Lee Morse
Encyclopedia
Lee Morse was an US jazz
and blues
singer and songwriter whose most popular years were in the 1920s and early 1930s, although her career began around 1917 and continued until her death in 1954. Morse was known for her strong, deep singing voice and vocal range, which often belied the fact that she was merely five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. Among her best known trademarks was her yodeling
. Morse was also moderately successful as an actress on the Broadway stage
. Her life and career, however, was marred by alcoholism.
, Oregon, the ninth of twelve children (and the third daughter) born to Pleasant John Taylor, a local pastor, and his wife, the former Olive Higgins Fleming. The Taylor family was a musical one and, prior to Lena's birth, had toured around Idaho by covered wagon
under the name of the Taylor Family Concert Company. Young Lena spent her early years in the small town of Kooskia, Idaho
. She reputedly learned to sing around the time she was three years old by impersonating her brothers' voices, which may account for her later ability to master deeper registers in her vocal range.
The Taylor family moved in 1908 to Clearwater Valley, a town three miles east of Kooskia, Idaho
. During this time, Lena Taylor would often be heard singing on her way to and from school.
house. During the next few years she played largely in small Pacific Northwestern towns such as Spokane
and Chewelah.
producer of the day, who subsequently signed her to a contract
Morse seized the opportunity for a career in the vaudeville of the West Coast
, she left Kooskia — and her husband Elmer — behind for good. Her brother Glen would later observed "she left home when we were barefoot and had the best suite in a Portland hotel when I saw her again."
In 1921, Morse began working in musical revue
s under Kolb and Dill. In 1922, she joined the Pantages circuit with a 15-minute act titled Do You Remember One Small Girl a Whole Quartet. One reviewer observed "she sings a baritone 'Silver Moon,' then swings into a bass with 'Asleep in the Deep' and finishes in a soprano with 'Just a Song of Twilight.'" In November 1922 the reviewer for Variety
noted "She gives the impression of a male impersonator, yodels rather sweetly, sings the 'blues' number better than the majority."
, as well as Marion Green, Irene Delroy, Al Sexton, Busby Berkeley
, and Ruth Urban.
Her next performed in the Schubert revue Artists and Models, which opened on Broadway on August 20, 1923.
label. During this era of acoustic recording, the power of her voice was essential to the success of her recordings. Also during this time, she was given the opportunity to record many of her own compositions. Among her notable recordings from this period are "Telling Eyes," "Those Daisy Days," "An Old-Fashioned Romance" ( which she re-recorded for Columbia
in 1927), "Blue Waltz", "The Shadows on the Wall," "Deep Wide Ocean Blues," "A Little Love," and "Daddy's Girl."
Pathé gave Morse the opportunity to indulge in a level of experimentation, not only by recording her own songs, but also through the opportunity to explore the limits of her vocal abilities. Prevalent on these early recordings are her characteristic whoops and yodels. Although dismissed by some as a gimmick, these techniques added a personality to her voice and enabled her to fully demonstrate her multi-octave range.
]
Lee Morse's success as an entertainer took its toll on her personal life. Her husband, Elmer Morse, had created a home for her complete with furnishings he'd built himself. On February 18, 1925 he filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion
and abandonment. Although she had deserted her husband and child five years earlier, Morse was able to keep custody of their son Jack. Sadly, in October 1926, Elmer Morse died of scarlet fever
in Spokane
at the young age of 35.
label. From 1927 to 1932, she was one of the label's most popular female performers, second only to Ruth Etting. Morse continued to do vaudeville and other stage work during this time, landing a role in Ziegfeld
's Simple Simon that may have made her an even bigger star. Sadly, her alcoholism left her ill and unable to perform a mere 24 hours before the show's Broadway debut on February 18, 1930. Minus their star, the producers asked Ruth Etting to step up in the eleventh hour to fill Morse's shoes. As a result, the show's memorable "Ten Cents a Dance
" became Etting's signature while Morse's once promising Broadway career abruptly ended.
. Downey eventually left Morse for a striptease dancer. This end to their relationship left Morse devastated and ever more dependent upon alcohol, which by the 1930s had become a constant companion.
]
Although Morse's Broadway prospects had dimmed by the 1930s, she could still be seen in a number of musical film shorts, including A Million Me's (Paramount
, April 25, 1930), The Music Racket (Vitaphone
, June 30, 1930), and Song Service (Paramount, October 24, 1930).
