Alice Jeanne Faye (May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. She sang "You'll Never Know", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1944 Oscars ceremony. Faye introduced the song in the musical film Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943).
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12/04/2020.
Alice Faye - Actress & Singer
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1. Profile :
*Alice Faye in 1944
Born Alice Jeanne Leppert, May 5, 1915, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, U.S.
Died May 9, 1998 (aged 83),Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Resting place Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, California, U.S.
Nationality American
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Occupation Actress & singer
Years active 1934–1995
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Spouse(s)
1.Tony Martin
(m. 1937; div. 1940)
2.Phil Harris
(m. 1941; died 1995)
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Children 2
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2. Introduction :
Alice Jeanne Faye (May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. She sang "You'll Never Know", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1944 Oscars ceremony. Faye introduced the song in the musical film Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943).
Faye was married twice and had two daughters. She married actor and singer Tony Martin in 1937, and they divorced in 1940. She married actor Phil Harris in 1941, a union which lasted until his death in 1995.
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3. Life and career :
3.1. 1915–1933: Early life and career beginnings :
Alice Jeanne Leppert was born on May 5, 1915, in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, the daughter of Alice (1886–1959), who worked for the Mirror Chocolate Company, and Charles Leppert (1886–1935), a police officer. She had an older brother, Charles (1909–1977). Faye was raised an Episcopalian. Faye's entertainment career began in vaudeville as a chorus girl. She failed an audition for the Earl Carroll Vanities when it was revealed she was too young, before she moved to Broadway and a featured role in the 1931 edition of George White's Scandals. By this time, she had adopted her stage name and first reached a radio audience on Rudy Vallée's The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour.
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3.2. 1934–1938: Early work :
*Alice Faye (center), Jack Haley (left), Don Ameche, and Tyrone Power (right), in a trailer for Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)
Faye got her first major film break in 1934, when Lilian Harvey abandoned the lead role in a film version of George White's 1935 Scandals, in which Vallee was also to appear. Hired first to perform a musical number with Vallee, Faye ended up as the female lead. She became a hit with film audiences of the 1930s, particularly when Fox production head Darryl F. Zanuck made her his protégée. He softened Faye from a wisecracking show girl to a youthful, and yet somewhat motherly figure, such as her roles in a few Shirley Temple films. Faye also received a physical makeover, going from a version of Jean Harlow to a wholesome appearance, in which her platinum hair and pencil-line eyebrows were swapped for a more natural look.
In 1938, Faye was cast as the female lead in In Old Chicago. Zanuck initially resisted casting Faye, as the role had been written for Jean Harlow. However, critics applauded Faye's performance. The film was extremely memorable for its 20-minute ending, a recreation of the Great Chicago Fire, a scene so dangerous that women, except for the main stars, were banned from the set. In the film, she appeared with two of her most frequent co-stars, Tyrone Power and Don Ameche, as it was customary for studios to pair their contract players together in more than one film.
Faye, Power, and Ameche were reunited for the 1938 release Alexander's Ragtime Band, which was designed to showcase more than 20 Irving Berlin songs; Faye again received strong reviews. One of the most expensive films of its time, it also became one of the most successful musicals of the 1930s.
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3.3. 1939–1940: Feminist roles :
*Alice Faye in 1934
By 1939, Faye was named one of the top 10 box office draws in Hollywood. That year, she made Rose of Washington Square with Tyrone Power. Although a big hit, the film was supposedly based on the real life of comedian Fanny Brice, who sued Fox for stealing her story.
Because of her bankable status, Fox occasionally placed Faye in films more for the sake of making money, than showcasing Faye's talents. Films like Tail Spin and Barricade (both 1939) were more dramatic than regular Faye films and often did not contain any songs. But, due to her immense popularity, none of the films that she made in the 1930s and 1940s lost money, this success garnered her the nickname "queen of Fox".
In 1940, Faye played one of her most memorable roles, the title role in the musical biopic Lillian Russell. Faye always named this film as one of her favorites, but it was also her most challenging role. The tight corsets Faye wore for this picture caused her to collapse on the set several times.
After declining the lead role in 1940 for Down Argentine Way because of an illness, Faye was replaced by the studio's newest musical star, Betty Grable. She was paired as a sister act opposite Grable in the film Tin Pan Alley later that same year. During the making of the picture, a rumor arose that there was a rivalry between the two. In a Biography interview, Faye admitted that the Fox publicity department built up the rumor and the two actresses were close friends that got along during the making of the picture.
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3.4. 1941–1995: Later work :
*Alice Faye, Phil Baker, and Carmen Miranda in The Gang's All Here (1943)
In 1941, Fox began to place Faye in musicals photographed in Technicolor, a trademark for the studio in the 1940s. She frequently played a performer, often one moving up in society, allowing for situations that ranged from the poignant to the comic. Films such as Week-End in Havana (1941) and That Night in Rio (1941), in which she played a Brazilian aristocrat, made good use of Faye's husky singing voice, solid comic timing, and flair for carrying off the era's starry-eyed romantic story lines.
In 1943, after taking a year off to have her first daughter, Faye starred in the Technicolor musical Hello, Frisco, Hello. Released at the height of World War II, the film became one of her highest-grossing pictures for Fox. It was in this film that Faye sang "You'll Never Know". The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1943, and the sheet music for the song sold over a million copies. However, since there was a clause in her contract (as was the case with most other Fox stars) stating that she could not officially record any of her movie songs, other singers, such as Dick Haymes (whose version hit #1 for four weeks), Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney have been more associated with the song than Faye. However, it is still often considered Faye's signature song. That year, Faye was once again named one of the top box office draws in the world.
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3.5. End of motion picture career :
As Faye's star continued to ascend during the war years, family life became more important to her, especially with the arrival of a second daughter, Phyllis. After her birth, Faye signed a new contract with Fox to make only one picture a year, with the option of a second one, to give Faye a chance to spend more time with her family. Her second pregnancy resulted in a hospitalization, forcing her to surrender a plum dramatic role in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to Joan Blondell, and she declined a musical role in The Dolly Sisters (her intended part went to June Haver).
Faye finally accepted the lead role in Fallen Angel. Although designed ostensibly as Faye's vehicle, Zanuck tried to build his new protégé Linda Darnell, ordered many of Faye's scenes cut and Darnell emphasized. When Faye saw a screening of the final product—with her role reduced by 12 scenes and a song number—she wrote a scathing note to Zanuck, went straight to her car, gave her dressing room keys to the studio gate guard, and drove home, vowing never to return to Fox. Faye was still so popular that thousands of letters were sent to Faye's home and the Fox studios from around the world, begging her to return for another picture. In 1987, she told an interviewer, "When I stopped making pictures, it didn't bother me because there were so many things I hadn't done. I had never learned to run a house. I didn't know how to cook. I didn't know how to shop. So all these things filled all those gaps."
After Fallen Angel, Faye's contract called for her to make two more movies. Zanuck hit back by having her blackballed for breach of contract, effectively ending her film career although Faye no longer cared to pursue it. Fallen Angel, released in 1945, was Faye's last starring film. Zanuck, under public pressure, tried to lure Faye back onto the screen; Faye returned all the scripts.
It wasn't until 1962 that Alice Faye returned to Fox, for a character role in a remake of an old Fox property, State Fair. While she received good reviews, the film was not a success. She made only infrequent cameo appearances in films thereafter, most notably playing a secretary in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood in 1976 and in The Magic of Lassie as a waitress in 1978.
She was the subject of This Is Your Life for British television in 1984 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Hollywood's Metromedia Studios.
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4. Marriage and radio career :
Faye's first marriage, to Tony Martin in 1937, ended in divorce in 1940; both had busy careers that monopolized most of their time, leaving few opportunities for togetherness. In May 1941, she married bandleader Phil Harris. Their marriage, one of the most successful in Hollywood, became a plotline in the hit radio comedy, The Jack Benny Program where, for 16 years, Harris was a regular cast member.
