HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
 2
|
For the beauty pageant winner, see Helen Morgan (Miss World).
Helen Morgan (August 2, 1902 - October 9, 1941) was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. She was born on 2 August 1900 in rural Danville, Illinois. She was born \'Helen Riggins\' to a farmer and schoolteacher but became \'Morgan\' when her mother remarried. Her mother\'s second marriage ended in divorce, and she moved to Chicago with her daughter. Morgan never finished school beyond the eighth grade, and worked a variety of jobs to get by. In 1923 she even entered the Miss Montreal contest, even going to New York to meet Miss America Katherine Campbell, but when she returned her American citizenship was discovered and she was disqualified. She also worked as an extra in films. By 20 Morgan had taken voice lessons and was singing in speakeasies in Chicago.
Helen Morgan\'s high, thin, and somewhat wobbly voice was not fashionable during the \'20s for the kind of songs that she specialized in, but nevertheless she became a wildly popular torch singer. Her heart bled about hard living and heartbreak onto her accompanist\'s piano. This draped-over-the-piano look became her signature look while performing at Billy Rose\'s Backstage Club in 1925. Morgan drank too much and was often drunk during these performances, despite the National Prohibition Enforcement Act passed in 1919. During this period several Chicago gangsters tried to help fund her various attempts to open her own nightclub. However, Prohibition agents kept too strict an eye on her and her attempts failed.
Morgan was noticed by Florenz Ziegfeld while dancing in the chorus of his production of Sally in 1923 and she went on to perform with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1931, the Follies\' last active year. During this period she studied music at the Metropolitan Opera in her free time.
In 1927 Helen Morgan appeared as Julie LaVerne in the original cast of Show Boat, her best-known role. She sang "Bill" (lyrics by P.G. Wodehouse and Oscar Hammerstein) and "Can\'t Help Lovin\' Dat Man" in two stage runs and two film productions of the famous musical over a span of 11 years. (In the first film version of Show Boat, made in 1929, Morgan appeared only in the song prologue; Alma Rubens played Julie in the film proper, which was mostly silent. However, Morgan did play the role in the 1936 film version of the musical.)
After appearing in the 1929 film version of Show Boat, Morgan went on to star in Kern and Hammerstein\'s Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline. The title was a pun on the famous barbershop quartet song. In the musical, Morgan introduced the songs Why Was I Born and Don\'t Ever Leave Me. Oddly enough, when Sweet Adeline was filmed in 1934, Morgan\'s role went to her future Show Boat co-star, Irene Dunne, who possessed a lovely soprano, but was certainly not a torch singer.
In the late \'30s Morgan was signed up for a show at Chicago\'s Loop Theater. She also spent time at her farm in High Point, New York. Alcoholism plagued her and she was hospitalized in late 1940. Her career underwent something of a comeback in 1941, thanks to the help of manager Lloyd Johnson. However, the years of alcohol abuse had taken their toll. She collapsed onstage during a performance of George White\'s Scandals of 1942 and died at 41 of cirrhosis of the liver on 8 October 1941 in Chicago, Illinois.
Morgan was married three times, to fan Lowell Army, whom she met at a stage door while she was in Sally, to Maurice "Buddy" Maschke (they married on May 15, 1933 and divorced several years later), and to Lloyd Johnson, whom she married on July 27, 1941.
Morgan was portrayed by Polly Bergen in a 1957 Playhouse 90 drama, directed by George Roy Hill, and won an Emmy Award for her performance. That same year, the feature film The Helen Morgan Story starred Ann Blyth as Morgan.
Contents |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
