Helen Morgan

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Helen Morgan (1935), portrait by Carl Van Vechten

Helen Morgan , née Helen Riggins (born August 2, 1900 in Danville , Illinois , † October 9, 1941 in Chicago , Illinois) was an American jazz singer and actress.

life and career

There are different versions of Helen Morgan's childhood and adolescence. Most biographical sources refer to August 2, 1900 as her date of birth, but Gilbert Maxwell gave October as the month of birth in the biography Helen Morgan: Her Life and Legend . She was also born in Toronto, Canada. In both versions there is also different information about mother and father. According to the usual version, Helen Morgan grew up as the daughter of a farmer and a teacher in rural Illinois. After her mother's divorce, she took the surname Morgan. According to Maxwell's version, she grew up the daughter of the waitress Lulu Morgan. This was abandoned by her father, a firefighter named Thomas Morgan. The couple got back together in 1904 and moved to Danville, Illinois, where the father left the family.

Then both versions agree again. Helen Morgan moved to Chicago with her mother and attended Crane High School, which she left early. She kept her head above water with small jobs until she began her career as a singer in the late 1910s. She celebrated success as a Torch Song singer in the speakeasies . During the prohibition she appeared regularly in big clubs like the Green Mill or Rose's Backstage Club. She also competed in beauty pageants and was voted Miss Illinois and Miss Mount Royal at the Montreal Winter Sports Festival in 1918. With the prize money, at least 1,500 US dollars, she financed her education at the Metropolitan Opera School in New York City.

She played her first major musical role in the musical Sally , although it is unclear whether she played in the performance on Broadway or on the tour. Otherwise she continued to perform in nightclubs. Her breakthrough came with an appearance at Billy Rose's Backstage Club in New York City. There she often performed on a piano due to the tightness of the space, which would later become her trademark. There she was discovered by George White, who hired her for a number of Boadway revues. This began in 1925 with Scandal , with which she made 169 appearances. Americana followed in 1926 , where she sang the song Nobody Wants Me . With this revue she had 224 appearances.

In 1927 she had her final breakthrough in the original version of the Broadway musical Show Boat , in which she took on the role of Julie LaVerne. During the next eleven years she played and sang this role in various stage and film versions of the play, but in the first film adaptation her part was taken over by Alma Rubens . Her actual recording career began at the same time. She recorded for Brunswick Records and RCA Victor , including the songs Can't Help Lovin 'Dat Man and Bill , which were among the best-known hits of the era. In 1927 she founded the Chez Morgan nightclub , where she was arrested several times for violating prohibition laws. She then refrained from appearing in nightclubs until the end of Prohibition. From 1931 Morgan also appeared in the show Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic , in which she the hit Who Cares What You Have Been? and Mean to Me sang, both great hits in the pre-chart era.

In addition to the numerous film versions of Show Boat , she began her film career as a third pillar. In 1929 and 1930 she directed the films Applaus , Glorifying the American Girl and Roadhouse Nights for Paramount Pictures . Morgan also sang the main roles in the musical Sweet Adeline , but the film cast Irene Dunne for the role Morgan played with in Show Boat . During the Great Depression , ticket sales for the Broadway shows collapsed, so Morgan tried her hand as a singer for the radio, where she was instrumental in making songs such as the George and Ira Gershwin composition The Man I Love and Body and Soul out Three's a Crwod became popular. In 1932, Here Comes the Showboat was one of the first musical albums, before the music album even became a significant medium. The album was a recording of a Broadway show with Paul Robeson as the second leading role and was released on four gramophone records.

From 1932 to 1934 she continued to appear on the radio, including The Linit Bath Club Revue and Broadway Melodies , both for the broadcaster CBS . In 1933 she married the lawyer Maurice Maschke Jr., but the marriage only lasted three years. With the end of Prohibition, she began performing again in nightclubs. Between 1930 and 1940 she continued to work for theater, film and radio. During this time, she was repeatedly noticed by scandals because of her alcohol consumption. In 1934 this cost her her role in the play Memory in Los Angeles . In 1936 she had her greatest success: the lead role in the 1936 film version of Showboat .