*Alice Faye and Phil Harris with their two daughters, Alice and Phyllis, in 1948
The couple had two daughters, Alice (b. 1942) and Phyllis (b. 1944), along with Harris's adopted son from his first marriage, Phil Harris, Jr. (1935–2001). Faye and Harris began working in radio together as Faye's film career declined. First, they teamed to host a variety show on NBC, The Fitch Bandwagon, in 1946. The Harrises' gently tart comedy sketches made them the show's stars. By 1948, Fitch was replaced as sponsor by Rexall, the pharmaceutical company, and the show, now a strictly situation comedy with a music interlude each from husband and wife, was renamed The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show.
Harris's comic talent was already familiar through his tenure on Jack Benny's radio shows for Jell-o and Lucky Strike. From 1936 to 1952, he played Benny's wisecracking, jive-talking, hipster bandleader. With their own show revamped to a sitcom, bandleader-comedian Harris and singer-actress Faye played themselves, raising two precocious children in slightly zany situations, mostly involving Harris's band guitarist Frank Remley (Elliott Lewis), obnoxious delivery boy Julius Abruzzio (Walter Tetley, familiar as nephew Leroy on The Great Gildersleeve), Robert North as Faye's fictitious deadbeat brother, Willie, and sponsor's representative Mr. Scott (Gale Gordon), and usually involving bumbling, malapropping Harris needing to be rescued by Faye.
The Harrises' two daughters were played on radio by Jeanine Roose and Anne Whitfield; written mostly by Ray Singer and Dick Chevillat, the show stayed on NBC radio as a fixture until 1954.
Faye's singing ballads and swing numbers in her honeyed contralto voice was a regular highlight of the show as was her knack for tart one-liners equal to her husband's. The show's running gags also included references to Alice's wealth from her film career ("I'm only trying to protect the wife of the money I love" was a typical Harris drollery) and occasional barbs by Faye aimed at her rift with Zanuck, usually referencing Fallen Angel.
In its early years, the Harris-Faye radio show ranked among the top 10 radio programs in the country. The radio show also provided Faye with the perfect balance between show business and home life: since radio only required her to be present for a read-through and the live broadcast, Faye was still able to spend most of her time at home with her daughters.
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5. Later life and death :
A Democrat, she supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.
Faye and Harris continued various projects, individually and together, for the rest of their lives. In 1974, Faye made a return to Broadway after 43 years in a revival of Good News, with her old Fox partner John Payne (who was replaced by Gene Nelson). In later years, Faye became a spokeswoman for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, promoting the virtues of an active senior lifestyle. The Faye-Harris marriage endured 54 years until Harris's death in 1995. Faye admitted in an interview that when she married Harris, most of the Hollywood elite had predicted the marriage would only last about six months.
Three years after Phil Harris' death, Alice Faye died of stomach cancer in Rancho Mirage, California, four days after her 83rd birthday. She was cremated and her ashes rest beside those of Phil Harris at the mausoleum of the Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs, California. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her contribution to Motion Pictures at 6922 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1994, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show remains a favorite of old-time radio collectors.
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6. Popularity and legacy :
*Alice Faye's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Her voice, The New York Times wrote in her obituary, was "inviting". Irving Berlin was once quoted as saying that he would choose Faye over any other singer to introduce his songs, and George Gershwin and Cole Porter called her the "best female singer in Hollywood in 1937". During her years as a musical superstar, Alice Faye managed to introduce 23 songs to the Hit Parade. She was the first female crooner and equivalent to Bing Crosby.
Although Faye has had fans around the globe, she was never more popular than in Great Britain and in The Alice Faye Movie Book[citation needed] an article is devoted to Faye's popularity there. The author, Arthur Nicholson, mentions how enormously popular she was even in her Harlow days and though other films shown in England were usually shown for three days a week, Faye's films played for an entire week. After Faye retired in 1945, her reissued films made as much money (in some cases, more) as current releases. When Faye returned to the screen for State Fair in 1962, the film broke records in England. In 1966, the BBC televised Alexander's Ragtime Band, and soon other Faye films followed with the BBC stating there were more requests for Faye's films than any other star.
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7. Filmography :
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1934 George White's Scandals Kitty Donnelly / Mona Vale Film debut
1934 Now I'll Tell Peggy Warren
1934 She Learned About Sailors Jean Legoi
1934 365 Nights in Hollywood Alice Perkins
1935 George White's 1935 Scandals Honey Walters
1935 Every Night at Eight Dixie Foley
1935 Music Is Magic Peggy Harper
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1936 King of Burlesque Pat Doran
1936 Poor Little Rich Girl Jerry Dolan
1936 Sing, Baby, Sing Joan Warren Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Song
1936 Stowaway Susan Parker
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1937 In Old Chicago Belle Fawcett
1937 On the Avenue Mona Merrick
1937 You Can't Have Everything Judith Poe Wells
1937 Wake Up and Live Alice Huntley
1937 You're a Sweetheart Betty Bradley
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1938 Sally, Irene and Mary Sally Day
1938 Alexander's Ragtime Band Stella Kirby Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Song
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1939 Tail Spin Trixie Lee
1939 Rose of Washington Square Rose Sargent
1939 Hollywood Cavalcade Molly Adair Hayden
1939 Barricade Emmy Jordan
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1940 Little Old New York Pat O'Day
1940 Lillian Russell Lillian Russell
1940 Tin Pan Alley Katie Blane
1941 That Night in Rio Baroness Cecilia Duarte
1941 The Great American Broadcast Vicki Adams
1941 Week-End in Havana Nan Spencer
1943 Hello, Frisco, Hello Trudy Evans Academy Award for Best Original Song
1943 The Gang's All Here Edie Allen
1944 Four Jills in a Jeep Herself Cameo
1945 Fallen Angel June Mills
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1962 State Fair Melissa Frake
1976 Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood Secretary at Gate Cameo
1978 Every Girl Should Have One Kathy
1978 The Magic of Lassie The Waitress (Alice) Final film role
1995 Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business Herself Documentary
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8.Radio appearances :
Year Program Episode/source
1950 Lux Radio Theatre Alexander's Ragtime Band
1951 Suspense Death on My Hands
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ALICE FAYE
9. Tributes
SONGBIRD
When a songbird is released
from her cage to fly away,
We are sad, because we are left
with an emptiness
And we deeply miss
her lovely, cheerful song.
But think of the bird!
The bird is free!
And she still sings.
--Father Bob Curtis
REFINED Fallen Angel
ENGAGING The Great American Broadcast
MAGICAL Hello, Frisco, Hello
EARTHY Tail Spin
MOVING Hollywood Cavalcade
BECOMING Stowaway
EXCITABLE Alexander's Ragtime Band
REBELLIOUS Every Night At Eight
ILLUSTRIOUS In Old Chicago
NAUGHTY (but nice) Now I'll Tell
GLAMOUROUS Lillian Russell
ALLURING George White's Scandals
LUSCIOUS That Night In Rio
IRASCIBLE Little Old New York
CLASSY The Gang's All Here
EMOTIONAL Rose Of Washington Square
FEISTY On The Avenue
ANIMATED Week-End In Havana
YIELDING Tin Pan Alley
ENCHANTING You're A Sweetheart
-- Roy Bishop 1998
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10. "An Angel From Hell's Kitchen"
Arthur Nicholson and I always knew that the black day would come when Alice finally departed from this earth but I don't think either of us ever really believed it. On May 9th, four days after Alice's 83rd birthday Alice junior phoned Arthur to tell him the sad news.
The obituaries in the better quality press have been flattering and honest even if they are full of factual inaccuracies but none of them touch upon the real Alice Faye. The screen career is fairly well covered and the quoted plaudits from Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and George Gershwin amongst others leaves no-one in any doubt about the quality of her singing.
