Frances Langford

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Frances Langford bigraphy, stories - Singer, actress

Frances Langford : biography

April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005

Julia Frances Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and entertainer who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and also made film appearances over two decades.

Filmography

  • The Subway Symphony (1932) (short subject)
  • Rambling ‘Round Radio Row #5 (1933) (short subject)
  • Every Night at Eight (1935)
  • Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)
  • Collegiate (1936)
  • Palm Springs (1936)
  • Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs (1936) (short subject)
  • Born to Dance (1936)
  • Hit Parade of 1937 (1937)
  • Hollywood Hotel (1937)
  • Dreaming Out Loud (1940)
  • Too Many Girls (1940)
  • Hit Parade of 1941 (1940)
  • Swing It Soldier (1941)
  • All American Co-Ed (1941)
  • Picture People No. 4: Stars Day Off (1941) (short subject)
  • Mississippi Gambler (1942)
  • Picture People No. 10: Hollywood at Home (1942) (short subject)
  • Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
  • Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood No. 4 (1942) (short subject)
  • Combat America (1943) (documentary)
  • Follow the Band (1943)
  • Cowboy in Manhattan (1943)
  • This Is the Army (1943)
  • Never a Dull Moment (1943)
  • Career Girl (1944)
  • Memo for Joe (1944) (short subject)
  • Dixie Jamboree (1944)
  • Girl Rush (1944)
  • Radio Stars on Parade (1945)
  • People Are Funny (1946)
  • Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Victory Show (1946) (short subject)
  • The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
  • Beat the Band (1947)
  • Melody Time (1948) (voice)
  • Deputy Marshal (1949)
  • Purple Heart Diary (1951)
  • The Glenn Miller Story (1953)
  • Fun at St. Fanny’s (1956)

World War II

Frances grew up in the Mulberry, Florida area, a tiny community near Lakeland. She attended Lakeland High School. Langford originally trained as an opera singer. While a young girl she required a tonsillectomy that changed her soprano range to a contralto. As a result, she was forced to change her vocal style to a more contemporary big band, popular music style. At age 17, she was singing for local dances. Cigar manufacturer Eli Witt heard her sing at an American Legion party and hired her to sing on his local radio show. After a brief stint in the Broadway musical "Here Goes the Bride" in 1931, she moved to Hollywood appearing on the Louella Parsons’ radio show "’Hollywood Hotel’ while starting a movie career. While singing for radio during the early 1930s, she was heard by Rudy Vallee, who invited her to become a regular on his radio show. From 1935 until 1938 she was a regular performer on Dick Powell’s radio show. From 1946 to 1951, she performed with Don Ameche as the insufferable wife, Blanche, on The Bickersons.

DVD release

Frances Langford is featured on the DVD Entertaining the Troops with Bob Hope.

Marriages and later life

Frances Langford married three times. Her first husband, from 1934 until 1955, was actor Jon Hall. In 1948 they donated of land near her estate in Jensen Beach, Florida to the Board of County Commissioners of Martin County, which named it Langford Hall Park. Located at 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway just south of the Stuart Welcome Arch, it is known today simply as Langford Park and is one of the county’s major parks.

After leaving Hollywood life, she kept up her pastimes of boating and sport fishing. While nightclub singing, in 1955 she married Outboard Marine Corporation President Ralph Evinrude. They lived on her estate in Jensen Beach and built a Polynesian-themed restaurant and marina on the Indian River they named The Frances Langford Outrigger Resort, where Langford frequently performed. Locals and celebrities flocked to the site. Evinrude died in 1986. In 1994, she married Harold C. Stuart, who had served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Affairs of the United States Air Force from 1949 to 1951 under President Harry S. Truman. They spent the summers in Canada on Georgian Island. They journeyed to the Island from their home in Florida aboard their 110 foot yacht "The Chanticleer", which was a popular tourist attraction when moored at the Outrigger Resort. Stuart survived Langford (who had no children); he died in 2007 at the age of 94.