Lee Wiley
Template:More citations needed Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherTemplate:Main otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other
Lee Wiley (October 9, 1908 – December 11, 1975) was an American jazz singer during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
Biography
Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.[1] At fifteen, she left home to pursue a singing career, singing on New York City radio stations.[2] Her career was interrupted by a fall while horseback riding. She suffered temporary blindness but recovered. At the age of 19 she was a member of the Leo Reisman Orchestra, with whom in 1931 she recorded three songs: "Take It from Me", "Time On My Hands", and her composition "Got the South in My Soul".[3]
Wiley began her radio career at KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[4] She sang on the Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt program on NBC in 1932,[5] and was featured on Victor Young's radio show in 1933.[6] From June 10, 1936, until September 2, 1936, she had her own show, Lee Wiley, on CBS.[7]
In 1939, Wiley recorded eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shop Records. The set sold well and was followed by 78s dedicated to the music of Cole Porter (1940) and Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (1940 and 1954), Harold Arlen (1943), and 10" LPs dedicated to the music of Vincent Youmans and Irving Berlin (1951).
She sang with Paul Whiteman and later, the Casa Loma Orchestra. A collaboration with composer Victor Young resulted in several songs for which Wiley wrote the lyrics, including "Got the South in My Soul" and "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere."[8]
On October 11, 1963, Bob Hope Theater on NBC-TV presented "Something About Lee Wiley". Piper Laurie portrayed Wiley in the episode, which was produced by Revue Studios.[9] Wiley's singing voice was provided by Joy Bryan.[10]
Personal life
Lee Wiley was born with last name Willey. Lee was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and was buried in her family plot in Cherokee Nation. Wiley married the jazz pianist Jess Stacy in 1943. The couple was described by their friend Deane Kincaide as being as "compatible as two cats, tails tied together, hanging over a clothesline"; they divorced in 1948. Her response to Stacy's desire to get a divorce was, "What will Bing Crosby be thinking of you divorcing me?", while Stacy said of Wiley, "They did not burn the last witch at Salem."[11]
She later married retired businessman Nat Tischenkel in 1966.
Wiley died of cancer on December 11, 1975 at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York City at the age of 67. Her obituary notes her last public performance was at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1972.[12]
Discography
- Night in Manhattan (Columbia, 1951)
- Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans (Columbia, 1952)
- Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin (Columbia, 1952)
- Lee Wiley Sings Rodgers & Hart (Storyville, 1954)
- Duologue with Ellis Larkins (Storyville, 1954)
- West of the Moon (RCA Victor, 1957)
- A Touch of the Blues (RCA, 1958)
- Back Home Again (Monmouth Evergeen, 1971)
- On the Air (Totem, 1977)
- The Complete Session of April 10, 1940 with Benny Berigan (Blu-Disc, 1984)
- Live on Stage: Town Hall, New York (Audiophile, 2007)
References
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedYanow2000 - ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Stanley Green, Liner Notes, Lee Wiley Sings Rodgers and Hart and Harold Arlen, Monmouth-Evergreen Record, LP MES/6807
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Template:Cite magazine
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ John Chilton, Who's Who in Jazz, 1978 Time-Life, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-188159.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Coller, D. (1998). Jess Stacy: The Quiet Man of Jazz, GHB Jazz Foundation, 1998; Template:ISBN
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Pages with script errors
- 1908 births
- 1975 deaths
- Jazz musicians from Oklahoma
- People from Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
- Singers from Oklahoma
- American jazz singers
- American women jazz singers
- Deaths from colorectal cancer in New York (state)
- 20th-century American singers
- 20th-century American women singers
- Pages with reference errors