Alice was the first female crooner in the movies and led the way for women to sell the popular song on screen. She also changed the image of the leading lady in the movie musical and introduced a depth and sincerity in her roles which shown through. At her best she could break one's heart singing in beautifully lit giant close-ups which helped her become one of the major Hollywood stars.
The side of Alice not touched on in the press is the person we knew, the flesh and blood being. Alice was brought up in one of the worst areas of New York - Hell's Kitchen - and she never forgot her humble origins. Her stardom never went to her head and people with money did not impress her. Real human beings touched her and she could easily tell the fake from the genuine article. Her family and friends meant everything to her and she was a very generous person. Alice not only gave in a material way to her friends and those less fortunate than herself but she went out of her way to take the time to phone or send a note if she knew someone was ill. So often one is disappointed by stars in person but this could not be said of Alice Faye. Her warmth, natural charm and surprising sense of humour were self evident whether at a TV event or in a restaurant or hotel. On the phone her voice sounded unchanged by the years and she spoke like a true friend in a most natural and personal way. At the end of a phone call she always thanked you for taking the time to call and said "You're a sweetheart" or "God bless you", and always "Stay in touch" and you knew she meant it.
Alice was herself "star struck" and was amazed that people like Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Mary Martin and Frank Sinatra thought that Alice was a great star in her own right. Humility was one of her greatest qualities and amongst human beings, never mind film stars, a very rare one.
Alice had been a very active lady all her life. The death of Phil and so many of her friends (including Mary Martin, Janet Gaynor, Ruby Keeler, Florence Haley and Billie Dove) deeply affected Alice, then her own health began to deteriorate. But as Alice herself would have said, she "rolled with the punches". She outlived many of her fans and most of her contemporaries. We are so fortunate that she was with us for so long.
We shall miss Alice enormously. She touched everyone who knew her and as one of the Sisters who had taught her at her catholic school said on 'This Is Your Life' - "Alice was an angel from Hell's Kitchen".
Alice Faye, human being, personal friend: You'll never know just how much we loved you.
--George McGhee and Arthur Nicholson, 10th May 1998
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11. ALICE FAYE'S MAGICAL SONGS
TOUCHED HEARTS AROUND THE WORLD
It had been one of those long days when I had been out of touch with almost everyone. So it was after 10 when I finally settled down to read my out-of-town newspapers. That's when I saw it--a 4-column headline on page A-15 of the New York Times: "Alice Faye, Hollywood Star Who Sang For Her Man, Dies." Oh, that can't be true, I said out loud. And a certain sadness unsettled me.
Why it was only yesterday that I fell madly in love with Alice Faye. It was a love affair --- unrequited to be sure --- that has lasted nearly six decades. I know I have publicly announced my love affair with Alice Faye before. But please indulge me while I wrestle with my emotions and my memories of a wonderful and classy lady.
Alice Faye was my first love, at that awkward time when I was sprouting peach fuzz on my chin and my once bell-clear boy soprano voice was little more than a cracked contralto. She was a stunning beauty and something about her presence on the giant movie screen spoke to me in a language that I didn't really understand then. Today, they'd probably label it "Male Teenage Raging Hormonal Syndrome." I wasn't certain then whether it was the carefully curled blond hair, those full lips or that provocatively turned up nose that did it. Alice won my heart.
Now, more than ever, I am sure a lot of it was that rich, husky voice. Nothing ever sounded quite as lovely and heartbreaking at the same time as Alice singing "You'll Never Know" in "Hello, Frisco, Hello". It was one of those voices that surrounded you with its warmth and richness and let's face it --- sexiness --- even though I didn't know too much about all that just then. But I sure was eager to learn. At that time, I had entered the early stages of visual anatomical studies that all teenage boys go through, so her full, ripe figure certainly played a role in how I responded to Alice. The attraction was so strong that I never missed a movie starring Alice. Truth is, I saw most of them several times or more, often on the same day in those days when movies ran continuously without intermissions. On more than one Saturday when I went to the first matinee at the Sugarland Theater, I was routed out about midway through the last showing by a brother with a message from the leader of the pack that I was to get myself home immediately.
There was always a good deal of anguish on my part as I watched her movies. I loved Alice, unconditionally. I hated Tyrone Power, Don Ameche and John Payne, who usually were her leading men. In the darkness of the Sugarland Theatre, I wanted to yell out that she was wasting her time on them, that she deserved better --- like me. I especially hated Tyrone Power in "Rose of Washington Square", the fictionalized version of the Nicky Arnstein-Fanny Brice story. (You may remember it reincarnated as "Funny Girl" on Broadway and in the movies). He was a rat disguised as a louse, I wanted to tell her. But Alice was loyal and big hearted and stood by her man. No one ever sang "My Man" the way Alice did.
In my late teens, when I was still the purest U.S. sailor ever to squeeze into a pair of tight bell-bottoms, my love affair with Alice never waned. I carried an autographed picture of her with me as my PBY squadron hop-scotched across the Pacific. I saw "Hello, Frisco, Hello" for the first time on a coral atoll. The second time, a few months later on the fantail of a seaplane tender. And wondered if Alice would ever know how I felt about her. After the war, when she quit the movies and began appearing with her husband, Phil Harris, every Sunday evening on "The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show" on radio, I never missed it. Her comedy timing was perfect as she played the foil for Harris' outrageous behavior in the skits. And she usually sang. When she sang Irving Berlin's "Let's Take An Old Fashioned Walk," I was ready. If anything, Alice's voice was even more throaty, more husky --- all right, more sexy --- on radio than it was in the movies. There was something so natural, so unpretentious about the way she sang --- straight from the heart. When I finished the Times story, I took out my four Alice Faye albums --- two are outtakes from her movies, one is music from the radio show and the other her greatest hits. The latter is my favorite. She sings "You're A Sweetheart," "This Year's Kisses." "Rose of Washington Square," "No Love, No Nothing" and "You'll Never Know." It was near midnight, but I listened to the album from start to finish and when "You'll Never Know" came on, I was transported back to the coral atoll when I first heard her sing it. It was a magic moment. That was part of her special appeal, she could spin magic with her songs. And touch the heart of a teenage boy, a lonely sailor and a guy riding off into the sunset of life.
Kelly Leiter
LaFollette Press
5-14-98
12. ANNE WHITFIELD
ANNE WHITFIELD, former actress, portrayed Phyllis, the younger daughter of Alice Faye and Phil Harris, on their weekly radio show in the late 1940s and early l950s. We contacted her and she agreed to share with us the following:
Anne’s recollections of Alice:
Alice Faye was nice and I really idolized her. At ten years of age, it was my aspiration to grow up and be like her. I thought she was a wonderful role model - - very refined, beautiful, and well-groomed. I remember that the seams in her stockings were always SO straight.
I waited with anticipation each Christmas to see what gifts Alice would give me and Jeanine (Jeanine Roose played Alice, Jr., the older daughter of Alice and Phil). The gifts were always from Bullocks Wilshire, and they were exquisite.
Because Alice refused to fly, we would travel by train to Chicago and New York for the last shows of the season, and it was all luxury at its best.
I remember going to Washington, D.C. for the Harry Truman inauguration. Originally, Jeanine and I were to be part of the show, but it ran too long into the night, and our parts were scrapped, to our great relief and our mothers' disappointment.
I was born in Mississippi in 1938. My mother was screen-struck and wanted to go to Hollywood and become an actress. My mom TAUGHT drama and speech – that was OK with her puritanical father – but she wasn’t allowed to perform and she wanted to. Short of her own success in movies and/or radio, she had a daughter who she thought was very talented. I would put on shows back in Georgia for family and neighbors, which included acrobatic dancing and dressing up like movie stars, and I was an early reader. In 1944, my mother drove the two of us on Route 66 out to Hollywood. My father was fighting in the Pacific. Before the war, he had been director of bands at Ole Miss, but gave it up for the move to Los Angeles. He then worked for the Veterans Administration.
