Betty Bradley

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Betty Bradley (* 1920 in New York City , † 1989 ibid) was an American singer who attracted attention in the swing era of the 1940s. During the years of collaboration with Bob Chester and his orchestra, she celebrated her greatest successes. Thanks to the biography of sociologist Donna Gaines, the following details from the life of her mother became known.

Career

The starting point of Betty Bradley's career in 1932 was the appearance in Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour, a talent factory from which stars like Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire emerged . She had her first professional appearance in 1939 with Gray Gordon and His TicToc Orchestra. However, the contract did not last long. After she made faces at performances, she was fired without further ado. In any case, she found his music too sappy for her taste and in the same year switched to Bob Chester's orchestra , which was more in line with her jazz and swing ambitions. In the next few years she was constantly on tour, appeared in nightclubs and dance halls such as the New York Latin Quarter, the Chicago Theater and the Earle in Philadelphia, and received positive reviews in the relevant magazines such as the Billboard . In addition to numerous radio appearances, for example on the radio shows by Rudy Vallee , she also made smaller trips to the film business.

After around 12 years, she ended her career as a professional singer - to the chagrin of her sponsor Milton Berle - at a point in time when the career leap into the television landscape was within reach. Working with the comedian and show all-rounder, she had shown in joint appearances that her qualities went well beyond the already remarkable vocal performance. According to her daughter Donna Gaines, she might have become as famous as Rosemary Clooney or even Doris Day. After retiring from public life, she reappeared on a Joe Franklin TV show in the 1990s.

Private

In 1949 Betty Bradley married Herbert Denmark, whom she had known as a teenager. This second marriage was preceded by a briefly divorced relationship that she entered into in 1946 with an unknown Bob Chester roadie. Happiness did not last long, because in 1951 her husband died in the same hospital, with their daughter Donna Gaines being born just a month earlier. Betty Bradley then married twice, but lost the man of her life in Herbert Denmark. In 1954 she married Arthur Gaines, who died ten years later. With the musician Murray 'Dom' Gottesman she found new happiness in her third marriage from 1965. He caringly accompanied her until her death. In the 1970s, Betty Bradley developed breast cancer, initially survived the disease and in the following years was very committed to women who suffered from the stigma of breast cancer. Cancer returned in the late 1980s. She succumbed to the disease in New York in 1989.

For the sake of her marriage to Herbert Denmark, Betty Bradley ended her career as a professional singer in 1951. But she never gave up singing. She sang in private, at charity events, and on her last day too.

Film and discography

Movies

  • 1940: The foreign correspondent
  • 1944: Trocadero
  • 1945: The Moon of Mona Koora

Records (selection)

  • 1939: Why Don't You Try Your Love On Me (Victor 26253-B)
  • 1941: Clap Your Hands On the After Beat (Bluebird B-11172-A)
  • 1941: Feed The Kitty (Bluebird B-11100-B)
  • 1941: My Ship (Bluebird B-11043-A)
  • 1941: This Love Of Mine (Bluebird B-11316-B)
  • 1941: Winter Weather (Bluebird B-11405-A)
  • 1941: There Goes That Song Again (Bluebird B-11227-B)
  • 1942: (Nobody Knows Better Than I) He's My Guy (Bluebird B-11562-A)
  • 1942: Who Do You Think You Are (Standard T-2048-B)
  • 1944: Together (Hit 7089)
  • 1944: Where You Are (Hit 7089)
  • 1945: Summertime (Jewel J-1002)
  • 1946: Welcome To My Dreams / The Gypsy (Jewel J-1003)
  • 1947: Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie (RCA Victor 20-2629-A)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donna Gaines: A Misfit's Manifesto. the spiritual journey of a rock & roll heart. 1st edition. Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 0-679-46327-5 , pp. 4, 271 .
  2. ↑ Donna Gaines: A Misfit's Manifesto: the spiritual journey of a rock and roll heart. 1st edition. Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 0-679-46327-5 .
  3. ^ Billboard dated Sept. 4, 1948 about an appearance on August 24, 1948 in the Latin Quarter , New York: "Betty Bradley shows a competent pair of pipes in her spot with a couple of novelties." (P. 39)
  4. ↑ Billboard of September 8, 1945: (...) "Betty Bradley does a smash singing job on 'Coctails for the Lady-Oo-La-La-La for the Man'." (P. 32)
  5. ^ Jeanette M. Berard and Klaudia Englund: Radio Series Scripts, 1930-2001: A Catalog of the American Radio Archives Collection. S. 296 (Bradley participated in shows on 10/25/45, 12/6/45, 12/13/45 and 12/20/45).
  6. ↑ Donna Gaines: A Misfit's Manifesto: the spiritual journey of a rock and roll heart. 1st edition. Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 0-679-46327-5 , pp. 18 .
personal data
SURNAME Bradley, Betty
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH 1989
Place of death New York City