invited to replace one of the original sisters who revealed to me that she wanted to retire because the other sisters were ‘unfocused and only talked about their outfits.’ I thought, wow, sounds like my kind of group.”
Heal happily joined the group, which was soon “discovered” during a performance with Muscolino’s band at the Park City Arts Festival. “Joe Redburn, the owner of The Sun Bar in Salt Lake City, heard us and invited us to sing at his place,” Heal says. The sisters were a huge hit and held court at the popular watering hole for years. The long-running appearances ended only when the bar was flattened by a freak tornado in the late 1990s.
Through the years, Heal managed to squeeze in several “day jobs” and two husbands. She has two sons, Dylan and Baxter. Dylan, a Stanford graduate, is currently pursuing his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Utah, while Baxter currently bears the enigmatic moniker, “Derek the Deranged.”
Heal has enjoyed a rich and rewarding career in public relations, promotion and development. She’s worked for Ballet West, KUER Radio and the Salt Lake City Public Library. Since 1996, she’s been the development and public relations director for Utah Youth Village, a nonprofit organization that provided residential treatment for children in foster care who are overcoming the tragic effects of abuse and neglect. The work is dear to her heart. “We help kids that are really hurting,” she shares. It’s a great organization, very stable and nurturing, which is just what these kids need.”
Heal moved to Park City two years ago. She’s engaged to long-time Parkite and ski patroller John Carlquist “I love it here,” says Heal. It’s beautiful and there’s so much to do. I think my fiancé and I are the only two Utah natives on the block. Where can you go to get that kind of diversity? Magna?”
She’s an avid runner and skier. She’s run the Salt Lake Marathon and has been training for the half-marathon. “I was going to run the Salt Lake half marathon this weekend, but decided to ski closing day at Alta with my son instead,” she confesses.
“I run and lift weights and practice yoga and ski and hike and hurt most of the time,” she groans. “I don’t know why I do this, except my good cholesterol can beat your good cholesterol.”
Through it all, The Saliva Sisters have remained her touchstone. “I’m the oldest and the bossiest sister,” Heal reveals. “I do most of the talking and they still pretty much ignore me. They’re too busy talking about their outfits.”
The Saliva Sisters continue to perform regularly, although Heal says they only rehearse on the phone these days. She readily admits there’s more spit than polish to the Saliva Sisters these days. Still, long-time fans and the newly exposed marvel at the quirky group’s saucy repertoire and snap up their CDs like hotcakes. “Our first CD, ‘Spit Happens,’ has easily sold more than a dozen copies,” she boasts.
“We’ve always told ourselves that we wouldn’t quit, even when we’re reduced to doing a walker medley, Well, we’re doing a walker medley now and we’re not quitting! Makes a girl tired just to think about it.”
VITAL STATISTICS
Favorite foods: Middle Eastern, sushi, Northern Italian and grilled-cheese sandwiches
Favorite things to do: Run, ski, throw neighborhood parties
Favorite music: “I like the old stuff. I listen to the same music I was listening to before I got wrinkled.”
Animal companions: “I have an obnoxious Jack Russell terrier named Jackie. She’s the reason my neighbors ignore me.”
Pet Park City peeve: “Why isn’t there some form of public mass transit between Park City and Salt Lake?”