Tony Martin (pop singer)

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Tony Martin (actually Alvin Morris ; born December 25, 1913 in Oakland , California - † July 27, 2012 in West Los Angeles , California) was an American actor and singer , who between 1935 and 1960 had great success, especially as a singer in Film musicals celebrated.

resume

Alvin Morris was born in 1913 to a Portuguese-Jewish family in California. At the age of 10 he received a soprano saxophone from his grandmother . He played this instrument in the school orchestra and sang as a boy soprano . In high school , he formed the jazz band The Red Peppers . But soon afterwards he joined an orchestra led by Tom Guran (among the members were later greats like Woody Herman and Ginny Simms ). He played regularly at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and performed at the 1933 World's Fairin Chicago. In 1934, Morris left the band and went to Hollywood to try his luck at film. To do this, he took the stage name Tony Martin.

He got his first job there on the radio; he appeared on the radio shows of George Burns and Gracie Allen , among others . At first he was only seen in smaller roles in the cinema. B. 1936 as a sailor in Follow the Fleet with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the leading roles. Martin worked for the film studios 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , which gave him lead roles in a number of film musicals in the late 1930s. He sang and played alongside Hollywood stars like Judy Garland and Betty Grable ( Pigskin Parade ), Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea ( Banjo On My Knee ), Rita Hayworth ( Music in My Heart ), Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner ( Ziegfeld Girl ) and the Marx Brothers ( The Big Store ).

Between 1938 and 1942 he also recorded several records on the Decca Records label , mostly with songs from his films. His song The Tenement Symphony from the Marx Brothers comedy The Big Store from 1941 was felt to be an involuntarily comical highlight of the film. Even if it didn't bring him any commercial success at first, it developed into a kind of "signature tune" for Martin. Wherever he later appeared, he had to play this piece.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Martin joined the United States Navy . Because of rumors, which have never been proven, that he took bribes from an officer, he joined the Army Air Force, the predecessor of the United States Air Force . Despite his best performance, the rumors damaged his reputation here too. Even the big record companies refused to give him a contract. So he ended up with Mercury Records , then a small independent label .

Between 1946 and 1947 he made five records for Mercury, including To Each His Own in 1946 , which became a million seller. RCA Records , which signed him in 1947, showed interest again. Martin's greatest success was in 1949 There's No Tomorrow , a cover of the Neapolitan folk song "O sole mio", which is also based on Elvis Presley's It's Now or Never . In the 1940s and 1950s, Martin appeared in a number of other music films. His duet with Joan Weldon , Lover, Come Back to Me , from the 1954 film Deep in My Heart - music by Sigmund Romberg , in the leading role of José Ferrer - is considered a highlight in Hollywood musical history.

Due to his popularity, he received an offer for his own TV format in 1954. Until 1956 he hosted the "Tony Martin Show".

In 1937 Martin married the actress Alice Faye ; the marriage was divorced in 1941. From 1948 until her death in 2008 he was married to the actress Cyd Charisse , who kept her last name from her first marriage. The couple had a son, Tony Martin Jr. (1949-2011), who was married to the Norwegian model ("Playmate of the year" 1972 in the USA), the actress Liv Lindeland-Martin . In addition, Charisse had brought her son Nicholas (* 1942, called Nicky) from her first marriage to the choreographer Nico Charisse into the family.

Together with his wife, Martin was in the films "Easy To Love" and "Meet Me In Las Vegas". The couple went on their honeymoon in 1948 to London , where both spouses have been drawn to work since then. In 1986 Charisse played the role of Lady Hadwell in the stage musical "Charlie Girl" at the Victoria Palace Theater, Martin had regular engagements at the London Palladium in the 1950s and appeared repeatedly at the Café Royal in the 1990s.

music

Successful titles from Tony Martin were:

  • Now It Can Be Told (1939)
  • South of the Border (1939)
  • The Tenement Symphony (1941)
  • Tonight We Love (1941) - # 5
  • To Each His Own (1946) - # 4
  • Rumors Are Flying (1946) - # 9
  • For Every Man There's a Woman (1948) - # 30
  • There's No Tomorrow (1949) - # 2
  • I Said My Pajamas (and Put on My Prayers) (1949) (Duet with Fran Warren ) - # 5
  • Take a Letter, Miss Smith (1949) (duet with Fran Warren)
  • Domino (1951) - # 10
  • I Get Ideas (1951) (adaptation of the Argentine tango "Adios Muchachos")
  • I Hear a Rhapsody (1952)
  • Here (1953)
  • Walk Hand in Hand (1956)

Filmography

  • 1936: Navy Against Lovesickness ( Follow the Fleet )
  • 1936: The Farmer in the Dell
  • 1936: Murder on a Bridle Path
  • 1936: The Witness Chair
  • 1936: Poor Little Rich Girl
  • 1936: Back to Nature
  • 1936: Sing, Baby, Sing
  • 1936: The whole point (Pigskin Parade)
  • 1936: Mississippi melody ( Banjo on My Knee )
  • 1937: The Holy Terror
  • 1937: Sing and Be Happy
  • 1937: You Can't Have Everything
  • 1937: Life Begins in College
  • 1937: Ali Baba Goes to Town
  • 1938: Sally, Irene and Mary
  • 1938: Kentucky Moonshine
  • 1938: Up the River
  • 1938: Thanks for Everything
  • 1939: Winner Take All
  • 1940: Music in My Heart
  • 1941: Girls in the Spotlight ( Ziegfeld Girl )
  • 1941: The Marx Brothers in the department store ( The Big Store )
  • 1946: Until the clouds pass ( Till the Clouds Roll By )
  • 1948: Casbah - Forbidden Alleys ( Casbah )
  • 1951: Two Tickets to Broadway
  • 1952: Before the New Day ( Clash by Night )
  • 1953: Here Come the Girls
  • 1953: You are so easy to love ( Easy to Love )
  • 1954: Deep in my heart ( Deep in My Heart )
  • 1955: Anchored in Frisco ( Hit the Deck )
  • 1956: Viva Las Vegas ( Meet Me in Las Vegas )
  • 1956: Betrayed and Sold ( Quincannon - Frontier Scout )
  • 1957: Let's Be Happy
  • 1982: Dear Mr. Wonderful

Web links

Commons : Tony Martin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US musical star and singer Tony Martin died at 98 , Liechtensteiner Volksblatt from July 30, 2012 (accessed on July 31, 2012).
  2. ↑ Obituary
  3. ↑ For titles that were able to place in the US charts, the highest ranking is given; Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Records 1940-1955 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1973, p. 35
personal data
SURNAME Martin, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morris, Alvin (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and singer
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Oakland , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 2012
Place of death West Los Angeles , California , United States