10 August 2021

Martha Tilton 1930s Swing Singer – Phantom Dancer 10 August 2021

Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show

Martha Tilton is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. She was a US pop singer during the Swing Era and into the 1960s who found fame as Benny Goodman’s singer from 1937-39. This is episode was first aired in February and is repeated because of the current lockdown restrictions in Sydney preventing me traveling to the studio.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton. Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 10 August at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

Martha Tilton soundies from 1941…

MARTHA

Started her singing on a small Los Angeles radio station while in high school. She was heard by an agent who signed her and began booking her with larger stations.

At 16 she left school to sing with Hal Grayson’s band. After singing with the quartet Three Hits and a Miss, she joined the Myer Alexander Chorus on Benny Goodman’s ‘Camel Caravan’ radio show, which you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer. Goodman hired Tilton as a vocalist with his band in August 1937. She was his star vocalist until the end of 1939, in which year she had a #1 hit singing in Benny Goodman’s recording of ‘And the Angels Sing’. 

CAPITOL

She was one of the first artists signed to Capitol and one of their top sellers between 1942 and 1949 with hits like ‘Moon Dreams’ (1942), ‘I’ll Walk Alone’ (1944), ‘I Should Care’ and ‘A Stranger in Town’ (both 1945), ‘How Are Things in Glocca Morra’, ‘That’s My Desire’ and ‘I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder’, all in 1947.

RADIO

In 1941, Tilton sang on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show and starred in Campana Serenade, a program of popular music on first NBC and then CBS in 1942-1944.

In the early 1940s, she sang on Ransom Sherman’s program on CBS. She also sang on The Jack Smith Show.

In 1949 Martha Tilton starred with Curt Massey on Alka-Seltzer Time, a 15-minute radio series broadcast weekdays on both CBS and Mutual until 1953. You’ll hear an excerpt from this show and The Jack Smith Show on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

After the series ended, Massey and Tilton continued to appear together during the late 1950s on such shows as Guest Star and Stars for Defense.

MOVIES

Her movies include Sunny (1941), Strictly in the Groove (1942), Swing Hostess (1944), Crime, Inc. (1945), and The Benny Goodman Story (1956). Her last film appearance was as the band vocalist in the TV movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975). Tilton’s singing voice was used for other actresses including Barbara Stanwyck, Martha O’Driscoll, and Anne Gwynne.

TV

Tilton worked with Massey in the late 1950s and early 1960s on KRCA-TV in Los Angeles. They were reunited on that station’s Curt Massey Show. She won a Southland Emmy Award in 1960 and 1961 for outstanding female personality for her role in the show. She guested on The Jack Benny Program, February 26, 1963, where they reminisce about their work entertaining soldiers for the USO.

Watch Martha Tilton on 1955 TV…

10 AUGUST PLAY LIST