Lee had always preferred stage audiences to small clubs, once commenting "I get nervous! I can't stand it! I want to scream!" However, as the business changed in the 1930s, she found herself taking club dates when stage gigs grew scarce. In fact, in the mid-1930s, she and then-partner Downey opened a small club in Texas. After the 1939 fire, they resettled in Rochester, New York
, an area that had been kind to her over the years.
-based radio show and securing local club dates. She attempted a comeback with the song "Don't Even Change a Picture on the Wall," written in the 1940s for the World War II soldiers and finally recorded in 1951. Although the song enjoyed local success, it failed to launch her to the heights she had once enjoyed.
After her death, her husband, Ray Farese, turned her photos and scrapbook over to Rochester-based journalist Howard Hosmer, who apparently produced a Morse career retrospective for a local station. Farese died before Hosmer could return Lee's mementos. Hosmer himself died in the 1960s or 1970s.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer and songwriter whose most popular years were in the 1920s and early 1930s, although her career began around 1917 and continued until her death in 1954. Morse was known for her strong, deep singing voice and vocal range, which often belied the fact that she was merely five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. Among her best known trademarks was her yodeling
Yodeling
Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound.The English word yodel is derived from a German word jodeln meaning "to...
. Morse was also moderately successful as an actress on the Broadway stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. Her life and career, however, was marred by alcoholism.
Birth and family background
Morse was born Lena Corinne Taylor in PortlandPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon, the ninth of twelve children (and the third daughter) born to Pleasant John Taylor, a local pastor, and his wife, the former Olive Higgins Fleming. The Taylor family was a musical one and, prior to Lena's birth, had toured around Idaho by covered wagon
Covered wagon
The covered wagon, also known as a Prairie schooner, is an icon of the American Old West.Although covered wagons were commonly used for shorter moves within the United States, in the mid-nineteenth century thousands of Americans took them across the Great Plains to Oregon and California...
under the name of the Taylor Family Concert Company. Young Lena spent her early years in the small town of Kooskia, Idaho
Kooskia, Idaho
Kooskia is a city in Idaho County, Idaho, United States. The population was 675 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Kooskia is located at ....
. She reputedly learned to sing around the time she was three years old by impersonating her brothers' voices, which may account for her later ability to master deeper registers in her vocal range.
The Taylor family moved in 1908 to Clearwater Valley, a town three miles east of Kooskia, Idaho
Kooskia, Idaho
Kooskia is a city in Idaho County, Idaho, United States. The population was 675 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Kooskia is located at ....
. During this time, Lena Taylor would often be heard singing on her way to and from school.
First marriage and early career
On May 2, 1915, Lena married Elmer Morse, a local woodworker. She gave birth to a son, Jack, the following year. Lena, however, had a desire for a career as a singer and separated from Morse in 1920. Her first professional notice came around 1918, when she performed under the name "Mrs. Elmer Morse" at a local silent movieSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
house. During the next few years she played largely in small Pacific Northwestern towns such as Spokane
Spokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
and Chewelah.
Vaudeville
Lee Morse's family was involved in politics as well as music. In 1920 her father was elected as a delegate to the Democratic Convention. Morse accompanied her father to San Francisco and, while there, performed in a convention at the Hotel St. Francis. As a result, she was noticed by Will King, a famous 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...
producer of the day, who subsequently signed her to a contract
Morse seized the opportunity for a career in the vaudeville of the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, she left Kooskia — and her husband Elmer — behind for good. Her brother Glen would later observed "she left home when we were barefoot and had the best suite in a Portland hotel when I saw her again."
In 1921, Morse began working in musical revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s under Kolb and Dill. In 1922, she joined the Pantages circuit with a 15-minute act titled Do You Remember One Small Girl a Whole Quartet. One reviewer observed "she sings a baritone 'Silver Moon,' then swings into a bass with 'Asleep in the Deep' and finishes in a soprano with 'Just a Song of Twilight.'" In November 1922 the reviewer for Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
noted "She gives the impression of a male impersonator, yodels rather sweetly, sings the 'blues' number better than the majority."
Hitchy Koo and Artists and Models
In 1923, Morse won a role in the touring version of the revue Hitchy Koo. The cast included star Raymond HitchcockRaymond Hitchcock (actor)
Raymond Hitchcock was a silent film actor, stage actor, and stage producer, who appeared in or produced 30 plays on Broadway from 1898 to 1928, and who became famous in silent films of the 1920s.-Biography:...