As a result of longstanding alcoholism , Morgan received clinical treatment after a breakdown in 1940 but recovered and started a comeback. On July 27, 1941, she married the car salesman Lloyd Johnson in Miami Beach . However, in 1941 she collapsed again on stage during the performance of George White's Scandals of 1942 . She was operated on, but did not recover. Helen Morgan died of cirrhosis on October 9, 1941 .

Her life was filmed twice in 1957. Both versions are titled The Helen Morgan Story . One was a television production, while the more popular film version (Eng .: A life in intoxication ) with Ann Blyth in the lead role and Paul Newman as Morgan's manager Larry Maddux managed. Their musical legacy is marketed today by Sony Music , who owns the rights to the CBS productions, and RCA Victor.

In 1974 Gilbert Maxwell published the aforementioned biography Helen Morgan: Her Life and Legend .

Stage roles

  • 1923: Sally
  • 1925-1926: Scandals
  • 1926: Americana
  • 1927: American Grand Guignol
  • 1927-1929: Show Boat
  • 1929-1931: Sweet Adeline
  • 1931: Ziegfeld Follies
  • 1932-1933: Show Boat
  • 1934: Memory
  • 1939: A Night at the Moulin Rouge
  • 1940: Show Boat

Filmography

  • 1923: The Heart Raider
  • 1923: Six Cylinder Love
  • 1929: Show Boat
  • 1929: applause (applause)
  • 1929: Glorifying the American Girl
  • 1930: Roadhouse Nights
  • 1931: The Gigolo Racket (short film)
  • 1933: Manhattan Lullaby (short film)
  • 1934: You Belong to Me
  • 1934: Marie Galante
  • 1934: The Doctor (short film)
  • 1935: Go Into Your Dance
  • 1935: Sweet Music
  • 1936: Frankie and Johnnie
  • 1936: Show Boat

Discography (selection)

Songs
  • 1926: Nobody Wants Me
  • 1926: Do, Do, Do
  • 1927: A Tree in the Park
  • 1927: Just Like a Butterfly
  • 1927: Lazy Weather
  • 1927: Maybe (with Chick Endor)
  • 1927: Me and My Shadow
  • 1927: Possibly
  • 1927: When I Discover My Man
  • 1927: You Remind Me of a Naughty Springtime Cuckoo
  • 1928: The Man I Love
  • 1928: Who Cares What You have Been
  • 1929: Bill
  • 1929: Something to Remember You By
  • 1929: More Than You Know (also 1941)
  • 1929: Can't Help Lovin 'Dat Man (from Show Boat )
  • 1929: Mean to Me
  • 1930: Don't Ever Leave Me
  • 1930: Body and Soul
  • 1930: Something to Remember You By
  • 1930: What Wouldn't I Do for That Man
  • 1930: Why I Was Born
  • 1934: Give Me a Heart to Sing
  • 1934: I've Got Sand in My Shoes
  • 1934: It's Home
  • 1934: The Little Things You Used to Do
  • 1934: Song of a Dreamer
  • 1934: When He Comes Home to Me
  • 1935: Frankie and Johnny
  • 1935: I See Two Lovers
  • 1935: I Was Taken by Storm
  • 1936: Winter Overnight
Soundtracks and compilations
  • 1932: Here Comes The Showboat (with, among others, Paul Robeson , Soundtrack, Columbia Records )
  • 1969: Rare Originals by Two Legendary Pioneers of Theater and Tin Pan Alley (with Fanny Brice , RCA Victor )
  • 1972: Fanny Brice / Helen Morgan (RCA Victor)
  • 1998: The Glory of Helen Morgan (MCI)
  • 2005: Torch Singer (Sony Music)
  • unknown: Helen Morgan Sings the Songs She Made Famous (Audio Rarities)

literature

  • Gilbert Maxwell: Helen Morgan: Her Life and Legend . New York: Hawthorn Books 1974. ISBN 0-8015-4526-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Helen Morgan: Biography by William Ruhlmann at Allmusic (English). Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  2. ↑ Helen Morgan. American actress and singer. Encyclopaedia Britannica , accessed May 18, 2017 .
  3. ↑ The Helen Morgan Story in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  4. ↑ Helen Morgan. Masterworks Bbroadway, accessed May 18, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Helen Morgan Collection 1927-1935 (COMPLETE). Archive.org , accessed May 17, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Morgan, Helen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riggins, Helen (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd August 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Danville , Illinois, United States
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1941
Place of death Chicago , Illinois, United States