Morton Downey
Acting
Biography
John Morton Downey was an American singer and entertainer popular in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, enjoying his greatest success in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale". Downey began his singing career as a member of the choir of Most Holy Trinity Church in Wallingford. Downey's signature sound was a very creamy and very high-timbred Irish tenor, which an uninformed listener can easily mistake for a female voice. The popularity of such highly artificial and "heady" male pop vocals peaked in the late 1920s and early 1930s. By the mid-1930s, the style was out of fashion, and Downey reduced some of his broader mannerisms and made a transition to a somewhat more "chesty" vocal timbre. For a time in the 1920s, Downey sang with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. He first recorded in 1923 for Edison Records under the pseudonym Morton James; the following year he recorded for Victor with the S.S. Leviathan Orchestra. In 1925, he began four years of recording for Brunswick Records. In 1926, he had a hit in the show Palm Beach Nights. Downey toured London, Paris, Berlin, New York City and Hollywood]. He also began appearing in movies, including Syncopation, the first film released by RKO Radio Pictures. Downey was also a songwriter whose most successful numbers include "All I Need Is Someone Like You", "California Skies", "In the Valley of the Roses", "Now You're in My Arms", "Sweeten Up Your Smile", "That's How I Spell Ireland", "There's Nothing New", and "Wabash Moon". He joined ASCAP in 1949. Famous tenor vocalist, Bill Kenny, idolized Downey, and it is believed that he was Kenny's biggest influence. The similarities in style can be heard in Kenny's earliest recordings with The Ink Spots. In 1930, Downey began making national radio broadcasts after opening his own nightclub (The Delmonico) in New York. He was voted America's "Radio Singer of the Year" in 1932. At the time, Downey was featured nightly on the Camel Quarter Hour radio broadcast. On February 5, 1945, his transcribed program Songs by Morton Downey moved from the NBC Blue Network to the Mutual Broadcasting System. The move came after Blue Network officials adopted a policy "against the use of transcriptions for network originated programs, except where technical difficulties void live broadcasts." As a result of the shift, the number of stations carrying the program more than doubled. In the 1930s, he recorded for ARC, Hit of the Week, and Decca Records, and in the 1940s, he made records for Columbia Records. Starting in 1949, Morton Downey began appearing on television. From 1950 to1951, he co-hosted Star of the Family.
Known For
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
The Ed Sullivan Show
Coke Time with Eddie Fisher is an American musical variety television series starring singer Eddie Fisher which was broadcast by NBC on Wednesday nights in early prime time from 1953 to 1957. The program was aired from 7:30 to 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays and Fridays, and was not seen during the summer months..
Coke Time with Eddie Fisher
Two zanies get mixed up with a Southern colonel, his beautiful daughters, a nightclub and a haunted mansion.
Ghost Catchers
Beautiful manicurist Hallie Hobart sets her sights on handsome David Stone, the son of wealthy wheat farmer Ezra Stone. Professing to hate men, Hallie is only interested in luring David in for a lucrative business deal. David easily falls in love, but older brother Mark brands Hallie a gold-digger. To get even with the straight-laced Stone family, Hallie accepts David's marriage proposal.
The Devil's Holiday
Benny and Flo are a husband-and-wife dance team starring in a new Broadway revue. When the show quickly flops, the two are forced to look for other employment and eventually find work in a nightclub, becoming famous in the process. But their relationship is tested when Flo attracts the attentions of a sophisticated millionaire playboy...
Syncopation
Michael O'More, an American who lives in Ireland with his uncle, a horsetrainer for the Earl of Balkerry, loves Lady Mary Cardigan, granddaughter of the Earl. He finds a rival in Capt. Brian Fitzroy, a rake who intends to buy the impoverished earl's castle and marry Lady Mary. After nearly killing Fitzroy in a brawl over Lady Mary, Michael flees to the United States. There he becomes financially secure when department store magnate Abe Feinberg offers him a job. Feinberg commissions Michael to establish a linen mill on the earl's estate. He and Mary, who is in the United States evading Fitzroy, return to Ireland and marry.
Lucky In Love
Young Irish lad Tommy O'Day lives in a poor section of New York's Lower East Side, and is blessed with a beautiful singing voice. After an argument with his father, who accuses him of stealing the family's life savings, Tommy leaves home and gets a job singing in a cabaret. He is successful and soon lands the lead in a Broadway revue. On opening night, just as he is about to go on stage, he receives word that his mother, who he has not seen since he left home, is dying and wants to see him.
Mother's Boy
Four musical numbers plus a short comedy sketch. Harriet Lee sings "Sitting on a Log", multi-instrumentalist Frank Novak Jr. plays the accordion, clarinet, saxophone, and xylophone, Baby Rose Marie sings "You're Gonna Lose Your Gal", and Morton Downey sings "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" at the piano. Roy Atwell plays a radio announcer who keeps tripping over his words.
Rambling 'Round Radio Row #10
In this musical short, a singing Irishman graduates from a police academy and heads to New York City to join the force.