Mother had written letters to radio producers in Hollywood, suggesting if they had any parts for a six year old they should consider Anne, as she could read very well. The letter that paid off was the one to Carlton Morse, producer/director/writer of ONE MAN’S FAMILY. I got the part of a seven year old whose family had been caught in the war in Germany and had come home. I still had a southern accent, but Mr. Morse masked it by having me speak only German at first (“Penelope” had ended up in a concentration camp, traumatized and separated from her family).
During ONE MAN’S FAMILY, I also had a part on Mr. Morse’s HIS HONOR THE BARBER and then a running part on CISCO KID. In time I had a running part on the FANNY BRICE SHOW, but ONE MAN’S FAMILY was the longest-running gig I had, and it even lurked in the background while I was doing the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW for six years.
As I remember, I auditioned for the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW more than once. I felt pressured to get the part and felt like maybe I had a slight advantage because I still had a bit of a southern accent, and Phil was from The South.
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13.
Q. What goes in to making a PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW?
A. Well, there were rehearsals sitting around a table. The show was a comedy, and the writers were like the stars of it, and so they would laugh at their own jokes uproariously when you are reading one of their jokes. If it doesn’t work, then immediately everything stops and they do rewrites, so you are scribbling on the script like crazy. That’s a run-through. Then you get up and do it in front of the microphone and they gradually add in the sound effects and the music. There are several run-throughs with fewer and fewer stops by the director to correct something, and then the dress rehearsal. Then you have a show with a live audience and a warm-up ahead of the show where the announcer came out. Then Phil came out, and they would do things to warm up the audience. There was this warm-up for like a half an hour or at least fifteen minutes before the show. The thing I remember about the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW was that the announcer had this funny way to condition the audience to laugh. He’d be standing up and wearing probably a suit or a sport coat with trousers, and he would grab his pants at the knee and jiggle them up and down on one leg, just one leg, toward the audience. Somehow he conditioned the audience to laugh when he did that. So whenever they did a joke on the show and they wanted laughter from the audience, the announcer would come out and jiggle his pants.
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Q. So, who is teaching you how to act? Who is teaching you comedic timing? Is the Director directing you? Do you feel like you are acting or like you are reading a script?
A. As far as the acting, I think I did have some talent, so I had an instinct how to do it, but the comedy thing really takes more experience and technique, and I really didn’t have any of it. My mother didn’t have any. She kept telling me how to read lines, when to pause, which word to emphasize, and stuff like that. In fact, she even had me mimicking her on certain things, but the comedy thing I just had to learn by doing. Fanny Brice taught me about when to come in after a laugh. You don’t come in after the laugh, you come in when the laugh is about 80% finished; and you have to project, otherwise you won’t be heard.
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Q. So you were learning on the job?
A. Yes, exactly. Pretty stressful.
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Q. How many years were you on the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW?
A. I think I started at eight years of age and finished at thirteen or fourteen.
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Q. What was it like when there was a guest star?
A. I only remember Jack Benny and Dennis Day.
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Q. When you were at a table read, who was sitting beside you?
A. Probably Jeanine, who played my older sister.
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Q. How did Alice and Phil treat you? Were they maternal/paternal toward you?
A. Not especially. The only time they were particularly warm was at Christmas. There was a generation gap there, and I don’t think the people there were particularly mentoring to kid actors. I was just supposed to be professional – don’t drop the script, pick up my cues, and don’t flub on the air.
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Q. Since it was a comedy, was it a fun set?
A. Not really. You might think so. Comedy is the hardest, and these writers were just so nervous.
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Mr. Morse didn’t like to share his cast with other shows, so when the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW ended, he brought me back into ONE MAN’S FAMILY.
I think the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW ended because Phil and Alice didn’t want to do it anymore, not because it lost popularity.
ANNE WHITFIELD
May 2, 2013
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14. Faye Facts :
1912 or 1915?
America's No. 1 Song Plugger
Songs Introduced in Films that became Hit Parade Favorites
Top Ten Box Office Star
Did Betty replace Alice?
Set the record straight!
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1912 or 1915?
Alice Faye was born May 5, 1915; some sources say May 5, 1912. At age13 Alice graduated from the 8th grade at Public School No. 84 in New York City. She was a good student with perfect attendance and was to enroll at Washington Irving High School. However, she decided to give up her education and go into show business. She had the figure of a more mature girl, and she tried out for and was accepted by the Earl Carroll Vanities.
When they discovered she was only 13, they politely dismissed her. Two years later, at age 15, she tried out for and landed a spot in the Chester Hale Vaudeville Unit. Afraid she might be dismissed again because of her age, she gave her year of birth as 1912, making them believe she was 18.
In an interview on American Movie Classics, Alice chuckled about the fact that she had gone through life with many references making her older than she actually was.
Contact with the public school system in New York City by Miles Kreuger, theatre and film historian, verified that her birth year was indeed 1915.
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America's No. 1 Song Plugger
Alice Faye was voted America's No. 1 female song plugger by such celebrated composers as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Harry Warren. "There's something about the way Alice projects a song that spells immediate success for it" was the consensus of the Tin Pan Alley songsmiths.
Alice introduced almost twice as many hits in movies (23) as each of her closest competitors: Judy Garland (13), Betty Grable (12), and Doris Day (12). She was also successful in reviving standards such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "My Man," and "Rose Of Washington Square".
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Songs Alice Introduced in Films that became Hit Parade Favorites
Nasty Man
I Feel a Song Comin' On
I'm Shooting High
When I'm With You
But Definitely
Sing, Baby, Sing
You Turned the Tables On Me
Goodnight My Love
He Ain't Got Rhythm
Slumming On Park Avenue
This Year's Kisses
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
Wake Up and Live
Never In a Million Years
There's a Lull In My Life
Afraid To Dream
You're a Sweetheart
Now It Can Be Told
I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak
Blue Love Bird
You'll Never Know
No Love, No Nothin'
A Journey To a Star
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Top Ten Box Office Star
Alice’s first film, "George White’s Scandals," was released in
1934. Her rise in the Hollywood firmament was meteoric.
By 1938 the industry-respected SHOWMEN’S TRADE REVIEW
listed her as a top ten star. Following is a listing of her box
office triumphs:
1938 - No. 2 female box office star
1939 - No. 1 female box office star
1940 - No. 2 female box office star
1941 - No. 4 female box office star
1942 - (maternity leave)
1943 - No. 4 female box office star
(RETIRED FROM FILMS)
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Did Betty replace Alice?
Did Betty Grable replace Alice Faye? Some sources have indicated so, but the facts say NO.
Because of Alice's illness, Betty did take over her role in Down ArgentineWay (1940). They then starred together playing sisters in Tin Pan Alley (1940). For the next five years they co-existed at 20th Century-Fox, each churning out hit after hit. Alice's last two musicals for the studio were among her biggest money-makers; however, her new family life meant much more to her than her career and she retired, relinquishing her title as Queen of the Fox lot to Betty.
Their screen personas were vastly different. Alice was primarily a singer who radiated warmth as she sang her ballads in those lovely, mesmerizing close-ups; Betty was primarily a dancer who was breezy and brash as she displayed her famous legs and wiggle. Betty loved her cheesecake image and insisted that her legs be prominently showcased in most of her films. Alice would occasionally display her voluptuous figure, especially during her early years, but after attaining top stardom, she dreaded and resisted it.
It should also be pointed out that neither Alice nor Betty felt any rivalry with the other, and they remained good friends until Betty's death in 1973.
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Set the Record Straight!
Don't always believe what you read in so-called reference books, newspapers/magazines, or what you hear on television, etc.
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Here are more facts-
Alice's daughters did not play themselves on the radio show.
Alice did not appear on any Bob Hope television shows.
Alice did not audition for the Ziegfeld Follies (it was Earl Carroll's Vanities).
Alice did not die in a hospital; she was home with her daughters.
Alice did not keep her age a "closely guarded secret".
