Leighton Noble, bornFaye Leighton Jepson (December 25, 1912 – March 5, 1994) was an American vocalist and bandleader active during theswing era. He was also an actor and television presenter.

Noble's parents divorced when he was young, and he took his stepfather's surname.^[1] He learned piano as a child and put together a band called the Blue Blazers while a student atPasadena High School. He matriculated atPasadena City College and led a larger band on campus, but after two years of study, he won a singing contest at Los Angeles's Cocoanut Grove Ballroom and quit school.^[1] The contest was run byPhil Harris, and the prize was singing with Harris's orchestra for a week; Noble parlayed this into a job singing forHal Grayson, and soon after was working withGeorge Hamilton,Everett Hoagland, andGeorge Olsen. In 1935 Noble was hired byOrville Knapp as lead vocalist of his orchestra, but Knapp was killed in aplane crash the following spring, and Noble took temporary control over the group's management. Knapp's widow and management team wanted Olsen to take over Knapp's orchestra, and they succeeded in pushing Noble out in late 1936, after a tour of New York and Pittsburgh.

Early in 1937, Noble assembled his own band, which included several former members of Knapp's band (such as vocalistEdith Caldwell and pianistCharles Floyd). Noble sang lead male vocals, thoughJohnny McAfee occasionally joined him. His first engagement was atFrank Dailey's Meadowbrook in New Jersey and was an immediate success; he later played the Arcadia Ballroom in Philadelphia and other venues in the eastern United States.^[2] He recorded forVocalion,Coral, andBluebird as a leader. In 1940 Noble and Floyd parted ways, and Noble moved the band to California, where he continued playing Los Angeles-area venues (such as Hollywood's Stage Door canteen), in addition to pursuing film roles. Noble worked with theUSO during World War II and played theTrianon Ballroom in Chicago in 1947. Later that year, he was offered the position of host on a television show broadcast by Los Angeles stationKTLA.^[3] The program was broadcast for six years and included early appearances fromRowan & Martin andLiberace. Soon after the run of this show he made several uncredited appearances in Hollywood films, including as a bandleader inWhite Christmas.

In May of 1950, Noble and his band opened the summer season at the legendaryElitch Gardens Trocadero Ballroom.^[4]

Starting in the mid-1950s, Noble began working in Nevada, atLake Tahoe and in Las Vegas; he led the house band atHarrah's South Shore Room with VocalistRay Vasquez andSammy Davis Jr in Lake Tahoe for much of the 1960s. He moved toVancouver, British Columbia at the end of the decade, making a few appearances as a band leader in the 1970s.^[5] He returned in 1982 with a new band; he suffered a stroke in 1990, but continued performing until 1993, the year before his death, at age 81.

• American bandleaders
• American male actors
• 1912 births
• 1994 deaths
• American emigrants to Canada
• 20th-century American singers
• 20th-century American male singers
• Pasadena High School (California) alumni

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• Short description is different from Wikidata