Cass Daley

Cass Daley
Born Catherine Dailey
(1915-07-17)July 17, 1915
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died March 22, 1975(1975-03-22) (aged 59)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Cause of death Accidental exsanguination
Occupation Actress, singer, comedian
Years active 1936-1975
Spouse(s) Frank Kinsella
(m.1941 - ?)
Robert Williamson
(Oct. 20, 1966 - 1975; her death)

Cass Daley (born Catherine Dailey), (July 17, 1915 – March 22, 1975) was an American radio, television and film actress, singer, and comedian. The daughter of an Irish streetcar conductor, Daley started to perform at night clubs and on the radio as a band vocalist in the 1940s.

Career

Daley began singing as a child in front of neighborhood storefronts. Noted for her buck teeth and comical singing style, she sang at clubs as a teen while working as a hat-check girl and electrician.

In the 1930s, she began a stage career, including a role in a production advertised as a "Great Vaudeville Show" in 1934.[1] She appeared in the 1936-1937 Ziegfeld Follies featured as the "Cyclone of Syncopation."[2]

In the 1940s, Daley embarked on a movie career, most notably in The Fleet's In (1942) with Dorothy Lamour and Betty Hutton and Crazy House (1943) with Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. She also starred opposite Dick Powell and Dorothy Lamour in Riding High in 1943, and opposite Eddie Bracken and Diana Lynn in Out of This World in 1945. She had a part in Red Garters opposite Rosemary Clooney in 1954, and her last movie appearances were in The Spirit Is Willing in 1967 and in Norwood in 1970.

As a frequent radio guest, she appeared semi-regularly in 1944 on The Bob Burns Show on NBC. She was also a very popular singer with the troops overseas during WWII, and appeared many times on Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) broadcasts such as Command Performance and Mail Call. In 1945, she joined the cast of The Fitch Bandwagon, another popular radio show. In 1950, she starred in her own radio show The Cass Daley Show.[3][4]

Daley recorded several singles with Hoagy Carmichael. "The Old Piano Roll Blues" peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed on the chart for ten weeks in 1950, and "Aba Daba Honeymoon" peaked at #23 in 1951, and charted for three weeks.

She recorded a version of "Put the Blame on Mame" in 1946, and it sold 150,000 copies in just two months.[5]

With radio in decline, she retired to raise her son in Newport Beach. After her divorce from husband Frank Kinsella, she attempted a comeback in the 1970s appearing in small television, film and stage roles.[4] She was among the stars in the 1972 nostalgia revue Big Show of 1928, which toured the country and played New York's Madison Square Garden.

Death

On March 22, 1975, alone in her apartment, the 59-year-old comedian apparently fell and landed on her glass coffee table. A shard of glass jammed into her throat and she bled to death before her husband came home and discovered her.[6] For her contribution to the television and radio industry, Cass Daley has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6303 Hollywood Blvd. Cass Daley was buried along the roadside in Section 8 (the new Garden of Legends), at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
1942 The Fleet's In Cissie
Star Spangled Rhythm Mimi
1943 Crazy House Herself/Sadie Silverfish
Riding High Tess Connors
1945 Out of This World Fanny (drummer)
Duffy's Tavern Herself
Screen Snapshots: Radio Shows Herself - The Sunday Bandwagon Program Short subject
1946 Unusual Occupations Herself (Uncredited) Short subject
1947 Ladies' Man Geraldine Ryan
Variety Girl Herself
1951 Here Comes the Groom Herself
1954 Red Garters Minnie Redwing
1967 The Spirit Is Willing Felicity Twitchell
1970 The Phynx Herself
Norwood Mrs. Remley
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1950 The Jack Carter Show Herself 1 episode
The Ed Wynn Show Herself 1 episode
1952 Stars in Their Eye Herself
1954 The Bob Hope Show Herself 1 episode
1955 The Jimmy Durante Show Herself 1 episode
1964 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Patsy Willis 1 episode

Discography

Year Title Charts Sales
1940 It's the Last Time I'll Fall in Love/ Where Were You Last Night? - -
1946 Put the Blame on Mame/ The Truth of the Matter Is - 150.000
1946 Mama's Gone, Goodbye/ That's the Beginning of the End - -
1947 Fightin' Love/ Grandma Teeter Totter (With Hoagy Carmichael) - -
1949 Kiss Me Sweet/ It's a Cruel, Cruel World - -
1949 A Good Man Is Hard to Find/ All Right, Louie, Drop the Gun - 500.000
1950 Louisville Lou/ Mister Honkey Tonk - -
1950 The Old Piano Roll Blues/ Stay with the Happy People (With Hoagy Carmichael) #11 -
1950 We Get Along So Good Together/ The One That I Want Won't Have Me (With Buz Butler) - -
1951 I'm Waiting Just for You/ Woman Is a Five Letter Word (With Hoagy Carmichael) - -
1951 Aba Daba Honeymoon/ Golden Rocket (With Hoagy Carmichael) #23 -
1953 The Call of the Wild/ These Are the Things I Remember - -

References

  1. ↑ "(Reist Dance and Show Boat advertisement)". Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. Harrisburg Telegraph. July 25, 1934. p. 16. Retrieved April 21, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ Herzog, Buck (March 16, 1937). "Up and Down Amusement Row". Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 3. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "Ugly Duckling". Time. 1946-01-28. Retrieved 2009-03-02.
  4. 1 2 Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (2007). Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. Routledge. p. 289. ISBN 0-415-93853-8.
  5. ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19461124&id=qlkbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1EwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4520,3271194
  6. ↑ Martin, Linda; Segrave, Kerry (1986). Women in Comedy: The Funny Ladies from the Turn of the Century to the Present. Citadel Press. p. 210. ISBN 0-8065-1000-5.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.