The outtakes in the Fox videos were deleted before the films' releases, not after.
Alice did not take the name Faye from Frank Fay; she used it because she liked the way it sounded.
"Fallen Angel" was not a flop or a bad film. It was a disappointment but did respectably at the box office.
THE END.
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12/04/2020.
Alice Faye - Actress & Singer
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1. Profile :
*Alice Faye in 1944
Born Alice Jeanne Leppert, May 5, 1915, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, U.S.
Died May 9, 1998 (aged 83),Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Resting place Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, California, U.S.
Nationality American
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Occupation Actress & singer
Years active 1934–1995
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Spouse(s)
1.Tony Martin
(m. 1937; div. 1940)
2.Phil Harris
(m. 1941; died 1995)
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Children 2
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2. Introduction :
Alice Jeanne Faye (May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. She sang "You'll Never Know", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1944 Oscars ceremony. Faye introduced the song in the musical film Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943).
Faye was married twice and had two daughters. She married actor and singer Tony Martin in 1937, and they divorced in 1940. She married actor Phil Harris in 1941, a union which lasted until his death in 1995.
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3. Life and career :
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Alice Jeanne Leppert was born on May 5, 1915, in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, the daughter of Alice (1886–1959), who worked for the Mirror Chocolate Company, and Charles Leppert (1886–1935), a police officer. She had an older brother, Charles (1909–1977). Faye was raised an Episcopalian. Faye's entertainment career began in vaudeville as a chorus girl. She failed an audition for the Earl Carroll Vanities when it was revealed she was too young, before she moved to Broadway and a featured role in the 1931 edition of George White's Scandals. By this time, she had adopted her stage name and first reached a radio audience on Rudy Vallée's The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour.
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3.2. 1934–1938: Early work :
Faye got her first major film break in 1934, when Lilian Harvey abandoned the lead role in a film version of George White's 1935 Scandals, in which Vallee was also to appear. Hired first to perform a musical number with Vallee, Faye ended up as the female lead. She became a hit with film audiences of the 1930s, particularly when Fox production head Darryl F. Zanuck made her his protégée. He softened Faye from a wisecracking show girl to a youthful, and yet somewhat motherly figure, such as her roles in a few Shirley Temple films. Faye also received a physical makeover, going from a version of Jean Harlow to a wholesome appearance, in which her platinum hair and pencil-line eyebrows were swapped for a more natural look.
In 1938, Faye was cast as the female lead in In Old Chicago. Zanuck initially resisted casting Faye, as the role had been written for Jean Harlow. However, critics applauded Faye's performance. The film was extremely memorable for its 20-minute ending, a recreation of the Great Chicago Fire, a scene so dangerous that women, except for the main stars, were banned from the set. In the film, she appeared with two of her most frequent co-stars, Tyrone Power and Don Ameche, as it was customary for studios to pair their contract players together in more than one film.
Faye, Power, and Ameche were reunited for the 1938 release Alexander's Ragtime Band, which was designed to showcase more than 20 Irving Berlin songs; Faye again received strong reviews. One of the most expensive films of its time, it also became one of the most successful musicals of the 1930s.
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3.3. 1939–1940: Feminist roles :
*Alice Faye in 1934
By 1939, Faye was named one of the top 10 box office draws in Hollywood. That year, she made Rose of Washington Square with Tyrone Power. Although a big hit, the film was supposedly based on the real life of comedian Fanny Brice, who sued Fox for stealing her story.
Because of her bankable status, Fox occasionally placed Faye in films more for the sake of making money, than showcasing Faye's talents. Films like Tail Spin and Barricade (both 1939) were more dramatic than regular Faye films and often did not contain any songs. But, due to her immense popularity, none of the films that she made in the 1930s and 1940s lost money, this success garnered her the nickname "queen of Fox".
In 1940, Faye played one of her most memorable roles, the title role in the musical biopic Lillian Russell. Faye always named this film as one of her favorites, but it was also her most challenging role. The tight corsets Faye wore for this picture caused her to collapse on the set several times.
After declining the lead role in 1940 for Down Argentine Way because of an illness, Faye was replaced by the studio's newest musical star, Betty Grable. She was paired as a sister act opposite Grable in the film Tin Pan Alley later that same year. During the making of the picture, a rumor arose that there was a rivalry between the two. In a Biography interview, Faye admitted that the Fox publicity department built up the rumor and the two actresses were close friends that got along during the making of the picture.
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3.4. 1941–1995: Later work :
*Alice Faye, Phil Baker, and Carmen Miranda in The Gang's All Here (1943)
In 1941, Fox began to place Faye in musicals photographed in Technicolor, a trademark for the studio in the 1940s. She frequently played a performer, often one moving up in society, allowing for situations that ranged from the poignant to the comic. Films such as Week-End in Havana (1941) and That Night in Rio (1941), in which she played a Brazilian aristocrat, made good use of Faye's husky singing voice, solid comic timing, and flair for carrying off the era's starry-eyed romantic story lines.
In 1943, after taking a year off to have her first daughter, Faye starred in the Technicolor musical Hello, Frisco, Hello. Released at the height of World War II, the film became one of her highest-grossing pictures for Fox. It was in this film that Faye sang "You'll Never Know". The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1943, and the sheet music for the song sold over a million copies. However, since there was a clause in her contract (as was the case with most other Fox stars) stating that she could not officially record any of her movie songs, other singers, such as Dick Haymes (whose version hit #1 for four weeks), Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney have been more associated with the song than Faye. However, it is still often considered Faye's signature song. That year, Faye was once again named one of the top box office draws in the world.
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3.5. End of motion picture career :
As Faye's star continued to ascend during the war years, family life became more important to her, especially with the arrival of a second daughter, Phyllis. After her birth, Faye signed a new contract with Fox to make only one picture a year, with the option of a second one, to give Faye a chance to spend more time with her family. Her second pregnancy resulted in a hospitalization, forcing her to surrender a plum dramatic role in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to Joan Blondell, and she declined a musical role in The Dolly Sisters (her intended part went to June Haver).
Faye finally accepted the lead role in Fallen Angel. Although designed ostensibly as Faye's vehicle, Zanuck tried to build his new protégé Linda Darnell, ordered many of Faye's scenes cut and Darnell emphasized. When Faye saw a screening of the final product—with her role reduced by 12 scenes and a song number—she wrote a scathing note to Zanuck, went straight to her car, gave her dressing room keys to the studio gate guard, and drove home, vowing never to return to Fox. Faye was still so popular that thousands of letters were sent to Faye's home and the Fox studios from around the world, begging her to return for another picture. In 1987, she told an interviewer, "When I stopped making pictures, it didn't bother me because there were so many things I hadn't done. I had never learned to run a house. I didn't know how to cook. I didn't know how to shop. So all these things filled all those gaps."
After Fallen Angel, Faye's contract called for her to make two more movies. Zanuck hit back by having her blackballed for breach of contract, effectively ending her film career although Faye no longer cared to pursue it. Fallen Angel, released in 1945, was Faye's last starring film. Zanuck, under public pressure, tried to lure Faye back onto the screen; Faye returned all the scripts.
It wasn't until 1962 that Alice Faye returned to Fox, for a character role in a remake of an old Fox property, State Fair. While she received good reviews, the film was not a success. She made only infrequent cameo appearances in films thereafter, most notably playing a secretary in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood in 1976 and in The Magic of Lassie as a waitress in 1978.
She was the subject of This Is Your Life for British television in 1984 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Hollywood's Metromedia Studios.
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4. Marriage and radio career :
Faye's first marriage, to Tony Martin in 1937, ended in divorce in 1940; both had busy careers that monopolized most of their time, leaving few opportunities for togetherness. In May 1941, she married bandleader Phil Harris. Their marriage, one of the most successful in Hollywood, became a plotline in the hit radio comedy, The Jack Benny Program where, for 16 years, Harris was a regular cast member.
