Life, Love, and Key West
Camille Toler – “Life, Love and Key West”
Camille Toler performing in Life, Love, and Key West
Camille Russo Toler comes from a very big Italian family and grew up on the Upper West Side of New York. Later, they moved to Richmond Hill neighborhood in Queens where she graduated from Richmond Hills High School. While Camille never had a voice lesson or studied music, her life revolved around music when she was a teenager. Mega bands were always performing in or near New York City and she would attend a concert every chance she could.
Denis Hyland, and Camille Toler perform in Life, Love, and Key West
She and several of her teenage friends would ‘hang out’ together. One friend’s family had a home upstate New York in New Paltz. The group decided to drive up for the weekend to have some fun. After arriving in New Paltz they heard there was a big concert nearby in place called Woodstock and someone said “We should go”. The next thing they knew, their car was tied up in a mile long traffic jam. They parked along the street and walked over a mile. They had a tent. The weekend of music was amazing. She doesn’t remember how she got home but It was a very cool weekend.
Camille performing with the Paradise Big Band
One of Camille’s girlfriends had a friend that had a band. Camille auditioned and was hired. This quickly led to other vocal opportunities. Between 1972-1975, she was a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club. (Author’s note: Camille received an invitation to the Playboy Bunny International Reunion in Orlando, Florida in 2022.)
She left New York, moving to Venice, California with a friend. Later, she moved to Las Vegas and met a guy who she was attracted to. He was an architect and lived in Indiana. In late 1977, he got an architectural job in Key West. Camille traveled with him and stayed at the hotel while he worked. She wandered around the hotel and town, meeting several new friends and fell in love with Key West. They returned to Indiana but it never worked after that and they broke up. Camille returned to Key West in mid-1978. The architect later moved to Hawaii and asked Camille to visit, hopefully to rekindle their relationship but it didn’t work. Camille’s heart was in Key West.
Camille performed around town singing with a number of groups. Vicki Roush tipped Camille about an open audition for the play The Threepenny Opera. She was hired for the female lead Polly Peachum and performed at the new Tennessee Williams Theater. This was the start of her career performing in theatrical plays. In 1983, Camille also had a lead role in Rae Coates’ Key West production of Hair. Camille sang the opening and signature song “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” while being lowered 30 feet down to the stage with Penny Leto and another angel.
Sunshine Smith and husband B.J. Martin owned the Key West Theater on Duval Street. Camille became good friends with them and often attended parties or dinners at their home in the 70s. Sunshine developed the famous movie, “The Key West Picture Show” and Camille is featured in a brief part.
In the late 70s and early 80s, Camille performed with Din and Woody Allen of the Survivors and others at Havana Docks. She met Shel Silverstein while walking near his home one day. He had heard her sing before and asked if she would help record some of his new songs. She recorded about ten of Shel’s demo songs. Around the same time, Camille met musician Tom Toler. They fell in love and were married. They performed together at Sloppy Joe’s and many other venues. Her daughter Erica was born in 1985 and son Chris was born in 1987.
Tom was from Colorado and wanted to return home so Camille reluctantly moved in 1996. They lived down valley from Aspen, Colorado. She got a job selling advertising for KSPN, a radio station in Aspen. She would do lyrical jingles to help sell advertising. Jimmy Buffett was scheduled to perform in Denver in 1997. Camille called her Key West friend, Sunshine Smith and asked if she could get an interview with Buffett. Sunshine called Buffett’s manager and they setup an interview with Jimmy Buffett and sent two tickets to the show for a promo prize. That interview increased Camille’s stock with KSPN. Camille returned to Key West in 2006.
Camille Toler is currently co-starring with Denis Hyland in his new musical production, “Life, Love, and Key West” at the Little Room Jazz Club. The performance features some great music with an outstanding four-piece band, four very cool video cameos, and colorful choreography. Opening night sold out and three sold out shows have followed. It’s a very entertaining play, well scripted with selected songs from the 40s through the 70s including a 1914 Irving Berlin song about a conversation the Devil had with his son, “Stay Down Here Were You Belong.” The last two performances will be Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15. Don’t miss it.
Tickets available at https://keystix.com/littleroomjazzclub.
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