Martha Raye the jazz singer

[Larry Kart]

I knew that Anita O'Day cited her as a key influence, but my view of Raye was essentially shaped by '50s TV comedy shows. I think I missed something:

Would have been nice to hear her with Leo Watson.

[Big Beat Steve]

Always loved her version of "Boogie Woogie Conga" (from the Hellzapoppin movie IIRC). Will Bradley could have done worse than to use her for his rendition of the tune (instead of singing it himself).

[Christiern]

I always liked that clip. I met Martha Raye once, in the Seventies. She came into a Greenwich Village bar, wearing Army fatigues with a "RAYE" name label. Very down-to-earth. She married several times, but Alberta Hunter told me she was actually gay.

[Larry Kart]

Raye (in "tan face"?) with Louis Armstrong from "Artists and Models" (1937):

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=224002

She's perhaps intentionally (for comedic purposes) broader/less hip here than in the other clip, but there's some sublime Armstrong.

[Dan Gould]

She married several times, but Alberta Hunter told me she was actually gay.

Perhaps this is the best explanation for her suing David Letterman over his "Martha Raye - Denture wearer, condom user" joke.

She really wasn't a condom user.

[Larry Kart]

"Boogie Woogie Conga" sequence:

http://www.ganges.com/Hellzapoppin_1941_Ending_Conga_Sequence_Conga_Beso_Jane_Frazee_Martha_Raye_The_Six_Hits_video_6981544/

She sure had great time.

[GA Russell]

I once saw Mel Torme on tv say that she was a major influence on him.

[JSngry]

Well, I guess now we gotta rewrite the whole history of jazz!

Not like there's anything else to do with it....

[ValerieB]

i met her in the '50s and she sang beautifully. she was married to a drummer who worked with her.

[AllenLowe]

I've heard her on great records - she could sing.

She wore that army uniform to show her support for the Boys in Vietnam - she was, unfortunately, a terrible hawk on the War.

[Mark Stryker]

With Harold Arlen:

She sings in these clips:

(obviously lip-synced)

she doesn't sing in this segment, but there's a long George Carlin newscaster bit that captures his pre-counterculture style. interesting stuff, including an weirdly prescient joke about the Giants trading Willie Mays to the Mets (show was recorded in 1966), which in fact happened in 1972. also the fact that he's performing for an audience of uniformed soldiers in the context of a host stumping on various occasions for the Vietnam drives home the disconnect he spoke of often in later years between his material and his real feelings at the time.