The couple had two daughters, Alice (b. 1942) and Phyllis (b. 1944), along with Harris's adopted son from his first marriage, Phil Harris, Jr. (1935–2001). Faye and Harris began working in radio together as Faye's film career declined. First, they teamed to host a variety show on NBC, The Fitch Bandwagon, in 1946. The Harrises' gently tart comedy sketches made them the show's stars. By 1948, Fitch was replaced as sponsor by Rexall, the pharmaceutical company, and the show, now a strictly situation comedy with a music interlude each from husband and wife, was renamed The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show.
Harris's comic talent was already familiar through his tenure on Jack Benny's radio shows for Jell-o and Lucky Strike. From 1936 to 1952, he played Benny's wisecracking, jive-talking, hipster bandleader. With their own show revamped to a sitcom, bandleader-comedian Harris and singer-actress Faye played themselves, raising two precocious children in slightly zany situations, mostly involving Harris's band guitarist Frank Remley (Elliott Lewis), obnoxious delivery boy Julius Abruzzio (Walter Tetley, familiar as nephew Leroy on The Great Gildersleeve), Robert North as Faye's fictitious deadbeat brother, Willie, and sponsor's representative Mr. Scott (Gale Gordon), and usually involving bumbling, malapropping Harris needing to be rescued by Faye.
The Harrises' two daughters were played on radio by Jeanine Roose and Anne Whitfield; written mostly by Ray Singer and Dick Chevillat, the show stayed on NBC radio as a fixture until 1954.
Faye's singing ballads and swing numbers in her honeyed contralto voice was a regular highlight of the show as was her knack for tart one-liners equal to her husband's. The show's running gags also included references to Alice's wealth from her film career ("I'm only trying to protect the wife of the money I love" was a typical Harris drollery) and occasional barbs by Faye aimed at her rift with Zanuck, usually referencing Fallen Angel.
In its early years, the Harris-Faye radio show ranked among the top 10 radio programs in the country. The radio show also provided Faye with the perfect balance between show business and home life: since radio only required her to be present for a read-through and the live broadcast, Faye was still able to spend most of her time at home with her daughters.
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5. Later life and death :
A Democrat, she supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.
Faye and Harris continued various projects, individually and together, for the rest of their lives. In 1974, Faye made a return to Broadway after 43 years in a revival of Good News, with her old Fox partner John Payne (who was replaced by Gene Nelson). In later years, Faye became a spokeswoman for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, promoting the virtues of an active senior lifestyle. The Faye-Harris marriage endured 54 years until Harris's death in 1995. Faye admitted in an interview that when she married Harris, most of the Hollywood elite had predicted the marriage would only last about six months.
Three years after Phil Harris' death, Alice Faye died of stomach cancer in Rancho Mirage, California, four days after her 83rd birthday. She was cremated and her ashes rest beside those of Phil Harris at the mausoleum of the Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs, California. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her contribution to Motion Pictures at 6922 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1994, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show remains a favorite of old-time radio collectors.
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6. Popularity and legacy :
*Alice Faye's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Her voice, The New York Times wrote in her obituary, was "inviting". Irving Berlin was once quoted as saying that he would choose Faye over any other singer to introduce his songs, and George Gershwin and Cole Porter called her the "best female singer in Hollywood in 1937". During her years as a musical superstar, Alice Faye managed to introduce 23 songs to the Hit Parade. She was the first female crooner and equivalent to Bing Crosby.
Although Faye has had fans around the globe, she was never more popular than in Great Britain and in The Alice Faye Movie Book[citation needed] an article is devoted to Faye's popularity there. The author, Arthur Nicholson, mentions how enormously popular she was even in her Harlow days and though other films shown in England were usually shown for three days a week, Faye's films played for an entire week. After Faye retired in 1945, her reissued films made as much money (in some cases, more) as current releases. When Faye returned to the screen for State Fair in 1962, the film broke records in England. In 1966, the BBC televised Alexander's Ragtime Band, and soon other Faye films followed with the BBC stating there were more requests for Faye's films than any other star.
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7. Filmography :
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1934 George White's Scandals Kitty Donnelly / Mona Vale Film debut
1934 Now I'll Tell Peggy Warren
1934 She Learned About Sailors Jean Legoi
1934 365 Nights in Hollywood Alice Perkins
1935 George White's 1935 Scandals Honey Walters
1935 Every Night at Eight Dixie Foley
1935 Music Is Magic Peggy Harper
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1936 King of Burlesque Pat Doran
1936 Poor Little Rich Girl Jerry Dolan
1936 Sing, Baby, Sing Joan Warren Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Song
1936 Stowaway Susan Parker
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1937 In Old Chicago Belle Fawcett
1937 On the Avenue Mona Merrick
1937 You Can't Have Everything Judith Poe Wells
1937 Wake Up and Live Alice Huntley
1937 You're a Sweetheart Betty Bradley
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1938 Sally, Irene and Mary Sally Day
1938 Alexander's Ragtime Band Stella Kirby Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Song
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1939 Tail Spin Trixie Lee
1939 Rose of Washington Square Rose Sargent
1939 Hollywood Cavalcade Molly Adair Hayden
1939 Barricade Emmy Jordan
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1940 Little Old New York Pat O'Day
1940 Lillian Russell Lillian Russell
1940 Tin Pan Alley Katie Blane
1941 That Night in Rio Baroness Cecilia Duarte
1941 The Great American Broadcast Vicki Adams
1941 Week-End in Havana Nan Spencer
1943 Hello, Frisco, Hello Trudy Evans Academy Award for Best Original Song
1943 The Gang's All Here Edie Allen
1944 Four Jills in a Jeep Herself Cameo
1945 Fallen Angel June Mills
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1962 State Fair Melissa Frake
1976 Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood Secretary at Gate Cameo
1978 Every Girl Should Have One Kathy
1978 The Magic of Lassie The Waitress (Alice) Final film role
1995 Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business Herself Documentary
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8.Radio appearances :
Year Program Episode/source
1950 Lux Radio Theatre Alexander's Ragtime Band
1951 Suspense Death on My Hands
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ALICE FAYE
9. Tributes
SONGBIRD
When a songbird is released
from her cage to fly away,
We are sad, because we are left
with an emptiness
And we deeply miss
her lovely, cheerful song.
But think of the bird!
The bird is free!
And she still sings.
--Father Bob Curtis
REFINED Fallen Angel
ENGAGING The Great American Broadcast
MAGICAL Hello, Frisco, Hello
EARTHY Tail Spin
MOVING Hollywood Cavalcade
BECOMING Stowaway
EXCITABLE Alexander's Ragtime Band
REBELLIOUS Every Night At Eight
ILLUSTRIOUS In Old Chicago
NAUGHTY (but nice) Now I'll Tell
GLAMOUROUS Lillian Russell
ALLURING George White's Scandals
LUSCIOUS That Night In Rio
IRASCIBLE Little Old New York
CLASSY The Gang's All Here
EMOTIONAL Rose Of Washington Square
FEISTY On The Avenue
ANIMATED Week-End In Havana
YIELDING Tin Pan Alley
ENCHANTING You're A Sweetheart
-- Roy Bishop 1998
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10. "An Angel From Hell's Kitchen"
Arthur Nicholson and I always knew that the black day would come when Alice finally departed from this earth but I don't think either of us ever really believed it. On May 9th, four days after Alice's 83rd birthday Alice junior phoned Arthur to tell him the sad news.
The obituaries in the better quality press have been flattering and honest even if they are full of factual inaccuracies but none of them touch upon the real Alice Faye. The screen career is fairly well covered and the quoted plaudits from Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and George Gershwin amongst others leaves no-one in any doubt about the quality of her singing.
Alice was the first female crooner in the movies and led the way for women to sell the popular song on screen. She also changed the image of the leading lady in the movie musical and introduced a depth and sincerity in her roles which shown through. At her best she could break one's heart singing in beautifully lit giant close-ups which helped her become one of the major Hollywood stars.
