Beatrice Kay
Encyclopedia
Beatrice Kay was an American
singer, vaudevillian, music hall performer, stage
and film
actress. She died in North Hollywood, California, aged 79.
, radio
, motion pictures, sound recordings, night clubs, and television
. Her career began at the age of six as "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in stock theater. She went on to becoming a headliner at Billy Rose
's famed Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub in New York
. She was on Mercury Theatre
(directed by Orson Welles
), and eventually hosted a radio show, The Beatrice Kay Show.
She appeared at top nightclubs including San Francisco's austere Fairmont Hotel
Venetian Room, the Moulin Rouge
in Paris
, Hollywood's famed Ciro
's in Los Angeles
, and at the El Rancho Hotel
in Las Vegas
. She also recorded several phonograph albums, and appeared in a 1945 motion picture about the club where she had performed in her earlier years—Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe
(the film starred Betty Grable
and Dick Haymes
).
She appeared with Cliff Robertson
in 1961's Underworld U.S.A.
and in 1969's A Time for Dying, with Victor Jory
and Audie Murphy
. In 1974, she had a bit part in the film Ginger in the Morning
(which starred Susan Oliver
, Sissy Spacek
and Monte Markham
).
Songs which she helped popularize include "A Bird in a Gilded Cage
", "No! No! A Thousand Times No!!
", "The Band Played On
", "Mention My Name In Sheboygan", and "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
".
Kay toured on the road in 1972 with The Big Show Of 1936 (co-starring Ben Blue
, Jackie Coogan
, the Ink Spots
, Virginia O'Brien
, Cass Daley
, Ray Bolger
and the Weire Brothers), which played major concert venues including New York's Madison Square Garden.
She retired to operate a holiday resort dude ranch
, but returned to show business following a devastating fire which destroyed her home. She headlined a month-long booking opening Milt Larsen
's celebrated Mayfair Music Hall
in Santa Monica, California
, with Bernard Fox and Larry "Seymour" Vincent.
She died in 1986, aged 79, having been in poor health after suffering a series of strokes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer, vaudevillian, music hall performer, stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actress. She died in North Hollywood, California, aged 79.
Background
Born as Hannah Beatrice Kuper, Kay performed as "Honey Kuper" and "Honey Day" for part of her career in vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, motion pictures, sound recordings, night clubs, and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. Her career began at the age of six as "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in stock theater. She went on to becoming a headliner at Billy Rose
Billy Rose
William "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
's famed Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She was on Mercury Theatre
Mercury Theatre
The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the...
(directed by Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
), and eventually hosted a radio show, The Beatrice Kay Show.
She appeared at top nightclubs including San Francisco's austere Fairmont Hotel
The Fairmont San Francisco
The Fairmont San Francisco is a luxury hotel at 950 Mason Street, atop Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. The hotel was named after mining magnate and U.S. Senator James Graham Fair , by his daughters Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt who built the hotel in his honor. The hotel...
Venetian Room, the Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge is a cabaret built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. Close to Montmartre in the Paris district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement, it is marked by the red windmill on its roof. The closest métro station is Blanche.The Moulin Rouge is...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Hollywood's famed Ciro
Ciro
;For the Italian "comune", see Cirò, Calabria.Ciro is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli in collaboration with Andrea Mattioli. It was first performed at the Teatro San Giovanni e San Paolo, Venice on January 30, 1654. The libretto is by Giulio Cesare...
's in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and at the El Rancho Hotel
Thunderbird (resort)
The Thunderbird Hotel was a Paradise, Nevada, hotel and casino that operated from September 2, 1948 to July 6, 1992, and was the fourth resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel was founded by developer Marion Hicks and attorney/Lieutenant Governor of Nevada Clifford A. Jones...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. She also recorded several phonograph albums, and appeared in a 1945 motion picture about the club where she had performed in her earlier years—Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe
Diamond Horseshoe
Diamond Horseshoe is a 1945 Technicolor musical film starring Betty Grable, directed by George Seaton, and released by 20th Century Fox.-Background:...
(the film starred Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
and Dick Haymes
Dick Haymes
Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter....
).
She appeared with Cliff Robertson
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
in 1961's Underworld U.S.A.
Underworld U.S.A.
Underworld U.S.A. is a 1961 neo-noir film produced, written and directed by Samuel Fuller. It tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy who goes to enormous lengths to get revenge against the mobsters who beat his father to death...
and in 1969's A Time for Dying, with Victor Jory
Victor Jory
Victor Jory was a Canadian actor.-Biography:Born in Dawson City, Yukon, Jory was the boxing and wrestling champion of the Coast Guard during his military service, and he kept his burly physique. He toured with theater troupes and appeared on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930...
and Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy
Audie Leon Murphy was a highly decorated and famous soldier. Through LIFE magazine's July 16, 1945 issue , he became one the most famous soldiers of World War II and widely regarded as the most decorated American soldier of the war...
. In 1974, she had a bit part in the film Ginger in the Morning
Ginger in the Morning
Ginger in the Morning is a 1974 comedy film starring Sissy Spacek as a hitchhiker. It was also the first American film appearance of a young Fred Ward.- Cast :-External links:* – at the Troma Entertainment movie database...
(which starred Susan Oliver
Susan Oliver
Susan Oliver was an American actress, television director and aviator.-Early life and family:Susan Oliver was born Charlotte Gercke, the daughter of journalist George Gercke and astrology practitioner Ruth Hale Oliver, in New York City in 1932. Her parents divorced when she was still a child...
, Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
and Monte Markham
Monte Markham
Monte Markham is an American actor. During his career, Markham has appeared in film, in television, and on Broadway.Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content and Jesse Edward Markham, Sr., who was a merchant.Of his television roles, Markham is perhaps most famous for...
).
Songs which she helped popularize include "A Bird in a Gilded Cage
A Bird in a Gilded Cage
"A Bird in a Gilded Cage" is a song composed by Arthur J. Lamb and Harry Von Tilzer . It was a sentimental ballad that became one of the most popular songs of 1900, reportedly selling more than two million copies in sheet music...
", "No! No! A Thousand Times No!!
No! No! A Thousand Times No!!
No! No! A Thousand Times No!! is a 1935 Fleischer Studio animated short film, starring Betty Boop.-Synopsis:Betty is performing on-stage with her boyfriend Freddie in an old-fashioned melodrama, complete with mustachioed villain. The vile fiend, after tying up the hero, tempts Betty with diamonds...
", "The Band Played On
The Band Played On
The Band Played On, also known as Casey would waltz with a strawberry blonde, was a popular song, with lyrics by John F. Palmer and music by Charles B. Ward , written in 1895.The lyrics of the refrain:* , on IMDb*...
", "Mention My Name In Sheboygan", and "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville and music hall song, copyrighted by Henry J. Sayers, and introduced in Boston, Massachusetts in Tuxedo in 1891. The song was best known in the version sung by Lottie Collins in London music halls in 1892....
".
Television appearances
Over her career, Kay starred in more than a half-dozen television shows, including:- Make Room For Daddy (with Danny ThomasDanny ThomasDanny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
) - BonanzaBonanzaBonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
(with Lorne GreeneLorne GreeneLorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
and Michael LandonMichael LandonMichael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
) - The RiflemanThe RiflemanThe Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
(with Chuck ConnorsChuck ConnorsChuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
and Johnny CrawfordJohnny CrawfordJohn Ernest "Johnny" Crawford is a prolific American character actor, singer and musician. At 12, Crawford rose to fame for playing Mark McCain, the son of the Lucas McCain character , in the popular 1960s ABC western series, The Rifleman, which aired from 1958 to 1963...
) - IronsideIronside (TV series)Ironside is a Universal television series which ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-using Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character's debut was in a TV-movie on March 28, 1967. The original title of the show in the...
(with Raymond BurrRaymond BurrRaymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...
) - Hawaiian EyeHawaiian EyeHawaiian Eye is an American television series that ran from October 1959 to September 1963 on the American Broadcasting Company television network.-Premise:...
- The AlaskansThe AlaskansThe Alaskans is a 1959 television series set in the port of Skagway, Alaska during the 1890s. The show features Roger Moore as "Silky Harris" and Jeff York as "Reno McKee", a pair of adventurers intent on swindling travelers bound for the Yukon Territories during the height of the Klondike Gold...
- Adam-12Adam-12Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...
- Night GalleryNight GalleryNight Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
Kay toured on the road in 1972 with The Big Show Of 1936 (co-starring Ben Blue
Ben Blue
Ben Blue , born Benjamin Bernstein, was a Canadian-American actor and comedian.Born to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, at the age of nine, Blue emigrated to Baltimore in the United States where he won a contest for the best impersonation of Charlie Chaplin...
, Jackie Coogan
Jackie Coogan
John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
, the Ink Spots
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were a popular vocal group in the 1930s and 1940s that helped define the musical genre that led to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and the subgenre doo-wop...
, Virginia O'Brien
Virginia O'Brien
Virginia Lee O'Brien was a popular American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.-Life and career:...
, Cass Daley
Cass Daley
Cass Daley was an American radio, television and film actress, singer, and comedienne. The daughter of an Irish streetcar conductor, Daley started to perform at nightclubs and on the radio as a band vocalist in the 1940s....
, Ray Bolger
Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
and the Weire Brothers), which played major concert venues including New York's Madison Square Garden.
She retired to operate a holiday resort dude ranch
Dude ranch
The guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism.-History:...
, but returned to show business following a devastating fire which destroyed her home. She headlined a month-long booking opening Milt Larsen
Milt Larsen
Milt Larsen is a writer, actor, performer, lyricist, magician, entrepreneur, speaker and the creator of The Magic Castle, a private club for magicians and enthusiasts.-Early life:...
's celebrated Mayfair Music Hall
Mayfair Music Hall
Mayfair Music Hall An English Music Hall-styled vaudeville theater devised and created by entrepreneur Milt Larsen, located in Santa Monica, California, USA.This theater was designed by Architect Henry C. Hollwedel, and built in 1913 as the...
in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, with Bernard Fox and Larry "Seymour" Vincent.
She died in 1986, aged 79, having been in poor health after suffering a series of strokes.