Morton Downey | |
|---|---|
 Downey in 1943 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Morton Downey |
| Also known as | Morton James |
| Born | November 14, 1901 Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | October 25, 1985(1985-10-25) (aged 83) Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Genres | Popular song |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Children: 5, includingMorton Jr. | |
John Morton Downey[1] (November 14, 1901 – October 25, 1985), also known asMorton 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".[2]
John Morton Downey was born inWallingford, Connecticut, the fourth of six children of James A. and Bessie (Cox) Downey, a well-known family in both Wallingford andWaterbury, Connecticut.[2] The grandson of Irish immigrants, he was known by his middle name because so many of his near relatives were named John. His father was the chief of the Wallingford Fire Department until a near fatal automobile accident necessitated his retirement. 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 Irishtenor, 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 withPaul Whiteman's Orchestra. He first recorded in 1923 forEdison Records under the pseudonymMorton James; the following year he recorded forVictor with theS.S. Leviathan Orchestra. In 1925, he began four years of recording forBrunswick Records. In 1926, he had a hit in the showPalm Beach Nights.[2]
Downey toured London, Paris, Berlin, New York City and Hollywood. He also began appearing in movies, includingSyncopation (1929), the first film released byRKO 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 joinedASCAP in 1949.[2]
The famous tenor vocalistBill 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 withThe 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 theCamel Quarter Hour radio broadcast.[3] On February 5, 1945, histranscribed programSongs by Morton Downey moved from the NBCBlue Network to theMutual 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."[4] As a result of the shift, the number of stations carrying the program more than doubled.[4]
In the 1930s, he recorded forARC,Hit of the Week, andDecca Records, and in the 1940s, he made records forColumbia Records.[2]
In 1949, Downey began appearing on television. He was host of theMohawk Showroom on NBC three nights a week. It was also known asThe Morton Downey Show on the nights he was host.[5] From 1950 to 1951, he co-hostedStar of the Family.
Morton Downey was the father of television personalityMorton Downey Jr. by his first wife, actressBarbara Bennett (1906–1958), the sister of actressesConstance andJoan Bennett, and with whom he ultimately had five children, four sons, and a daughter: Michael, "Sean" (JohnMorton Downey Jr.), Lorelle, Anthony, and Kevin. Her early promise as a dancer and actress gave way to her turbulent marriage with Downey. The couple married in 1929 and divorced in 1941. She married actorAddison Randall shortly afterward.
Downey's second wife was Peggy Boyce Schulze (1922–1964), the former wife of Prince Alexander zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst[6] and the granddaughter of Colorado mining industrialistWilliam Boyce Thompson. Downey owned a house at Squaw Island,Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, next toJoseph P. Kennedy's house.John andJacqueline Kennedy rented Downey's house in the summer of 1963.[7]
Downey's third wife was Ann Trainer, the widow ofHowell Van Gerbig and the former wife of John Kevin Barry; they married in 1970.[8]
Downey died following a stroke in 1985 in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 83, and was buried in the local Catholic cemetery in his hometown of Wallingford, Connecticut.