The side of Alice not touched on in the press is the person we knew, the flesh and blood being. Alice was brought up in one of the worst areas of New York - Hell's Kitchen - and she never forgot her humble origins. Her stardom never went to her head and people with money did not impress her. Real human beings touched her and she could easily tell the fake from the genuine article. Her family and friends meant everything to her and she was a very generous person. Alice not only gave in a material way to her friends and those less fortunate than herself but she went out of her way to take the time to phone or send a note if she knew someone was ill. So often one is disappointed by stars in person but this could not be said of Alice Faye. Her warmth, natural charm and surprising sense of humour were self evident whether at a TV event or in a restaurant or hotel. On the phone her voice sounded unchanged by the years and she spoke like a true friend in a most natural and personal way. At the end of a phone call she always thanked you for taking the time to call and said "You're a sweetheart" or "God bless you", and always "Stay in touch" and you knew she meant it.
Alice was herself "star struck" and was amazed that people like Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Mary Martin and Frank Sinatra thought that Alice was a great star in her own right. Humility was one of her greatest qualities and amongst human beings, never mind film stars, a very rare one.
Alice had been a very active lady all her life. The death of Phil and so many of her friends (including Mary Martin, Janet Gaynor, Ruby Keeler, Florence Haley and Billie Dove) deeply affected Alice, then her own health began to deteriorate. But as Alice herself would have said, she "rolled with the punches". She outlived many of her fans and most of her contemporaries. We are so fortunate that she was with us for so long.
We shall miss Alice enormously. She touched everyone who knew her and as one of the Sisters who had taught her at her catholic school said on 'This Is Your Life' - "Alice was an angel from Hell's Kitchen".
Alice Faye, human being, personal friend: You'll never know just how much we loved you.
--George McGhee and Arthur Nicholson, 10th May 1998
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11. ALICE FAYE'S MAGICAL SONGS
TOUCHED HEARTS AROUND THE WORLD
It had been one of those long days when I had been out of touch with almost everyone. So it was after 10 when I finally settled down to read my out-of-town newspapers. That's when I saw it--a 4-column headline on page A-15 of the New York Times: "Alice Faye, Hollywood Star Who Sang For Her Man, Dies." Oh, that can't be true, I said out loud. And a certain sadness unsettled me.
Why it was only yesterday that I fell madly in love with Alice Faye. It was a love affair --- unrequited to be sure --- that has lasted nearly six decades. I know I have publicly announced my love affair with Alice Faye before. But please indulge me while I wrestle with my emotions and my memories of a wonderful and classy lady.
Alice Faye was my first love, at that awkward time when I was sprouting peach fuzz on my chin and my once bell-clear boy soprano voice was little more than a cracked contralto. She was a stunning beauty and something about her presence on the giant movie screen spoke to me in a language that I didn't really understand then. Today, they'd probably label it "Male Teenage Raging Hormonal Syndrome." I wasn't certain then whether it was the carefully curled blond hair, those full lips or that provocatively turned up nose that did it. Alice won my heart.
Now, more than ever, I am sure a lot of it was that rich, husky voice. Nothing ever sounded quite as lovely and heartbreaking at the same time as Alice singing "You'll Never Know" in "Hello, Frisco, Hello". It was one of those voices that surrounded you with its warmth and richness and let's face it --- sexiness --- even though I didn't know too much about all that just then. But I sure was eager to learn. At that time, I had entered the early stages of visual anatomical studies that all teenage boys go through, so her full, ripe figure certainly played a role in how I responded to Alice. The attraction was so strong that I never missed a movie starring Alice. Truth is, I saw most of them several times or more, often on the same day in those days when movies ran continuously without intermissions. On more than one Saturday when I went to the first matinee at the Sugarland Theater, I was routed out about midway through the last showing by a brother with a message from the leader of the pack that I was to get myself home immediately.
There was always a good deal of anguish on my part as I watched her movies. I loved Alice, unconditionally. I hated Tyrone Power, Don Ameche and John Payne, who usually were her leading men. In the darkness of the Sugarland Theatre, I wanted to yell out that she was wasting her time on them, that she deserved better --- like me. I especially hated Tyrone Power in "Rose of Washington Square", the fictionalized version of the Nicky Arnstein-Fanny Brice story. (You may remember it reincarnated as "Funny Girl" on Broadway and in the movies). He was a rat disguised as a louse, I wanted to tell her. But Alice was loyal and big hearted and stood by her man. No one ever sang "My Man" the way Alice did.
In my late teens, when I was still the purest U.S. sailor ever to squeeze into a pair of tight bell-bottoms, my love affair with Alice never waned. I carried an autographed picture of her with me as my PBY squadron hop-scotched across the Pacific. I saw "Hello, Frisco, Hello" for the first time on a coral atoll. The second time, a few months later on the fantail of a seaplane tender. And wondered if Alice would ever know how I felt about her. After the war, when she quit the movies and began appearing with her husband, Phil Harris, every Sunday evening on "The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show" on radio, I never missed it. Her comedy timing was perfect as she played the foil for Harris' outrageous behavior in the skits. And she usually sang. When she sang Irving Berlin's "Let's Take An Old Fashioned Walk," I was ready. If anything, Alice's voice was even more throaty, more husky --- all right, more sexy --- on radio than it was in the movies. There was something so natural, so unpretentious about the way she sang --- straight from the heart. When I finished the Times story, I took out my four Alice Faye albums --- two are outtakes from her movies, one is music from the radio show and the other her greatest hits. The latter is my favorite. She sings "You're A Sweetheart," "This Year's Kisses." "Rose of Washington Square," "No Love, No Nothing" and "You'll Never Know." It was near midnight, but I listened to the album from start to finish and when "You'll Never Know" came on, I was transported back to the coral atoll when I first heard her sing it. It was a magic moment. That was part of her special appeal, she could spin magic with her songs. And touch the heart of a teenage boy, a lonely sailor and a guy riding off into the sunset of life.
Kelly Leiter
LaFollette Press
5-14-98
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ANNE WHITFIELD, former actress, portrayed Phyllis, the younger daughter of Alice Faye and Phil Harris, on their weekly radio show in the late 1940s and early l950s. We contacted her and she agreed to share with us the following:
Anne’s recollections of Alice:
Alice Faye was nice and I really idolized her. At ten years of age, it was my aspiration to grow up and be like her. I thought she was a wonderful role model - - very refined, beautiful, and well-groomed. I remember that the seams in her stockings were always SO straight.
I waited with anticipation each Christmas to see what gifts Alice would give me and Jeanine (Jeanine Roose played Alice, Jr., the older daughter of Alice and Phil). The gifts were always from Bullocks Wilshire, and they were exquisite.
Because Alice refused to fly, we would travel by train to Chicago and New York for the last shows of the season, and it was all luxury at its best.
I remember going to Washington, D.C. for the Harry Truman inauguration. Originally, Jeanine and I were to be part of the show, but it ran too long into the night, and our parts were scrapped, to our great relief and our mothers' disappointment.
I was born in Mississippi in 1938. My mother was screen-struck and wanted to go to Hollywood and become an actress. My mom TAUGHT drama and speech – that was OK with her puritanical father – but she wasn’t allowed to perform and she wanted to. Short of her own success in movies and/or radio, she had a daughter who she thought was very talented. I would put on shows back in Georgia for family and neighbors, which included acrobatic dancing and dressing up like movie stars, and I was an early reader. In 1944, my mother drove the two of us on Route 66 out to Hollywood. My father was fighting in the Pacific. Before the war, he had been director of bands at Ole Miss, but gave it up for the move to Los Angeles. He then worked for the Veterans Administration.
Mother had written letters to radio producers in Hollywood, suggesting if they had any parts for a six year old they should consider Anne, as she could read very well. The letter that paid off was the one to Carlton Morse, producer/director/writer of ONE MAN’S FAMILY. I got the part of a seven year old whose family had been caught in the war in Germany and had come home. I still had a southern accent, but Mr. Morse masked it by having me speak only German at first (“Penelope” had ended up in a concentration camp, traumatized and separated from her family).
During ONE MAN’S FAMILY, I also had a part on Mr. Morse’s HIS HONOR THE BARBER and then a running part on CISCO KID. In time I had a running part on the FANNY BRICE SHOW, but ONE MAN’S FAMILY was the longest-running gig I had, and it even lurked in the background while I was doing the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW for six years.
As I remember, I auditioned for the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW more than once. I felt pressured to get the part and felt like maybe I had a slight advantage because I still had a bit of a southern accent, and Phil was from The South.
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13.
Q. What goes in to making a PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW?
A. Well, there were rehearsals sitting around a table. The show was a comedy, and the writers were like the stars of it, and so they would laugh at their own jokes uproariously when you are reading one of their jokes. If it doesn’t work, then immediately everything stops and they do rewrites, so you are scribbling on the script like crazy. That’s a run-through. Then you get up and do it in front of the microphone and they gradually add in the sound effects and the music. There are several run-throughs with fewer and fewer stops by the director to correct something, and then the dress rehearsal. Then you have a show with a live audience and a warm-up ahead of the show where the announcer came out. Then Phil came out, and they would do things to warm up the audience. There was this warm-up for like a half an hour or at least fifteen minutes before the show. The thing I remember about the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW was that the announcer had this funny way to condition the audience to laugh. He’d be standing up and wearing probably a suit or a sport coat with trousers, and he would grab his pants at the knee and jiggle them up and down on one leg, just one leg, toward the audience. Somehow he conditioned the audience to laugh when he did that. So whenever they did a joke on the show and they wanted laughter from the audience, the announcer would come out and jiggle his pants.
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Q. So, who is teaching you how to act? Who is teaching you comedic timing? Is the Director directing you? Do you feel like you are acting or like you are reading a script?
A. As far as the acting, I think I did have some talent, so I had an instinct how to do it, but the comedy thing really takes more experience and technique, and I really didn’t have any of it. My mother didn’t have any. She kept telling me how to read lines, when to pause, which word to emphasize, and stuff like that. In fact, she even had me mimicking her on certain things, but the comedy thing I just had to learn by doing. Fanny Brice taught me about when to come in after a laugh. You don’t come in after the laugh, you come in when the laugh is about 80% finished; and you have to project, otherwise you won’t be heard.
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Q. So you were learning on the job?
A. Yes, exactly. Pretty stressful.
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Q. How many years were you on the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW?
A. I think I started at eight years of age and finished at thirteen or fourteen.
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Q. What was it like when there was a guest star?
A. I only remember Jack Benny and Dennis Day.
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Q. When you were at a table read, who was sitting beside you?
A. Probably Jeanine, who played my older sister.
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Q. How did Alice and Phil treat you? Were they maternal/paternal toward you?
A. Not especially. The only time they were particularly warm was at Christmas. There was a generation gap there, and I don’t think the people there were particularly mentoring to kid actors. I was just supposed to be professional – don’t drop the script, pick up my cues, and don’t flub on the air.
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Q. Since it was a comedy, was it a fun set?
A. Not really. You might think so. Comedy is the hardest, and these writers were just so nervous.
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Mr. Morse didn’t like to share his cast with other shows, so when the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW ended, he brought me back into ONE MAN’S FAMILY.
I think the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW ended because Phil and Alice didn’t want to do it anymore, not because it lost popularity.
ANNE WHITFIELD
May 2, 2013
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1912 or 1915?
America's No. 1 Song Plugger
Songs Introduced in Films that became Hit Parade Favorites
Top Ten Box Office Star
Did Betty replace Alice?
Set the record straight!
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1912 or 1915?
Alice Faye was born May 5, 1915; some sources say May 5, 1912. At age13 Alice graduated from the 8th grade at Public School No. 84 in New York City. She was a good student with perfect attendance and was to enroll at Washington Irving High School. However, she decided to give up her education and go into show business. She had the figure of a more mature girl, and she tried out for and was accepted by the Earl Carroll Vanities.
When they discovered she was only 13, they politely dismissed her. Two years later, at age 15, she tried out for and landed a spot in the Chester Hale Vaudeville Unit. Afraid she might be dismissed again because of her age, she gave her year of birth as 1912, making them believe she was 18.
In an interview on American Movie Classics, Alice chuckled about the fact that she had gone through life with many references making her older than she actually was.
Contact with the public school system in New York City by Miles Kreuger, theatre and film historian, verified that her birth year was indeed 1915.
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America's No. 1 Song Plugger
Alice Faye was voted America's No. 1 female song plugger by such celebrated composers as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Harry Warren. "There's something about the way Alice projects a song that spells immediate success for it" was the consensus of the Tin Pan Alley songsmiths.
Alice introduced almost twice as many hits in movies (23) as each of her closest competitors: Judy Garland (13), Betty Grable (12), and Doris Day (12). She was also successful in reviving standards such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "My Man," and "Rose Of Washington Square".
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Songs Alice Introduced in Films that became Hit Parade Favorites
Nasty Man
I Feel a Song Comin' On
I'm Shooting High
When I'm With You
But Definitely
Sing, Baby, Sing
You Turned the Tables On Me
Goodnight My Love
He Ain't Got Rhythm
Slumming On Park Avenue
This Year's Kisses
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
Wake Up and Live
Never In a Million Years
There's a Lull In My Life
Afraid To Dream
You're a Sweetheart
Now It Can Be Told
I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak
Blue Love Bird
You'll Never Know
No Love, No Nothin'
A Journey To a Star
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Top Ten Box Office Star
Alice’s first film, "George White’s Scandals," was released in
1934. Her rise in the Hollywood firmament was meteoric.
By 1938 the industry-respected SHOWMEN’S TRADE REVIEW
listed her as a top ten star. Following is a listing of her box
office triumphs:
1938 - No. 2 female box office star
1939 - No. 1 female box office star
1940 - No. 2 female box office star
1941 - No. 4 female box office star
1942 - (maternity leave)
1943 - No. 4 female box office star
(RETIRED FROM FILMS)
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Did Betty replace Alice?
Did Betty Grable replace Alice Faye? Some sources have indicated so, but the facts say NO.
Because of Alice's illness, Betty did take over her role in Down ArgentineWay (1940). They then starred together playing sisters in Tin Pan Alley (1940). For the next five years they co-existed at 20th Century-Fox, each churning out hit after hit. Alice's last two musicals for the studio were among her biggest money-makers; however, her new family life meant much more to her than her career and she retired, relinquishing her title as Queen of the Fox lot to Betty.
Their screen personas were vastly different. Alice was primarily a singer who radiated warmth as she sang her ballads in those lovely, mesmerizing close-ups; Betty was primarily a dancer who was breezy and brash as she displayed her famous legs and wiggle. Betty loved her cheesecake image and insisted that her legs be prominently showcased in most of her films. Alice would occasionally display her voluptuous figure, especially during her early years, but after attaining top stardom, she dreaded and resisted it.
It should also be pointed out that neither Alice nor Betty felt any rivalry with the other, and they remained good friends until Betty's death in 1973.
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Set the Record Straight!
Don't always believe what you read in so-called reference books, newspapers/magazines, or what you hear on television, etc.
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Here are more facts-
Alice's daughters did not play themselves on the radio show.
Alice did not appear on any Bob Hope television shows.
Alice did not audition for the Ziegfeld Follies (it was Earl Carroll's Vanities).
Alice did not die in a hospital; she was home with her daughters.
Alice did not keep her age a "closely guarded secret".
The outtakes in the Fox videos were deleted before the films' releases, not after.
Alice did not take the name Faye from Frank Fay; she used it because she liked the way it sounded.
"Fallen Angel" was not a flop or a bad film. It was a disappointment but did respectably at the box office.
THE END.
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