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Lee Wiley – Phantom Dancer 3 November 2020
Lee Wiley is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. You’ll hear the American jazz singer in broadcasts from the 1930s and 40sThank you for supporting the Phantom Dancer during the annual 2SER Radiothon. Good luck in the main prize draw.LISTEN HEREThe Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV which I’ve been bringing you every week on 107.3 2SER Sydney since 1985. Listen hereJOIN ME ON FACEBOOKhttps://www.facebook.com/gregpoppletonmusic/LEE WILEYWiley began her radio career at KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She left home at 15 to sing on New York City radio stations. 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. In 1931 she recorded three songs with Reisman, ‘Take It from Me’, ‘Time On My Hands’, and her composition ‘Got the South in My Soul’.She sang on the Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt program on NBC in 1932 and was featured on Victor Young’s radio show in 1933.She rose to fame in the summer of 1934 on the Paul Whiteman Kraft Show. She was also heard on CBS with Willard Robison’s orchestra and then on her own 15 minute summer series in 1936, some of which we’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer.ALBUMSIn 1939, Wiley recorded an album of eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shop Records. The set sold well and was followed by albums of 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 was a favourite of Eddie Condon and sang on the later episodes of his 1944-45 Blue Network ‘Eddie Condon’s Jazz Concerts’ series which you’ll also hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer.On October 11, 1963, Bob Hope Theater on NBC-TV presented ‘Something About Lee Wiley’. Piper Laurie portrayed Wiley in the episode. Wiley’s singing voice was provided by Joy Bryan.MARRIAGEWiley married 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.”VIDEO OF THE WEEKLee Wiley sings ‘Manhattan’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1_gHUu7HE
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
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