, as well as Marion Green, Irene Delroy, Al Sexton, Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
, and Ruth Urban.
Her next performed in the Schubert revue Artists and Models, which opened on Broadway on August 20, 1923.
First recordings
In 1924, Morse began her recording career with a contract with the PathéPathé Records
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
label. During this era of acoustic recording, the power of her voice was essential to the success of her recordings. Also during this time, she was given the opportunity to record many of her own compositions. Among her notable recordings from this period are "Telling Eyes," "Those Daisy Days," "An Old-Fashioned Romance" ( which she re-recorded for Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
in 1927), "Blue Waltz", "The Shadows on the Wall," "Deep Wide Ocean Blues," "A Little Love," and "Daddy's Girl."
Pathé gave Morse the opportunity to indulge in a level of experimentation, not only by recording her own songs, but also through the opportunity to explore the limits of her vocal abilities. Prevalent on these early recordings are her characteristic whoops and yodels. Although dismissed by some as a gimmick, these techniques added a personality to her voice and enabled her to fully demonstrate her multi-octave range.
Divorce
Lee Morse's success as an entertainer took its toll on her personal life. Her husband, Elmer Morse, had created a home for her complete with furnishings he'd built himself. On February 18, 1925 he filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion
Desertion
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
and abandonment. Although she had deserted her husband and child five years earlier, Morse was able to keep custody of their son Jack. Sadly, in October 1926, Elmer Morse died of scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
in Spokane
Spokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
at the young age of 35.
Columbia and Simple Simon
In 1927, along with other prominent artists of her era, Morse moved to the ColumbiaColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
label. From 1927 to 1932, she was one of the label's most popular female performers, second only to Ruth Etting. Morse continued to do vaudeville and other stage work during this time, landing a role in Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
's Simple Simon that may have made her an even bigger star. Sadly, her alcoholism left her ill and unable to perform a mere 24 hours before the show's Broadway debut on February 18, 1930. Minus their star, the producers asked Ruth Etting to step up in the eleventh hour to fill Morse's shoes. As a result, the show's memorable "Ten Cents a Dance
Ten Cents a Dance
"Ten Cents a Dance" is a popular song in which a taxi dancer laments the hardships of her job. The music was written by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart...
" became Etting's signature while Morse's once promising Broadway career abruptly ended.
Second marriage
In the mid-1920s, Morse met pianist Bob Downey. He became her accompanist on stage and companion in life. They subsequently lived together as a couple, although whether or not they were ever actually married remains questionable. She and Downey eventually opened a small club in Texas, which they operated until it burned down in 1939. Later they resettled in Rochester, New YorkRochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
. Downey eventually left Morse for a striptease dancer. This end to their relationship left Morse devastated and ever more dependent upon alcohol, which by the 1930s had become a constant companion.
Three short films
Although Morse's Broadway prospects had dimmed by the 1930s, she could still be seen in a number of musical film shorts, including A Million Me's (Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, April 25, 1930), The Music Racket (Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
, June 30, 1930), and Song Service (Paramount, October 24, 1930).
Lee had always preferred stage audiences to small clubs, once commenting "I get nervous! I can't stand it! I want to scream!" However, as the business changed in the 1930s, she found herself taking club dates when stage gigs grew scarce. In fact, in the mid-1930s, she and then-partner Downey opened a small club in Texas. After the 1939 fire, they resettled in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, an area that had been kind to her over the years.
Third marriage and final years
After her relationship with Bob Downey ended in the late 1930s, Morse weathered a rocky period that left those closest to her worried for her health. Life improved when she met Ray Farese, whom she married in 1946. Farese helped her revitalize her career by getting her a RochesterRochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
-based radio show and securing local club dates. She attempted a comeback with the song "Don't Even Change a Picture on the Wall," written in the 1940s for the World War II soldiers and finally recorded in 1951. Although the song enjoyed local success, it failed to launch her to the heights she had once enjoyed.
Death and aftermath
Lee Morse died suddenly on December 16, 1954 while visiting a neighbor. She was only 57 years old.After her death, her husband, Ray Farese, turned her photos and scrapbook over to Rochester-based journalist Howard Hosmer, who apparently produced a Morse career retrospective for a local station. Farese died before Hosmer could return Lee's mementos. Hosmer himself died in the 1960s or 1970s.
External links
- LeeMorse.com
- Lee Morse Collection, part of the International Jazz Collections at the University of Idaho Library
- YouTube: